God Gives Receipts: Making Sense of Tedious Old Testament Texts J.E. Rose

I recently received a phone call from a contractor who did $30,000.00 worth of work in my home asking why I had not paid the outstanding balance of $700. I’ll spare the boring details other than to tell you I had never gotten a receipt from my earlier payments and, not hearing anything for twelve months, had no reason to even think I owed him money. (For the record, he was correct about it and I have paid him in full!). 

This got me thinking about the importance of business/legal transactions like receipts. That’s certainly true to avoid overdue invoices but there is a larger, more cosmic example: God’s promises to his people we can summarize in covenant terms. I’ve written extensively on ancient covenant structure and its profound significance for the entire story of redemptive history. I’m not going to rehearse all that here. But I did recently see something, in light of my contractor incident, that took my breath away. God is not like my contractor! God not only sends the invoice but, after the payment has been made, he also provides the receipt as a legal proof it is final. 

Briefly, in covenant terms, we could say it starts with a promise to do something. This is the covenant itself and, specifically in covenant terminology, described in the section called “stipulations.” Thus, in the “protoevangelion” (Genesis 3:15), God promised to crush the head of the serpent. We know now that it would take thousands of years to complete the work but when the work was finished by God’s son on the cross, the “bill” was now paid in full, not by what Adam or any of us could do but “sola Christi”--by Christ alone. 

What I’m taken with now is the “Paid” stamp on the bill–or the “receipt” if you will. 

Throughout the Old Testament story, God was also providing receipts. It’s probably risky to milk my analogy too much, but the entire story of covenant administrations can be viewed as “partial payments” from God and, whether it was Noah, Abraham, Moses or David, God always gave receipts so his people had legal proof of God’s covenant loyalty to his original promise. This is how we can better appreciate so many of the often confusing details in the Old Testament.

For example, I read through the Bible every year in my devotions and today I was in Joshua reading in exhausting detail the distribution of conquered territories to the tribes. If you’ve tried to read them you know it is tempting to treat the tedious descriptions of boundaries and rivers and mountains as “flyover” passages. Why did God need to put multiple chapters in the Bible about the boundary marker from one little village to an obscure river or mountain range? And, beyond that, how can this be read in the context of 1 Timothy 3:16 that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for instruction, for correction….” The answer is in this covenant truth of receipts. Those passages are the receipts for what God had promised and what he had delivered thus far. Notice that they were not just legal proof but visible assurance. 

In the ancient treaty structure, the section following the stipulations detailed the “sanctions” or punishments and rewards. For Israel, land pledges were tied to those sanctions. So, when Joshua was giving Zelophahead’s five daughters their acreage (I love that story for some reason) the acquisition of the parcel was itself now the receipt that God keeps his promises. For them in the day, every time they looked at the land it would be a legal testimony of God’s covenant. 

Here is where I was really inspired by this truth: God didn’t stop giving receipts in the Old Testament stories. After the work of redemption was finished at the cross and paid in full, God continued to provide receipts and does so to this day. To the extent we can appreciate this truth and allow it to shape our lives every day (like the ancient Israelites walking around their property every day) it will comfort us in our circumstances as well: God always keeps his promises and proves it as well. 

Paul more or less said that the Holy Spirit was the “receipt” of the finished work of the Father and Son (Ephesians 1:13-15). Paul called the Spirit the “seal” of our inheritance. Here again is covenant and legal terminology easily overlooked. A seal is a legal proof that something is legitimate and authentic. In many ways it is like a receipt. For Paul, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in God’s people after the cross is thus to be appreciated in this way. 

But let’s get practical here. The descent of the Holy Spirit after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)  isn’t some abstract doctrine in a theological textbook. It certainly was not that for the first Christians. They didn’t have books or seminaries. So, how did they hear Paul’s description of the Holy Spirit as a receipt from the work of redemption applied? I will suggest that there are three very “practical” proofs all believers can experience that God has fulfilled his promise; three “receipts” that can comfort and strengthen us. 

The Strength of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 12:9)

The foundational understanding of the way the Holy Spirit works in our lives today is summarized powerfully in Paul’s autobiographical defense of his ministry in 2 Corinthians, especially chapter twelve–the famous “thorn in the flesh” passage. I’m not going to exaggerate the entire passage here other than to argue that it provides the legal and practical  “documentation” for Paul’s own assurance that God keeps his promises. 

What was the receipt for Paul? Hang on to your seat because it’s probably not what you think. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Notice carefully what Paul says: the experience of “weakness” (infirmity, thorn in the flesh, etc) was the existential reminder or proof for Paul that the Holy Spirit lived in him and therefore the receipt of God’s promises. Though it is certainly true that there is a “peace that passes understanding” (Philippians 4:6), my own research and experience suggests that this particular receipt is not what we might assume it would be, especially when we moderns assume that “peace” is just feeling happy. I don’t believe it is accurate to understand Paul’s promise in Philippians as “feeling happy.”I don’t think his promise is that when the Holy Spirit lives in us it will mean we don’t feel pain or anguish (certainly you can’t get that from Paul’s story in 12). Rather, we need to see the whole phrase, “peace that passes understanding” in this broader context of the Spirit’s strength.  

