"Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God" (Gordon D. Fee)

TITLE: Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God
AUTHOR: Gordon D. Fee
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023, (240 pages).
 

The Holy Spirit is God's Empowering Presence. Paul teaches and lives it. He urges the people of God to do the same. How do we not only learn more about the Holy Spirit? Is it possible to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, maybe like what the Early Church had experienced? Perhaps, before we move into the actual application, we need to learn more about the continuity and discontinuity gap between the Old and New Covenant. Recognizing the struggles to link these two important truths, well-respected professor, Dr. Gordon Fee has written his Magnus opus on the Holy Spirit from the perspective of Pauline theology. From Paul's window into the Holy Spirit, he draws out the connection between what Paul says and what we experience in our present life in Christ, before extending it to the relevance of the Holy Spirit's work in the lives of the Church. For that to happen, we need to draw a series of connections between the past and the present. This includes relationships between:

• Understanding and experiencing the Theology of the Holy Spirit;
• The old covenant and the new;
• The Individual and the Community;
• Present and Future
• Soteriology and Eschatology;
• Conversion to Covenant;
• and more...

A quick way to navigate the book will be to use the four key aspects: 

1. The Foundation of the work of the Holy Spirit is in God's love
2. Framework of God's promises involves the already-not yet paradigm
3. Focus on the Holy Spirit's work is on Christ
4. Fruit of the Spirit is not just about the manifestation of individual attributes but the Church becoming God's new covenant people.

God came to us because we are all incapable of returning to Him on our own. Just as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit is now our enduring presence. Which brings us to the first point in the book: Who is God? The first three chapters are dedicated to this point. God is always with us. In the Old Testament, His Presence is through the Tabernacle and the Temple. In the first century, God's Son came to dwell among the people. After his ascension, the Holy Spirit came to dwell among us and in us. The Holy Spirit is a Person and is a member of the Trinity. The second aspect is the framework of the already and not yet paradigm. The kingdom is here but still yet to come. Both are to be held in tension so as to remind us that God has revealed Himself to us already, but there is a future revelation of perfection that is to come. God as Trinity is the Perfect Unity in Diversity. We learn about the potential of true unity by following the example of God's Triune Being. Fee's description of the "Presence of the Future" points us to this. We gain insights into how God's revelation of who He is, prepares us to become the community that we are called to become. That means churches are called not to be homogeneous but to be as diverse as possible. The third aspect is about getting there. Four chapters on "Conversion" unpack this. Beginning with the preaching and the hearing of the gospel, Fee asserts that we need a new understanding of conversion, that the beginning point of conversion is not "go and make converts" but to "go and make disciples." The Holy Spirit initiates and sustains our desire to make disciples of all nations. The proclamation of Faith needs to be accompanied by acts of faithfulness. Salvation is not the end goal in itself. It is the call to Christ. The truly converted will manifest true Christian ethics, desire for holiness, walking in the Spirit, and many more. The fourth aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit is about bearing fruit. This has two components: Bearing the fruit of the Spirit and resisting the temptations of the flesh. 

My Thoughts

This book remains one of the best resources available to us about the theology and experience of the Holy Spirit. Used as a key textbook in many Bible schools, seminaries, churches, and various Christian organizations, there are many reasons why this book remains so popular. Let me offer three reasons. First, the author sees a lack of materials on the Holy Spirit and this book is a resource to help fill that gap. Seeded way back in 1988 as a dictionary article about the Holy Spirit, the author has added exegesis and scholarly exposition to publish his thoughts into a book in 1994 by Hendrickson Publishers. Even today, resources on the Holy Spirit remain relatively few, and this book continues to serve this very purpose. Now in a refreshed edition, publishing this book is also a tribute to the life of the beloved professor. 

A second reason to read this book is to grow in our understanding of the Holy Spirit. If we ask around our community about how much they know about the Holy Spirit, chances are, they will mention common phrases like, "Baptism of the Holy Spirit," "Filling of the Holy Spirit," "Fruit of the Spirit," "Spiritual gifts," or anything related to the word "spiritual." Even the limited understanding of these phrases hides a general lack of awareness about the Person of the Holy Spirit. Fee helps us by teaching us about the Trinity, the role of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of God. Not only that, he bases his material on the theology of Paul, chiefly the epistles. The Holy Spirit is not some faraway muse but a real Person present with us. By showing us the reality of God's Presence and the manifestation of the Spirit in our giftings, works, and indwelling, it is hoped that ordinary believers will grow beyond simply cliches of the Holy Spirit to something that can be experienced.

A third reason is to recognize that without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. One of the saddest things to happen in churches all over the world is the ignorance of the Third member of the Triune Godhead. Francis Chan calls this the "Forgotten God." Songwriters are full of words describing God the Father and God the Son, but when it comes to the Holy Spirit, the number of songs drops drastically. The recent 2023 Asbury revival is a reminder to all of us that we need the Holy Spirit to work. The difference between Church growth strategies and revivals is simply the Presence and work of the Holy Spirit. The Early Church has two things in common: They are faith-filled and Spirit-dependent. The modern church, however, is replete with people selected on the basis of their abilities (instead of faith) and available only when they are free-time-filled (instead of Spirit-filled). Without the Holy Spirit, any Church growth will be stunted at best and absent at worst.

The Holy Spirit is God and God is interested in the health of believers all over the world. May God use this book to inject fresh vigour and renewed understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit we need you. Fill our minds and souls with Your Presence anew.

Gordon D. Fee (1934-2022; PhD, University of Southern California) served as professor of New Testament studies at Regent College, Vancouver. Prior to Regent, he taught at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He coauthored the bestselling How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth and wrote numerous books, including Pauline Christology, God's Empowering Presence, Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle, and commentaries on 1 Corinthians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Revelation.

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Academic via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.