St. John Studies

When I have sinned, deep down I know that I did it. I felt the pull of temptation. I responded at some point willed to sin. At some point I said “Yes” to the devil as he tempted me through old habits, old desires, my old motives, or appealed to my old goals in life.

By starting this post this way, what I have done is I have tried to trick you [I apologize]…
The words above have the personal pronoun “I” and a reader may think this is David Carter speaking about David Carter’s sinning. But that is not the truth. Those words were written by Billy Graham in his book The Holy Spirit. Graham is describing his own personal battle with temptation. Yes, Billy Graham sinned.

You see, Billy Graham fought the forces of evil on a daily basis, just like the rest of us. He, after all, was only a man. One of the big differences between Graham and many people in this world is that Graham is keenly aware that he is a man of two natures, the Holy Spirit nature moving him on from glory to glory with the Lord and the old, sinful nature that is subject to all the demonic forces that Satan can throw at him.

Many who do not know The Lord are not even aware of this “split personality” [if I may refer to it that way]. They are banking on their sense of right or wrong [their conscience] which is grounded in social norms or their whole life just revolves around the avoidance of breaking man’s laws. Maybe they are thinking “I am a good person”; I have no ill-will toward anyone and that is good enough. Sometimes people are depending on their social activism to pull them through; helping the less fortunate is solid evidence that I am a good person. All these things can be wonderful and can lead to good people doing good things. Let’s not demean anyone’s effort to be good.

But deep down, that temptation is still there, pulling us into dark corners where we know we should not be. Graham says “the devil is an implacable enemy. He never gives up. “Through ‘the world’ and the flesh, he appeals to the old force within me to reassert itself. He appeals to my lusts, my covetousness and my pride, just as he did to Eve and Adam. I will always feel the pull of temptation. My old tendencies will be awakened and will want to sin.”

But let’s stop and call in the Lord’s force for good, the Holy Spirit…

First John 4:4 says “Greater is He who is in you that he who is in the world.”

If we cooperate with the Holy Spirit and ask the Holy Spirit to help us, He will give us the power to resist temptation. This is so galling because it does not happen overnight; it can take days, months, years or even a lifetime to overcome major problems but as we have tests, the Holy Spirit can make us stronger as the result of how we handle the tests.

I don’t want to sound paranoid, but the devil will try to tempt us using one weakness and if that does not work, he will use a different means to accomplish his purposes. In yesterday’s Sunday school class, I was teaching from Roman 8 and as we discussed the deep desire we have to grow in our faith and conquer the enemy, a person in class said “the devil knows all our weak points, all the chinks in our armor.”

So true…

It is a struggle. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we act, not even aware that our actions are sinful but as we grow in our faith and knowledge of the Lord, we begin to see that we should not have done what we were doing. When this occurs that could be the effect of spiritual maturity, the Holy Spirit is conforming us more and more to be like the Lord Jesus Christ allowing us to see our flaws.

The good news for all of us is that God recognizes that we are in this inner conflict.

You are, I am, and yes even the late Billy Graham was…

But Christians know we can have victory, that the devil is a vanquished enemy in the end and through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within each of us, we can eventually win our own spiritual war…

If we say yes to the Holy Spirit…

Yes to our Divine Helper…

“Now you have become aware of the basic problem in the Christian’s life, the struggle with sin.” [Pastor Billy Graham, 93].*

Just yesterday, I tried to exhort myself to stay strong, to avoid the things I do that are bad, even asking God to give me strength, asking the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct me away from some of the evil that I do.

Then I did what I asked God to help me avoid…

Paul’s words from Romans 7 rang so true “I do not understand what I do; for I don’t do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.”

What is going on?

This world is full of darkness, wickedness in public places. Those external spiritual forces are there to trip us up and they can be anywhere. Those forces are there to keep us from God and His will. At times when I am buffeted, I cry out to Satan to leave me alone! He is roughing me up too much. But let’s stop right there. We can overdo the blame on those external forces. Yes, there are external forces that can be evil; those external forces can come in a limitless number of forms, but the real problem comes with our internal nature, our sinful nature. “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” [Galatians 5:17]. The battle goes on inside of us.

