At His death, Jesus “delivers” or “hands over” ( paradidomi ) His Spirit (John 19:30). The Spirit that was with Jesus flows to others because of His death.
The same thing happened to the Spirit-filled Stephen. No one can overcome the wisdom and Spirit with which he speaks (Acts 6:10). Up to his death, the Spirit has been operating in Jerusalem, but as soon as Stephen is put to death, the Spirit starts falling on Samaritans (ch. 8), persecuting Jews (ch. 9), and centurions (chs. 10-11). When Stephen’s flesh is torn, the Spirit is unleashed.
The unleashing of the Spirit in Luke-Acts turns not on the death of Christ per se ; the Spirit is unleashed when saints like Stephen begin to “fill up what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ” (Colossians 1:24). Not Jesus’ death alone, but Stephen’s mingled with Jesus’, rend the veil and release the Spirit from Jerusalem.
Unraveling this thread from Luke-Acts would lead to what I’d call a “historically plausible” account of the atonement.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
