Paul and the Gift of the Holy Spirit
In this lesson, we turn to the second major “novelty” of the New Testament in Pauline thought. The first, as we explored earlier, is the death of the Messiah understood within Paul’s native Jewish apocalyptic worldview. The second is the unique gift of the Spirit. Now, Jews in the Second Temple period were, by our definition, charismatic. They believed in miracles, assumed divine activity in the world, and were by and large premodern in outlook. But there is nothing in the literature of the period quite like Romans 8, where Paul references the Spirit nineteen times in connection with the resurrection and the believer’s future hope.
In this lesson, we will examine Paul’s language about the Spirit and situate it within its historical context—Jewish apocalypticism—rather than against it. Throughout church history, the death of the Messiah became the primary novelty used to shift the redemptive narrative from its Jewish apocalyptic storyline to a Greek escapist or Roman dominionistic framework. In modern New Testament studies, however, the Spirit has become the focal point for those who argue that the New Testament fundamentally altered Israel’s narrative. For instance, C.H. Dodd—often called the father of realized eschatology—argued that Paul’s epistles move beyond Jewish apocalyptic “fantasy” to describe a new supernatural order of life as present reality in the church through the Spirit. Gordon Fee, a Pentecostal scholar, takes a similar line, claiming that the outpoured Spirit is evidence the Messianic age had already dawned.
Yet Paul himself never frames the Spirit as evidence of a present realization of eschatology. Instead, he places it firmly within the Jewish apocalyptic worldview as assurance of the future.
For Paul, the Spirit functions in three key ways:
As the believer’s assurance of the resurrection, guaranteeing they will be raised by that same Spirit;
As an attestation of the Messiah, confirming that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ; and
As confirmation of the message of the cross, validating the crucifixion as the means by which resurrection life will be attained.
Paul’s usage is striking. He references the Spirit (pneuma) 107 times in his letters and speaks 24 times of what pertains to the Spirit (pneumatikos). Importantly, when Paul contrasts a “natural body” with a “spiritual body” in 1 Corinthians 15, he does not mean a physical versus an immaterial body. Rather, he contrasts the Adamic body made from dust with the resurrection body invigorated by and belonging to God’s Spirit. Both are bodies, but their quality differs. For Paul, this is not metaphysical dualism but covenantal, apocalyptic hope.
The Spirit had always been active in Israel’s Scriptures—in acts of creation, deliverance, prophecy, and miracle. But for Paul, the gift of the Spirit plays directly into the apocalyptic narrative: it confirms God’s covenant faithfulness and assures believers of the coming Day of the Lord, the resurrection of the dead, the return of the Messiah, and the establishment of God’s everlasting kingdom. In this way, Paul situates the Spirit not as a break with Israel’s story but as a divine agent that guarantees its climactic fulfillment.
From the beginning, the Spirit of God hovers over the waters—God’s active agent in this age, patiently sustaining the long-suffering “days of mercy” that lead toward the Day when He will judge and separate the righteous from the wicked. As in creation, so in new creation: the Spirit is the agent of resurrection. Paul repeats this point: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you… he will also give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom 8:11). Likewise, in Philippians 3, our mortal body will be transformed into a glorious body “by the power” (dunamis) of the Spirit; in Paul’s letters, dunamis and pneuma often function together. The picture is simple and pastoral: those who have the Spirit now have assurance that, by that same Spirit, they will be raised on the last day under the agency of the Messiah who raises the dead.
Acts 15 embodies this logic. The question before the Jerusalem Council is not theoretical: must Gentile believers become Jewish proselytes to be saved—from the wrath to come? Peter recounts the Spirit falling on Cornelius’ household at the proclamation that Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead and that forgiveness of sins is in His name. Paul and Barnabas add their testimony of the Spirit’s work among the Gentiles. James then anchors their experience in Scripture, noting that the prophets agree (not “are fulfilled” in the realized sense) with this: citing Amos 9, God will rebuild David’s fallen tent “so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name.” In other words: the same Spirit destined to raise the righteous has already been given to Gentiles; their hearts have been cleansed by faith in the Messiah’s death. Why burden them with proselyte conversion? Let them remain Gentiles—because God has already given them the assurance of the resurrection.
Paul reinforces this assurance with three Spirit metaphors that all rhyme with future hope:
Firstfruits — an agricultural image: early produce guarantees the full harvest. The Spirit groans within us in hope of “the redemption of our body” at Jesus’ return (Rom 8).
Guarantee (arrabōn) — a down payment now that secures full payment later. The Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance.
Seal — a legal/political image confirming ownership and protection until the day of redemption. The seal doesn’t transform the future; it secures it.
