Robert P. Martin, Ph.D., has served as Pastor of Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church, Seattle, WA, since 1995. Before coming to Seattle, he was Prof. of Biblical Theology and Dean of Trinity Ministerial Academy, Montville, NJ. He is the author of several books, including A. Guide to the Puritans (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1997).
Many claim that we live in a special time–an age not known since the days of the apostles–“the age of the Spirit.” It is true that we live in an unusual period of church history. We live in an age in which entire denominations are distinguished not by their Christology, Soteriology, or Ecclesiology (as in ages past) but by their Pneumatology–even distinguishing themselves by the names Pentecostal and Charismatic. We also live in a day that stands at the end of at least four decades of the spread of unbiblical views of the Spirit’s ministry and gifts, with the tentacles of error reaching at an alarming rate even into formerly Reformed churches and among Reformed people.
We live in a day in which the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost has been pressed into the service of false doctrine and practice. Much of the Charismatic movement finds no significance in Pentecost except that of a platform from which to launch their doctrines of the baptism of the Spirit and speaking in tongues. Their doctrines, of course, are wrong. And in their zeal for them, they miss the real importance of the event whose name they wear as their badge of distinction.
The best safeguard against false doctrine, of course, and the best cure for error, is truth. If then we are to avoid Pentecostal error, we must understand the real significance of Pentecost. With this in view, we will consider the true importance of Pentecost in the history of redemption. The meaning of Pentecost may be seen in relation to three main themes: the Old Testament promise of the Spirit’s advent, the continuing work of Christ on earth, and the blessings of the New Covenant.
The Significance Of Pentecost Respecting The Promised Advent Of The Spirit
God’s revelation of Himself has been gradual and progressive and has been linked to His redemptive activity in history. As God has unfolded His redemptive program, so also He has unfolded His self-disclosure. Jehovah’s self-portrait in the Old Testament is predominantly monotheistic (i.e., it is a portrait of the one living and true God), as exemplified in the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one” (Deut. 6:4–5).[1] Through the prophets, however, the Lord also spoke of the coming of a divine messianic king, a God-Man who would be the Son of David. For example, Isaiah says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). This prophecy was fulfilled at the incarnation (advent) of Jesus Christ.
Jehovah also spoke of a day when His Spirit would be poured out on His people. Speaking of a time when David’s house would be forsaken and the land would fall under a curse, the Lord said:
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. For the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field (Isa. 32:13–15).The Lord promises a future outpouring of His Spirit, an event that will usher in a time of great blessing–then “the wilderness will become a fruitful field.” The Lord also speaks of this in Isa. 44.
Fear not, O Jacob my servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses (Isa. 44:2–4).The Lord promises that His people (now distressed by His judgment) will receive the refreshing outpouring of the Spirit, like “streams upon the dry ground,” and that they will flourish “like willows by the watercourses.”
In Ezekiel 36, among other promises concerning the New Covenant, the Lord says:
I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Eze. 36:25–28; cf., 37:14; 39:29).The Lord here promises a day when, in the language of Jer. 31:34, He will forgive the iniquity and remember the sin of His people no more. Then He will also give them new hearts (an expression descriptive of their regeneration) and put His Spirit within them–an indwelling which will produce obedience to His law (“and I will cause you to walk in my statutes”) and fellowship with Him (“ye shall be my people, and I will be your God”).
