Question Box: "How Can the Holy Spirit Indwell Sinners?"

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Question:

I have been wondering how it's possible that God can dwell in us through His Spirit even though we are still sinners? Because He can't be in the presence of sin, right?

Answer:

First, let’s look the question broadly and then we will zoom in on it.  We must understand that it is only partially true to say “God cannot be in the presence of sin.”  It is true because God is holy, holy, holy, and will destroy all sin.  However, it is not true because God is omnipresent (everywhere).  So, God is present everywhere, even where sin is being committed. We see this in Job where Satan comes before God with a proposition to test Job.  Here the father of lies is in God’s presence.  Furthermore, even in Hell God’s presence cannot be escaped.  But, His presence in Hell is not the same as His presence in Heaven.  In Heaven, His presence is experienced as joy, light, irresistible beauty, and glory.  His presence in Hell is experienced as heavy judgment, darkness, sadness, and torment (God is still glorified in demonstrating his righteous judgment, but it is not a wonderful glory for those in Hell).  So, in the big picture it is helpful to realize that it is not precise enough to say “God cannot be in the presence of sin.”  Instead, we say, “God is holy and so sinners cannot dwell in His Kingdom when it comes in its fullness.”  

Now let’s zoom in to the particular question at hand.  As a Christian, how is that God indwells me (through his Spirit) while I am still a sinner?  First, we affirm that the Bible says this is a reality.  Passages like Romans 8:9 make it clear that every child of God has the Spirit of God.  But that still doesn’t answer the question, “How can this be?”.  For that we could look at other verses in Romans 8, namely verses 3 and 10, but let’s look at Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 1 begins with several verses about our salvation.  We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (4). We are redeemed through the blood of Christ and forgiven of our trespasses according to the riches of God’s grace (7).  After rehearsing these, and other truths about the amazing grace of God in our salvation, Paul says, 

“In [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14). 

The Holy Spirit is given to us at the point of salvation (“when you heard….”).  The Holy Spirit seals us with God’s kingly seal, indicating we are His children and heirs of His inheritance.  So, it is at the point of our being forgiven of our sins in Christ Jesus that the Holy Spirit comes into us.  That means all our sins, past, present and future, have been covered by the blood of Christ, and we are justified.  That is, we are positionally holy and righteous by virtue of the work of Christ who obeyed God perfectly for us.  Even though we still sin in our daily lives, we remain justified and each of those sins has been covered by Christ.  So, it is no contradiction for the Holy Spirit to live in us: we are holy in God’s sight though we still fall short of holiness in practice.  And, it is one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit to make us more in practice what we already are in position (this is sanctification- the process of growing in holiness).1    

1Passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 tell us that we should put aside sin since we have been “joined to the Lord” and have the “Holy Spirit within” us.  These passages indicate that our unity with Christ is incompatible with sin. The Holy Spirit indwells each believer, making our body a temple of God.   So passages like 1 Cor. 6:17-20 give us a clear call to put aside sin based on our union with Christ and His Spirit.