The Gospel Coalition

My friend Ra McLaughlin writes for Third Millenium Ministries (a ministry devoted to providing seminary level education to third world countries founded by my former professor Dr. Richard Pratt). A couple years ago someone wrote in and asked Ra, “How does the ministry of the Holy Spirit differ in the Old and New Testaments? Were Old Testament believers permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit, or did the Spirit simply come upon them for special tasks? What is the significance of Pentecost? Was this when believers were indwelt by the Spirit?” Since I was recently asked these very questions, I looked up Ra’s answer and found it to be, not surprisingly, right on and well put. This was his response: 

The Holy Spirit’s ministry in the Old Testament differs from his ministry in the New Testament not so much in kind as in degree. We can think of this ministry under two major headings: salvation and gifting.

In terms of salvation, the Bible is clear that fallen man is born spiritually dead and incapable of saving faith (i.e. totally depraved). In order to be justified (which is part of the salvation process), we must have faith, and in order to have faith we must first be “regenerated” or “born again.” In regeneration, our spirits are made alive, or regenerated, only because they draw life from the Holy Spirit who indwells us (Rom. 8:9-11); our spiritual life lasts only so long as we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. As in the New Testament, salvation in the Old Testament was permanent, requiring the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Old Testament saints were saved, regenerated and justified, and they had faith. Thus, they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In this regard, the Holy Spirit’s ministry was the same in the Old Testament as it is now.

Sometimes it can be confusing to think about the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling Old Testament believers because David spoke of the possibility of God taking away his Holy Spirit (Ps. 51:11), but David was not speaking of the indwelling presence of God. Rather, he was speaking of God’s anointing him as king. David did not want God to punish him for his sin by taking away the throne of Israel, as God had previously done to Saul.

In terms of gifting, the Holy Spirit gifted people for ministry and service in the Old Testament, but he did so in ways that were very limited compared to the way he gifted people in the New Testament. Primarily, the Holy Spirit’s special gifting was limited to people such as prophets, priests and kings – especially to prophets. Consider for example that when Saul (a king) prophesied, the question arose as to whether or not he was a prophet (1 Sam. 10:10-11).

But Joel foretold a day when God’s Spirit would be poured out on all people, regardless of their office within the covenant community (Joel 2:28-29). This was precisely the passage that Peter quoted during his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:17-18) in order to state that Joel’s prophecy had been fulfilled: the Holy Spirit had begun to gift everyone in the covenant community in incredible ways, empowering them in ways that had been limited to a select few in the Old Testament. Pentecost was the moment when the Holy Spirit began to give this superior gifting to everyone.