Consider also the prophecy that Peter quotes at Pentecost:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit (Joel 2:28–29).Jesus called the prophesied coming of the Spirit “the promise of my Father” (Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:4–5) and spoke of this great event in these terms:
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.. .. These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you [i.e., while My personal presence is with you]. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you (Jn. 14:16–17, 25–26).Further on Jesus spoke again of the time (after His own departure) when the Father’s promise would be fulfilled in the Spirit’s coming to indwell His disciples:
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away [i.e., that I remove My personal physical presence]; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. .. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you (Jn. 16:7–8, 12–14).What the prophets spoke of as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus spoke of as the coming of the promise of the Father, i.e., as the sending of the Spirit from the Father in answer to the Son’s prayer. Pentecost is the fulfillment of these prophecies–not just of the Old Testament prophets, but also of the great prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as His incarnation was the advent in history of the second person of the Trinity, so Pentecost was the advent of the third person of the Trinity. And though God’s Spirit was at work in every previous age, His coming at Pentecost began a new epoch of His ministry, a transition so marked that John spoke of it in the strongest terms conceivable:
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet;[2] because Jesus was not yet glorified (Jn. 7:37–39).Whatever may be said about the Spirit’s working before Pentecost, compared to His manifestation in the church of the New Covenant, there is a sense in which “the Spirit was not yet.” Pentecost marks the beginning of a new epoch of history, an age that rightly may be called “the age of the Spirit.”
In sum, just as the incarnation of Christ was the advent in history of the second person of the Trinity, so, as God continued His progressive self-disclosure, Pentecost was the advent in history of the third person of the Trinity.
The Significance Of Pentecost Respecting The Continuing Work Of Christ
We may also see Pentecost’s importance in the relation that exists between the work of Christ and the advent of the Spirit. We ordinarily think of the earthly ministry of Jesus as ending in His sin-bearing death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension to heaven, i.e., we tend to think of our Lord’s earthly ministry as culminating with the accomplishment of salvation. We commonly think of Christ’s present ministry only in terms of a heavenly ministry, i.e., in terms of His high-priestly intercession for His people. This view of Christ’s present work, however, is not expansive enough. It is true that He is now at the Father’s right hand, there as a high priest interceding for His people; but that is not the limit of His present work.
The New Testament describes Christ’s redemptive work on the earth as continuing beyond His ascension. Pentecost is the beginning of that continuing work. This is clear as early as the ministry of John the Baptist, who testified concerning the One who was to come after him, that “he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit” (Mk. 1:8). According to John the Baptist, Christ personally baptizes men in the Holy Spirit. In Peter’s explanation of the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost, he also speaks of Holy Spirit baptism as the work of the ascended Christ.
This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear (Acts 2:32–33).According to the Bible, baptism in the Holy Spirit is Christ’s work as much as it is the Spirit’s work. And as was the case at Pentecost, so it has continued to the present day. The ascended Lord Jesus now personally pours out the Holy Spirit on His people. His continuing ministry, however, is more than that of a heavenly dispenser of the Spirit. When Jesus spoke of the Spirit’s coming, He spoke of this blessing in terms of His own personal presence coming to be with His disciples.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter [ἄλλος παράκλητος – another one of the same kind called along side], that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abides with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate [ὀπφανός – without parent]: I come unto you. Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto him, Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (Jn. 14:16–23).Jesus tells His disciples that in answer to His prayer, the Father will send another παράκλητος of the same kind as Himself to come along side them, i.e., the Spirit of truth, that He may be with them for ever (14:16–17). But notice how else He speaks of the Spirit’s coming: “I come unto you” (14:18). In the Spirit’s coming, Jesus personally comes to be with His people. “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (14:20). And, “he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him” (14:21). The coming of the Spirit is the manifestation of Christ to His people. And yet further He says, “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (14:23).
Without dispute we find ourselves well over our heads in the deep ocean of mystery which is the Trinity. Yet we must not miss the truth that in the Spirit’s coming, the Father and the Son also come to take up their dwelling in the people of God. And especially does the New Testament emphasize the presence of Christ in the presence of the Spirit. Without doubt Jesus was speaking of this when He said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Christ Himself is present in the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in the midst of the gathered assembly. This also explains how Jesus fulfills His promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20).
This is why the apostles can speak so freely of the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11), or “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19), or “the Spirit of His [i.e., God’s] Son” (Gal. 4:6). And this is why Paul can speak of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27) and say that “if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:10).