These metaphors are often pressed into service for inaugurated/realized eschatology. That is not Paul’s point. He uses them to communicate assurance and continuity between the Spirit we receive now and the resurrection we will receive then—not to redefine or collapse the future into the present.
Read Romans 8 with this in view. Paul opens by summarizing what the Messiah’s death has accomplished for us amid the inner war of Romans 7: no condemnation, freedom from fear, confidence of acquittal “in the day of judgment” because of the cross. Therefore we “walk according to the Spirit”—the Spirit who assures our future standing—rather than according to the flesh, which throws us back on our own righteousness and reignites the war within. The Spirit, from creation to new creation, is God’s pledge that the age to come is certain, the resurrection is sure, and the Messiah’s people will be raised in glory.
Paul continues in verse 15: “You did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear”—that is, fear of condemnation, of judgment, and of uncertainty about the resurrection. Instead, believers have received “the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Messiah—provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. In other words, the Spirit gives assurance that those who persevere in faith and endure suffering will indeed inherit glory alongside Christ.
Paul then frames present suffering within this larger hope: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Creation itself waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God, having been subjected to futility, yet looking toward freedom from corruption into the glory of the children of God. Just as creation groans, so we groan inwardly, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, as we await our adoption—the redemption of our bodies. The Spirit thus fuels longing and anchors assurance, not by collapsing the future into the present, but by pointing forward to resurrection and reign with Messiah. If Paul were ever going to describe the Spirit as a realization of the age to come, Romans 8 would be the obvious place—but he never does. He could have said it plainly, yet instead he consistently describes the Spirit as an assurance of what is still future.
This is reinforced in verse 26: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” Our weakness is the same inner struggle Paul described at the end of chapter 7—the war in our members. We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words, sustaining us until the day when we will be presented blameless. The Spirit intercedes according to God’s will, working all things together for the good of those called according to His purpose—that is, the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection. Paul’s golden chain of foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification is not abstract theology but the apocalyptic storyline culminating in resurrection and eternal life.
Foreknowledge – God has known His people from the beginning (echoes of Israel as His chosen people in the Tanakh). This isn’t about God picking individuals arbitrarily but His covenantal commitment to a people.
Deuteronomy 7:6–8 – Israel is God’s chosen people, not because of merit but because of His love and oath to the fathers.
Jeremiah 1:5 – God “knew” Jeremiah before he was formed, echoing covenantal foreknowledge.
In Paul, “foreknowledge” points back to God’s covenant purposes for His people, now extended to Gentiles who believe (Rom 11:2).
Predestination – The destiny set from the start is to be conformed to the image of His Son—which in context means being raised from the dead with a resurrection body like Messiah’s (Rom 8:29; Phil 3:21).
Philippians 3:20–21 – Christ will transform “our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”
1 Corinthians 15:49 – “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
So “predestined to be conformed” is not about inner mystical transformation but about future bodily resurrection.
Paul doesn’t say, “Some are predestined to be saved, others predestined to be damned.”
He says those God foreknew were “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29).
That “image” is the resurrection body (cf. Phil 3:21; 1 Cor 15:49).
The destiny is not “going to heaven” or “being saved from hell,” but sharing in resurrection glory with Messiah.
So “predestination” in Paul is not about who gets in and who is left out; it’s about the goal of God’s covenant plan—resurrection and glory for His people.
In the Tanakh, “to know” often means to enter covenant relationship (e.g., Amos 3:2; “You only have I known of all the families of the earth”).
Paul echoes this: God “foreknew” His people (Rom 11:2).
This isn’t arbitrary selection—it’s covenant faithfulness to His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Thus, “predestination” is tied to God’s covenant with Israel (and extended to Gentiles in Messiah), not to an eternal decree about who goes to heaven or hell.
Calling – In history, God calls people through the proclamation of the gospel (like Israel called from Egypt, or Gentiles now called into the hope of Israel).
1 Thessalonians 2:12 – Paul urges believers “to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”
Romans 9:24 – God has “called not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles.”
This call is always forward-looking to the kingdom and glory, not merely present experience.
Justification – Those who respond in faith are declared righteous because of Messiah’s death. This is the legal assurance that they will be vindicated at the final judgment.
Romans 5:9 – “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
Galatians 2:16 – Justification is grounded in Messiah’s death, preparing believers for the coming judgment.
It’s courtroom language: a declaration now that anticipates vindication then.
Glorification – The final step isn’t a mystical “already” reality but the future resurrection: being raised in glory when Christ returns (Rom 8:17–18, 30).
Romans 8:17–18 – If we suffer with Christ, “we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.”