Let’s turn to Graham’s paraphrase of Paul’s writing in Romans 7: 7-8. Listen to the struggle. “Before I heard the law of God and the good news of salvation, I didn’t know covetousness was a sin, but then I heard the tenth commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’ God’s law showed me this sin in my heart, and I suddenly became keenly aware of how much covetousness was alive, writhing evil within me. And I realized how great a sinner I was, doomed to die—but for Christ! As a Christian, I began to fight this evil desire in me. And what a struggle! I tried to stop coveting and envying but I couldn’t” [Graham, 94].
Let me highlight some parts of the above paraphrase, “I tried to stop coveting and envying but I couldn’t.”

Sounds like he has lost the battle, but has he?

Let me highlight another part; “I was doomed to die—but for Christ!”

Not so…

Jesus Christ has set him free from the law of sin and death. Jesus Christ is our intercessor at the right hand of God the Father, explaining how weak we are and how much we are in need of His forgiveness. Jesus becomes our intercessor when we accept Him as our Savior. The Holy Spirit comes to aid us in our inner struggle when we accept Jesus as our Savior.

Whew, we should all feel better but Graham cites a great saint who said many years ago, “Sin no longer reigns, but it still fights.” Graham cites a Scottish theologian names Horatius Bonar who wrote “While conversion calms one kind of storm, it raises another which is lifelong.” Efforts to describe this struggle are a favorite topic of Christian theologians. When I was a new Christian, that was the first time I heard of the old man and the new man. I went on an Emmaus Walk** about twenty years ago and I heard of these concepts there. I was warned that the old man is not dead even though I had given my life to Christ. I wanted the new man to dominate but it did not work that way. The “old man would come out of the bag from time to time;” my evil habits would resurface.
That old man is a gift of Adam, the one who sinned the first time and his sin has been passed down to me and all humanity. I was born in sin and as I grew into adulthood I was controlled by sin and sometimes I did not know it. It was when I heard the Word of God and felt His presence that I was convicted. I saw my sins very clearly and asked God to forgive me and accepted Christ as my Savior.

The external forces of evil are there. They trigger evil responses in me. I wish I could just say “the devil made me do it” but it is not that simple.

I participate.

Like Paul, I don’t understand what I am doing. I do what I don’t want to do. I do what I hate.

I do it anyway.

I choose.

The basic problem in my Christian life, my struggle with sin…
*From his book The Holy Spirit
** The Emmaus walk is a three day retreat. The United Methodist Church trademarked Emmaus and devoted the weekend to teaching and learning about Jesus.

Like many young people who go away from home to college and university, the experience is all about exposure to new ideas. One becomes more “worldly” in a sense as you have a chance to spend time with other people; you can experience knowledge of other cultures and you can even be exposed to other worldviews.

Hinduism was the fascinating worldview during my sophomore year. I had taken an intro to literature class where my professor was intent on sharing with his students the peace we could find with this [to me] strange new religion. We had an in-depth study on the writing by Herman Hesse. The book we focused on was Siddhartha. I was fascinated by the book, the main character’s search for self-knowledge and spirituality. He was victimized over and over by two forces in his search, the forces of good and evil.

I remember relating to his search on some level but as time went on I could not understand the true direction of Siddhartha’s life. It seemed as if evil had an important part to play in his life, and it played a part that was as important as good. This small exposure to Hinduism just did not satisfy me as I began to think deeply about where I wanted my life to go.

I begin with this as a way to introduce my comments on Billy Graham’s chapter “The Inner Struggle.”

We all have this good versus evil thing going on, don’t we?

What do we do with our “inner struggle?” How do we handle the fact that we have two natures at work within us as we try to live our lives? When I gave my life to Christ, I was naïve about my two natures. I thought that the evil would go away as I made my sincere commitment.

It didn’t.

