The Holy Spirit is all about relationships. He unifies people, creating bonds of peace (Eph 4.3). Before the creation of the world, he eternally moves between the Father and the Son, binding them together in love. He is, as Augustine says, the “mutual love” between the Father and the Son. His ministry within the Trinity before the creation is extended to the creation as he creates relationships within the world itself and between the world and the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit provides the loving energy that both creates and sustains relationships.
In Romans 8 Paul homes in on the Spirit’s ministry in re-creating all of these proper relationships that were decimated by the sin of Adam. The Spirit moves as “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom 8.9) in order to accomplish the Triune will for the creation’s renewal. The wording–“the Spirit of Christ”–is purposeful and loaded. The ministry of the eternal Son as “the Christ” is the emphasis. There is no doubt that Christ Jesus is the incarnate eternal Son. That was established in Romans 8.3 when it is said that God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin (or purification) offering. The eternal Son assumed the role of the Christ in his incarnation.
To give the Spirit the title, “the Spirit of Christ,” is to emphasize the role the Spirit plays in Christ Jesus accomplishing the mission of the Christ. “Christ” is not a surname but a title. He is the King of Israel, the Messiah, the Anointed One. As the Christ his mission was to fulfill the mission of Israel, a mission that involved being the place where the sin of the world was put to death and the vocation of Adam was fulfilled (cf. Rom 5.12-21). In order to fulfill this mission, the Christ would have to take the creation he represented down into death and be raised to new life. This would put the creation back in right relationship to God, something that Paul says in Colossians has been done “by the blood of his cross” (cf. Col 1.15-20).
The Christ is not a sole actor. Christ is given the Spirit from the Father “without measure” (Jn 3.34). The Spirit empowers Christ through his life and death and then raises him from the dead to accomplish his mission (cf. Rom 1.4; 8.11), the mission to re-create the world, arranging all of life in submission to the lordship of Christ Jesus.
The Spirit is still the power of Christ and is still empowering Christ to complete his mission. He does this through the Person of Christ and Christ’s body, the church. When Christ Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he poured out his Spirit on his body. All of those who are united to the body of Christ, the church, live in the Spirit and have the Spirit of Christ. It can’t be otherwise. You can’t have Christ without the Spirit because there is no Christ without the Spirit. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Christ (Rom 8.9).
The Spirit of Christ is the possession of those who are united to Christ’s body because it is only in Christ’s body that the Spirit of Christ resides. Each person that comes into the church has a personal relationship with the Spirit, but he only has that personal relationship because he is in union with the dwelling of the Spirit, the body of Christ. So, if you want to be the recipient of the Spirit’s ministry, if you want the power of the Spirit for your life, it is yours as you live in union and communion with the church. The Spirit ministers his power through the gifted people he has placed in the church. He encourages, rebukes, praises, and teaches us as we spend time together around the Scriptures taught, the Table, prayer, singing, opening our homes in hospitality, and such the like.
The possession of the Spirit by the church is for the purpose of empowering the church for the mission of Christ. In order to accomplish this, the Spirit gives us the mind of Christ; a way of desiring, thinking, and acting that is in accord with the desires, thoughts, and acts of Christ himself. The Spirit works to transform what we love so that we love all that Christ loves. The evidence of the Spirit’s activity in your life is not, therefore, whether you have ecstatic experiences, but whether or not you are loving what Christ loves and ordering your life according to his mission.
Vital to this mission is creating and sustaining healthy relationships. The Spirit, remember, is all about relationships. He creates unity in the bonds of peace. We are called to maintain this unity in the bond of peace (Eph 4.3). When we don’t, we “grieve the Spirit” (Eph 4.30). To walk in lock-step with the Spirit is to maintain relationships that are characterized by love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5.22-23). To walk according to the Spirit is to extend the grace of forgiveness to those who have wronged you in order to heal the relationship (Eph 4.32). To be walking in harmony with the Spirit means that all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice (Eph 4.31). If these things and the like are not characterizing our life together as the church, then we are out of accord with the Spirit. It doesn’t matter what we know intellectually, we are out of accord with the Spirit. But if these ways do characterize us, then we are walking in accord with the Spirit, and we know life and peace (Rom 8.6).