Pentecost is important because it marks the beginning of an important aspect of Christ’s present ministry as the ascended Lord. On the day of Pentecost, Jesus poured out the Spirit on His people, a ministry that He continues to this day. Every time a convert receives the Spirit, it is the result of the dispensing work of the Lord Jesus from heaven. And in the person of the Spirit, in a way that the unfathomable mystery of the Trinity will not permit us to describe or define, the person of the Son and the person of the Father also come to abide with God’s people. In this way, in the presence of “the Spirit of Christ,” He is with us always, even to the end of the world.
The Significance Of Pentecost Respecting The Blessings Of The New Covenant
Through the prophet Jeremiah, Jehovah promised that he would “make a new covenant.”
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more (Jer. 31:31–34).[3]According to this prophecy, the New Covenant community will be distinguished by four things: (1) by God’s law written on the heart, (2) by intimate fellowship with God, (3) by universal knowledge of God, (4) by the full and final forgiveness of sin. According to Isaiah, this last blessing will be secured by the sin-bearing suffering of Messiah, whose death as a sacrifice secures what the Old Covenant sin-offerings could not accomplish, i.e., the full and final forgiveness of sins (Isa. 53). According to the prophets, however, the first three blessings promised in Jer. 31 come from the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the New Covenant community. As we will see, the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost and His subsequent work in God’s people is as much the fulfillment of the promise of the New Covenant as the coming of Christ to die for our sins. For our purposes, we will look at the first three blessings of the New Covenant.
The first blessing promised as part of the New Covenant is: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it.” At Sinai, Jehovah wrote His law on tablets of stone. On that occasion the people promised, “All that Jehovah hath spoken we will do, and be obedient” (Exo. 24:7). Their good intentions, however, did not guarantee obedience. They needed a new nature, a heart free from bondage to sin, the law written not just on tablets of stone but on the tablets of their hearts. Some Old Covenant Israelites possessed this blessing (cf., Isa. 51:7; Psa. 37:29, 31; 40:8); but this wasn’t true of the people as a whole, as is clear from the nation’s sinful history. Most of the people were wicked. They flagrantly violated God’s law. And eventually the Lord sent them into captivity for their apostasy. Unlike Old Covenant Israel, however, New Covenant Israel (i.e., all who show that they are Abraham’s seed by believing on Christ) is distinguished by an internalizing of God’s law (i.e., by a writing of the law on the heart) accomplished by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and powerful working. And the fruit of this aspect of the Spirit’s ministry is a covenant people marked by righteousness and obedience to God’s law.
This is what Ezekiel promised would happen when the Lord put His Spirit within His people:
I will sanctify my great name, which hath been profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them (Eze. 36:23–27).According to Jeremiah, the first blessing of the New Covenant is, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it” (Jer. 31:33). Ezekiel tells us that this internalizing of God’s law is the effect of the presence and powerful working of the Spirit. “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them” (Eze. 36:27).
The second blessing promised by the Lord as part of the New Covenant is that His New Covenant people will enjoy intimate fellowship with Him: “and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:33). Of course, God had promised this under the Old Covenant also (cf., Exo. 6:2–8; Deut. 26:16–19; 27:9–10). And this blessing was symbolized by His dwelling among His people in the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle and temple. But this promise was linked to the people’s continuing obedience of the law (cf., 1 Ki. 6:11–13). And so, when they turned away from the covenant relationship by their apostasy, when they broke the covenant, Jehovah broke fellowship with them, removed His presence from their midst, and sent them away into captivity.
Now, Ezekiel says that when the Lord put His Spirit within His New Covenant people, He set His sanctuary in our midst forever and established intimate fellowship with us. And because the Spirit’s presence and power bears fruit in our obedience to God’s law, we enjoy the privilege of an everlasting covenant of peace. The Lord promises that He will never forsake us as He forsook Old Covenant Israel.
And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken it and performed it, saith Jehovah.. .. And my servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in mine ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore (Eze. 37:13–14, 24–28; cf. Jer. 32:40).Ezekiel describes the advent of the Spirit as the Lord setting His sanctuary in the midst of His people, there to dwell with us in intimate fellowship in an everlasting covenant of peace. Now, according to the New Testament, the gift of the Spirit’s indwelling constitutes every individual Christian, as well as the church corporately, as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body (1 Co. 6:19–20).