This is not happy talk. Some might even say that it is not about feelings at all but “peace” in the covenantal sense of a reliable and right relationship. In fact, in light of 2 Corinthians 12, I would suggest that if we “feel” anything in times of struggle it will be “weakness” not happiness. (“No trial for the present seems joyous but grievous…” Hebrews 12). 

We want to feel good, of course, and if you are one of those people (I’ve known a few) who get an adrenaline rush from pain, who am I to judge? But for me, Hebrews 12 is the story of my suffering and 2 Corinthians 12 gives me the framework to understand my very pain and weakness (physical and emotional): it’s  the “feeling” of weakness that proves God’s Spirit is in me. For the very weakness means I am not relying on my own resources to get through it but on God’s promise. This is the only way it can be. We live by faith not by sight.  No wonder Paul said it “passes understanding”! 

Now, I should add that I believe the emotional “peace” will come at some point, though I’m inclined to think it is something experienced in reflection and retrospect more than the weak moment. This is because of how we process pain itself. Pain is pain and the only way we can endure it is to see a “higher principle” at work. “Pain is weakness leaving the body” as athletes say. For us, “Pain and weakness is the Holy Spirit entering the body…”

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:21,22)

Though what I call the “strength in weakness” principle is foundational, God has also granted us more evidence of his indwelling than feelings of infirmity. There is also what Paul calls the fruit of the (Holy) Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith. 

A moment of reflection tells us why Paul would call these “virtues” the “fruit of the Spirit” and how these are receipts of God’s work. Fruit is fruit because it is the product of the fruit tree. All the senses are involved in our experience: seeing, tasting, touching, smelling. Though the strength of the Holy Spirit may be primarily experienced by us in our own internal awareness of weakness, I would suggest that the fruit of the Spirit is primarily experienced in our external awareness of these activities in others–especially evident when they are suffering. All the fruit listed is relational and corporate, not just internal to us. 

I’ve watched those I love, enduring much physical or emotional pain, nonetheless bearing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives–loving others, bravely expressing joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. Talk about a peace that passes understanding–that “makes no sense!” How could they do that? Well, it’s not their own strength but God’s strength perfected in them evident in this fruit.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit 

Paul gives prominence to another seal: the gifts of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is legal testimony to the promises of God especially evident in our daily relationships with others. Meanwhile, we can appreciate the gifts as legal testimony to the promises of the final consummation of God’s covenant promises in the new creation. If the fruit is a sustaining grace for our own weakness, the gifts are a triumphal grace to build his church. 

God wants us to study church history! It is not just for seminarians. For church history is the story of God’s spiritual gifts at work. I was thinking about how many church buildings exist in my little town–i counted thirty. Honestly, it’s more typical to view this panoply of congregations as a problem and judgment. After all, how many of them are “liberal”, how many focus too much on the wrong issues? How many have abusive or dysfunctional leadership? That is usually what I think when I drive by many of them. And there are certainly reasons to do so! 

But then I imagine myself as Paul in ancient Athens walking around the city. He didn’t see 30 (or even 3) church buildings. He tells us what he saw: scores of shrines to the false gods of the day. There were no churches. 

What about today? According to estimates, using a loose definition of Christian churches in Athens, there are today over 1,000 buildings just in the city and suburbs. Granted, we could reasonably doubt how many are New Testament churches! However, just the existence of all these buildings is some kind of visible testimony that the gospel has, over 2000 years, left an extraordinary mark on that one city. 

This is something I’ve never pondered before, especially as a receipt of the “gifts of the Spirit” and how they have been operative throughout history. To put it another way, a fulfillment of Jesus’ words to the disciples, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16). 

I will conclude with one of my favorite examples from church history. 

I remember watching the Christian movie, Beyond the Next Mountain back in the late 1980s. It told the true story of the Hmar Tribal Peoples in the mountains of Northern India. I won’t tell the entire story here but it is a truly miraculous example of how the gifts of the Spirit prove the power of God to keep his promise.

The modern story begins around 1900 with a thoroughly pagan people and no gospel understanding whatsoever until a tribal chief, despairing of the conflicts of warring tribes, cried to “the gods” for help. 

This set in motion an amazing story in which God sent a missionary their way who tried to present the gospel but was hampered by hostile resistance and no language to cross the bridge, Eventually this drove the chief to send “his only son” (Rochunga) down the mountain to go to school and learn how to read so he would come back and teach the tribes to do so as well. One thing led to another and Rohunga became a Christian missionary and returned to the mountain. I just checked the record and currently, the Hmar region has one of the highest literacy rates in India (92%) and the churches there are so vibrant they no longer receive missionaries but send them. 

Now, consider the promise of the Spirit's gifts in this context. This church story would never happen without spiritual gifts. I used to get all nerdy about the specific terms and definitions of gifts in the New Testament. There may be some place for that, but my more mature reflection is that the terms and definitions are not to be taken as an exhaustive list (probably true of the fruit of the Spirit also) rather the big point is that all manifestations of the activity in the building of Christ’s church are  gifts of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the world. 

If there is any helpful way to break that down I might suggest the confessional description of the three offices typologically introduced in the Old Testament and then fulfilled by Jesus himself: prophets, priests and kings. I would also argue that after Jesus' ascension, the three offices continue as the manifestation of the Spirit in the three works of the church: word (prophets), worship (priests) and witness (kings). But that’s a topic for another article!