I had expressions that I used before I knew Jesus and they did not go away. I had habits that needed to go away but they hung on. I had temptations that led me to dark places and those temptations were still there.

I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to have peace in my life. I wanted to live a life dedicated to Christ. I wanted to throw off all the bad things I had been doing, but that was not happening. It was the beginning of my struggle. Graham writes about the condition of young Christians as they come to their Savior: “Many young Christians have said things like this to me from time to time: ‘Since I became a Christian, I have had struggles within that I have never had before. I didn’t know I was such a sinner! I never wanted to sin like this before. I thought God had saved me from my sins!”

Evil is trying to fight against the good you have experienced in your exposure to Jesus Christ.

In Romans 17, Paul addresses the struggle we all face in his words “For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate….the principle of evil is in me. . . I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin.”

Two natures within us, both struggling for mastery.

There was a big difference in this struggle however; I knew that I should be living a life in Christ. I should be trying to be a good person. Unlike Siddhartha, I wanted good to win out. I wanted as much evil out of my life as possible.

Graham says awareness of the struggle is something to be thankful for even though at times it can be confusing, maddening and when evil wins out, it is discouraging. “It is evidence that the Holy Spirit has come into your life, illuminating the darkness of sin, sensitizing your conscience to sin, awakening in you a new desire to be clean and free from sin before God” [Graham, 93].

Before I knew Jesus, I did not even think that many of the things I was doing were wrong, but they were. When I became a “new person” everything took on a new point of view. The long journey began, the journey of a life in Christ that hopefully will culminate in my glorification, my time to be with God. But along the way is the struggle; the need to die to my sin nature every day. Like many of you, I am faced with the daily choice of what to feed my spiritual life. Graham says that this is one of the most important daily choices that we have to make. If we feed ourselves material that will support our efforts to live a Christ-like life, the Holy Spirit will support us, empower us. If we starve our spirit and instead feed ourselves material from the old sinful nature, our flesh will dominate.

The struggle is real and it is not easy, but this is the worldview that works for me.

The worldview of the Christian, centered on God and His son Jesus Christ…

“Earnest money” is a deposit made to a seller indicating the buyer’s good faith in an arrangement. Often used in real estate transactions, earnest money allows the buyer additional time when seeking financing. Earnest money is typically held jointly by the seller and buyer in a trust or escrow account.

Have you ever thought of God’s “interest” in you as a Christian as a payment of “earnest money?”

The famous New Testament expositor Matthew Henry thinks of the Holy Spirit entering a Christian’s life as just that. The gift of the Holy Ghost with all its influences and operations is a partial payment that secures the full sum which is our effort to live a life of perfect holiness. Henry says “this earnest [money] makes it as sure to the heirs as though they were already possessed of it; and it is purchased for them by the blood of Christ. The redemption of it is mentioned because it was mortgaged and forfeited by sin; and Christ restores it to us, and so is said to redeem it, in allusion to the law of redemption” [italics mine].

As I have commented on in previous posts, Pastor Billy Graham* thinks of the presence of the Holy Spirit as a seal. The Holy Spirit “seals the deal” so to speak, as we give our lives to Christ. The Holy Spirit is a “pledge”; as God pledges to live in us, guide us and direct us, but the Holy Spirit can also be seen as a long –term commitment by God to save our souls from our fleshly weakness and our bent toward sinning.

First of all, the Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the witness to the “finality and sufficiency of Jesus Christ’s atonement for us” [Graham, 88]. Graham points to the ineffectiveness of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. Man’s sin burden could never be relieved by those types of sacrifices. Graham quotes Hebrews: “by one offering He [Jesus Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” [10: 14-15]. He states that this is a link to Jeremiah 31 “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more”.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit is a witness to the fact that in giving our lives to Christ, we have become children of God. We are new members in a family, a family that is dedicated to our liberation from the power of sin. Graham calls this the “Magna Carta of the Christian’s liberation from the power of sin to the privileges and wealth of Christ . . . . Each day you and I should sing, ‘I am a child of the King’”. The Holy Spirit has given the born again Christian a witness within himself. Our sins and iniquities are remembered no more. “The Spirit bears witness that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we have eternal life.”

