Sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in OT saints

[rgrove]

I was reading Gen 26:5 this evening and ran into a passage I had pondered before.

Gen 26:4-5 - "I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

What interests me is "kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and, my laws". The ten commandments didn't come until Moses, which is why this line stands out to me. Of course we should keep in mind that Moses recorded this for us so that may have an impact on the wording here. This seems to me to get into how the Holy Spirit was working in the Old Testament with OT believers looking forward in faith to the fulfillment of the promises given. By Abraham's time we have the protoevanglium of Gen 3:15 and a sacrifice conducted by God to cover Adam and Eve in Gen 3:21. What appears to be obvious is that Abraham was the recipient of saving grace as well as some degree of sanctifying grace which is what I'm particularly interested in here. How was the Holy Spirit working in this part of the OT dispensation? Abraham was "obediant", seemingly to a high degree, to the law (According to Paul in Gal 3:6 probably starting from Gen 15:6 "And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness"). So how he was enabled to be obedient to the law is an interesting question to me. Of course the question being how was the Holy Spirit working in OT saints. Some interesting things come to mind as I ponder the question. First we have Paul's statement about unbelievers in Romans 2:14-16:

Rom 2:14-16 - "For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."

This is a very deep statement that would be it's own discussion in and of itself. But here I'm specifically interested in Paul's declaration that the unbeliever "supresses" what he knows, but turns around and gives positive evidence in his life that he does indeed know the law though his behavior. So, even on the unbeliever this is written on the heart, but they lack the Holy Spirit to help them live by what they know to be right and true by changing their heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The Westminster Confession of Faith and it's derivatives put it this way:

Chapter IV, Section 2 - "After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image, having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil it: and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change. Beside this law written in their hearts, they received a command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which while they kept, they were happy in their communion with God,and had dominion over the creatures.

It appears Abraham was given the power to fulfill the law again, to some extent as we are in the New Covenant (of course, if you're a dispensationalist, you'll take immediate leave of my argument here since in that system we're not in the New Covenant right now, would be interested in a different thread on how you personally get around this. The Chaffer/Walvoord two covenant method, Darby's "church blessings resulting from cross" type method, or one of the others).

Jer 31:31-33 - "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

The writer of Hebrews applies Jer 31:33 this way:

Heb 10:12-25 - But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

"This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,"

then he adds,

"I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

How is the Holy Spirit working in the OT saint to warrant the statements made about Abraham without the level of aid the Holy Spirit gives believers in the New Covenant? He couldn't have possibly achieved such a glowing report depending upon his own nature. This had already been demonstrated in Gen 12:11ff where he gave his wife to the pharaoh for a time so he wasn't perfect. And even after Gen 15:6, which seems to be where Abraham by grace through faith believed what God promised, in Gen 20:2 he sinned again by deceiving Abimelech regarding Sarah. He doesn't seem to acknowledge it as such, but I need a pretty high authority to tell me that this is godly behavior towards your wife. Or, perhaps, is this report relative to the level of work the Holy Spirit was working in this dispensation. Perhaps less was demanded of him than a New Testament saint because of the degree of work the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives? If so, I'm in trouble because I don't think my report card is as good as Abraham's appears to be with less access to the Holy Spirit... Anyhow, what do you guys think? There's not a lot to go on in the OT. There are several mentions of and allusions to the Holy Spirit that are clarified and expanded upon in the New Testament. But few verses besides 1 Peter 1:10ff give us much insight that I can see into sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit during this dispensation. Even 1 Peter 1:10ff could be seen as limited to the prophets alone. Perhaps Romans 11:2-6 gives some light. It seems to allude not only to saving grace but also to a sanctifying grace because "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Not a lot to go on there either, though. So what do you think? Any good verses I'm missing that give good insight into what degree the Holy Spirit was working in OT saints to enable them to be obediant to the law he had placed upon their hearts?

In Christ,
Ron

P.S. - One reason I'm posting my musings here is because I couldn't find anyone connecting the same dots I did in my commentaries or my collection of Systematic Theologies. I never like that. The path least traveled in theology is often the wrong path.

[Soulfyre]

Actually, it would only be some "ultra-dispensationalists" that would assert that we are not, in fact, in the New Covenant now. Just as a suggestion, you might want to read something like Continuity and Discontinuity, edited by Feinberg. It is far too easy, sometimes, to develop a skewed view of "dispensationalism" by drawing your information primarily from its critics. During the nearly four years I spent at Dallas (and I had a class under Walvoord), I never was taught that we are not now in the New Covenant, nor was this a belief of Lewis Sperry Chafer. But your essential question is a good one, to which I want to give some thought before typing a response.

