By the Spirit

Paul says that one can only say “Jesus is Lord” by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). He adds later in the same chapter that we are incorporated into the body, the one-and-many body of the visible church, by “one Spirit” (12:13).

Surely Paul exaggerates. Anybody can say Jesus is Lord. Anybody at all can receive baptism and join the body of Christ. Why should these simple events require an act of God?

We can get some insight by remembering the marginal political and social position of the early church. To say “Jesus is Lord” was to take a stand against the claims of Caesar. Only an act of the Eternal Spirit can open the mouth with such audacious confessions.

And, to receive baptism into the one body was to join a community that was quite literally under the cross. Anybody who sees the persecuted and deprived early church worshiping their crucified Messiah and says, “I want to be with them ,” is acting under more-than-human inspiration.