Recently I was asked if the Holy Spirit abandons us when we sin. The questioner cited King David’s plea which he made to the Lord following his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and consequent murder of her husband, Uriah.
Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 51:11 (NASB95)
The logical assumption is that David could lose the presence of the Holy Spirit. The questioner concluded that we, too, can lose the Spirit if we sin. To properly answer this great question, we must compare the nature of the New Covenant to what David experienced under the Old.
The Old Covenant required people to keep God’s Law as given to Moses at Mt. Sinai and in subsequent “downloads” from above. Blessings were attached to obedience, and curses to disobedience.
Because no one is capable of keeping the Law, it always brings a curse or judgment upon those who try.
Paul summed this up in his letter to the Galatians.
For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” Galatians 3:10 (NASB95)
We learn from Paul that God did this to convince us that we are hopelessly lost and desperately need a Savior.
But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. Galatians 3:22–24 (NASB95)
King David was an extraordinary man who related to God by faith, as did Abraham before him. As a result, they experienced some aspects of the New Covenant, which requires us to connect with God by faith in Christ and his finished work on our behalf.
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. Galatians 3:8–9 (NASB95)
Before the Law was given to Moses and before God instituted circumcision as a sign of the covenant, God declared that Abraham was justified by his faith in God’s promise.
Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Galatians 3:6 (NASB95)
God is not bound by time as we are. Time is a temporary creation which will eventually be abolished. God sees the end from the beginning. (Isaiah 46:10) He can declare that something is done before it ever takes place within our time frame because he has already seen its completion. That is why he says that we are already glorified, even though it is still a future event for us. (Romans 8:30)
Once we see that the New Covenant promise of eternal life in Christ has already been secured, it should change how we think.
Under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit was with God’s people, but not in them. The New Covenant changed this radically.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. John 14:16–17 (NASB95)
The gift of the indwelling Spirit is permanent. Jesus said that the Spirit will indwell us forever. This is because through the miracle of the New Covenant the Holy Spirit becomes one with our spirit.
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV)
The importance of this cannot be overstated! The Old Covenant depended on our performance in keeping the Law. Therefore, the Old Covenant could not possibly save anyone.
Since no one can ever keep the Law, God instituted the New Covenant which depends entirely on Christ’s keeping it for us.
For Christ is the end [Greek: telos - fulfillment] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:4 (NASB95)
Not only did our Lord fulfill the Law on our behalf, he also paid the penalty for our violation of the Law.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB95)
To suppose that the Holy Spirit will abandon us if we sin is to fail to comprehend the nature and essence of the New Covenant.
We cannot attain or maintain a right relationship with God. It is by grace from beginning to end. To think otherwise reveals that we have yet to grasp the glorious truth of the gospel. We begin our discipleship journey by faith in Christ’s finished work, and we continue on that faith walk until the very end when we are resurrected from the dead and instantly changed into the glorious state promised to God’s children.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3:2–3 (NASB95)
Jesus, the one who will judge us at the end of time, revealed that we have no worries about his condemning us.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24 (NASB95)
Hopefully this will conclude the matter for us, unless we do not take Jesus at his word. But, just in case we need more “proof,” consider Paul’s words.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 (NASB95)
If we properly understand and believe Romans Chapters six and seven, we will conclude with Paul that we have no worries or fears of ever being condemned. Unfortunately, some who copied the scriptures could not believe that this could possibly be true; so, they appended the phrase “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” However, the earliest manuscripts, which are of greater authority, do not contain this phrase.
Sadly, even devoted Christians have a very difficult time believing that we have no fear of being condemned by God at the judgment.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1 John 4:18 (NASB95)
Many Christians refuse to believe that Christ already took the punishment for our sins. They imagine that somehow we still must attain perfection through our own efforts in order to be pleasing to God. Such thinking reveals that we do not understand justification, whereby Christ gave us his perfect right standing with God. This the very issue that the Galatian church had such a hard time grasping. Paul asked them:
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Galatians 3:3 (NASB95)
The answer, of course, is that we must walk with God on a daily basis in the same way we began, by faith in what Christ accomplished on our behalf. We live in the Spirit; therefore, we must learn to daily walk in the Spirit by faith.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 (NASB95)
The sure hope of experiencing God’s glory in the resurrection motivates us to cooperate with the daily operation of grace in our lives called sanctification or transformation. After we are born again, God works inside each of his children to transform how we think, speak, and act to bring us into alignment with our new spiritual identity. We experience ups and downs on this discipleship journey, but the end is already guaranteed. God made us more than conquerors, which gives us strength and determination to persevere.