God bless and keep you, brother,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[rgrove]

I'll start a new thread because I don't want this to derail the original post. I submit I have not misunderstood the issues of course. And I have not defined the system in terms of covenant theologians, but the words of major dispensational figures themselves. I restrict my quotes to Chafer, Walvoord and Ryrie to ensure nobody accuses me of such.

In Christ,
Ron

[Soulfyre]

rgrove said:

I'll start a new thread because I don't want this to derail the original post. I submit I have not misunderstood the issues of course. And I have not defined the system in terms of covenant theologians, but the words of major dispensational figures themselves. I restrict my quotes to Chafer, Walvoord and Ryrie to ensure nobody accuses me of such.

In Christ,
Ron

Then I stay my opinion. I was not aware of such a distinction from Ryrie, Walvoord, or Chafer, but if you could point me to the references, I would be happy to look them up. It would not be the first time I developed either selective memory or selective amnesia. I have several of their books, although I no longer use them for my primary eschatology (I tend to prefer George Eldon Ladd).

Thanks Ron,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[rgrove]

Soulfyre,

Do you have any thoughts on the original thread? I haven't had time to look today, but I'm curious about passages that I'm missing that may alude to how the Holy Spirit may have been working in the area of sanctification in the Old Testament. Or perhaps you know of a good book on it? I have over 20 Systematics and they seem to only refer to the Holy Spirit in the OT when establishing the Trinity or looking at gifts such as prophecy in particular. My "Doctrine of God" type books are the same. Possibly because His sanctifying work is only known by the teaching that the New Covenant contains tons more. Or should I occupy my mind with other matters where there's obviously more scriptural light to be found?

[Soulfyre]

rgrove said:

Or should I occupy my mind with other matters where there's obviously more scriptural light to be found?

To begin with the last first, I think the question you bring to the fore concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification as it might apply to an Old Testament saint is a very discerning one that should not be shuffled in a section of errata to deal with "weightier" matters. Dispensational or Covenantal, each would agree that there is a difference between the relationship of the Holy Spirit to believers before and after the inauguration of the church in Acts. You have made me return to my studies to find clarification as well, because of the clear implications of your question. If I think of a book that I find helpful in addressing the topic, I will be sure to include it. Meanwhile, I am set to studying the issue as well. I will be looking forward to sharing with one another what we discover concerning the work of the Paraclete, Our Advocate and Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

God bless and keep you and yours always,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[rgrove]

Soulfyre said:

You have made me return to my studies to find clarification as well, because of the clear implications of your question.

Don't overexert yourself on it. I don't know that scripture gives us enough of an answer to make quality conclusions. For some reason that verse stood out to me a while back, don't remember when exactly, and when I read it again I felt compelled to ponder the questions raised by it in my mind some. Since commentators (dispensational or not) only refer to "natural law" at the most and do not relate the passage to the ten commandments in any particular manner, I may just be a mouse running frantically in my own self-created wheel that will ultimately go nowhere. ;D Wouldn't be the first time...

God bless,
Ron

[Soulfyre]

After much thought concerning this topic, which I am in fact glad that you raised, I believe that there are in fact points which may be raised to differentiate the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation in the Old Testament from the work of Holy Spirit in salvation in the New Testament, without doing violence to a single means of salvation. And I promise I will not use the somewhat hackneyed approach of classic dispensationalism that asserts that the basis of salvation remains the same, while the substance of belief upon which the believer exercises faith varies, etc., etc.

In this, I will say that I believe that there is a technical, although perhaps unintentional, error in the reasoning of the Westminster divines. The statement you quoted from Chapter IV, section 2, in which it is stated, "After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image, having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil it...", is technically incorrect. Otherwise it would be at variance with the teaching of Jeremiah 31:31-33, in which Jeremiah assigns this condition to a future act of God ("But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts....", referred to again by the writer of Hebrews, by whom it is applied to the present salvific work of the Holy Spirit). Yet Paul does not, in fact, assert in Romans that the unsaved have the "law of God written in their hearts." Rather, in Romans 2:14-16, Paul says "They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts...". What then is this "work" of the law? It is the accusing and excusing function of the fallen conscience, which establishes a behavioral framework which the fallen proceed to violate. In this, the conscience fulfills the "work" of the law, which serves to condemn their inconsistencies and tresspasses in lieu of the law. This function of the conscience exists as an irreducible part of the imago dei in the fallen person, and hence does not presume the particular salvific work of the Holy Spirit ascribed to the New Covenant. It is also generally true that historically the church has held that no Old Testament believer was carried into the presence of God at death, but rather was carried "to the bosom of Abraham", as described by Jesus Christ in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The abode of the wicked dead was still torment, however. Hence, the anticipation of the fullness of salvation in the Old Testament is realized with the work of Jesus Christ in the New.