Finally, the Scripture teaches us the value of the Written Word of God. The promises in His Word are true and they are there for us. The Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth. Graham says that in talking to people who express that they are lacking in assurance of their salvation, those people often have been found neglecting the Word of God. It is pretty clear what we should do in 1 John 5: 11-13: “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” [italics mine]. If it is written, we should read what is written. It will do us good.

When we dedicate our lives to Christ, it is obvious that He makes a commitment to us. He places a seal on us which should give us security. His seal means He has ownership of us. Furthermore, He pledges to see us through our time here on earth, and this commitment gives us a sample of what we should expect when we inherit our place in heaven. The Holy Spirit witnesses to us in God’s Holy Word and in our hearts as we become children of God.

When new Christians make their declaration of love for Jesus, they often focus on what they have done, but the focus should be on what He has done for us. God has paid “earnest money.” He wants us. He has sent His only Son to earth to save us, to blot out our sins.

We are reconciled to God. Indeed, each day you and I should rejoice. Indeed each day you and I should sing “I am a child of the King!”

*from Graham’s book The Holy Spirit

It was 2007. I got a very agitated phone call from my aunt. She said she needed to talk to me. I knew her but not very well. I knew she was a very intelligent lady, a divorced woman with a daughter. I knew her relationship with her daughter was “strained.” That was about it. What would this woman want from me?

Turns out she had determined that I was about the only relative she had who could help her with her last wishes. I soon found out that she was estranged from all her kinfolk, except my Dad, who was in such ill health that he was not capable of helping her. She asked me to be her power of attorney and she wanted me to be the executor of her estate.

She was prepared for the end of her life. She had extensive plans for everything, from the details of the funeral service to the dispersion of her possessions. She knew exactly how she wanted everything done and even though her planning was helpful, I could tell that all her requests were going to be complex and extremely time-consuming. It was truly going to be a lot of work.

But I said I would do it. I pledged to help her.

In Billy Graham’s book The Holy Spirit, he has written about how we are justified when we are born again. He has written about how we are baptized into the body of Christ. He has written about how He takes up residence in our heart immediately.

Now he says the Holy Spirit seals or pledges that we will have an inheritance at the time God redeems us. We are in God’s possession. In Ephesians 1:13 Paul states “At the moment of conversion, however, believers are sealed with the Spirit for the day of redemption: ‘Having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.’”

You might think, what is the big deal? The big deal is that if we are born again, then we are secure in our salvation. The big deal is that we are owned by God [He wants us because we have declared that we want Him]. He is not going to let us go. Nothing can touch you, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” [Romans 8: 38-39].

Graham comments that “as we trust in Christ, God gives us the Spirit not only as a seal… He is also our pledge.” “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” [2 Corinthians 1: 21-22]. In the First Century in the Middle East, a pledge meant three things: it was a down payment that sealed a bargain, it represented an obligation for intent of purchase and it was a sample of what was to come.

The Holy Spirit seals and pledges us. God pledges to redeem us completely and the Holy Spirit living in us gives us a “foretaste” of our coming life and inheritance. “He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge” [2 Corinthians 5:5].   “[The Holy Spirit] is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” [Ephesians 1:14].  We all need assurance. It helps us so much as we navigate through life. Assurance helps us with peace and faith. When my aunt asked me to help her carry out her last wishes, I had lots of help from people who knew her, but at times it felt like I was doing work that no one else cared about; no one else except her and me. But what she wanted to happen was important, and I was acting on her behalf.

As I look back on all the things that she asked me to do, I am glad that I discharged her wishes as well as I did. There were so many roadblocks along the way but I persevered and tried as much as I could to do the right thing in all circumstances. That is what I told her I would do. I told her I would help her when she was alive and I told her I would help her when she passed away. As I think back on this episode in my life, maybe it really relates to God’s seal and pledge.

I gave her my word, my seal and pledge.

