Short Essay on Pneumatology: Spiritual Gifts

Short Essay on Pneumatology: Spiritual Gifts

The role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives is an important aspect of Christianity. It is also an aspect that can be taken out of context or forgotten entirely. The gifts the Spirit gives and the fruit of the Spirit are vital pieces of church ministry, and having a clear understanding of these topics is important to the walk of a Christian.

When the Holy Spirit comes to live in a believer, and “is free to work in the believer's life, He begins to develop His character in the Christian.”1 The fruit of the Spirit “produces spiritual character, is singular, is permanent, and grows internally.”2 and is given for personal growth, is a sign of maturity, and it is not measured as “converts gained as a result in ministry.”3 It can, however, be measured by the personal attributes given in Galatians 5:22-23: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (ESV).

When a believer accepts Christ as his Savior, he is born again into a new family. When the Holy Spirit descended onto believers at Pentecost, they experienced this, with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The “baptism of the Holy Spirit is our new position in Jesus Christ, and the filling of the Spirit is His power working through us in Christian service.”4 In other words, “each individual is brought into a union with Christ.”5Acts 1:5 gives us a biblical example of Jesus foretelling the baptism of the Holy Spirit where He said: “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (ESV).

The aspect of spiritual gifts in a believer's life help shape the area of ministry he could potentially excel in. The Bible speaks of spiritual gifts in several books, such as Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians, but 1 Corinthians 12 provides an excellent layout of what those gifts are. The important thing to remember when discussing spiritual gifts is what those gifts are given for, which 1 Cor. 12:7 explains as “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (ESV) To break it down further: Another way to describe them is that they are “Gifts of God enabling the Christian to perform his or her service.”6 The purpose of spiritual gifts is always “the edification of believers”7 and should always be used in “service of the church.”8

Modern Pentecostals have separated the baptism of the Holy Spirit from the acceptance of Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and reference Acts 2:4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance”, (ESV) using speaking in tongues as a litmus test for the reception of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues has two functions: “in the Acts of the Apostles, it is an initiation or authentication gift meant as a divine affirmation of a new group entering the church; and it is also a 'spiritual gift' bestowed up sovereignly chose individuals within the church.”9 The nature of this gift was an unintelligible language, not a foreign language, addressed to God by the speaker, edified the speaker, and the tongue speaker also lost control of intellectual faculties.10 A full explanation on the gift of tongues is found in 1 Corinthians 14.

Speaking in tongues is not necessarily a sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, firstly because it is not mentioned as a qualifier of salvation. Secondly, Scripture does not mention that all Christians in every church of the day possessed the gift, and thirdly, it would not have been mentioned in such a manner that it was presented as one of many gifts. Also, some churches believe that the gift of tongues has passed away, using 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 as an example. The passage states: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” (ESV) These churches believe that “the supernatural gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age, others that they gradually diminished and ended in the fourth century.”11 The “perfect” here is actually talking about when we have our new bodies, Jesus has returned, and we have joined Him forever and ever. The gift of tongues will no longer be necessary then, because we will be living amongst God and the Spirit. Until that day comes, speaking in tongues will exist, although as believers we must be careful about how this gift manifests itself, and always use Scripture as the ultimate authority on the matter.

Bibliography

Elwell, Walter A., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company, 2001.

Towns, Elmer L., Theology for Today, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008.


1 Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning (2008) 306.


2 Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning (2008) 318.


3 Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning (2008) 306.


4 Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning (2008) 296.


5 Elmer L. Towns, Theology for Today, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning (2008) 297.


6 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company (2001) 1135.


7 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company (2001) 1135.


8 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company (2001) 1135.


9 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company (2001) 1206.


10 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company (2001) 1137.




11Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Ed.. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company (2001) 1208.