WPC Blogs

We spent the summer looking at Biblical passages from the Old Testament about the Holy Spirit. We learned that the Holy Spirit was involved in the creation process; in equipping those individuals who had been called by God to engage in certain activities or tasks; and that the Holy Spirit was sent by God to provide encouragement when the task was difficult. Now let us turn to the New Testament and see what more we can learn about the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was present in the opening pages of the Old Testament in the story of creation and here he is in the opening pages of the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 1:18-23 states, “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us.’” Similar to his role in the creation process, the Holy Spirit works to create a new life in this passage as well. Only this life will be like no other life in the history of mankind. This life is God clothed in human flesh. This life will save us from our sins. This life is God with us! Not above us; not off in the distance somewhere watching us; or manipulating us; this is God with us. He will live as we live; experience what we experience. He will know hunger, joy, pain, desire, anger, passion, love and death. Every aspect of the human condition will be his. And later, when this same Jesus promises to send us another comforter, we can be sure that he truly knows why we need comforting, and how to comfort us, because he was there. How does this story speak to you about the Holy Spirit?