Yet what may we say of the Holy Spirit's participation in the process of salvation itself? Simply that the uniquely sanctifying (or as the Orthodox might say, theotic) work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament was not, in fact, available to Old Testament saints. Salvation was foundationally anchored in God as the object of faith or belief, not in the behavior of the individual. Behavior was rather a demonstration of the vitality of belief, not a source of merit. One might even adduce from the words of Jesus Christ to Nicodemas, "You must be born again," that the concept of spiritual rebirth was not limited to believers subsequent to Jesus' resurrection. And to the extent that the Holy Spirit operates in a revelatory manner to effect salvation, his work would also be present in the Old Testament. But the unique role of the Holy Spirit in "sealing" believers, I believe has more to do with the inauguration of Christ's Body, the church, and the Holy Spirit's transforming and indwelling ministry, which is unique to the New Covenant. A change in the consistency of behavior should also be evident.

Does this begin to address the issue of your question, rgrove?

God bless and keep you always,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[rgrove]

Soulfyre said:

In this, I will say that I believe that there is a technical, although perhaps unintentional, error in the reasoning of the Westminster divines. The statement you quoted from Chapter IV, section 2, in which it is stated, "After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image, having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil it...", is technically incorrect. Otherwise it would be at variance with the teaching of Jeremiah 31:31-33, in which Jeremiah assigns this condition to a future act of God ("But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts....", referred to again by the writer of Hebrews, by whom it is applied to the present salvific work of the Holy Spirit). Yet Paul does not, in fact, assert in Romans that the unsaved have the "law of God written in their hearts." Rather, in Romans 2:14-16, Paul says "They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts...". What then is this "work" of the law? It is the accusing and excusing function of the fallen conscience, which establishes a behavioral framework which the fallen proceed to violate. In this, the conscience fulfills the "work" of the law, which serves to condemn their inconsistencies and tresspasses in lieu of the law. This function of the conscience exists as an irreducible part of the imago dei in the fallen person, and hence does not presume the particular salvific work of the Holy Spirit ascribed to the New Covenant.

I'll have to ask KCsr to come comment. When I joined Glencullen Baptist the pastor asked me to look at a couple of articles in the 1689 LBC and this was a phrase which I disagreed with and my argument was basically the same as what you put forth. KCsr presented an argument, but I wasn't too sure about it and never really abandoned my position that it was at variance with Jer 31:31-33. This passage from Paul in Romans that I ran into again a week or two after the discussion with the Pastor and KCsr is what made me consider the statement in the confessions to be reasonable. If I remember correctly KCsr's argument was something similar to the imago dei argument you presented, but in the opposite direction. In your argument above I'm persuaded that my original dissatisfaction with the wording of that passage in the confession was correct. But I'll give KCsr his shot at reconvincing me of course!

Does this begin to address the issue of your question, rgrove?

I'll have to have time to sit down in the evening and look over this last section more closely. It will take more thought than the first section where you had addressed a section of the WCF that I wasn't originally comfortable with of course. Thank you very much for sharing your insight.

[KCsr]

Ok, Ron... here ya go:

God loves God in all of his perfections–the Father, Son and Holy Spirit love each other in all of their perfections and distinctions. The Trinity reveals that it is in God's heart to love the LORD and others. Love emanates from his very nature. "God is love." If we were to describe this emanation of love what would that description be? "Love the LORD your God and your neighbor as yourself." So what is this description of God's love? It is the law. It is righteousness.

The WCF explains that that this righteous love was placed within man's heart at creation: "He created man, male and female... endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image." As scripture says, "put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" (Col 3:10) and "put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph 4:24). The new man with the image of God has it in his heart to love the LORD and his neighbor. God's righteousness is written on his heart. His heart is now free to truly love. He has been freed to keep the law.

