God the Holy Spirit, Mentor's Guide, MG14

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G O D T H E H O L Y S P I R I T

a. The gift of the Holy Spirit caused the Church to be born, Acts 2.38-39.

b. The gift of the Holy Spirit connects us to Christ and his Church (1 Cor. 12.13; Eph. 4.4-6).

In Paul the gift of the Spirit is the beginning of Christian experience (Gal. 3.2-3), another way of describing the new relation of justification (1 Cor. 6.11; Gal. 3.14; Titus 3.7). Alternatively expressed, one cannot belong to Christ unless one has the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8.9), one cannot be united with Christ except through the Spirit (1 Cor. 6.17), one cannot share Christ’s sonship without sharing his Spirit (Rom. 8.14–17; Gal. 4.6-7), one cannot be a member of the body of Christ except by being baptized in the Spirit(1 Cor. 12.13).

~ J. D. G. Dunn. New Bible Dictionary . p. 1139.

c. The key theological principles defended from Scripture

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(1) Through the baptism in the Spirit, we are united with Christ.

(a) Rom. 8.9

(b) John 7.37-39

(c) 1 Cor. 6.17

(d) No one can claim to know Christ if they have not experienced this living connection with him through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The result of this baptism in the Spirit is that we are now referred to as “in Christ” (see Rom. 8.1;16.7; 2 Cor. 5.17; Eph. 2.6-7; Col. 2.9-10; 1 Pet. 5.14). (e) Through the Holy Spirit, we are united to Jesus so that his life, his death, his resurrection, and his access to God the Father become our own.