The Helping Spirit

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness" (Rom. 8:26). When Jesus was preparing to return to the Father, he told his disciples that he would not leave them orphans (John 14:18). He promised to send them another Comforter. The word thus translated in the Authorized Version is parakletos. It is rendered "Counselor" in the Revised Standard Version, and "Helper" by James Moffatt. Perhaps this last is best. The word refers to one who comes to the side of another to help or assist him in pleading his case. The life of the child of God is lived by and through the indwelling Spirit. "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live" (Rom. 8:13). "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit which dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).

     Our opening quotation affirms our weakness. It implies our need of help or assistance. We have a divine helper who will abide with us and dwell in us as long as Jesus is absent from the earth. We are not left as orphans since he has gone away. Lack of recognition of this great truth fills our lives with fears and frustrations, doubts and discouragements. Modern philosophers talk about "the lonely crowd." Many are unhappy, and feel forlorn and forsaken while surrounded by a sea of people. Not so the saint. He is never alone. He can say, "So we do not lose heart" (2 Cor. 4:16). Or, he can affirm, "God has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage" (2 Cor. 5:5, 6).

     It little matters what happens without when the Spirit is within. "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our nature is being renewed every day" (2 Cor. 4:16). Note the expression "every day." Ours is a daily renewal of strength and courage, not a temporary or spasmodic revival. The secret of the life of power is the unseen guest. "We are strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man" (Eph. 3:16). We are constantly exposed to the grinding effect of temptation. Our spirits become raw and bleeding from the strain and struggle. But each day the divine Helper renews us, not by making a scar, but by rebuilding healthy spiritual tissue sensitive and alive to the needs of those about us.

     The covenantal community of saints, as a corporate body, suffers seriously today from ignorance of the work of the Spirit. This causes the Helper to be ignored and grieved. The body without the Spirit is dead. The saints and members of the household of God constitute a structure which "is joined together and grows into an holy temple in the Lord." We who love the Lord "are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." But many are tied together simply by the party spirit. They exist only to oppose others of God's children. They are fed upon a diet of criticism and hate. The services are occasions for diatribes and accusations. Strife, jealousy, contention

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and division are the order of the day. The very bishops who should guide the flock fall out among themselves and destroy the work of God. They "hold the form of religion but deny the power of it" (2 Tim. 2:5). Jude says, "It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit." The answer to the problem of division is a restoration of the concept of the indwelling Spirit.

     In Acts 4:31, we read, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness." The very next words are, "Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul." Such unity is known only by a company of believers, all of whom are filled with the Holy Spirit. It is "the unity of the Spirit" we must be eager to maintain in the bond of peace. One might as well expect a corpse to function as a congregation devoid of the Spirit to further the real purpose of God. We will never secure the unity of all believers until we convince them that love, joy and peace are the fruit of the Spirit, and it is only those who are led by the Spirit who can know this fruit. Others are doomed to "strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, and envy." These are works of the flesh.

     What does the divine Helper do for us? What plain, practical benefits are derived from his indwelling in the heart? It is to these questions we now address our attention. We shall catalogue for you the blessings bestowed upon the saints by the Holy Spirit.

     What do we know? First, that suffering produces endurance. This sterling quality, so much admired, is forged in us at the furnace of affliction. "Endurance produces character." It is true that character is the sum total of all the facets which combine to make personality, but as used here, that character is meant which receives divine approval. Of such a person it was written, "Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God" (Heb. 11:5). "Character produces hope." "Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope." Hope is here seen in proper perspective. It is a fruit of character, which is a fruit of endurance, which is a fruit of suffering. Hope is related to suffering, it is a great-grandchild of suffering. One might as well seek to enter life without ancestry as to have hope without suffering.

     But many of our cherished hopes prove to be illusions, and leave us broken, despondent and despairing in the end. Not so this hope. "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." The hearts of the saints are full of God's love. That sacred ingredient has been poured into these ready receptacles, as the servants filled the waterpots at the wedding feast in Cana. There is no room left for doubt or despair. Not even suffering can daunt

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the love-filled heart. All is rejoicing. "When they called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left . . . rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." The answer to the problem of suffering in the flesh is a consciousness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

     It is all very well for advisers to recommend conquering this or that desire by firm resolve, but even those who so advise have areas of personal weakness where their own resolutions have proven powerless. The apostle puts his finger on the problem, with these words, "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it" (Rom. 7:18). The truth is that we gain the victory, not by affirming our own power, but by admitting our utter weakness. The victory that overcomes the world is faith--not faith in our own ability, but faith in the triumphant power of the Spirit.

