What If?

A little boy, when asked what the Holy Spirit meant, replied: “I suppose it is what puts the ‘oomph’ into Christianity.” He was on the right track but failed to use the correct pronoun—not “it” but “He.” The Holy Spirit is not an influence but a Person. This is why Scripture, when referring to Him, uses personal pronouns such as “He,” “who,” and “whom.”

Suppose there had been no Holy Spirit? Then we would have been faced with a religion in which there was little “oomph.” We would have the four Gospels without the upper room—distinctive, but not dynamic.

Take Mark’s Gospel, for example. If there had been no day of Pentecost, if the promised Holy Spirit had not been poured out upon God’s people, the message of Christ would have ended with these words: “So they went out and started running from the tomb, because trembling and astonishment overwhelmed them. And they said nothing to anyone, since they were afraid” (Mk 16:8).

What a sad plight we would all be in if the message of Christ had ended there. The Resurrection had taken place, the whole of the redemptive process was complete, the gladdest news that had ever burst upon human ears was in the possession of the disciples—but “they said nothing to anyone, since they were afraid.” If Christianity had ended there, it would not have been a gospel that conquered the world. No amount of good information could have transformed those early disciples. Something else was needed—the Holy Spirit.

Further Study

Jn 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:1-16; Ac 1:8

What did Jesus say of the Holy Spirit?

What is another title of the Holy Spirit?