The Spirit-baptised Church

Abstract

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is a root metaphor for the inauguration and fulfilment of the Kingdom of God and for the constitution and fulfilment of the Church in the world as the Kingdom's chief sign and instrument. The Church thus exists in the outpouring of the Spirit. The Church not only exists in the outpouring of the Spirit but lives from it in all facets of its life in Christ: kerygmatic, sacramental, and charismatic and missional life. The Church lives from this impartation of the Spirit and will be fulfilled by it when it rises in the fullness of the Spirit that characterises the glorified Christ.

Keywords:

• Pentecostal Churches
• Spirit baptism
• Kingdom and Church
• Trinity
• eschatology
• charismatic Church
• mission

Notes

¹Del Colle, ‘The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit’, 249.

²Lochman, ‘Kirche’, 135.

³See the development of this connection between justification and the Spirit in, Macchia, Justified in the Spirit.

⁴Nolland, Luke 1–9.20, 162.

⁵Hagner, Matthew 1–13, 58.

⁶Ireneaus, Against Heresies, 3.17.1.

⁷See Rogers, After the Spirit, 126.

⁸Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, 338–9.

⁹See the development of this idea of atonement in Macchia, Justified in the Spirit, 131–85.

¹⁰Beale, ‘Descent of the Eschatological Temple’.

¹¹Menzies, ‘Pre-Lucan Occurrences of the Phrase “Tongues of Fire”’.

¹²See Chan, Liturgical Theology, 32–3.

¹³See Rogers, After the Spirit, 47.

¹⁴I accept the ecumenical response to the filioque controversy by advocating the Spirit's eternal procession from the Father alone through the Son.

¹⁵Cullmann, Baptism in the New Testament, 62.

¹⁶Robertson and Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 272.

¹⁷See McDonnell and Montague, Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸See Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Dunn criticises both the Pentecostal and the sacramental views of Spirit baptism.

¹⁹See discussion of these views in Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit.

²⁰See development of this view in Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit.

²¹Seymour, Apostolic Faith 1, no. 6 (Feb.–Mar. 1907): 7.

²²Palma, ‘Spirit Baptism’, 94.

²³Stronstad, Prophethood of All Believers.

²⁴Cullmann notes that Peter is indeed the rock on whom Christ builds the Church, meaning that he may be viewed as having a special leadership role among his brothers (and sisters). See Cullman, Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr.

²⁵Note for example Berkouwer's criticism of G. van der Leeuw who viewed both the preached Word and the sacraments as equal in value as forms of proclamation, in Berkouwer, The Sacraments, 45–55.

²⁶Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979) 491 (4. 14. 1).

²⁷Ibid., 495–6 (4. 14. 7).

²⁸Driver, Magic of Ritual, 80–1.

²⁹Ibid., 202.

³⁰Quoted in Wainwright, ‘Veni Sancti Spiritus’, 318.

³¹Driver, Magic of Ritual, 208.

³²Chan, Pentecostal Theology, 105–10.

³³David Lim suggested this idea to me personally.

³⁴Chan, Pentecostal Theology, 71.

³⁵Ibid., 63–70.

³⁶Author unknown, ‘The Baptism with the Holy Ghost’, Apostolic Faith 1, no. 9 (June–Sept., 1907): 2.

³⁷Chan, Pentecostal Theology, 70.