Hello friends, welcome back. Today, we are going to learn about the Spirit of Divinity from the work of the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 33:6 states, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” The Lord created the heavens and the earth, and according to His command and His words, all things were formed by the breath of His mouth. In the original text, “the breath of His mouth” can also be translated as “the Spirit in His mouth”. The Spirit of God’s mouth is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also the Lord of creation, and His is the work of creation; and since the work of creation belongs to God, the Holy Spirit is also God.

Matthew 12:31-32 say, “And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” This passage is difficult to unpack. It seems to say that the Holy Spirit is greater than anyone else, even greater than Jesus, the Son of man because it says that those who sin against the Son of man can be forgiven, but those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. We need to understand why blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. This is not to say that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son of man. We have to first talk about what blasphemy is. But before we further explore the meaning of blasphemy, let us first understand the work of the Holy Spirit.

As it is said, the work of the Father is to prepare salvation, the work of the Son is to complete salvation, and the work of the Holy Spirit is to impart salvation. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart the great redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ to those who trust in Christ and are to be saved. A simple illustration: The Father is like an earthly father who works and earns a wage to buy food for his family. His wife prepares the food and the elder sister brings food to the younger brother at the work site, but the younger brother refuses to eat. Again and again, the younger brother refuses and he finally starves to death.

The Father prepares salvation, the Son completes salvation, and the Holy Spirit, just like the elder sister, brings salvation into our lives. If we refuse time and time again, we will die eventually, that is called blasphemy. Blasphemy is to constantly and continuously resist the touch and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Can Christians Blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

Friends, you may ask: can Christians blaspheme the Holy Spirit? When a person blasphemes the Holy Spirit, he does not even know that he blasphemes the Holy Spirit because his heart is hardened. On the contrary, if a Christian asks: “Can I blaspheme the Holy Spirit?” This already suggests that he has not blasphemed the Holy Spirit. A person who blasphemes the Holy Spirit does not know that he is blaspheming the Holy Spirit but for a person who is worried that he may blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for this person to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. This is a paradox. It is as if you look down from the tall building, “Wow, it scares me to death!” When you say “it scares me to death”, you are not dead. Similarly, if you are wondering, “Have I blasphemed the Holy Spirit?” Then you have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is impossible for Christians to blaspheme the Holy Spirit because the salvation we receive is eternal; the eternal life we receive is called eternal life which is the life that cannot be lost.

Our Salvation is Inseparable from the Holy Spirit

In summarizing the doctrine of salvation, John Calvin, a French theologian said that “the effective factor of our salvation is the love of God the Father; the visible factor is the obedience of Christ the Son; the instrumental factor is the illumination of the Holy Spirit (that is, faith); and the ultimate factor points to the glory of God’s infinite goodness.” In other words, a person believing in Jesus is the result of the enlightening of the Holy Spirit.

What is the effective factor? If God does not love us, we cannot be saved, so that's the effective factor. The visible factor is the obedience of Christ the Son – because the Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, came into the world and has shown Himself to us in history, this is the visible factor. The instrumental factor is the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. If it is not for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we could not know that Jesus Christ is the Son, we could not know that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, and we would not open our hearts to accept Him. Therefore, He is an instrumental factor in order for us to believe. What is the purpose of all these? The ultimate aim is to point to the glory of God’s infinite goodness.

How does the Holy Spirit enlighten man to produce Faith in Christ, the Saviour?

In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit is to enlighten us and produce faith in Christ Jesus the Saviour. What is the process and what are the steps?

Step 1, Romans 10:14-15 say, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” It is mentioned that for a man to believe in Him is to hear Him. Why could we hear His Word? Because someone preached it. Why did someone preach it? Because someone is sent. So, who was sent? The Holy Spirit. Therefore, when God sends a man to preach so that we can hear the gospel, then we stand a chance to believe in God.

Step 2, John 15:26 says, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.” John 16:13-14 say, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” When we listen to the Word, the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus Christ through the Word, allowing us to know that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son, He is the Redeemer, and died on the cross for our sins. This is the work of the Spirit of truth.

Step 3, John 16:8 says, “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement.” When we hear the Word, we grieve over our sins and come before Him for the righteousness that God has accomplished; for judgement, we know we must believe in Jesus, otherwise we will be judged for our sins. I must repent, this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Step 4, John 3:5: Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” Obviously, we must be born again, of the Holy Spirit and be made the children of God.

These four steps are very important: 1) listen to the Word; 2) the work of the Holy Spirit helps me to understand the Word; 3) repent and believe in Jesus Christ; 4) be born again by the Holy Spirit and be a child of God.

We can conclude from these 4 steps that the Holy Spirit internalizes salvation (objective truth) which was completed by Jesus Christ about 2000 years ago into our union with Christ’s salvation (subjective experience). If it was not for the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit, one cannot be saved; salvation will degenerate to merely a concept, and not into a deep and intimate event that we experience.

That salvation was completed by Jesus Christ is an objective fact. But we require the Holy Spirit to transcend space and time and bring the great redemptive work accomplished on Mount Golgotha 2000 years ago to our lives so that we can experience the salvation. He transformed the objective truth of the past into our subjective experience; turning a concept into an event, that is, having time and space, which allowed us to accept Jesus Christ, experiencing His great love, to become men saved and born again by grace. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

According to 1 Corinthians 4:7 that says, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” In other words, when we receive the love and grace of God today, this is the work of the Holy Spirit and we praise Him! As a result, with humility for the remaining years of our lives, we are compelled to preach the gospel! We received love and now we express it; we received salvation and we seek to share it with others. This is evangelism.

And how should we preach the gospel? Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We rely on the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us and fill us.

On the other hand, the Holy Spirit lives in us. The Bible says that He sets His seal in my heart; He walks with us. We should also respond to Him, walk with Him, listen to His words, and obey Him. Therefore, listen to God’s Word every day, understand His will, and obey the prompting and moving of the Holy Spirit. That is a godly, God-fearing man.

We thank God for coming into our lives through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit should not be  abstract and unfamiliar to believers today. On the contrary, He is the Comforter who lives in us. He is so close to us, defending and caring for us every day. So, the challenge for believers is to experience and obey the Holy Spirit. When we walk by the Holy Spirit, it is natural for us not to indulge in the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16) but bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance (Galatians 5:22). May God help us to live a life of dependence and obedience to the Holy Spirit every day.