1 Corinthians 15:42–43 – The body is “sown in dishonor… raised in glory.”
Colossians 3:4 – “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Glory is consistently tied to the resurrection, not present experience.
God “calls” (through the gospel), those who respond in faith are “justified” (declared righteous), and the end of the chain is “glorification” (resurrection). It’s an assurance of the process for those in Messiah, not a statement that others are divinely excluded. In Romans 11, Paul directly addresses the question of Israel’s place in salvation history. He says: “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (Rom 11:32). This undercuts the idea that Paul thought God was predestining some for salvation and others for damnation. His vision is mercy extended universally, though experienced within the covenant framework. Some other supporting texts are 1 Timothy 2:3–4 – God “desires all people to be saved.” 2 Peter 3:9 – God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” These verses align with the apocalyptic reading: the “predestination” is not about excluding some, but about the certainty that God will bring His covenant plan to completion.
When Paul says “those whom He justified He also glorified” (v. 30), he’s speaking so confidently about the future resurrection that he puts it in the past tense—as if it’s already guaranteed. But he does not mean believers are already glorified now. He means the Spirit is the guarantee, and the future resurrection is so certain it can be spoken of as accomplished.
Romans 8, then, fits seamlessly within Paul’s Jewish apocalyptic worldview. The Spirit is not a realized possession of the age to come but the pledge of its certainty—the firstfruits, the guarantee, the seal. Modern commentaries often impose realized eschatology onto this chapter by reading Romans 7 as pre-conversion and Romans 8 as post-conversion liberation. But Paul’s reference point is not a personal existential timeline; it is the Day of Christ Jesus. Romans 7 describes the condition of mortality; Romans 8 describes the Spirit’s assurance of future resurrection. The metaphors Paul uses are few, and their function is not to redefine eschatology but to confirm it: the Spirit is God’s guarantee that those who belong to Messiah will indeed be raised from the dead and glorified at His coming.
Second Corinthians 5 provides a profound example of Paul’s assurance in the resurrection, framed through the metaphor of a guarantee or deposit. At the close of chapter 4, Paul acknowledges the crushing pressures of this age—afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, carrying in his body the death of Jesus. Yet he affirms that inwardly, the believer is being renewed day by day by the Spirit. This Spirit offers encouragement that present, light, and momentary afflictions are producing an eternal weight of glory in the age to come. Flowing into chapter 5, Paul declares: “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, eternal in the heavens.” Here the “tent” signifies our mortal bodies, groaning under the weight of weakness, while the eternal house points to the resurrected body, reserved for us in the heavens until the day of the Lord. When Paul says this building is “eternal in the heavens,” he doesn’t mean we’ll live forever in heaven. Instead, it’s shorthand for saying the resurrection body is secured with God until the appointed time. Just as Peter says our inheritance is “kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:4), the point isn’t where we’ll live forever, but where the promise is safely stored until it’s revealed. Think of it as a treasure kept in heaven, not as our final destination.
Just a few verses later (2 Cor 5:4), Paul makes clear: “We do not wish to be unclothed, but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” Paul does not celebrate disembodiment (the Greek escapist ideal). He longs instead for transformation—the mortal “tent” being replaced with a glorious, resurrected dwelling. Everywhere else Paul anchors hope in the resurrection at the coming of the Lord (Rom 8:23; Phil 3:20–21; 1 Cor 15:50–54). If he suddenly meant “we all float away to heaven,” it would directly contradict his consistent emphasis on bodily resurrection and the renewal of creation.
Jewish apocalyptic tradition enriches this imagery. Ancient writings describe heavenly storehouses overseen by angels, where the rewards of the righteous are kept until the books are opened at judgment. Paul situates himself within this worldview: the hope of a resurrected body is not abstract but concrete, stored and awaiting bestowal at the resurrection of the dead, when the righteous are vindicated, the wicked judged, and creation renewed. Against the Hellenistic intrusions influencing Corinth—claims that the resurrection was already realized spiritually and that the soul’s escape to an immaterial realm was true freedom—Paul insists otherwise. He does not long to be “unclothed” but “further clothed,” not to discard the body but to receive a glorified one. His vision is not the escape from embodiment but its transformation, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
It is God Himself who prepared us for this destiny, giving us the Spirit as a guarantee—a down payment on the inheritance yet to be received. Thus, the Spirit does not signal the realization of the resurrection but assures its certainty. Paul then reminds his audience that while in the body we are away from the Lord, walking by faith and awaiting that day when all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive according to what has been done in the body. The Spirit testifies that the Messiah’s death has reconciled us to God and secured our future, ensuring that our perseverance will culminate in resurrection life.
