WERE OLD COVENANT BELIEVERS
INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT?
1
National Meeting of the ETS
Atlanta, GA, November 22, 2003
James M. Hamilton Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Houston Park Place Campus
Introduction
The Gospel of John states, Unless one is born of water and spirit, he is not able to
enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5).
2
Later in John we read that the Spirit will not be received
until after Jesus is glorified (7:39). If the Spirit is not received until after the cross, can
Nicodemus experience the new birth from above prior to the cross? Did the Old Covenant
remnant experience the new birth by the Spirit?
3
Were they indwelt by the Spirit? This paper
seeks to provide an answer to these questions.
The first task in addressing this issue will be to summarize the range of possible
solutions to this riddle. Once the scholarly landscape has been surveyed, that landscape will be
evaluated against the evidence. Placing the evidence under the lens of Biblical Theology entails
first asking whether or not the OT indicates that its faithful were indwelt. A whole-Bible
approach to the question demands that the NT also come under the microscope, so we will place
John 7:39 on a slide and scrutinize it for indications of how the Old Covenant remnant may have
experienced the Spirit. Having observed this data, what regeneration and indwelling signify in
John`s Gospel can be brought to bear on the question of whether or not the Old Covenant
1
This paper summarizes the argument of my dissertation, He Is with You and He Will
Be in You: The Spirit, the Believer, and the Glorification of Jesus (Ph.D. diss., The Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003). A version of this paper was presented at Briercrest Bible
College and Seminary in Canada on May 1, 2003. I am grateful for the helpful comments and
interaction I received on that occasion.
2
Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.
3
For a study of the remnant in the Old Testament, see G. F. Hasel, The Remant
(Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1972), 391. Hasel, however, does not raise
the question of whether or not individual members of the Old Covenant remnant were indwelt.