It is no secret that the Holy Spirit’s work today is one of the most misunderstood doctrines, and this is certainly the case with regard to what the Spirit is doing every day in a Christian’s life.
When Christians think of the Holy Spirit’s work, they usually think of miraculous works. But the most prominent work of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the New Testament is the sanctification of believers. Throughout Scripture, the Bible portrays the Holy Spirit’s work as that of bringing the plan and people of God into order, and this is certainly true of the “moral ordering” he accomplishes in the lives of Christians on a daily basis. This re-ordering began with salvation and continues with the Spirit’s frequently mentioned work of sanctification (Rom 15:16, 1 Cor 6:11, 2 Thes 2:13, 1 Pt 1:2). Next to salvation itself, the Spirit’s work of sanctification is his most significant ongoing work in this age.
However, because Christians are so confused about the Spirit’s work and so infatuated with his miraculous works, many are often unclear as to what the Spirit is doing to sanctify them. This is particular a problem with his work of indwelling and illuminating.
Indwelling
The Spirit’s indwelling presence begins at conversion and continues permanently through the life of a believer. The Spirit’s indwelling helps assure us that we are children of God, but it also refers to the work of the Spirit by which our inner beings are continually “strengthened with power” (Eph 3:16). Through the Spirit’s indwelling work, we are able to love Christ as we ought, resist sin, and grow in holiness. This is what Paul prays for at the end of Ephesians 3:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:14–19)
The Spirit’s indwelling presence begins at conversion and continues permanently through the life of a believer.
This ministry of the Spirit, as Paul indicates in Ephesians 3, results in an ordering of the life of a believer. That fact that our bodies are temples of the Spirit is both the critical means by which we can battle fleshly sin and an important motivator to actively do so. As Paul admonishes,
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. (1 Cor 6:18–19)
The Spirit’s indwelling ministry also makes him a helper for the believer. Jesus described the Spirit as the “Helper” and “Comforter” (Jn 14:16, 26). Likewise, Paul tells us that when we are desperately weak and in need such that we groan in prayer, not even knowing exactly what to ask, the Spirit intercedes on our behalf (Rom 8:26–28).
Illumination
As is true of regeneration at the moment of conversion, the Spirit’s continued indwelling presence involves the continued work of illumination. One significant way we see an improper view of the Holy Spirit’s work is in how many people understand the doctrine of illumination as one in which the Spirit communicates the meaning of Scripture to us or otherwise helps us understand the Bible’s meaning.
But this is not what illumination means. We ought not to expect the Spirit to speak to us outside of Scripture. So what, then, do theologians mean when they talk about Spirit illumination?
While the term illumination does not appear in Scripture, it does describe a collection of concepts involving the Spirit’s work in relation to his Word in the believer’s life. Illumination begins at conversion with regeneration, which involves the Spirit enlightening our minds and opening our eyes to the beauty of the gospel and the authority of the Word rather than giving us special insight or understanding of the Bible’s meaning. Thus, illumination begins at conversion as a result of the Spirit’s work of regeneration and his indwelling presence, and it continues for the duration of a believer’s life as a necessary means of sanctification.
One text that refers to the continuing benefit for believers of what we may call illumination is Ephesians 1:16–23. Here Paul specifically uses the phrase “having the eyes of your heart enlightened” (v. 18). And what is the result of such illumination? The result of this enlightening is that believers continue to recognize the value and authority of the truth of God’s revelation for the entirety of their lives.
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
No new revelation is imparted; rather, illumination causes believers to accept God’s Word for what it is—the sufficient, authoritative revelation of God.
No new revelation is imparted; rather, illumination causes believers to accept God’s Word for what it is—the sufficient, authoritative revelation of God.
In Philippians 3:15, Paul tells believers, “Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” Here, too, “reveal” refers not to new knowledge but to a kind of spiritual maturity that rightly submits to and appropriates God’s written revelation. Likewise, in Colossians 1:9, Paul prays that believers “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Again, this refers not to new revelation or even intellectual comprehension but rather to spiritual recognition of the significance of God’s Word in the believer’s life and the ability to rightly appropriate God’s Word.
