Holy Spirit Part 5

Part 5 

Did the Old Testament Saints Have the Indwelling Holy Spirit? 

Psalm 51:11–12 (ESV) — Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore  to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 

 The Indwelling Holy Spirit 

This month my article about the Holy Spirit is going to touch on a question that trips up quite a few Christians.  “Did the Old Testament Saints have the indwelling Holy Spirit in the same way that we did?” In some ways this  seems like a purely academic question. It’s easy to think that the answer to this is no more useful to our lives  than “how many angels can dance on the head of pin?” It seems like all the Old Testament saints are dead and  gone, so what does this matter to us?  

The key question this informs is one that many people struggle with. Some might struggle with it emotionally  more than actually arguing out loud with people about it, but it’s an important one to us just the same. “Does  God save people in different ways, or is there really just one salvation?” 

One Salvation 

The salvation accomplished by God through the Cross of Jesus Christ (1 John 4:14) was a salvation God has been working on from of old (Psalm 74:12-14). We sometimes can get the idea that God was just making up a plan of  salvation as He muddled along through history. That He was reacting to our depravity bit by bit until finally He  decided to pull out all the stops and send His Son. That’s not an accurate view though. God wasn’t trying one  thing and then the next in a desperate attempt to repair humanity. 

Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection were not some plan B (or plan C or plan X). Christ’s saving work  was part of a plan that God made “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4, see also Revelation 13:8).  While this plan was not all revealed at once (Ephesians 3:4-5), it was nonetheless, a single plan of salvation.  The Lord God began revealing it in the Old Testament as He spoke through His prophets.  

 1 Peter 1:10–11 (ESV) — Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be  yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating  when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 

God’s plan of salvation was always to give us salvation by grace through faith. 

 Romans 4:13 (ESV) — For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not  come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 

 Romans 4:16 (ESV) — That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be  guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of  Abraham, who is the father of us all, 

Paul wrote that Abraham is “the father of us all.” While the Old Testament covenant certainly had many different facets and different expressions, the underlying salvation was the same. It is all a salvation by faith in the Lord  Yahweh. The only difference is that in these “last days”, Yahweh has revealed Himself and spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4). Jesus is the Lord Yahweh (Romans 10:9, 1 Corinthians 12:3, John 1:1-4,14,  compare Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:10). Faith in Yahweh is faith in Jesus. (English translations translate the  word Yahweh “the LORD”, since Jews don’t like to say His name.)  

In God’s eyes, there aren’t two bodies of saints. There is no division between the Jews who trust in Yahweh and  the gentiles who trust in Jesus. If those groups of people really understand that Jesus is Yahweh and Yahweh is  Jesus, then they come to understand they believe and trust in the same God (unless, of course, you deny that  Jesus is the Lord, or you deny that the Old Testament Lord God is actually God.) 

 Ephesians 3:6 (ESV) — This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and  partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  

Notice that Paul says the Jews and the Gentiles all make up one body. There’s one group of saved people, and  the group has people in it from all ages. All of them are the ones who trusted in the Lord God/Yahweh/Jesus for  their salvation. 

The Spirit is Necessary for Salvation 

You cannot be saved without the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is the unsaved world, the one that is passing away (1  Corinthians 7:31, 1 Peter 4:7), that cannot receive the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17).  

We cannot know or understand the things of God correctly without the indwelling Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians  2:11,14, John 3:8). But the Holy Spirit reveals to us the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10,12-13). It’s only by His  power that we confess our faith in Him and believe unto eternal life (1 Corinthians 12:3). We need to have faith to be saved, and we must have the Holy Spirit to have that faith. This is why the baptism of Jesus, which cleanses  us with His fire and pours the Holy Spirit into us (Luke 3:16) is so important.  

Old Testament Reception of the Holy Spirit 

“But wait!” you might object. “We don’t see individuals getting baptized in the Old Testament. How did they  receive the Holy Spirit?”  

This is indeed an astute observation, but it must have been one that people were making in Paul’s day as well,  because he addressed this in 1 Corinthians.  

 1 Corinthians 10:1–4 (ESV) — For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the  cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate  the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that  followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 

The entire nation received the gift of the indwelling Spirit in one fell swoop when the Lord God worked a  powerful salvation to pull them out of Egypt. Whoever continued to faithfully live in the covenant of promise that God had made with their ancestor Abraham had the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

Sadly in the Old Testament, many people walked away from that covenant.  

1 Corinthians 10:5–10 (ESV) — Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to  play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as  some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 

Notice that Paul actually wrote that it was Christ that the Israelites put to the test with their idolatry. Over a  century before Jesus of Nazareth was born, Paul says that the Israelites were putting Him to the test. Why?  Because Jesus is the Lord Yahweh.  