What did she get for that?

It is my prayer that she got needed assurance.

“This much all Christians are agreed upon: Every true believer must be baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ” [Billy Graham in his book The Holy Spirit].

The problem with many Christians is that it stops right there.

Baptism by the Spirit takes on many forms: second Spirit baptism is the empowerment of the Christian to live a life dedicated to Christ and dedicated to Christian service. It is a next level above Spirit baptism which signifies initiation into the church. Some feel that Spirit baptism means that a person should be open to the phenomenon called “speaking in tongues.” This is based on the Acts 2: 1-4, the first occurrence of speaking in tongues which occurred on the day of Pentecost. The apostles went out and shared the gospel with the crowds, speaking to them in their own languages: “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”* Graham mentions the term Spirit-filling which means that the Spirit-filled Christian is literally filled with Christ to the point that he or she is abiding in Christ, walking in the light as He is the light, with the idea that the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse and keep on cleansing them from all unrighteousness. Being controlled by Christ means not being controlled by a robot, but as one who is led and empowered by the Spirit.

To be honest, this is the stuff that divides good people. Some think their version of being baptized in the Spirit is “the” only way and other variations are all wrong.

But Graham says there is one thing that all of us should agree on, the most important thing: “All Christians are agreed that we should seek after holiness—without which no man shall see the Lord.”

That leads to the important question “How does this kind of life come?” It comes as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, “as He works in and through us as we are yielded to God and His will.” My pastor preached on the Holy Spirit in church today and admitted many barriers that we all have in our pursuit of the Holy Life. We should yield to God and yielding is just not in everyone’s DNA. I know on one hand that my life would be much better if I could listen to God’s Holy yearnings as they are manifest in me. Yet I have a stubborn streak, that I know better or to make other choices would lead to more fun. I believe God has my best interest in His heart but there is that lingering doubt, based on the idea that I have to have my independence. I think I can handle all the situations in my life, but the reality is, I cannot. There have been circumstances where I was too weak to handle the stress, too lacking in wisdom to choose the right direction, and too confused to act in a manner reflecting my beliefs. I needed something. I have to admit it: I needed God.

You see, I have a problem admitting my weaknesses and more than that, I have a hard time leaning on my Creator God.

I act like I don’t know that in my weakness, He will show His strength. When challenges come our way, this is a time to grow stronger and more dependent on God.

But it takes a humble man to be able to do that and humility it not second nature to many of us.

When we come to Christ and ask for salvation, we experience justification. Since I have had some experience with writing I always remember this by thinking about how margins are justified by a computer. They are made right, as words have to end and not continue off the side of the page. Like the words at the end of a line, we are “justified. It is the next step that is so hard because the next step is to be “sanctified.” We want to be “glorified” when our time is over on this earth and we have a chance to see God face to face, but to get there, we should attempt to lead a sanctified life.

We should seek after holiness.

“All Christians are agreed that we should seek after holiness—without which no man shall see the Lord.”

The time between justification and glorification is sanctification. We will never be able to be purely Holy as long as we are on this earth because we are human beings, but that does not mean we should not listen to the Holy Spirit and try to obey His instructions.

That means we should be filled with the Holy Spirit and let that Spirit lead us…

To God.

*Another definition used by “linguists” is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning, in some cases as part of religious practice in which it is believed to be a divine language unknown to the speaker.

This coming Sunday I plan to be in the choir singing the following words: “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory God is what our hearts long for: to be overcome with your presence, Lord.”*

Who would not want the Holy Spirit to come into their church? “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them [Acts 2: 1-4].

That would be awesome wouldn’t it?

Let me propose something more awesome.

The Holy Spirit manifesting itself in places outside of the church, with people who are not members of a church, people who are not believers.

