Drawn to the Father
There is a time in the life of every believer when he is introduced to the Holy Spirit; more precisely the Holy Spirit introduces the sinner to Jesus. Jesus alluded to this in John 6.
44″No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
Although the Father and the Son are mentioned in this passage and not the Holy Spirit, we must understand that the process of one being drawn to the Father through the Son is not done apart from the Spirit. Jesus sheds more light on this process and the specific role of the Holy Spirit in John 16. Speaking of the Holy Spirit Jesus said,
8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12″I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
Here we see that the Holy Spirit is intimately involved in revealing one’s own sinful nature so that he is in a position to receive Jesus, who is the only way to the Father. Anyone who ever truly came to faith in Christ did so after the Holy Spirit convinced him of his sin and revealed to him the way of salvation. We must keep in mind, however, that the Holy Spirit’s ability to convict unbelievers of sin hinges on our obedience to communicate the Gospel. Without the preaching of this message the sinner would not have a basis for repentance, and would not be able to receive Jesus.
A Historical Account
In Acts 2:14-36 we see the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with the preaching of the Gospel to bring about the conversion of the hearers. Notice the response of those who heard Peter preach the Gospel in verses 37-41:
37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Verse 37 says that those who heard the message were “cut to the heart.” This is the conviction of the Holy Spirit in action. However, their conversion did not end there. Peter instructed them on what they had to do to receive salvation. I mention this to stress that the Holy Spirit is our helper, but he alone does not bring salvation. He works in concert with believers who are led by him.
The Holy Spirit is not an Evangelist
I have heard believers pray that someone would get convicted of their sin and come to faith in Christ. Such prayers are really useless if no one ever bothers to share the Gospel with them because God has ordained that men, not angels or the Holy Spirit, preach the Gospel. A more biblical method of prayer for the lost is described by Jesus himself.
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Luke 10:2).
A New Creation
Scripture teaches us that Christians are new creations born from above. A Christian is not an improved fallen creation, but an altogether new species of being created in Christ Jesus, born of the Holy Spirit. The prophet Ezekiel was able to see into the time when this would be possible.
19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God (Ezekiel 11:19, 20).
In John 3, Jesus explained this more fully to Nicodemus.
3In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
4″How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Here Jesus makes mention of two births: a natural birth and a spiritual birth. He contrasts the outward man (or flesh) with the inward man (or spirit). Being born into the kingdom of God is a rebirth of the human spirit by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the new creation is entirely spiritual, making a person both alive to God and dead to sin (Romans 6:11).
So then Christians do not have a sin nature in the same way unbelievers do. We still have the flesh, which is sinful by nature, but being dead to sin we are freed from sin (Romans 6:7). The old spiritual sin nature has been done away with because God make Jesus to be sin on our behalf, effectively redeeming us from the bondage of sin so that we may walk in newness of life (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21). While the unredeemed are overcome by the world, those who are born of God overcome the world (1 John 4:4, 5:4, 5:5). This is the privilege of being made a new creation indwelled by the Spirit of God.
Chris A said, “The Holy Spirit is not an Evangelist
I have heard believers pray that someone would get convicted of their sin and come to faith in Christ. Such prayers are really useless if no one ever bothers to share the Gospel with them because God has ordained that men, not angels or the Holy Spirit, preach the Gospel.”
That is an interesting perspective, and probably pretty accurate. I know of one or two cases where a person came to faith without a human evangelist involved. (His testimony: I saw a Gideon Bible in the hotel and I took it and read it from cover to cover and that’s how I came to faith.”) But that surely doesn’t happen very often.
Your post brings me back to a verse that I’ve been pondering for a couple months as I’m trying to learn more about what faith really is and where it comes from: Romans 10:17 “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
From this verse it seems that evangelism (coming to faith) happens in the context of the word of Christ. I suppose the usual vehicle for the word of Christ is a person, but it could be a book or a tract or even a TV preacher–just some way for the word of Christ to be put forth.
Chris,
I agreed rather strongly with this article especially these points:
This is a point that a lot of modern evangelism misses. It’s as though many in the church abandoned the Holy Spirit and instead presumed that a Christian version of How to Win Friends and Influence People was the way to gain converts.
This is indeed a sad and (my personal feelings) repulsive truth. I see this often and I normally point out (in private, or at an opportune time) that while we’re in here praying for the Holy Spirit to convict someone, we are avoiding our responsibilities. The Holy Spirit is not a person who “bears the load” of evangelism for us, rather he gives us the wisdom, courage and content by which to evangelize ourselves.
“From this verse it seems that evangelism (coming to faith) happens in the context of the word of Christ. I suppose the usual vehicle for the word of Christ is a person, but it could be a book or a tract or even a TV preacher–just some way for the word of Christ to be put forth.”
I believe you are correct, but in cases where someone comes across a tract or a Gideon Bible, a “laborer” is still involved. We can never rule out the ability of God to get in touch with someone through unusual means, but we should never forget that a person must hear the Gospel in order to be able to respond to it, and therefore we should not make the Holy Ghost responsible to fulfill the Great Commission. He will do his part, but we must do ours. We shouldn’t confuse the biblical role we have with the biblical role he has. That was my point as far as prayer is concerned.
When it comes to prayer, I try to keep these scriptures in mind:
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7)
13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
(1 John 5:13-15)
So first, our prayers must be based on the Word. And secondly, when we ask according to his will as clearly revealed in the scriptures we can “know that we have the petitions” that we desire of him. There is a vast difference between wishing and being confident that what we will get what we ask for.
“This is a point that a lot of modern evangelism misses. It’s as though many in the church abandoned the Holy Spirit and instead presumed that a Christian version of How to Win Friends and Influence People was the way to gain converts.”
I’m sure I’ve been guilty of thinking incorrectly about this in the past. Such an approach only leads to compromise, and diminishes the operation of the Spirit. That’s why we must allow people to respond instead of forcing them into a prayer.
I’ve seen people come under the “conviction” of high-pressure sales tactics and succumb to a prayer without any real salvation experience. Its like, “Yeah, whatever you want man! I’ll buy your vacuum cleaner! Just please get out of my house!” Then they stop payment on the check. No commission from that prospect.