Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee

Author:Gordon D. Fee
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Christian
ISBN: 9781441232786
Published: 1994-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

OTHER SPIRIT ACTIVITY

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All sorts of other activities besides ethical “fruit” are understood by Paul as the work of the Spirit. Most of these belong to the life of the individual believer. What they reveal is the wide range of Paul’s view of life in Christ as empowered by the Spirit.[1]

For example, our experience of hope—for the certain future noted in chapter 5 above—is empowered by the Spirit (Gal 5:5; Rom 15:13). Similarly, in Romans 9:1 Paul indicates that his clear conscience regarding what he is about to say is the work of the Spirit in his life. If Romans 12:11 refers to the Spirit at work in the believer’s spirit, then the Spirit is also the source of zeal for service. In Philippians 1:19 Paul expects the combination of the Philippians’ praying and the “supply of the Spirit” to make it possible for him to experience either deliverance or death without shaming the gospel, and to the glory of Christ. And even though he makes little of it with regard to apostleship, the Spirit is the key to Paul’s “many visions and revelations” (2 Cor 12:1; see further ch. 12 below).

These several texts together merely demonstrate further what has already been said—that Paul’s view of life in Christ is so thoroughly dominated by the Spirit that the Spirit is the one absolutely essential ingredient for that life. Our focus in this chapter, however, is with the ethical dimension of that life, as illustrated by the fruit of the Spirit.

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