Let’s dig into Acts 2 a bit and think about what happened. Jesus said that He must leave the Disciples so the Holy Spirit could come. John 16: 7 recounts Jesus saying “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” The next day after celebration of the Passover meal, Jesus died on the cross. We know He was resurrected and when He was, he commanded his Disciples to remain in Jerusalem to wait for the gift of the Spirit: “Tarry ye in the city . . . until ye be endued with the power from on high” [Luke 24: 49]. There were forty days from Christ’s death until His ascension when He appeared ten times in His resurrected body. After forty days, He ascended into heaven. Ten days after His ascension we have Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on one hundred and twenty believers.

Why do I take the time to detail all of this? Because this first Holy Spirit appearance was to people who were already followers of Jesus Christ.

Normally we don’t focus on the much larger crowd that Peter was preaching to a little later. These people were not followers, they were unbelievers. As we read in Acts 2: 14 to 41, they don’t experience the same rushing of the mighty wind, the tongues of flame or the speech in foreign languages. But look closely in verse 33 where it says “Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” Later in verse 39 Peter says “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Peter made his appeal to them: “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!” Three thousand unbelievers stepped forward, had their sins forgiven and received the gift of the Holy Spirit simultaneously.

I was recently studying for a Sunday school lesson on Cornelius when I realized I had always missed the point of Acts 10. The Bible is like that. Sometimes you read the words and a greater meaning is just not clear. In Acts 10, Peter was on a roof in the city of Joppa and he fell into a trance. He saw a sheet descending and heard God say “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” This happened three times. Peter was perplexed and I guess I was too. I thought this passage referred to dietary restrictions. As I prepared my Sunday school lesson on Acts 10, it became apparent that this vision referred to the acceptance of people who come to Christ because they are seeking Him. They may not be believers but they feel a need for something in their lives. Shortly after this trance, Peter encountered a Roman centurion named Cornelius who was a God-fearing man and Peter realized that this Roman could believe in God as well as any Jew. “Peter began to speak to a crowd of people: ‘Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” [Acts 10: 34-35]. Before he finished his comments, the Holy Spirit came on all those who heard his message. The Jewish observers were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. “For they heard them speaking in other tongues and declaring the greatness of God” [Verse 46].

Of course, my hope for my church is that it can expand. Like Peter speaking to the crowd, maybe something our church members can say to unbelievers can touch them and make them want more. But Christians need to realize that the Holy Spirit is not just for them, but for anyone who needs a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal is not to fill the pews in our church, it should be to grow God’s kingdom among unbelievers.

“Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere.”

Whenever, wherever, whoever…

*From the music “Holy Spirit” by Torwalt and Torwalt

As a young boy, I was baptized into the Disciples of Christ Church in Marion, Kentucky.

Sometimes I wonder why I recall things so vividly in my past but I truly remember my baptism. It was a full immersion baptism inside the church. I don’t even know if the font is still in the church; the church building does still exist. I think what caught my attention about this event is how I felt when the baptism was over. Later in the day, I had a horrible backache. A young kid does not normally have backaches but something in the dunking and pulling me from the water must have wrenched my body. Today, I wonder if a backache is what people should remember about their baptism.

Here is what I did not feel at that baptism. I did not really feel like I knew Jesus Christ.

Like so many Christians [especially kids], baptism was just an outward sign that I was ready to be a member of a church. Sometimes children are baptized to please their parents or their pastor. It is not bad to do this but when Pastor Billy Graham writes about “baptism of the Spirit,” he is not describing my childhood baptism that was done primarily for the benefit of others. He is describing something that happened to me about twenty-five years ago. He is describing the moment I received Jesus Christ as my Savior.

That was a moment of great need. To that moment, I had lived my life on my own power so to speak. I had several trying times in my life but I “toughed them out” [to use a cliché]. I had no relationship with a higher power to help me through my situations. I knew about God. I knew about God’s Word. I had been to church but I did not really believe that God was there to help me on a daily basis. Then I had the biggest crisis of my life and I absolutely did not know what to do, but I knew I needed to do something. I did not know the next step, so I cried out to God for the first time in my life and simply said “Please Lord, just tell me what to do next!”

He did.

I have often wondered if God looked down on me that morning and said “finally.”
That morning is the moment I received Jesus Christ as my Savior.

