Preaching and Witness of the Spirit
Preaching and Witness of the Spirit
The Living Voice of God through the Holy Spirit⤒🔗
The Reformation, especially in the Reformed tradition, has called attention to the work of the Holy Spirit. Every Reformed reformer in that tradition could be regarded as a theologian of the Holy Spirit. This becomes very clear when we start to observe the relationship between Word and Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a very special relationship with the Word of God.
We can point to three types of relationships. First of all to the relationship of Word and Spirit, as this has been established in the inspiration of the Scriptures. The Spirit who speaks and witnesses in the Scriptures. He has inspired the Scripture. It is good to emphasize this today. We sometimes speak of the human factor of Scripture, which some then try to delineate over against the divine factor. But such speaking often results in a balancing act between the one and the other. It is better to stay with the wonder of the Scriptures, which has till now remained above any theory of Scripture. Higher than any thesis is Scripture itself.
The relationship between Word and Spirit is very special in the witness that the Spirit gives through Scripture. The Holy Spirit testifies in Holy Scripture, because he himself has inspired it. Therefore it is a matter of the Spirit’s testimony whereby he convinces us of the truth of the Word. He does so in a manner that far exceeds any reasoning or argumentation, and shows us that Scripture is God’s Word for us.
Then in the third place there is also the personal witness that is admittedly closely connected with what we have said, and yet may also be differentiated from it. He witnesses with our spirit that we are God’s children. That is how salvation is anchored in our lives. The Spirit accomplishes this by means of the preaching of the Word. Scripture is the Word through the Spirit. One can personally know that Scripture is the Word, through this same Spirit. And one can also know that you know this - that is, through the witness of the Spirit I know and experience my own living relationship with the Christ, and in him the full adoption as child and salvation. In all three relationships we see the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit’s Witness through the Proclamation of the Word←⤒🔗
It remains a question whether there is sufficient insight into the fact that the Spirit is witnessing through the preaching, that is, that he uses the preaching to make us hear the voice of God himself. Among us, has not this realization possibly been pushed too much into the background? In the Gospel of John, especially in the “parallel texts” (John 14-16), important things are said about the use of the proclamation by the Spirit in the glorification of Christ. The Reformation has spoken clearly about this, in the same line of thought.
As an example I mention the well-known co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism, Caspar Olevianus, who also provided a clear explanation of this textbook. In a very concise way he provided instruction about the preaching of the holy gospel, and expressed himself this way, “There are two preachers in the preaching of the Word of God, two voices to be heard, and there are two sets of ears. The outer preacher can do no more than resounding with his outward voice the Word of God in the outer ears of the outer man. However, he cannot provide faith and repentance in the hearts of whomever he wishes, as the apostle Paul speaks in 1 Cor. 3, ‘So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.’
The inner preacher is the Holy Spirit, who through his inner work plants faith “in the heart of man, and also renews it. And when he does not open the inner ears of man, the heart of man remain hardened.”
Preaching as a Means of the Work of the Holy Spirit←⤒🔗
Olevianus adds that this observation does not make the preaching superfluous, because it is a means and instrument of the Spirit, whereby that preaching is a power of God unto salvation for all those who believe. Calvin likewise speaks of an outer and inner preaching, and in the exact same way he connects the Word of preaching to the work of the Spirit. We also hear this same idea in the Canons of Dort, which want to give expression to the merciful character of salvation.
With this distinction between “outer” and “inner” one can put too much emphasis on the difference between these two. The first would then function in a series of moral means, the second would function in the sphere of spiritual means. With this distinction we may come close to the idea of spiritualism, whereby passivity is encouraged, but which may also give rise to the idea that the human spirit becomes one and is identified with the Holy Spirit. However, we may not separate what God has bound together in a wonderful but inseparable way. They should, as it were, be said in the same breath: Word and Spirit, and also preaching and Spirit. It is the order of the Spirit, whereby he works salvation in the hearts of men.
We may have put too much emphasis on the distinction between the outer and the inner already, and therefore may have lost sight somewhat of the relationship, the indissoluble relationship between Word and Spirit. Can we perhaps attribute this to the fact that we do mention the Holy Spirit when it comes to the inspiration of the Scriptures, with the witness through which we know that the Bible is God’s Word, and also with regards to the personal certainty of salvation, but less when we talk about the miracle of the preaching? It is the Spirit of Christ who makes us hear God’s living voice in the preaching such that it becomes God’s Word for us. The Spirit performs that wonderful transition from the outer authority to the inner submission to it. He exercises his power. He opens the heart, so that we pay attention to what is said in the preaching. The Reformers often use the example of Lydia, in Acts 16, when they talk about the work of the Holy Spirit: “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14).He makes us hear God’s voice as the living voice of the living God in the preaching of the gospel.
This article was translated by Wim Kanis.
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