Their idolatry was rebellion against the Lord Jesus. Their rebellion caused them to lose the Holy Spirit.  

 Isaiah 63:10 (ESV) — But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and  himself fought against them. 

Not only did their rebellion drive the Holy Spirit away from graciously indwelling them, their rebellion and hard  hearted unrepentance caused Him to turn and become their enemy.  

Old Testament Saints: David and Saul Experienced the Holy Spirit 

One of the most powerful evidences that Old Testament saints had the indwelling Holy Spirit is their desire to continue to have the indwelling Holy Spirit, or in Saul’s case, the change that happened when his rebellion  finally caused him to lose the Holy Spirit.  

When David sinned and fell from grace, the prophet Nathan had to confront him. If David had continued in his  rebellion against God, the Holy Spirit would have gone from him and even turned and become his enemy as has  happened to the Israelites in the wilderness. David, sinful but still faithful, cried out to the Lord to strengthen and renew his faith and not take the Holy Spirit from him.  

 Psalm 51:10–12 (ESV) — Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not  away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and  uphold me with a willing spirit. 

Now, I’ve heard many pastors and Bible teachers say that what David was talking about here in Psalm 51 is the empowering Holy Spirit, which is a different set of blessings than the indwelling Holy Spirit. (I wrote more  extensively about this last month). I disagree with the idea that in Psalm 51 David is praying to keep the empowering presence. In Psalm 51 David is praying about his salvation and therefore the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

It’s true that David’s life gives us some incredible examples of the empowering Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit  that inspired David to be the incredible leader that he was (1 Samuel 16:13). By his own admission, it was the  Holy Spirit that inspired him to write all the beautiful holy Scripture that David wrote (2 Samuel 23:2-3). Basically everything he did that we find so amazing about the life of David was done by the power of the Holy  Spirit.  

But in Psalm 51, David is not praying that he will continue to lead his armies, nor is he asking the Lord God to continue writing Psalms through him. David is crying out to the Lord and asking for a heart that receives salvation. That is a cry to the Lord for the indwelling Holy Spirit.  

Conversely, King Saul was a faithful servant of the Lord’s for awhile, but eventually he transgressed the Lord’s covenant and commands (1 Samuel 13:14). He rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit like the Israelites in the wilderness (Isaiah 63:10), so the Spirit turned and became his enemy.  

1 Samuel 16:14–15 (ESV) — Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord  tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.  

God had graciously given Saul His indwelling Holy Spirit, and God had also poured out on Saul many  empowering gifts that Saul was supposed to use to serve Israel. Saul become conceited though. He used the  empowering gifts for his own glory and he rebelled against the Lord, causing him to lose the indwelling Spirit.  

Joshua’s Indwelling Holy Spirit 

One final example of an Old Testament saint with the indwelling Holy Spirit comes to us in the book of Numbers. Joshua was Moses’ assistant and he was eventually commended by the Lord for his steadfast faithfulness  (Numbers 32:12). This led to Joshua being set over the people of Israel as their leader (Joshua 24:31).  

Before Joshua was appointed the leader of Israel, however, he was recognized for his faithfulness unto the Lord. The fact that he already possessed the indwelling Holy Spirit was given as a reason why he should be  invested with more of the Holy Spirit’s empowering gifts, and the greater responsibilities that come with them.  

Numbers 27:18–19 (ESV) — So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit,  and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall  commission him in their sight. 

Joshua was a faithful servant of the Lord Yahweh’s. That faithfulness is itself a testament to the fact that he had  the indwelling Holy Spirit, but here in Numbers 27, the Lord explicitly said “my Spirit is in Joshua.”  

One Salvation, One People 

The Lord Jesus has called unto Himself a flock of saints. This flock has been saved out of every corner of the  world, every nationality and culture, and every time period. The saints in the Old Testament had this salvation  revealed to them in a different way, but the depth of the salvation and the blessings that come with it are the same.  

Revelation 5:8–10 (ESV) — And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four  elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers  of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you  were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and  nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” 

Someday soon we will see this. We will join the incredible mass of people praising the Lord Yahweh. David will  be in that group and so will Joshua. Everyone who the Holy Spirit has created faith in will be there.

But even now we are part of that group. We might not see it as clearly as we’d like, but all who trust in Jesus  have already been given the indwelling Holy Spirit and united into this great “one body” that Paul spoke of in Ephesians 3.  

1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV) — But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own  possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous  light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you  have received mercy. 

All who confess Jesus as the Lord and their Lord and Savior are saints who have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Their covenants (Old and New) might look a little different, but the Savior is the same.