Not everyone comes to Christ in a moment of crisis. For some that is not necessary. They accept Christ without all the drama. They know they need Him and they dedicate their life to Him without all the fanfare. They don’t have to be “brought low.” But for some it takes dramatic circumstances to make a solid impression.

Some may believe we receive Jesus at the moment we are baptized. Others see the altar rail conversion as the moment. Still others see the Spirit coming after conversion; if you don’t have the Spirit, God can’t use you and when He does, you have It. Others think that some outward sign or gift accompanies the arrival of the Spirit. I had a good friend who told me she agonized a bit because she could not speak in tongues. “Everyone else in church did; why not me?”

The main thing is that you become a member of God’s holy people because you realize the need to have Jesus Christ in your life and you receive Him as your Savior.

Pastor Graham writes about baptism of the Spirit: “This [moment of conversion] is the only Spirit baptism. At this time, we can and should be filled with the Holy Spirit, and afterward be refilled, and even filled unto all fullness. As has been said, ‘One baptism, but many fillings.”

Too often we focus on differences of interpretation. Some churches baptize babies, others do not. Some sprinkle or pour while others only immerse. These concerns are ok and they should not divide Christians trying to live their lives for Christ. What is solid is this: when a person realizes they need to be saved and they give their life to Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit. That does not mean that they are filled with it or they are controlled by it. The most important, most central thing is that when we come to Christ, God gives His Spirit to us.

Pastor Graham (credited with inviting 3.2 million people to have a personal relationship with Christ) tells of an encounter with an old-fashioned southern revival preacher in Florida. Graham described him as “The speaker [who] made up in thunder what he lacked in logic.” Graham says this man probably knew many in his audience because he stopped his message many times and asked people directly “Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit?” They would reply, “Yes pastor, by the grace of God” or some other affirmation. Finally the pastor turned to Graham and asked him a different question: “When were you baptized with the Holy Spirit?” Graham replied back “The moment I received Jesus Christ as my Savior.”

The pastor had a puzzled expression: he said “That couldn’t be.”

Graham writes about the thought he had but did not say to that pastor: “But it could! It was.”

That moment of conversion: a new man, a new life…born again.

Romans 6:6 “We know that our old man was crucified with Him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

Ephesians 2:15; 4:22-24 “When He nullified in His flesh the law of commandments in decrees, He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace…that you were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.”

Colossians 3:9-11 “Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One who created it. Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.”

The “old man.”

We know that the Holy Spirit comes into the new believer’s life when he or she is born again. We know the Holy Spirit convicts us and calls us to lead better lives in Christ. We know the Holy Spirit regenerates us as we seek to move forward from where we are in life, from sin to repentance, to forgiveness, to a closer relationship with God the Father.
Where does this “old man” come into play, that old man that can come out of the bag from time to time? That “old man” who reappears?

Recently in my Sunday school class, I asked the class if someone could lose their salvation. One of my students responded “no.” He said “we can walk away from it but we won’t lose it”.

Here is where Pastor Graham* writes the Holy Spirit assures us that we won’t lose what God has given us. “After we receive Christ as Savior we may be confused sometimes because many of our old temptations [“the old man”] have not disappeared. We still sin. Sometimes we lose our tempers. Pride and jealousy may crop up from time to time. This is not only confusing it is discouraging and sometimes leads to spiritual depression.” He mentions “besetting sins” which could be bad habits or addictions that we just don’t have the power to conquer.

When we are born again, we have a “new nature” but our “old nature” does not immediately go away. The reappearance of the old nature in the born again person’s life is a severe problem. When one continues committing sins from the past, those sins are from when we were born in the flesh. When we are born again, we are born again in the Spirit; we are now children of God.

It is doubt that we fight. Satan wants us to doubt what has happened. He does not want us to have a new nature. He wants us bogged down in our old way of life.