Know ye not that ye [plural] are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye (1 Co. 3:16–17).At Pentecost, at the advent of the Spirit, God set His sanctuary in the midst of His New Covenant people and entered into the intimate fellowship of a covenant of peace with us.
The third blessing promised by the Lord as part of the New Covenant is that unlike Old Covenant Israel, New Covenant Israel will be distinguished by universal knowledge of God. “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jer. 31:34).
There were those in Old Covenant Israel who knew the Lord (i.e., with a heart knowledge). As David prayed, “Oh continue your lovingkindness unto them that know you, and your righteousness to the upright in heart” (Psa. 36:10). In other words, those who know the Lord are upright in heart, i.e., the proof of their heart knowledge of God is their moral integrity. There were those in Old Covenant Israel who knew the Lord. But there were also men like Eli’s sons, “base men” who “did not know the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:12), i.e., whose wicked lives showed that they had no heart knowledge of God. For them, God’s law was only words engraved on tablets of stone; it had never been written on the tablets of their hearts.
According to Jeremiah’s prophecy, under the New Covenant, no longer will there be an Israel within Israel, i.e., a spiritual Israel within physical Israel. No longer will there be those circumcised in their hearts among those merely circumcised in their flesh. No longer will there be Israelites who know the Lord in the midst of Israelites who do not know the Lord.
Jeremiah complained that he could find no knowledge of God among the people of Israel, i.e., no heart knowledge that bore fruit in consistent obedience to God’s commands.
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her. And though they say, As Jehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely. O Jehovah, do not thine eyes look upon truth? thou hast stricken them, but they were not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God: I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds (Jer. 5:1–5).
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah (Jer. 9:1–3).Jeremiah complained that he had been to the lowest classes of the people, but that “they did not know the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God” (5:4). Turning then to the great men of the nation, he found them no better–“but these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds” (5:5). Jeremiah wept over the terrible state of God’s covenant people, “for they are all adulterers. .. and they know not me, saith Jehovah” (9:3). Jeremiah had searched from the least to the greatest among the people but found no heart knowledge of God which exhibited itself in consistent obedience to God’s commands. Now, the promise of the New Covenant is that when the Spirit comes and puts new hearts in God’s people, i.e., hearts which know the Lord and manifest true knowledge of God by keeping His commandments, then “they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (31:34).
Conclusion
The importance of Pentecost is exhibited in the role that the Spirit’s coming has in the establishment of the New Covenant community. Three of the four distinguishing marks (and blessings) of the New Covenant community are the fruit of the Spirit’s advent and of His indwelling the New Covenant people of God. We are privileged people, living under the greater blessings of the New Covenant. Because of Christ’s atoning death, we have the full forgiveness of our sins and have been freed from all the provisional ceremonies that pointed to Him. And we experience, because of the Spirit’s advent, the blessed fruits of His presence.
Within the Old Covenant community there were Israelites who had God’s law written on their hearts, who enjoyed intimate fellowship with God, who knew the Lord; but there were many others (also members of Old Covenant Israel) who did not. Jehovah promised that New Covenant Israel would not be like Old Covenant Israel. He promised that when His Spirit was poured out, without exception every member of the New Covenant community would experience His presence and power. At Pentecost this promise was fulfilled, so that now the Spirit’s presence and working in the heart is the experience of all who make up the true New Covenant community.
No longer is Israel comprised of Abraham’s physical seed, among whom also dwell his spiritual seed. New Covenant Israel consists only of Abraham’s spiritual seed, i.e., those who have faith like Abraham’s, who are circumcised in the heart, though not in the flesh. As Paul says, those (whether Jew or Gentile) who have the faith of Abraham “receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 3:14). And those who have received the Spirit are “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). This is a point of importance, of course, in our on-going dialogue with paedobaptist brethren over the nature of the church. The church of the New Covenant is not like the congregation of the Old Covenant, i.e., there is no spiritual Israel within physical Israel. The church of the New Covenant is comprised of believers, who are regenerate and indwelt by the Spirit, not of believers and their seed.
