The Holy Spirit initiates and confirms your eternal life

by | Posted April 26th at 2:38am

“…having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we …groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23 NASB)

What Paul is implying is that the glory he speaks of already exists; as Peter puts it, our final salvation is “kept in heaven … ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4–5). So what now exists will one day be given “to” us so that it can come to reside “in” us, transforming us into Christ’s own image (see Rom. 8:29) ¹

The salvation of our life including our bodies is guaranteed by our acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord by faith when we heard the gospel — our justification. Now it is evidenced in our life by his indwelling Spirit — during a process of allowing him to regenerate our life to manifest the characteristics of Christ in our pursuit of holiness. This process is referred to as sanctification as we are surrendering our life to God as he reconciles us to himself. We co-operate as he works to conform our mindset to the mind of Christ, moving into a divine unity with his life, and his principles of moral law and loving conduct.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit allows that “the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). The fulfillment of the law is first gained on a legal basis when we accept Christ and are justified by believing faith. Secondly, we have been gifted the Spirit to lead us as God regenerates us out of our natural propensity to sin.

Our submission to allow Christ’s Spirit to lead us is viewed by God in this way: by our choice to live wholly for Christ, his moral laws based on love are now being written on our hearts. Love to God and love to man are now our primary principles. He imputes Christ’s righteousness when we believe, and as we progressively agree to co-operatively obey the mandates of love, we are progressively transformed in character: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 italics here provided by author); and “God will credit righteousness–for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (Romans 4:24)

Progressive regeneration and sanctification over a lifetime

We may fail, but he looks at our intentions and will continue to help us along life’s path. I want to impress that the character transformation is progressive, dependent on our progressive submission and dependence on His Spirit working within us to do this miraculous work of regeneration.

In verses 5-7 of Romans chapter 8, we read: “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” Note the only possible way of progression is “by letting the Spirit” have sway in your life! We can not conform ourselves by any good works or hope; it remains all a process of faith in the promises of God: “because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires”. (2 Peter 1:4) and “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV; see also Romans 8:29, 12:2)

In the context of eternal life, the acceptance of our redemption at the cross is the beginning of a lifetime relationship as an adopted son or daughter of God, reconciled to him. Out of sincere love for God, we desire to pursue holiness by the means he has provided, noted above. We acknowledge openly that Jesus Christ gave his life as a sacrifice for our sin. This pivotal point in our life is the initial stage which begins the ongoing life-process of Christ working within our lives, ransoming us from the lusts of the world, maturing our Christian walk, renewing our motives based on love for God and man, keeping our life free from the condemnation of the law leading to death.

Now instead of our death, with hope based on our initiating faith of accepting Christ’s offer, faith carries with it a sincere hope of the coming resurrection from the dead, when our physical bodies will be raised from the grave to immortality to unify with our soul.

Romans 8:6-8 defines unbelievers as death-bound, as those who do not know why they allow the dictates of the carnal mind to prefer the desires of sin, and defile their life, and thus are hostile to God, are at enmity with Christ. These folks may have never believed in Christ. Or they may simply be lazy Christians, overcome by Satan in the Christian warfare.

Yes, sadly it also applies to those who have accepted Christ, yet ongoingly choose to never reform to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The choice remains open to those who remain alive and are not fully committed to Christ, to make the choice to call out to Jesus to save them and renew them in his love, grace, and joy in the faith that offers the hope of eternal life. Though they may have accepted him at some point in their life, some never bothered to invite him fully into their hearts. Some may have partially, but never fully, surrendered to Christ or allowed him via his Spirit to help them overcome temptation in their lives. Some were never correctly taught the proper use of the Word of God as a necessity in life to 1) empower faith in a loving Sovereign God, and 2) kindle the response to the Holy Spirit’s directives found in the scriptures. This continues to be a serious problem, from the time of the Reformation, as it remains a dire shortfall in the churches now 500 years later.

The time is now — “today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2)  — “all that call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). He desires that no one perish and is ready to receive your acceptance of his grace by faith and turn from any ways of deliberate sin: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)

Warnings to Christians who have accepted Christ

We are warned not to give in to temptation by giving ourselves back to the passions of the world of darkness: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. (Romans 8:6 NASB) This is an either/or arrangement. Contrasting eternal death with eternal life we see that when Christ abides in our hearts by faith, acknowledged as true and testified by the Spirit we have an ongoing hope of immortality: “if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:13-14)

The Spirit testifies to every child of God who obeys and always aims to do what is pleasing in his sight. The Apostle Paul wrote that though we are to strive for holiness, compared to Christ, we will not obtain his perfection. However, we must rely on God’s grace and his unmerited favour, and ask for his guidance in our Christian walk until we die.

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view” (Philippians 3:13-15 NIV)

Though we strive, and we make mistakes, the Spirit of Christ desires to live within your heart, revealing that you are one with Him and belong to him in mind, attitude, and that you are aiming at obedience, noted in verses 9-11: “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

One must allow God to have Sovereign leadership in her life via His Spirit. Only then will the Spirit-led individual turn away from the follies of the world and its sin, and allow Christ to dwell within the life, to be redeemed fully in life, even after we are dead. What is the outcome of surrendering your life to Christ? “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life”. (Romans 6:22) You will also enjoy peace and confidence, when the struggle of your flesh — once competing with and hostile to God, in continuance to usurp the Spirit — is decisively stopped by your own choice to surrender: “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.” (Isaiah 32:17 ESV)

This is backed up by many other scriptures such as: “If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that will consume all adversaries.…” (Hebrew 10:26-27) Deliberately choosing sin over following the Holy Spirit is a serious problem of misappropriated, self-driven, lustful priorities that offer no hope of eternal life.

“Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.” (Roman 6;19 NLT)

Only by co-operating with the Lord Jesus, to allow his Spirit to give you the power as you invite him into your heart to be with you, can you move away from worldliness to peace in Christ. It is only by faith in Christ and his Spirit guiding you, that this is achievable. “Without me, you can do nothing…I am the resurrection and the life”. (Jesus) “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11 KJV) We will then be fully ransomed, (as Paul intended to teach) by God the Father, right into eternal life to live forever with his son Jesus Christ! And this work of redemption from sin and the world is always and only achieved by faith in Christ and his indwelling Spirit: “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)

1 Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (p. 266). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org

Glen has optimized his eldership role to teach the full scope of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ without boundaries.
You can read his testimony.