The Holy Spirit is the key to understanding what is going on. It is the Holy Spirit that assures us that we have truly been born again. Hebrews 10:15 says “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us.” Romans 8: 16 says “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Pastor Graham adds his personal assurance to God’s word: “By the written Word of God, and the quiet work of the Spirit in our hearts, we know we have been born again—regardless of the accusations of Satan” [62].

Yes, our old nature does not immediately go away when we give our lives to Christ. Indeed the old nature will reappear from time to time. Sometimes the temptation is so strong that we walk away from Christ and find ourselves acting just like we did before we were saved. But the Holy Spirit is there, calling us back to God. We may not choose to listen but we can.

And the message is pretty clear to me…

Stuff that old man back in that bag and move forward to a new life, a better life in Christ.

*from his book The Holy Spirit

Regeneration…

I had a talk with a pastor friend of mine and the topic was sin. I went to talk with him as a friend but also as a pastor. I have known him for a long time [even before he was called to preach]. Don’t get me wrong, he was a devout Christian before pastoring but he had his issues.

It was good that I knew his personal concerns. Even when a man or woman is called to preach, I don’t believe problematic issues necessarily go away. I recall blogging on a book by well-known Pastor John Bevere. He confessed his weakness before becoming a pastor and sure enough, that same weakness dogged him for many years as he pastored his first church.

My friend admitted as much to me; his weaknesses still existed. God had not taken them away. He was a fighter though and he refused to give into sin. He gave me good advice. “When I sin, I am ashamed, but God understands me. He knows everything about me. It is not long before I repent, seriously repent, praying for forgiveness. I don’t want to grovel too long because God has work for me to do. Essentially I try to pick myself up as soon as possible, dust myself off and move forward with His grace.”

I really thought this was good advice.

Pastor Billy Graham calls this regeneration by the Holy Spirit. I have written on the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation. Certainly the Holy Spirit manifests itself when a person is saved or “born again”, but like my friend, sometimes we need to be “born anew.”

Graham writes “The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and makes the child of God. We are born again through the operation of the Holy Spirit. . .God’s spirit brings life to men. At this point, the Holy Spirit indwells a person for life. He receives eternal life.”
But that does not mean we are “sin free.” In Acts 8:21, Simon Peter tells Simon the Sorcerer after baptizing him “Your heart is not right before God.” To get a better relationship with the Father means a commitment to long-term change. John Wesley referred to this as sanctification. This means that salvation is not a static, one-time event in our lives. It is the ongoing transformation of God trying to make us into whom God intends us to be. Through God’s “sanctifying grace”, we grow and mature in our ability to live as Jesus lived.

It is a daily challenge but our inner thoughts and motives, as well as our outer actions and behavior, can come to be aligned with God’s will over time. Graham says that many find Christian life a terrible problem as they try to attain a stronger relationship through “good works.” Titus 3 says it best: “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done but according to His mercy.” A person can join every civic club in town, volunteer for every charitable project and still not be regenerated.

I have tried making resolutions but that does not work either. Trying to clean up a life and moving forward based on one’s will alone does not work. We don’t have the power to accomplish our goals alone. Isaiah 64:6 states “All our righteous deeds are like filthy garments” in the sight of God.”

Graham says “Some well-meaning people even try to find regeneration through imitating Christ, but try as hard as we might, we are sinners.” Graham even says we are “dead in sin.” Jesus was pure and what we need can only be supplied by the Holy Spirit through transforming regeneration.

There is no doubt that an honest effort at committing your life to Christ will bring about a change in your relationship with God and that change can cause an alteration in how you relate to your family, yourself and your neighbors, but God wants us to have a new life for our whole life. Too many people rest on their salvation, thinking I have done all I have to do to get to eternity. A cold hard look at ourselves will reveal that we all have a lot more to do. For most of us, the Christian life is like the old carnival game “Whack-a-Mole.”* When you whack one mole down, another pops up instantly.

We fail daily. At least I have to admit that I do.

I think my friend’s advice is appropriate. Repent, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward, with His grace.

You can do this, but only with the help of the Holy Spirit and the power of regeneration.

*apologies for comparing life to a carnival game, but it seems appropriate…