     So long as a man seeks to deliver himself, by merely wanting or willing to do better or be better, he is lost, for "when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand" (Rom. 7:21). When he admits and confesses his own failure, futility and inability to deliver himself, and cries out, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" he places deliverance in the hands of another, a specialist in spiritual warfare. It is a matter of good generalship when you are surrounded by the enemy to call for reinforcements and superior power. God wants us to gain the victory and has supplied the indwelling Spirit as the source of power. "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." The Helper is on your side to put to death the deeds of the body.

     Our life is one of surrender. We either surrender to the flesh or to the Spirit. The conquest of the flesh is made by the Spirit. We do not lead our forces in the battle, we are "led by the Spirit of God" (Rom. 8:14). This is the distinguishing characteristic of the sons of God. They do not set their minds on their desires, or on the struggles, but on the Spirit. "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). Here is the secret of life! Here is the secret of peace! It is the set of the mind, the surrender of the heart that makes the difference.

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     It is a long step from bondage and slavery to freedom and sonship. The natural tendency upon the part of the adopted would be one of fear that the condition would again reverse, and he find himself reverting to his former abject state. To make a real prince out of a pauper requires more than a mere legal procedure. It would be difficult for one to call God "Father" who had previously cringed in fear of the August presence. Here it is that the Spirit becomes a true Helper. "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!'" The Holy Spirit is here called "the Spirit of his Son" because of the problems involved in sonship.

     Because of the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no reticence between them. The Holy Spirit in my heart enables me to come boldly to the throne of grace. He takes over from my feeble, halting, stumbling approach, and cries out "Abba! Father!" My stammering tongue is thus encouraged to proceed. The word "Abba" is Aramaic for "father" The term "Father" is a translation of the Greek term for the same. This implies that former slaves, whether Jew or Greek, can call upon God who has adopted them, in their own language. They have truly "come to know God, or rather to be known by God" (Gal. 4:9).

     But there is another constant fear of a transformed slave, and that is that his credentials to sonship may be challenged by another, and that he may not he able to prove his adoptive rights, or sonship. In this event, the Spirit of God acts as a witness to substantiate the testimony of one's own spirit, for "in the mouth of two or three witnesses must every word be established." The Holy Spirit cannot cry "Abba! Father!" in one who is not a child of God, for he does not dwell in those who are not sons. "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Thus, this very cry of the Spirit is proof of our sonship.

     "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, 'Abba! Father' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:15-17). I must confess that for many years I did not grasp the beauty and meaning of this passage. Growing up as I did, in a religious environment which regarded one with suspicion and as a little queer, who talked very much of the Holy Spirit, I gave the traditional explanation of it, and let it go at that. I knew little, if anything about the Roman method of purchasing a slave or adopting a son, but now a whole new vista of the Spirit's work has been opened to my heart. Inasmuch as the best summary of this topic known to me is found under the article "Adoption" in The Local Colour of the Bible, Vol.3, pages 275-277, I ask indulgence of our readers for quoting at length.

"St. Paul is the only one of the New Testament writers to use the term "adoption!" This is not surprising, because adoption was not a custom among the Jews, and, in a legal sense, was absolutely unknown. On the other hand, the custom was a common one among the Greeks and Romans and as a Roman citizen Paul was familiar with it and with the legal ceremonies which belonged to it.

      Under Roman law an entire stranger by blood might be adopted into a family and become a member of that family, holding the same position in it as a son born in marriage. According to Dr. Ball, he even became a member of the family in a higher sense than some who had the

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family blood in their veins, than emancipated sons of descendants through females. He assumed the family name, and took part in the mystic sacrificial rites. He could no more marry in the family of his adoption within the prohibited degrees than those related by blood. He severed his connection completely with his former family, and in the eyes of the law he became so entirely a new personality that even his debts were cancelled.

     Let us look at the process. In the presence of five witnesses and the libripens (one who held the balance as if to weigh out money, at nominal sales), the son about to be adopted was sold three times by his father. According to the law of the Twelve Tables, if a father sold his son thrice he lost his paternal rights over him (patria potestos). A fictitious law-suit then followed, by which the person to be transferred was surrendered to the adopter, and the act was ratified in a set form of words.

