Joy Unspeakable

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 PETER 1:8

This chapter deals with the most distinctive, and the most debated, part of Lloyd-Jones’s teaching. He believed that there is an experience of the Holy Spirit, which the New Testament calls the baptism with the Spirit, that is distinct from conversion; that it brings the believer an overwhelming assurance of God’s love and a new power for witness; and that many Christians have never known it and should seek it. Some of his closest friends in the Reformed world disagreed with him, and the disagreement continues. The aim here is to set out what he taught as fairly as possible, and then the objections, as fairly.

Where he taught it

He taught it in several places: in his expositions of Romans 8 and of Ephesians 1, and above all in a series of sermons on John’s Gospel preached in the mid-1960s and published after his death as Joy Unspeakable, with a companion volume, Prove All Things, on the gifts. He had held the view in some form for many years; it was not an innovation of old age. And it was closely tied to his longing for revival, which is the subject of the next chapter.

What he taught

His argument ran broadly like this. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit does many things. He regenerates — gives new life to those who were dead. Every Christian has experienced that, or he is not a Christian at all. He indwells every believer. He leads, sanctifies and helps. All of this is the common possession of the whole church.

Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. ROMANS 8:9

But the New Testament also speaks of the Spirit coming upon believers in a way that is evident and powerful. The disciples were already believers before Pentecost, yet they were told to wait for power from on high. The Samaritans in Acts 8 believed and were baptised, and only afterwards received the Spirit. The Ephesian disciples in Acts 19 were asked whether they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed.

Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? ACTS 19:2

From passages like these, Lloyd-Jones concluded that the baptism with the Spirit is not simply another name for regeneration. It is a distinct experience, which may come at conversion or later, and which may be repeated. Its chief mark, as he understood it, is assurance — a direct and overwhelming witness of the Spirit that the believer is a child of God, going beyond the inference he draws from Scripture and from the evidence of his own life.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. ROMANS 8:16

He identified this with Paul’s language of sealing in Ephesians 1:13, and with the joy unspeakable and full of glory of which Peter speaks. And he believed that it had been the experience of many of the great figures of church history — he pointed to men such as the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, to the leaders of the eighteenth-century awakening, and to preachers of the Welsh revivals — who testified to a moment or season when the love of God was poured into their hearts in a way that transformed them and their ministry.

In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. EPHESIANS 1:13

Why it mattered to him

He was driven by a pastoral and a historical concern. Pastorally, he saw a church that was orthodox and dry — correct in its doctrine but lacking joy, assurance and power. He believed that an evangelicalism which said, in effect, that every believer has already received everything at conversion and need seek nothing more, had closed the door to what the church most needed. Historically, he saw that the great eras of the church had been marked by a vivid experience of the Spirit, and he feared that the evangelicals of his day had, by their definitions, ruled out any expectation of such a thing.

How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? LUKE 11:13

He was also careful. He warned against seeking experiences for their own sake, against manufactured emotion, and against any method that promised the Spirit on demand. The baptism with the Spirit, as he taught it, is sovereignly given by Christ, not produced by human technique. On the gifts, he refused to say that they had ceased, but he was also cautious about the claims of the charismatic movement then emerging, and insisted that all things be tested by Scripture.

The objections

Many who loved and admired him could not follow him here. John Stott, in a short book on the baptism and fullness of the Spirit, argued that the New Testament presents the baptism with the Spirit as the initial blessing every Christian receives at conversion, and that the later experiences Christians may have are better described as being filled with the Spirit, which is repeatable and commanded of all. Others in his own Reformed tradition — J. I. Packer among them — shared his longing for a deeper experience of God but questioned his exegesis, and worried that a two-stage doctrine could divide Christians into haves and have-nots and encourage an unhealthy seeking after experience. Some felt that his teaching, whatever his intentions, opened a door to charismatic practices he himself did not endorse.

These are serious objections from serious people. It is fair to say that most Reformed evangelicals today side with Stott and Packer on the exegesis, while many share Lloyd-Jones’s concern that the church should expect more of the Spirit than it commonly does.

What can be received from him

Whatever one concludes about the terminology, his burden is plainly scriptural. The New Testament does speak of a joy that is unspeakable, of the love of God shed abroad in the heart, of the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. These are meant to be real in experience, not merely held as doctrine. A Christian who has never known them should not assume that this is all there is. He should ask.

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ROMANS 5:5

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read Acts 2, 8 and 19. Note what happens to believers in each and form your own judgment from the text.

2. Ask whether your Christianity is marked by joy and assurance, or only by correct belief. Be honest.

3. If you have strong views on this question either way, read a careful statement of the other view before you speak about it again.

4. Pray Luke 11:13 for yourself this week, asking your heavenly Father for a fuller experience of His Spirit, without prescribing the form it must take.

5. Guard against despising believers whose experience of the Spirit differs from yours, in either direction.

A PRAYER

Holy Spirit, You gave me life when I was dead. Thank You that You dwell in me and that I am Christ’s.

Forgive me for being content with a dry orthodoxy. Shed abroad the love of God in my heart, and bear witness with my spirit that I am His child.

Guard me from seeking experiences for their own sake, and from judging others by mine.

Give me joy unspeakable and full of glory, and power to witness to Christ, for His name’s sake. Amen.