Beyond the corporate implications of the Bible’s doctrine of Pentecost, there is much of practical relevance to the individual believer. Perhaps there is no place better suited to showing this than our Lord’s words in Jn. 7:37–39.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet; because Jesus was not yet glorified.The last day of the Feast of Tabernacles has come. On each of the seven preceding days, there was a procession culminating in the offering of a drink offering on the temple altar.
Led by a priest, the whole people, after the [morning] sacrifice, went down from the temple to the fountain of Siloam; the priest. .. filled a golden pitcher, and carried it through the streets amid joyful shouts of the multitude, and with the sound of cymbals and trumpets. The rejoicing was so great that the Rabbis were accustomed to say that he who had not been present at this ceremony. .. did not know what joy is. On the return to the temple, the priest went up to the altar of burnt-offering. .. During the libation, the people sang, always to the sound of cymbals and trumpets, the words of Is. xii.3: “Ye shall draw water with joy out of the well of salvation.”[4]Although this ceremony was not repeated on the final day of the feast, Jesus uses it (as background) to dramatic advantage, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.” Jesus is saying that he fulfils the symbolism of the ritual that they’ve witnessed for the past seven days, i.e., He’s the true well of salvation from which men may drink living water. And since this ritual also symbolized in Jewish thinking God’s giving Israel water from the rock in the wilderness and His promise to pour out His Spirit in the last days, He’s saying that He fulfills this Old Testament symbol and promise as well.[5] Moreover, when He said, “If any man thirst,” inevitably the minds of His hearers were drawn not only to Isa. 12:3 (“with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”) but also to Isa. 55:1 (“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters”), where Isaiah also describes (in the verses following) the blessings which come to those who drink from the wells of salvation.
- God’s anger turned away and His comfort in its place (12:1).
- A soul which “delights itself in abundance” (55:2).
- A part in God’s everlasting covenant with David, “the sure mercies of David” (55:3)
- The “abundant pardon” of all sins (55:7).
It is clear from 7:38 that faith in Himself is the drinking of living water to which Jesus invites us. On this occasion, Jesus literally says, “He who believes into me” (ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμέ).[6] The idea of “believing into Christ” (cf., Gal. 2:16; Phil. 1:29) denotes not only the direction of belief (i.e., with reference to the object toward which faith is directed, “believing on Christ”) but union with (or incorporation into) the one toward whom faith is directed and on whom faith rests.[7] The practical implication of this is that incorporation “into Christ,” i.e., union with Him, takes place when we believe on Him. Now, if Jesus here is emphasizing union with Himself when He speaks of “believing into me,” then He teaches that in coming to Him and believing on Him, we are joined to Him and receive the Spirit’s indwelling by virtue of union with Him. And how does He describe the Spirit’s indwelling? Out of the heart “will flow rivers of living water.” John adds, “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on (into) him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (7:39).
Jn. 7:37–39, of course, points us to Pentecost, to the advent of the Spirit, when the glorified Jesus poured out the Spirit on His New Covenant people. And because of this gift, as we’ve seen, the New Covenant community has received great blessings. At Pentecost “the promise of the Father” was fulfilled, so that now the Spirit’s presence and working in the heart is the experience of all who make up the true New Covenant community. We are privileged people, living under the greater blessings of the New Covenant. Because of Christ’s atoning death, we have the full forgiveness of our sins. And we experience, because of the Spirit’s advent, the blessed fruits of His presence. He is in us, like a river of living water, powerfully providing those things that pertain to a normal, healthy, vibrant Christian life. Peter says, “His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue” (2 Pet. 1:3). Surely no small part of what God has given us pertaining to life and godliness is the gift of the Spirit, who has given us new hearts which delight in God’s law, intimate fellowship with God, and a saving knowledge of God, i.e., those blessings which distinguish believers as God’s New Covenant people. And where the Spirit is present, He is to His people (with all the power and vitality of a river of living water) the Revealer of our sin, our Exhorter, our Comforter, our Teacher, our Enabler, etc.
