One of the greatest tragedies in the modern religious world is that many people have developed a view of God that is far too small and a view of man that is far too high. God is often spoken of casually, almost as though He exists merely to affirm mankind rather than to rule over him in absolute holiness and authority. At the same time, sin has been minimized, excused, renamed, and softened until many no longer see themselves as truly guilty before the Creator. Yet when we open the...

The New Testament repeatedly warns God’s people against confusing human emotion, intuition, impulse, imagination, or subjective impressions with divine revelation. In every age there has been a tendency among sincere religious people to attribute internal feelings, dreams, sensations, or impressions to the direct activity of the Holy Spirit. Statements such as “The Spirit nudged me,” “The Holy Spirit told me,” “God laid this on my heart,” or even more extreme claims that the Spirit physically...

The doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is one of the most precious and, at the same time, one of the most carefully discussed subjects in New Testament theology. It is precious because it touches the believer’s union with God, his identity as one who belongs to Christ, his sanctification, his hope, and his assurance of resurrection. It is carefully discussed because sincere and Bible-minded students have long sought to understand not only whether the Spirit dwells in the Christian,...