Which is First?

Does a sinner first become possessed of the Holy Spirit and then believe and repent? Or, is the Spirit received and possessed upon a sinner believing and repenting? What saith the scriptures? What saith the Hardshells?

Dr. Gill, in commenting upon Galatians 3: 2 wrote:

"received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? This question supposes they had received the Spirit; that is, the Spirit of God, as a spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of Christ; as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification; as a spirit of faith and adoption; and as the earnest, seal, and pledge of their future glory. Now the apostle asks, whether they received this Spirit "by the works of the law"; meaning, either whether they could imagine, that they by their obedience to the law had merited and procured the Spirit of God; or whether they thought that the Spirit came to them, and into their hearts, through the doctrine or preaching of the law: the former could not be true, for if they could not obtain righteousness and life by the works of the law, then not the Spirit; besides, works done without the Spirit of God, are not properly good works: not the latter, for though by the law is the knowledge of sin, yet this leaves nothing but a sense of wrath and damnation in the conscience; it is the killing letter, and a ministration of condemnation and death, and not of the Spirit, and of life; this belongs to the Gospel, "or the hearing of faith"; for by "faith", is meant the Gospel, and particularly the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ's righteousness; and by "the hearing" of it, the preaching of it, the report of it, Isa 53:1 which, in the Hebrew text, is wntemv, "our hearing", that by which the Gospel is heard and understood. Now in this way the Spirit of God is received; while the Gospel is preaching he falls on them that hear it, conveys himself into their hearts, and begets them again by the word of truth: and in this way the Galatians came by the Spirit, and which is another aggravation of their folly, that they should enjoy so great an advantage by the Gospel, and yet be so easily removed from it."  (Commentary)

Clearly Dr. Gill expresses the Old Baptist faith when he affirms that sinners are regenerated and made spiritually alive by savingly hearing the gospel. 

"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."  (Gal. 3: 14)

The word "receive" is in the active voice and may be translated "accept."  It involves an act of the will and involves cognition and recognition of the gospel truth.

"Even the Spirit of truth;  whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:  but ye know him;  for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."  (John 14: 17)

To "receive" the Spirit is to receive the truth, for the Spirit is "the Spirit of truth," of gospel truth.  The result of receiving the Spirit of truth is to come to "know him" and to have the Spirit to enter and dwell in the soul, heart, and mind.

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his...For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Rom. 8: 9, 15)

Again, "receive" is in the active voice and means to "accept."  Before the Spirit enters and dwells in a sinner he must first be "received."  To affirm that the Spirit enters the heart apart from being "received" is to teach contrary to the plain language of the scriptures.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." (I Cor. 2: 12)

Again, an active reception of the Spirit is what precipitates the entrance of the Spirit of God into the understanding.

These simple things have been rejected by our "ultraist" Hardshell brethren who teach that the Spirit of God is "received" apart from the gospel and apart from an act of the will.

Of course, none of this admits of Arminianism or Free Willism, for "it is God who works in you," said Paul, "to will and to do."  (Phil. 2: 13)  Or, as the Psalmist said, "thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power."  (Psa. 110: 3)