     As the form of adoption and that of sale into slavery were very similar, the presence of witnesses was essential to testify to the real nature of the ceremony. That is why the Apostle says, "Ye received not the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15). Suppose that the adopter had died and that the adopted son lays claim to the inheritance. His claim is refused; his status as a son is denied; it is declared that he was sold as a slave and that he has no legal right to the inheritance. So the son seeks the aid of the law-court. "No," he pleads, "the ceremony was that of adoption, the deceased claimed me by the name of son. He took me to his home. I called him father and he allowed it. I sat at his table where the slaves never sat. He told me the inheritance was mine." But the law requires corroborative evidence. One of the witnesses is called. "I was present," he says, "at the ceremony. It was I who held the scales and struck them with the ingot of brass. The transaction was not a sale into slavery. It was an adoption. I heard the words of vindication, and I say this person was claimed by the deceased not as a slave, but as a son."

     And who is the witness to that spiritual adoption which makes us sons of God? It is the Third Person in the Trinity. "The Spirit himself beareth witness (along) with our spirit, that we are children of God." (The Local Colour of the Bible, by Charles W. Budden, M.D., and Edward Hastings, M.A. Published by T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh.)

     In verse 11, it is pointed out that this was not an accidental result, but "was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord." The role, or function, of the church was not an afterthought of God, but was included in a deliberate and unvarying plan, which came to fruition in Jesus. This fact provides ground for real hope. "In whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him."

     However, there is a difficulty presented. It can be stated in the following sequence. God had an eternal purpose. This involved a plan which was hidden for ages. It was now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets. How did it happen, then, that the apostles were required to suffer such persecution for making known the plan? Could not God have foreseen and forestalled such tragic suffering? Anticipating the problem, Paul writes, "So I ask

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you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory." This placed the suffering of the ambassadors in proper perspective. It was a matter of glory, not of giving up. But it is a difficult thing in the Christian life "not to lose heart." Moments of doubt and despair do rush in. Questions arise, fear takes hold, and a feeling of futility and frustration besets us.

     It is precisely because of this we need "a Helper." So Paul assures the disciples, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to he strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man (Eph. 3:16). The inner man is the "inmost self" of Romans 8:21. The apostle asks, "For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him?" (1 Cor. 2:11). The inner man is the spirit in contrast to the body, or flesh. Luther says of the spirit, that it is "the highest and noblest part of man, which qualifies him to lay hold of incomprehensible, invisible, eternal things; in short, it is the house where God's word and Faith are at home."

     The lexicons define the spirit as, "the rational part of man, the power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things, and upon which the Spirit of God exerts its influence." Therefore, to be strengthened in the inner man is to be given the ability to perceive and grasp the divine plan and purpose. The apostle, in this context describes it as having "power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth." He calls it "being filled with all the fulness of God." This does not mean simply the aptitude to grasp the meaning of terms in the scriptures, nor to simply envision the divine plan for the world.

     Rather, it is the ability to understand the design and purpose of God for you as an individual, to grasp the relationship of your existence to the eternal purpose. It is unthinkable that God does not have a design for each of us, or to conjecture that the spirit which dwells in us was bestowed by accident or chance. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without God's knowledge. I am of more value than many sparrows. If I live on a purely animal plane, I will have no concept of the part that is played by suffering, frustration and sorrow in my life. If I am wholly committed to Jesus, I will be able to see the finger of God tracing the pattern of my destiny. This is a gift of God which the animal man can never enjoy. "The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). Ponder upon the expressions "the gifts of the Spirit" and "he is not able to understand."

     There are thousands today whose lives are bounded by fears and circumscribed by failure, because they deny in practice, if not in word, the indwelling of the Spirit. All such must rely for strength purely upon natural or human resources. These might provide power enough if our foes were only human. But we must also face the wiles of Satan. "For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." One reason why we do not feel the need of divine inner power is that we have been conditioned to think we are not personally and actually at war. We have an idealistic sense of a universal struggle but we feel remote from the field of battle. If we have any part to play in the struggle it is in "paying our taxes," that is, giving of our means, to send someone else into battle.

     Accordingly, the strength or power in the inner man is not required. We feel quite capable of carrying on with our own resources. Our worship becomes a mere observance of formal rituals, our prayers mere recitations. We read about the Holy Spirit in the sacred writings, we talk about him, but we do not personally experience his presence. He is not real. He is an indescribable, indefinable, intangible thing. He is not a strength-giving, power bestowing person. But it is a proven fact that no

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fleshly man has sufficient strength in and of himself to triumph over the infernal trinity--the world, the flesh, and the devil. "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph.... Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God" (2 Con 2:14; 3:5).