These texts do not describe the Holy Spirit giving believers new revelation or even new meaning of a biblical text. As Carl Henry argues,
The Spirit illumines the truth, not by unveiling some hidden inner mystical content behind the revelation . . ., but by focusing on the truth of revelation as it is. The Spirit illumines and interprets by repeating the grammatical sense of Scripture; in doing so he in no way alters or expands the truth of revelation.1Henry, God, Revelation and Authority, 283.
The bottom line is that Scripture is sufficient for our sanctification. The Spirit revealed the things of God to specific men who penned the Words of Scripture (1 Cor 1:10). The meaning of Scripture is in the text, and it is self-authenticating, sufficient, and authoritative. Our responsibility is simply to apply the sufficient Word to our lives.
But neither does illumination mean that we are given new understanding of the text. In other words, illumination does not eliminate the need for diligent study in order to understand Scripture—it does not give us understanding in an intellectual sense. We must still work to grasp the meaning of Scripture. As Paul tells Timothy, we must work diligently so that we might “rightly [handle] the Word of truth” (2 Tm 2:15).
Rather, illumination means that our enlightened minds continue to recognize Scripture as God’s revelation throughout our lives. A Spirit-illumined Christian does not doubt that what God has written is the truth, though he may have to work to intellectually understand the meaning of what he is reading.
Illumination means that our enlightened minds continue to recognize Scripture as God’s revelation throughout our lives. A Spirit-illumined Christian does not doubt that what God has written is the truth, though he may have to work to intellectually understand the meaning of what he is reading.
Spirit illumination also causes us to recognize that what we are reading in God’s Word is authoritative for us. Since our enlightened hearts recognize the Bible as God’s revelation that is true and beautiful, we know that it has authority over us. These are not simply abstract words from God, they are words we ought to obey.
Illumination does not reveal to us the meaning of a biblical text, but it does cause us to recognize the significance of Scripture for our lives. Calvin notes that “by the inward illumination of the Spirit he causes the preached Word to dwell in [believers’] hearts.”2Calvin, Institutes, III, xxiv, 8. Because an illumined believer recognizes the truthfulness and beauty of the Word, he also recognizes how important it is that he intentionally apply the Word to his life.
However, the specific ways in which we ought to apply God’s Word to our lives are not going to be somehow “revealed” to us, through direct revelation, a “still small voice,” or some improper understanding of illumination. We have already been illumined, and that illumination is ongoing; we must now work hard to discern ways in which our lives need to change as a result of God’s sufficient Word.
As Paul prayed in Colossians 1:9, we ought to pray for “spiritual wisdom and understanding,” that is, the God-given ability to rightly apply God’s Word to our lives. And he will give us that wisdom. But spiritual wisdom means that we will be able to rightly apply the Word, it does not mean that the Spirit is going to apply it for us. The Spirit gives us wisdom, he does not give us new revelation. As 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, by the Spirit believers are enabled to “accept the things of the Spirit of God.”
Illumination does not reveal to us the meaning of a biblical text, but it does cause us to recognize the significance of Scripture for our lives.
Finally, an illumined believer will willingly submit to the authoritative revelation of God. This is the natural outcome of all that has come before. Believers recognize the Bible to be God’s truthful, beautiful, authoritative, significant revelation, and since our hearts have been enlightened, we want to obey it.
This is not to say that we will perfectly obey or that we will not struggle with sin. But the same Spirit who enlightened our hearts at conversion also convicts us of sin, and at the end of the day, all true believers will progressively become more and more sanctified as they submit themselves to the authority of Scripture.
In sum, we could define illumination as “that special activity of the Holy Spirit by which man can recognize that what the Scripture teaches is true, and can accept and appropriate its teaching.”3Henry, God, Revelation and Authority, 282.
Praise be to God for his Spirit’s supernatural work of illumination in our hearts. Without it, we would not be able to accept the things of the Spirit of God, we would not recognize them as the truthful, authoritative revelation of God that they are, and we would not willingly submit ourselves to them.
But because at the moment of our conversion, our hearts were enlightened to the truths of God, we accept his inscripturated Word as God’s revelation, and we work diligently to apply the truths therein, for it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:13).
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