In recent days, in preaching to my own congregation from Jn. 7:37–39, I asked the people what living water tasted like. Unpolluted water, especially from a living spring, has a distinctive taste; and it refreshes the body like no other beverage can. Even as you read these words, likely you are thinking of some such occasion in your own experience. In my own case, I will never forget the taste of melt water bubbling out of the Athabasca Glacier in Alberta–water melted from snow that fell a thousand years ago. But what does the living water that the Spirit produces within the believer taste like? Many in our day point to spiritual gifts and tell us that these are the outflowing of the Spirit’s presence – that charismata is the flavor of living water! Indeed, Paul says that we are to “desire earnestly the greater gifts,” but in the same breath he says, “a most excellent (or, more surpassing) way show I unto you” (1 Co. 12:31). Then he launches into the glorious 13th chapter of 1 Co., where he commends not the Spirit’s gifts but the Spirit’s fruits, with a special focus on love. In simple terms, the Spirit’s living water has a fruity flavor. Where the Spirit is present as a river of living water, there the believer will know His presence by the flavorful taste of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). These fruits of the Spirit are the real marks of the Spirit’s presence in us and should be desired and valued far higher than gifts, no matter how useful.
Our Lord’s words also call us to sober reflection whether the marks of the Spirit’s presence are found in us. It is true that remaining sin makes all our evidences of grace imperfect and takes away some of the sweetness of even the most intimate communion with God. Yet, do we see substantial proof that God’s law has been written on our hearts, do we experience communion with Him, do we know the Lord? Are the fruits of the Spirit being produced in our Christian experience? Is He in us, like a river of living water, powerfully providing those things that pertain to a normal, healthy, vibrant Christian life?
The blessings of the New Covenant go together. And this means that if the proofs of the Spirit’s presence are in us, then we may justly believe that we possess the blessing of Christ’s death in the forgiveness of our sins. But if these proofs are lacking, perhaps we lack the Spirit as well. This is a vital matter, for “if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9), and the only reasonable expectation is that in the Day of Judgment, the Lord will say, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:23). Let us give all diligence to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10). When we see the blessed fruits of the Spirit manifested in us in abundance, then we can know that he is in us as a river of living water.
Notes
- All Scripture quotations are from The American Standard Version (1901).
- The word “given,” found in most English versions, has been added by translators. There is no equivalent in the Greek text of Jn. 7:39. John’s words are more categorical than our English versions recognize. Carson says, “Of course John cannot possibly mean the Spirit was not yet in existence, or operative in the prophets.. .. What the Evangelist means is that the Spirit of the dawning kingdom comes as the result–indeed, the entailment–of the Son’s completed work, and up to that point the Holy Spirit was not given in the full, Christian sense of the term.” D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, in The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1991), 329.
- These words, of course, are part of a larger prophecy which promises the return of Israel and Judah from the Babylonian Captivity (30:3), and the raising up of “David their king” to rule over them (30:8–9) and to draw near to God in priestly fashion (30:21). Then, Jehovah says, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.. .. and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness” (31:1, 14).
- F. Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of John (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1886), 2:75.
- Carson, Gospel, 322.
- The New Testament uses several expressions to describe believing in Christ. For example, “he who believes in him” (ὁ πιστεύων ἐν αὐτὸν) occurs only at Jn. 3:15, though the variant reading “into him” is well-attested and it is also possible to translate as the ASV does, i.e., “whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.” The expression “believe on” ( πιστεύω ἐπὶ)occurs at a few places, e.g., Acts 16:31 (“believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”; cf., Acts 17:11; 1 Tim. 1:16). The great majority of occurrences, however, is as in our text, i.e., “believe into me” or “believe into him.”
- See Charles J. Ellicott, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1867), 39 and A Critical and Grammatical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1868), 37; John Eadie, A Commentary on the Greek text of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1869), 167–68.
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