But notice what Col. 3:10 says–man is being "renewed" according to the image of God. He was created in God's image at the beginning. The New Covenant is bringing the world back to the state in which it was created. If part of this renewing is God putting the righteousness of loving the LORD and others in the hearts of believers now, then it has to be true about creation as well. To say that Adam did not have a nature that naturally expressed love for the LORD and others would be the same as saying God's image does not include righteousness. No, Adam had God's law written on his heart–and this was a living, loving heart that could function exactly how it was supposed to.

However, when Adam fell, his heart was no longer able to function properly. The natural man is now unable to keep God's law: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:7-8). Paul tells us they know the righteousness of God, God has shown it to them since the creation of the world by the things that have been made but "by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Rom. 1:18-20). By their unrighteousness they suppress their knowledge of the righteousness of God. "So," Paul says, "they are without excuse" (v.20). They are justly condemned because they cannot claim to not know the law that condemns them. They are not ignorant–they can see the remains of the image of God that was in man at creation. The fleshly mind is unable to function properly, but it can see the evidence that condemns itself. It can look at the dead body and see evidence of what justly killed it, and what was required for it to live. Summed up in: "Love the LORD your God and others." It can see the remains of a once living creature who was created in the image of God in righteousness and now lays dead.

God through Ezekiel calls this mind that cannot keep the law a "heart of stone" (Eze. 36:26). So this knowledge of God's righteousness that condemns sinners is not unknown, but the heart is unable to please God by keeping the very law that it knows it should keep. The law is not written on living hearts but cold, dead, lifeless, stony ones. The law written on a heart of stone cannot give life, it can only condemn the world. The heart is dead.

Through the New Covenant, however, God is bringing to completion his regeneration of creation. This includes regenerating man and renewing the image of God in him. God tears out the stony law-breaking heart that condemns us and gives us a new functioning one: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules" (Eze. 36:26, 27). This is the equivalent of what Jeremiah is saying: "I will make a new covenant... not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts." God describes it through Jeremiah as a comparison between the law written on external stones, written on the heart and led by the Spirit; Ezekiel describes it as a non-functioning stone heart and a functioning fleshly one controlled by the Spirit. But they are describing the same thing. Paul describes it from this side of the cross:

"And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts... our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory... will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? ...Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

Although Paul is here contrasting the outward administration of the law in the Old Covenant with the outward evidence of the regenerate in the New Covenant ("you show that you are a letter...") he is not saying that God's law did not condemn people before Sinai. At Sinai this condemnation was made externally evident and "un-suppressible" which brought great glory to God. And also, when Paul says here that in the New Covenant we are being transformed into the image of God he is not saying that man had the image of God at Sinai and marred it at thereafter–it was marred in the garden. And so the LBC2 says:

"God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart... The same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall, and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables, the four first containing our duty towards God, and the other six, our duty to man."

Anyways, I hope this gives a little idea of why I think it is absolutely necessary for mankind to have had the law written on their hearts from creation. It is necessary because God is righteous, man was created in the image of God, God is not unjust in condemning those who never had the law written out for them on external tables of stone, and the New Covenant includes the law on hearts as a part of the renewal of the image of God.

I don't have any time right now to write about regeneration and the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament... hopefully I'll have some time later. I do believe that scripture teaches that O.T. saints were born again and had the Spirit, etc.

-KCsr.

[rgrove]

KCsr said:

Ok, Ron... here ya go:

He says hoping it will be the last time he has to recover the same ole' ground with Ron... ;D

I don't have any time right now to write about regeneration and the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament... hopefully I'll have some time later. I do believe that scripture teaches that O.T. saints were born again and had the Spirit, etc.

I look forward to it, but only so long as it doesn't take any quality time away from little KCjr

In Christ,
Ron

[Soulfyre]

Okay....I'm pondering my reply.

God bless you both and thank you, KCsr, for the clarification!

Matthew (soulfyre)

[KCsr]

Here's a good description of the law on the heart that I just happened to come across in Fisher's explanation of the Shorter Catechism. It may be helpful:

Q. 4. What do you understand by God's writing the law upon the table of his heart?

A. God's inlaying a principle of obedience in his heart, disposing him to obey out of love to God, and a supreme regard to his authority, Eccl. 7:29.

