Is There A Relationship Between The Word and The Spirit?

While I haven't been blogging for very long, and it has been a while since I have been able to sit down and write something, I think I may shift back into writing in order to help organize my thoughts, as well as to help anyone who is interested in growing more in Christ or learning about the Christian faith in the process.

Strange Fire

One of the motivations to come back to the blog world came from the Strange Fire conference, which was recently at Dr. John MacArthur's church. If you missed the conference, you can catch all the sessions on YouTube. Without mentioning them all, Session 1, Session 4, and Session 6 were absolutely top-notch.

In Session 7 at the Strange Fire Conference, Steve Lawson put forth one of the best sermons I have ever heard on the inspiration and sufficiency of Scripture. Session 3 by Steve Lawson dealt with Calvin's view that the Spirit and the Scriptures are one and the same. He explained how the Scriptures are sufficient, and the ministry of the Spirit is tied to the centrality of the Word.

One of the arguments I have heard many times against cessationism (the belief that the Scriptures are sufficient and God is no longer giving further revelation that we should be adding to our Bibles) is that cessationists have elevated the Bible above God and have hindered the work of the Spirit in doing so, the continuationists would say. Usually you will here the phrase, "Father, Son, and Holy Bible." This is a similar argument to Mark Driscoll's "Don't elevate doctrine above the Holy Spirit" argument, which has been dealt with by Eric Davis at The Cripplegate. However, I wish to develop this a bit further.

I want to examine this arguments a bit further since the subject has been brought up for discussion again by the recent Strange Fire Conference. Thus, we should begin with several questions: What is the relationship between the Word and the Spirit? Are the Scriptures one and the same with the Spirit? Is it possible to elevate the Word above God Himself? Is worshiping the Bible instead of worshiping God a potential danger? These are the questions I hope to address Biblically and draw out the implications thoroughly.

What is the relationship between the Word and the Spirit?

In order to answer this question, we must deal with the subject of Pneumatology (the study of the work of the Holy Spirit). 

1) Inspiration

In 2 Peter 1:21, Peter tells us that "no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Much more could be said about the Inspiration of Scripture (I will simply point you back to session 3 by Steve Lawson), but for now we need to see that the writing of Scripture was the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Every word in the Bible were the exact words that God wanted written down and preserved for us. 

In the New Testament, we also see the writer of Hebrews refer to the Old Testament as the revelation of the Holy Spirit when he writes "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today....'" (Heb. 3:7), and then he quotes Psalm 95:7-11. The Old Testament was inspired and written by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, one of the many ministries of the Spirit was the giving of Scripture.

2) Ministry Through The Word

Another thing we must understand is that the Spirit enlightens and saves people through the preaching of the Word. We see this in the book of Acts. Peter was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Scriptures say that "while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message" (Acts 10:44). It couldn't be more clear than that. Yet we can make some further theological conclusions.

The Scriptures tell us that, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ", and "He brought us forth by the word of truth" (Rom. 10:17; James 1:18). True saving faith comes from hearing the Word of God. Even when we look at being born again, we see that we "have been born again...through the living enduring word of God" (1 Pet. 1:23).

Yet, when we look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, He is the one who causes us to be born again: "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). We are dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), and in order to have spiritual life in Christ, we must be born of the Spirit (John 3:6). In other words, before we can understand the word that was written by the Spirit, we must be born again by the Spirit through the word of God.

3) Illumination

The last ministry of the Holy Spirit we must look at is illumination by which He helps us to understand the
inspired Word. Because these are the very words of God, and God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways (Isa. 55:8-9), we need help to understand the spiritual meaning of these words. 

As the Psalmist writes, "Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments", and "Give me understanding that I may observe Your Law and keep it with all my heart" (Ps. 119:73, 34). This emphasizes why we need to spend time in prayer before we read the Word. We must be enlightened to the truth in order to understand and apply it to our lives (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-16).

Summing Up

In case you got a little lost, I'll summarize: The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, writing every word God intended to be written, so that we can say they are the very words of God. Also, the Holy Spirit is the one who causes us to be born again and gives the ability to understand spiritual things. Finally, He is the one who helps us to understand His Word and apply it to our lives. He is the one who gives us spiritual life and He is the one who enables us to understand His Word. 

In other words, one of the primary ministries of the Holy Spirit is working in conjunction with the written Word.

Are the Scriptures one and the same with the Spirit?

Now that we have covered these aspects of Pneumatology, these questions should be much easier to answer.

The short answer is that if one of the primary ministries of the Spirit is to work in and through the Word of God, we cannot separate the two. The Holy Spirit wrote the Word; uses the Word to save men, and helps those He saves to understand that Word. Both the Spirit and the Word work together in perfect concurrence with one another.

Is it possible to elevate the Word above God Himself?

This question is absolutely fundamental when we consider the continuationist argument that we have elevated the Scriptures above God Himself because the argument is basically a non sequitur (The conclusion they have reached does not follow from the premises) once we understand the true ministry of the Holy Spirit.

If they believe the Holy Spirit is still giving revelation, and the cessationist says the Scriptures declare their sufficiency and the cessation of revelation, they cannot say that we have elevated the Scriptures above the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the one who wrote the very revelation we are appealing to.

To argue that we have elevated the Scriptures above God actually just shows that many continuationists simply don't understand the Word of God or the ministry of the Holy Spirit. However, if they are arguing that we are worshiping the Bible instead of God Himself, that could be a valid argument (if it were true). Yet, it would not pertain to the discussion of cessation and continuationism necessarily. Which brings us to our final question.

Is worshiping the Bible instead of worshiping God a potential danger?

While the continuationist cannot Biblically hold to a belief that we have elevated the Bible too high defensibly, I think there might be some validity in arguing that there is a danger in worshiping the Bible instead of worshiping the God who wrote it. However, this argument must only be considered after we have explained to our continuationist friends that we do not agree that the Spirit is still giving revelation because the Spirit has shown that the Scriptures are sufficient.

In thinking through this subject, I am reminded of a passage in John 5 where Jesus told the religious hypocrites of His day that "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about me" (John 5:39). 

The danger is that if we only study the Scriptures, read the Scriptures, memorize the Scripture, and yet we miss the whole point of the Scriptures, we are not worshiping the true God, but rather we are worshiping our knowledge and our self. We must come to the Scriptures in order to see Christ and know Christ. The Scriptures testify to Christ (cf. Luke 24:27).

We should note that another aspect of the Spirit's ministry is to point to Christ, rather than Himself. The Spirit of truth "will testify about me", Jesus said (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit is not a failed Ed McMahon. Rather, the whole of Scripture is meant to point to Christ.

Summing Up All Things In Christ

The relationship between the Word and the Spirit is that both are from God, and both point to Christ. The inscripturated Word comes from the Spirit and points to the Incarnate Word.

When we study Scripture, we must understand that the Spirit is the one who wrote the Scriptures, saves men through the Scriptures, helps us to understand the Scriptures, and points to the Christ in the Scriptures. The whole point of studying Scripture, then, is to know Jesus Christ who lived, died, and rose again on our behalf, so that we might be rescued from our sin and reconciled to the Almighty God of Scripture. All things are summed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10).

While much more could be said, it seems fitting to end on this point.

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3-4).