Q. “W.” Oswestry, Salop, writes, “I find that some Christians maintain that the Holy Spirit dwells in Christendom. Now I have always thought... that the Holy Spirit dwells exclusively in the Church. I would be so glad if you would give mc your thoughts about it through the medium of your ‘Answers to Correspondents.’”
A. I think that a right understanding of the distinction between the Church as the “Body of Christ” (Eph. 1:22,23), unto which believers are baptized by the Holy Spirit, (1 Cor. 12:13) and thus united to Christ, exalted and glorified in heaven (1 Cor. 6:17); and the “House of God,” a “habitation of God through the spirit,” (Eph. 2:21,22) in the world, will make the matter in your question simple and plain. When Christ was glorified as man to heaven, the Holy Spirit (not previously given, see John 7:39) descended from heaven and took up His abode in the saints, on the day of Pentecost, as God’s house (Acts 2). The Church thus begun, and set up as God’s witness, and abode through His Spirit, is styled “The House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). This “House” was, as it were, a co-extensive thing at the first with the “Body,” its other aspect, and was the true thing which God Himself fitly framed together; a member in which was a living one, and in union with Christ the Head, by the Holy Spirit. But we find that immediately after its being set up, men began to build on the foundation, wood, hay, stubble; as well as gold, silver, precious stones &c., (1 Cor. 3); and as a consequence, the House as man built it, began to assume vast proportions, and entirely disproportionate to the Body, the true thing. But still the holy Spirit did not leave the House. And the House was, as far as mans responsibility went, “God’s building.” The temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (1 Cor. 3:17,9-16); that is, collectively as in a temple, which is a different thought from the body of the believer, being the temple of the Holy Spirit, as in 1 Corinthians 6:19. The House of God drifted soon into what the apostle speaks of in 2 Timothy 2:19-21, a “Great House” containing vessels to honor and dishonor; quite a different state of things from 1 Timothy 3:15, and which has characterized Christendom or the “Great House” since; at which judgment must begin (1 Peter 4:17).
So that we see I trust, dear friend, that the Holy Spirit, in the first instance, baptizes all believers since 1-us coining down into one Body, (“there is one Body and one Spirit” Ephesians 4:4), uniting them to Christ as Head; and God dwells amongst them as a habitation through His Spirit. What a wondrous thought, and what a wondrous privilege; and how much has the Church forgotten her calling. But not only so, He dwells in the “House” here below, and professing Christians (as well as true Christians) are responsible for His presence; and are, as far as His presence goes, thus made partakers of the Holy Spirit; although not, of course, “sealed” as the true believer, and indwelt by Him. Thus we often find, as the other day in Italy, a remarkable work of the Holy Spirit, where there may not have been previously a single living member of the “Body of Christ.”
A right understanding of the Church as the “Body of Christ,” composed of living members, and the “house,” or professing Church, is the key to much of the teaching of the Epistles.
Words of Truth 1:101, 102.