When / How do we receive the Holy Spirit?

Ephesians 1:13 gives us the answer in a very definite way. We read, “In whom [the Lord Jesus] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” Here we find after they believed they were sealed. The important point to grasp is what they believed. We are told, “The word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” What is meant by “The gospel of your salvation?” The answer is the good news that enabled them to know in trusting Christ that they were definitely saved. When a man or woman can say as the outcome of believing on Christ and receiving the testimony of His Word, “I am saved,” that person is sealed by God’s Holy Spirit. How many there are through bearing a defective gospel are brought to trust Christ as Saviour but are not clear as to their soul’s salvation.

By the fact that he is a believer, assuming always, of course, that he has heard and believed the gospel of the risen Christ. The Ephesian believers were sealed with the Holy Spirit after that they believed, or "having believed" (see Eph. 1:13); This verse gives us definitely the order which is always observed. First, they "heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation"; second, they believed it; third, they were sealed with the Spirit.

Since the gospel was to the Jew first, Jews are spoken of as first trusting Christ. In verse 13 the "you" distinguishes Gentiles, who also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, have trusted in Christ. Notice the importance of the words "in whom," twice found in this verse. Their trust was not simply in the gospel, but in the person of Christ, of whom the gospel speaks. This trust in Christ is emphasized the second time in reference to their being sealed with the Spirit. "Having believed," they were sealed. It is not a matter of having entered more into the truth of the work of Christ in redemption, but simply of believing in Him personally. The simplest believer therefore shares in the sealing of the Spirit. As the seal, the Spirit of God is the mark of God's ownership upon the believer. Therefore that ownership is absolute and eternal.

What the law could not do and what grace has done for the believer in Christ is now unfolded. Paul addresses them as foolish, and asks, "Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?" Who was responsible for the awful error they were following so destructive to the whole truth of the gospel? It was the witchery of Satan; as he tells them later, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you" (chapter 5: 7-8). As Christians, they possessed the Holy Spirit, as all true Christians receive Him and are sealed by the Spirit. They also enjoyed the ministry of the Spirit through the different gifts. And now he asks the question "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" There is no promise in the law that if it is kept in obedience, that God would send His Spirit to the heart of man to be the indwelling guest and make the obedient keeper of the law the temple of the Holy Spirit. The law does not promise even the Spirit. In Ezekiel 36: 27 the promise is made, "i will put My Spirit within you", but, as the context shows, this promise refers to the future when the remnant of Israel will turn to the Lord and the promised spiritual and national blessings are given to them through grace. The Galatians knew nothing of the law and were not under the law, for they were, by nature, idolaters. They had received the Spirit by hearing of faith. Before this great gift could ever be bestowed the Son of God had to die on the cross and be glorified (John 7: 39). And all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, also receive the great gift of grace, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Sonship. They had received the Holy Spirit by simply believing. They were sealed by that Spirit and knew thereby that they were redeemed and the sons of God. If they possessed this seal of divine righteousness why should they add to it the works of the law? They acted, indeed, foolishly.

Whatever Peter intended to say more was never uttered for the Holy Spirit forthwith fell on all them which heard the word (Acts 10:34-38). Blessed interruption! Would that we knew more of it in connection with our preaching to-day. The truth is, Peter's audience drank in his testimony word by word as he rendered it, and so received divine forgiveness on the spot. Hence the gift of the Spirit, whom God bestows upon all forgiven ones, and upon them only. There was no laying on of hands here as in Samaria, for the reason that the special circumstances connected with Samaria had no place in Caesarea. Baptism followed forthwith, as a privilege granted in the name of the Lord. This is God's order for Christianity until the end; first, the forgiveness of sins; second, the gift of the Holy Ghost; and third, the rite of baptism.

There were exceptions to this general rule in the days of transition of which we read in the Acts. These are explained in Chapter 8. But in Acts 10 we find the principle on which believers, especially those from among the Gentiles, receive the Holy Spirit. Peter was preaching in the house of Cornelius. He came to these words: "whosoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins" (verse 43). Those who listened were evidently mixing what they heard with faith. They received the glad tidings, and while Peter was still speaking "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." There was no interval, no waiting, no laying on of hands. Hearing, believing and receiving the Holy Spirit all went together.

Turning, then, to the Acts, where the record of Peter's labours can be found, we shall see that this gift was connected with the reception of the forgiveness of sins. Addressing the multitude on the day of Pentecost who were pricked to the heart by the simple, yet powerful sermon he had just delivered, he told them to repent, and to be baptized every one of them in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and they would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. In the house of Cornelius (10) Peter was addressing, not Jews, but Gentiles, and he preached to them forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ (43). On this occasion he was apparently stopped in his address by the bestowal on God's part of the gift of the Holy Ghost to his Gentile audience. They heard of forgiveness of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They believed on Him. They received forgiveness: and at once, without one moment's delay, God gave to each of them the Holy Ghost (47). In perfect harmony with that which took place at Caesarea is the doctrine of Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians: "In whom after that ye (or, having) believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise," etc. (1:13). In this way they were sealed. For the Holy Ghost is the seal, as well as the earnest, and also the unction (2 Cor. 1:21-22). God thus marked them for His own, who had first believed the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation. This was the normal way in apostolic times of receiving the Spirit. Now there is no other. And in receiving the Spirit such are indwelt by Him, and consequently are no longer in the flesh, but are in the Spirit.

There is nowhere in the ways of God with man, in which His grace sparkles with greater brilliancy, than in this scene, where the Gentile who had no claim on, and no link with Him, hears the gospel, in all its fulness, and the Holy Ghost falls on the believer, without either baptism, as in the case of the Jew (Acts 2:38), prayer, as in the case of the Samaritans (Acts 8:15), or laying on of hands, as in the case of the Jewish proselytes at Ephesus (Acts 19:6). The hearing of faith secured the blessing when the "words" Peter spake fell from his lips.

There is just this difference between Acts 2 and this chapter, that there the enquirers had to submit first to baptism by water, and then they were to receive the promise of the Spirit. They had to cut their links with the rebellious mass of their nation before they were blessed. Here God bestowed the Spirit first, for had He not done so Jewish prejudices would have raised a wall against their baptism and reception. So God forestalled them: indeed the whole chapter shows us how this opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles was the moving of God's hand in the fulfilment of His purpose. It shows us too that no rigid law can be laid down as to the reception of the Spirit. It is always the result of faith, but it may be with or without baptism, with or without the laying on of apostolic hands — see Acts 19:6.

The effect of Peter's words was wonderful. Multitudes were broken under it. Realising how terribly they had compromised themselves with God by their rejection of His Son, they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles: "Brethren, what shall we do?" The answer was as follows: "Repent, and be baptised everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Baptism before remission! This is not God's usual order, but the very reverse. When Peter proclaimed Jesus to Cornelius and his friends, they first received the remission of their sins, then the Holy Spirit, and after that baptism was granted them (Acts 10:43-48). The usual order was departed from on the Day of Pentecost for a very important reason. Only seven weeks earlier these people had been guilty of the murder of the Son of God. They were now horrified at their sin. But under the exceptional circumstances they were not permitted to receive, either the remission of their sins or the gift of the Holy Spirit until they had been baptised in the name of the very One they had so violently rejected. Three thousand submitted to these humiliating terms, and thus signified the reality of their repentance. Their baptism put them entirely outside "the untoward generation" upon whom the vengeance of God was about to fall by the hand of the Romans.