God’s Reign and the Spirit
August 21, 2022
Last week I wrote about the Gospel being that God reigns, and how that’s still the Gospel, even though it’s difficult to see God reigning. In doing so, however, I neglected a key part of the kingdom of God—the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist proclaimed “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” (Mt. 3.2). He even proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” (Mk. 1.4). This would seem to be the core Gospel message—God is reigning, so repent and live in submission to God’s ways. Nevertheless, John the Baptist places Jesus’s ministry above his own, because John baptizes with water, but Jesus baptizes “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt. 3.11). In Acts 19, when Paul encounters “some disciples” in Ephesus, he asks whether they have the Holy Spirit. They had not, because they didn’t know about the Holy Spirit—they had been baptized into John’s baptism, but not in the name of Jesus. So Paul has them baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and lays his hands on them, and they receive the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a key promise of life with Jesus as your king. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” (Acts 2.38). This outpouring of the Holy Spirit is foretold by Joel as something of a warning, one of the signs that the Lord’s great and glorious day is coming, functioning as a invitation to repent and call on the Lord (Joel 2.28-32; cited in Acts 2.17-21).
Apart from that, why is the Holy Spirit so important for the Gospel of the reign of God? The Old Testament tells the story of generations of God’s people learning the Law, but not being formed by it. They were supposed to be formed by the Law—Deut.6.4-9; 30.11-15 makes this clear—but they weren’t. They didn’t hear the commandments, letting them sink into their hearts and shape them. They were deaf and blind to God’s work around them.
To these people, God sent prophets. One of the messages of the prophets was that, when the day of the LORD came, when God did his great and final work in creation, when God reigned, all people would actually obey the LORD. God says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts,” (Jer. 31.33), and “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live,” (Ezek. 37.14).
Jesus models what happens when God’s people are led by the Spirit. His entire ministry is living and working in the Spirit. One of the key differences between people that are in Christ and people that aren’t is character. Those outside of Christ have a particular character. Those in Christ have a character shaped by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5.16-26). In light of all this, a more precise formulation of the Gospel is: the LORD reigns, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We continue to obey this Gospel by following the Spirit, allowing the Spirit to bring the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven.
—John Coffey
