Will people who do not have the Holy Spirit inherit eternal life?

QUESTION:

 Will those who do not have the Holy Spirit be saved at the coming of the Lord?

We must live by the promptings of the Spirit

I invite you to open together the Epistle of Paul to the Romans:

Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4 NASB)

In this Epistle, those who have the Holy Spirit and those who do not have it are contrasted. Before we had the Holy Spirit, we were sold into bondage, and it was sinful nature that determined our actions. It’s not like that now. Since we have received the Holy Spirit, we can choose to obey Him or the flesh.

Those who are worldly are not pleasing to God

For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.(Romans 8:5-8 NASB)

Worldly people are those who do not have the Holy Spirit. They cannot live by the promptings of the Spirit, but only by the promptings of the flesh. Those who are worldly cannot please God, so we must understand that there are only two options: either live according to the exhortations of the flesh, or according to the exhortations of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation

We must know that the person who does not have the Spirit of God is not of Christ, but if the Spirit dwells in a person, he is spiritual:

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.(Romans 8:9-11 NASB)

If the Holy Spirit is in us, we are of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the One who shows our belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, then we will be resurrected with Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians he says that the Holy Spirit is the “down payment” of our salvation. A down payment is a guarantee, part of the payment. God has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation. Those who do not have this guarantee cannot have hope for salvation.

You cannot receive salvation unless you have gone through a spiritual change

In the Gospel of Matthew it is written thus:

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,“The voice of one calling out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,Make His paths straight!’Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.  At that time Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan;  and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance;  and do not assume that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able, from these stones, to raise up children for Abraham.(Matthew 3:1-9 NASB)

In these verses we see that most people came and repented of their sins and were then baptized by John. The Pharisees, believing that they were Abraham’s followers, went straight to baptism, avoiding repentance, but John told them that they act like the offspring of vipers, that is, they did not want to give up their sins, they did not want to repent of their old ways in order to live a righteous life. With their sins and wickedness they wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as they were, without going through a spiritual change.

Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire

 And the ax is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire. “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:10-12 NASB)

So again, you see two options, not three. There are two directions that man takes in the encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. He would compare all people with wheat and chaff, wheat being the people who have chosen to repent of their sins and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. These people are baptized with the Holy Spirit and then they will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The chaff is those who have rejected repentance to this day. If there is no repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there will still be chaff. These people will be baptized with fire, they will be thrown into eternal death.

Believe wholeheartedly in the Lord Jesus and choose to become His disciple

Only when someone believes wholeheartedly in the Lord Jesus Christ, repents of his sins and decides to follow the teachings of the Lord Jesus, is he baptized in the Holy Spirit. Since a person has received this gift, he belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. This man is assured that his mortal body will be resurrected with the Lord Jesus.

My dear ones, I ask you to understand this very well. I know that many people are stopped by certain sins, they are involved in certain relationships that they do not want to get out of and which stop them from taking a definite step. If you are one of these people, think hard. Be wise. Stop everything today and make the decision to become a disciple of the Lord Jesus, to break all ties of sin, and to live in full obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you choose to become a disciple of Jesus, God will empower you to live a righteous life in full obedience to Him. If you are not yet attending a church, I urge you to look for a church where God’s Word is studied. Beware of the church where there are human ordinances, where the Holy Scriptures are not studied. Hurry and be baptized, for this is what the Lord Jesus Christ commanded:

The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned.(Matthew 16:16 NASB)

Translated by Ina Croitoru