[Soulfyre]

While I respect the work of the Westminster Divines, we must beware of denying the authority of church tradition while adopting Reformed tradition, represented by the Westminster Confession, as virtually authoritative. It is truly a work of breathtaking scope, in its attempt to establish a breviary of systematic theology. Nevertheless, I believe it occasionally stumbles in its attempts to shoehorn theological conclusions drawn from the New Testament into the Old Testament, contravening what might be considered the plain interpretation of the text. If we are to do so, then we must admit to having a "Holy Tradition" every bit as authoritative as that of Eastern Orthodoxy, but several generations removed from the context of the early church. Often our tendency to do this in the evangelical and Reformed traditions smacks of a certain rationalistic arrogance that seems to imply that we can be more objective and exercise more scholarly erudition than the theologians of the early centuries of the Christian church. Historically, however, much of Reformed theological thought was rooted in reaction against the excesses of Roman Catholocism. One must always beware, however, of developing theology based on reaction in an essential vacuum.

There are, in fact, small quibbles that I have with the Westminster Confession and its "children". One is the apparent conclusiveness with which the Confession determines that God's Law is written on the heart of each human being (even that of Adam). I find this difficult because if we are, in fact, to hold to Sola Scriptura, one must affirm that nowhere in the Old or New Testaments is this conclusion supported. In fact, if one is to take the Old Testament at face value, Jeremiah seems quite clear in saying (31:33-34):

[/b] make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.[/ul]A cursory reading of the passage picks up the emphasis that the putting of the law "in their minds" and the writing of it "on their hearts" is something that is promised within the New Covenant, not a condition which already, in some form, exists. This also reveals the problem of assuming that the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation was the same in the Old Testament as in the New. There clearly appears to be an aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant that is qualitatively different than that within the Old Covenant.

Note how carefully Paul parses his words in Romans 2, vv12-15:

[/b] will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. [Indeed, when Gentiles, who do nat have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing withness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.[/ul]It is not the law that was written on the hearts of the Gentiles, but the requirements of the law (according to the NIV) or, more properly according to the Greek, the "work of the law." In this, I believe the Westminster Confession of Faith makes a crucial misstatement, dictated by the strictures of the presuppositions of the Westminster Divines.

Paul also goes out of his way to emphasize, in Romans chapter 5, that Abraham was not justifies by the works of the law. How then are we to understand the clear statement of Genesis 26:4-5, that bespoke the Abrahamic covenant, and ascribed as a causative factor "because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws"? Paul states his position clearly:

He further states:

[/b][/ul]Concerning Adam, however, a different situation prevails. It seems unnecessary to presume that the imago dei includes a presumption of positive holiness, or the "law" written on his heart, or that of Eve. That the "work of the law" (the impulse of conscience to pursue good, unmarred by the fall) should exist in the human heart is unquestioned. If the imago dei is presumed to be the communicable attributes of personhood (self-consciousness; the impulse to love, create, rule, and exercise free choice), then I believe it is easier to understand the Orthodox view (and that of much of the early church) that "image" and "likeness" have shades of difference. God's "image" is conveyed in His "energies" as opposed to His "essence". But the "likeness" (such aspects as righteousness, holiness, justice, etc...the moral attributes of God) is as yet unformed in man or woman. It is the "likeness" into which the man and woman are to grow. This avoids the inevitable conundrum of explaining how the man and woman, having a positive holiness, for whom evil was external, could in fact choose that which would have been contraty to their natures and sin.

Now concerning the nature of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in salvation in the Old Testament, I believe we must exercise great care. Clearly, the rebirth by the Spirit of God must have existed in the Old Testament, else the words of Jesus Christ to Nicodemus would have been nonsensical. But it would seem that the indwelling Spirit of God, including His "sealing" ministry, appears to be unique to the New Testament. It would be otherwise difficult to understand David's plea, when confessing his sin before God, to "take not your Holy Spirit from me." One may attempt to explain this away by saying that this referrred only to the annointing work of the Holy Spirit in resting in blessing on the King of Israel, but such a splitting of hairs would, I believe, be tenuous at best, given the clear differences in the life of King Saul. Hence, although God's work in salvation in the Old Testament could be considered to convey, by His Holy Spirit, the new birth, it would be difficult to assume that the Old Testament believer had the same indwelling that we may now experience.

God bless and keep you all,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[KCsr]

Hi Matthew,

I read your post a few times but I need to think about it for awhile to understand exactly what you are saying, and all the implications. I do have a question about this:

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more

A cursory reading of the passage picks up the emphasis that the putting of the law "in their minds" and the writing of it "on their hearts" is something that is promised within the New Covenant, not a condition which already, in some form, exists.

Are you then saying that since he also promises here that in the New Covenant, "I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more" that he never forgave anyone before the New Covenant? I do know that many believe this, and it seems like that is how you are interpreting the other promises in the passage. Is this assumption correct?

God bless,
KC