     Twice in 2 Corinthians 4 (verses 1 and 16) Paul declares, "So we do not lose heart." Between these two statements of courage, he declares, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us." He then gives a catalog of things endured by the earthen vessel, and shows how the divine power within buoys and sustains. "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." The climax of his account is one of the most comforting passages in all literature. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day."

     This is the secret of growing old gracefully. It places the body and spirit in proper perspective. The loss of natural powers may coincide with the increase of spiritual power. "We are strengthened with might through the Spirit in the inner man." The word "might" is from dunamis, power. The Holy Spirit is a fountain of youth for the human spirit. "They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isa. 40:31). When one recuperates from physical illness he freely announces that he is getting stronger every day. Will not one who ceases to quench the Spirit, but commits himself wholly to God, feel the surging strength flowing through the inner man until he can run and not be weary? Will he not grow stronger every day?

     We need to recognize the part which discipline of suffering plays in our earth life. Affliction is part of a preparatory process. It is not at all to bring us to death. Death is not an end but a means to an end. It is not the closing of a door but the opening of one. "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Of what did this "slight momentary affliction" consist? The apostle speaks of perplexity, persecution, and being struck down. Perplexity is mental anguish; persecution is physical suffering. Paul said, "For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake." How could such affliction be regarded as either slight or momentary? The answer is that it is so in comparison with the eternal weight of glory.

     If the Christian can regard his affliction as "carrying in the body the death of Jesus?' and recognize that commitment to God is not so much the adoption of a way of life, but the actual assumption of the life of Jesus, it will enable him to endure the earthly pilgrimage cheerfully, despite external reverses. "You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one" (Heb. 10:34). This philosophy allows a vision of the unseen. One does not look at the bruises, scars and marks of the lash. His eye pierces the veil. "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." Faith permits one to see the unseen and to view the invisible. "By faith...he endured as seeing him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27).

     We now live in a tent as befits strangers and wanderers. It is destined to be destroyed. It cannot always resist the battering of the storms of life. It is temporary and transitory. But when we leave it, we have a house not made with hands. It is eternal and enduring. A Christian who dies does not leave home; he goes home! Our goal is to reach that state where "what is mortal may be swallowed up of life." The record assures us that "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." The Holy Spirit is a helper and comforter, a consolation and a strength for tent-dwellers, as all of us are, while awaiting our great transformation. The

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holy guest shares our lot and gives us power to endure and to conquer. "I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9,10).

     But the man who is conscious of the Spirit, who lives with the Spirit, and is led by the Spirit, conquers the flesh. He is not affected by any external force. He lives in a constant glow of inner sunlight despite the dark clouds on the outside. He is "sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." He does not set his compass by what men desire or expect of him. He is not interested in conforming to the standards of men, but in reforming to be more like God. Men cast him out but he receives them in his own heart. "When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things" (1 Cor. 4:13). The Holy Spirit abides in those who are "fools for Christ's sake."

     How can we attain this glorious state where we are even unaffected when we "become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men"? We must recognize that the Spirit of God is a gift. The divine Helper is given of God. But a gift must be accepted before it can be appropriated to personal use. One may offer his car to help me accomplish my work, but if I am oblivious of the offer, or if I rationalize that he does not mean it, so that I never accept and use it, it will benefit me not at all. It is at this juncture that prayer comes in. First, I must be grateful and thankful that Jesus promised the Helper, and I must rest upon that promise. I must not doubt it, question it, or seek to explain it away, but accept it as true and valid, and expect its fulfillment in my life. Then I must pray God for the Spirit and his work and fruit in my life. "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" (Luke 11:13). Have you ever really asked and besought God for the Spirit? It will surprise you at the change that will be wrought within when you do.

     We must also cultivate the attitude which will cause us to intreat that others may be strengthened within by the Spirit. The apostle sets for us this example. "I bow my knees before the Father--that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man." We should ask others to pray in our behalf. But above all, we must be wholly committed or fully surrendered unto God. To the extent we hold back we hinder the Spirit. The difference in the fruitful life

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and the sterile, barren life is the set of the mind. "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."

     Setting the mind is an act of the will. It is the result of volition, the deliberate implementation of the right to choose the course one will pursue. It is enthusiastic and unreserved commitment to the way of the Spirit, a complete surrender of personality which allows one to lose his life in Christ, so that he no longer lives, but it is Jesus who lives in him. The result of this positive direction of the mind will be life and peace. This is not the lot of the fearful and unbelieving, the frightened and faithless. It is fruit gathered only by the courageous and faithful. It is the reward of those who trust the Spirit in childlike simplicity.