This same theme appears in Ephesians 1, where believers are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” Again, the context is thoroughly eschatological, pointing forward to the day of wrath and the hope of inheritance—not the present realization of resurrection or judgment. Modern scholarship often frames Paul’s opponents as “over-realizing” eschatology, while Paul is said to hold a more moderate version. Yet this interpretive grid collapses under scrutiny. Paul nowhere indicates a partial fulfillment; rather, he maintains the traditional apocalyptic hope in full. His opponents, by contrast, spiritualize and dislocate that hope, declaring it already fulfilled.
For Paul, the Spirit serves two roles: first, as assurance of the resurrection and coming age; second, as attestation that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah foretold in the prophets. Isaiah envisioned the Spirit resting upon the servant of the Lord who would bring justice, raise the dead, and renew creation (Isaiah 11; 42; 61). In the Gospels, Jesus is anointed with the Spirit, confirmed at His baptism and revealed through His works of healing. These miracles, far from inaugurating a realized eschatology, testify that He is “the one” through whom God will execute the final redemption. Matthew highlights this explicitly: when Jesus heals the sick, the crowds glorify the God of Israel, acknowledging that the promised restoration is anchored in Israel’s Messiah.
Thus, the witness of Paul and the Gospels is consistent: the gift of the Spirit confirms the Messiah’s identity and guarantees the future resurrection, but it does not transform or redefine Jewish eschatological expectation into a present spiritual reality. To impose such a reinterpretation fractures Paul’s message. His gospel is not a realized eschatology, but the proclamation of Christ crucified as the means by which we are reconciled to God, delivered from wrath, and guaranteed eternal life in the resurrection of the dead.
In Acts 2, Peter rises and explains that the outpouring of the Spirit fulfills the prophecy of Joel: “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit before the great and terrible day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on His name will be saved from the coming wrath.” Thus, the Spirit is poured out as a sign of the approaching Day of the Lord. Peter continues, proclaiming: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst—as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” In other words, Jesus was divinely attested through the Spirit’s miraculous works. Even when some blasphemed those works, as in Matthew 12 and Luke 11, they nonetheless testified that He is indeed the Messiah.
The Spirit is given, then, to confirm that the unlikely candidate from Nazareth—the untrained man with common followers—is in fact God’s chosen Messiah. To this day, it often requires the Spirit’s witness, especially within Jewish circles, to grasp that this man is truly Israel’s Messiah who will bring Israel’s eschatological hope to pass. Paul reflects this in his letters. For example, in the opening of Romans, he declares that the gospel concerns God’s Son, “descended from David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead.” Paul is not presenting competing claims. Rather, he affirms that Jesus’ Davidic descent is confirmed by the Spirit’s testimony in the resurrection. This attests that He is the Messiah—the one who will return, raise the dead, judge humanity, and renew all things.
Paul likewise explains in 1 Corinthians 12 that the Spirit authenticates Jesus’ lordship. He reminds the Corinthians that while they once followed mute idols, the Spirit now enables them to confess that “Jesus is Lord”—a messianic title drawn from Psalm 110:1. By contrast, no one speaking by the Spirit can declare “Jesus is accursed,” echoing synagogue anathemas of false prophets. Thus, the gifts of the Spirit serve to convict hearts of sin and to bear witness that Jesus is the Messiah who will judge the living and the dead. In Acts 2, this dynamic is seen vividly: the Spirit is poured out, the people recognize the attestation of Jesus’ messiahship, and they are cut to the heart, asking, “What must we do to be saved?” Peter replies, “Repent, and receive the promised Holy Spirit,” the assurance of salvation from the coming wrath.
This theme recurs throughout Paul’s writings. The Spirit confirms the Messiah, assures the resurrection, and validates the message of the cross as the means of justification on the last day. As Paul tells the Galatians, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” The Spirit was not given through proselytism or legal observance but through believing the message of the crucified Messiah. Likewise in Acts 10, the Spirit is poured out on Cornelius and his household upon their faith in Jesus as the judge of the living and the dead. The Spirit, then, does not transform Paul’s Jewish apocalyptic worldview into something new. Rather, it functions within that worldview, as a divine witness that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, that His death secures forgiveness of sins, and that His followers will inherit the resurrection of the dead at the Day of the Lord.
In short, the Spirit is not proof of a realized eschatology but a guarantee of future fulfillment. It assures believers of their hope, confirms the identity of the Messiah, and validates the proclamation of the cross. Paul consistently frames the Spirit in these terms: not as a transformation of Jewish expectation, but as its confirmation.
References
This study draws on John Harrigan’s teaching, Discipling Gentiles into the Hope of Israel.