Bookends Chapter 6: The Power of the Holy Spirit

This week we read about the second bookend. The first bookend was the Righteousness of Christ as purchased for sinners upon the cross of Christ through His perfect life, death and resurrection. Now we learn that the final bookend is the Power of the Holy Spirit. This Chapter was wonderful and yet so simple at heart.

We learned that the first bookend (the righteousness of Christ) is something that was accomplished entirely apart from us. It is not dependent upon us in any way. We are passive "participants" in that it is given to us not by anything we do or earn, we simply receive it. The first bookend is a finished bookend. Christ's righteousness on our behalf is complete. We who are in Christ Jesus are justified once and for all. We will never be more or less righteous than we are in Christ on the day of salvation. In contrast, the second bookend is an ongoing work that is accomplished within us. On the one hand, the Power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us entirely apart from any participation from us and changes our heart and fills us with new godly desires and heart-felt gratitude that we could have never produced without the Holy Spirit making us a new creation. These works (and others) that the Holy Spirit accomplishes without our participation are "monergistic" in nature. However there is also the call to participate with the Spirit through obedience and living out true discipleship, where God the Holy Spirit convicts us, leads us and empowers us to obey God's word and calling upon our lives; but we do actually "work" or obey. This participation between us and the Holy Spirit is called a "synergistic" work. In these times it is important to never lose sight of the fact that we do all things through the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit. He starts the work in us, we do the work by His power and He completes the work in us. So though we do work, we could not do it without Him, for without Him we have no strength or purpose or direction.

Our response to the first bookend is simply to receive it. That is also the same response that we have to the monergistic work of the Spirit. If it is His work that He is doing within us we are simply to receive it. Just as when our souls were suddenly filled with joy over the knowledge of our salvation, we simply enjoyed it. However our response to the synergistic work of the Spirit is to actively respond in dependence upon Him and to seek to actively obey the call of the Holy Spirit to live out the fruit that He is leading us into (for example love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control). If we try to produce this fruit on our own, we will fail but if we cast our hearts upon Him seeking His empowerment through faith; we will find that the final bookend: the Power of the Holy Spirit will work with the first bookend to hold up our "books" in life and keep them from falling off of the shelf.

So here's some questions for us all to think about:

1. Do you ever find yourself struggling to obey God, but feeling like you are lacking the strength or that you are having to "go it alone"; that you are having to supply the strength for the day? How do you combat that?

2. When you are feeling especially victorious in your pursuit of godliness, how do you keep your focus (or re-focus you mind/heart) upon the truth that the Holy Spirit is He whom empowers you to obey?

3. Did you read anything in this chapter that clarified the work of the Holy Spirit in your life or in the life of believers?

4. Do you have a testimony of a time when the you felt the Holy Spirit giving you special grace to get through a situation or to have victory over a particular sin? Or a time when you didn't feel His divine presence and help, but looking back you can see His hand upon you sustaining you or spiritually "making your paths straight"?


May we all walk by the power of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus trusting in His finished work on our behalf.