A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on June 8, 2025.
“Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3–7, 12-13).[1]
After Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father almighty, in place of his physical presence he sent his Spirit, witnessed on the day of Pentecost in tongues of fire upon the apostles.[2] That day was unique in Israel, not because the Holy Spirit was absent from God’s people previously but because the Holy Spirit came in an unprecedented fullness, fulfilling Joels’ prophecy of the Spirit being poured out “on all flesh” (Joel 2:28), not indiscriminately but according to the sovereign grace of God. As the Holy Spirit preserved God’s people under the Old Covenant, the Spirit now produces God’s people, as it were, under the New Covenant. The varied languages miraculously spoken that day signified the coming of the kingdom of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ to every tribe, tongue, and nation.
As the people heard the gospel that day in their own native tongue, the Spirit moved upon their dead, unbelieving hearts, bringing them to spiritual life, just as he does today. Faith in Christ is, John Calvin said, “the principal work of the Holy Spirit.”[3] And so, where the Spirit is at work, we will be sure to hear the gospel and see conversions, which is precisely what Luke records in the book of acts, when “three thousand souls” professed faith, were baptized, and added to the visible church.[4] Through faith Christ builds his church by his Spirit.
True Profession
What Paul wants the church to understand is that a credible profession of faith in Christ is essential to the Christian faith. He makes this point first stated in the negative, “no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’” (1 Cor. 12:3a). What does Paul mean by “accursed”? Is this a form of slander? Is he simply correcting a semantic error, or is there something here more sinister?
To help us understand, consider the name Jesus. Note, Paul did not use his title, Christ, but his given name, Jesus. Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, a real man who inhabited time and space. He was, according to eyewitness accounts, falsely tried by Israel’s leaders, sentenced under Pontius Pilate, and executed upon a Roman instrument of torture and shame, the cross. He was then accursed by his people, who consciously chose his unjust execution despite his innocence, even crying out, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:25). They consciously rejected Jesus. To them, he was “accursed,” evidencing the absence of the Spirit of God in their lives.
Having stated his argument in the negative, Paul then states the opposite: “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3b). The Greek word translated “Lord” (kyrios) is the same word used to translate the proper name of God from the Hebrew (Yahweh). If you say that Jesus the man is truly God, you do so “in [or by] the Holy Spirit.” Of course, anyone can say this, even as a means of mocking. But the one who truly believes and professes this does not do it alone but by the Holy Spirt. As the apostle John reiterates, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2-3a).
The Holy Spirit’s presence and influence is then essential to a credible profession of faith “Anyone,” Paul tells the Romans, “who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9b). The true Christian then is known not by the Spirit’s absence but his presence, as the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, indwells all who are in Christ. True Christians will never believe and profess that Jesus is accursed, because the Spirit within us tells us he is truly the Lord, and no “house divided against itself will stand” (Matt. 12:26b). The Holy Spirit’s presence is a defining characteristic of who is and who is not truly in Christ, and he reveals himself in us through the fruit he produces and the gifts he gives.
Same Spirit
Given the unity of the gospel message we profess by the Spirit, one might assume a monolithic manifestation in the church. There is a commonality to the fruit we bear, whether love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control.[5] But in terms of our spiritual gifts, there is intentional diversity. Paul explains, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone” (1 Cor. 12:4-6). In the church, the one body of Christ, God the Father empowers us to serve God the Son through the unique and varied gifts of God the Spirit. In terms of our spiritual gifts, we can truly say to one another, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7b).
These spiritual gifts vary within the church as the Spirit bestows them with the purpose of building up the body. And, this is the point that Paul emphasizes. While we are to be grateful for the gifts God has given us, we are not gifted individually and uniquely for the purpose of self-fulfillment or self-promotion but for the edification of others. You are not the purpose of your gifts, and I am not the purpose of mine. When we fixate on ourselves, rather than the common good, division in the church is sure to follow. But serving one another with our gifts brings unity.
This is not simply because we are behaving in a considerate way but because to serve the body of Christ is to serve Christ himself. But let’s be honest: Some people in the church are easier to serve than others, right? But who are we really serving? Whether hard or easy, we must see our serving as serving Christ. And when we see the use of our spiritual gifts from this perspective, we will serve one another rightly as well as fight the temptation of gift comparison and ranking. For, the greatest gift in Christ’s church is the one used for his sake.
As an aside, this is also how you learn to identify your spiritual gifts, if you don’t know already. It’s not through testing or training; it’s through service. Serve Christ’s church in every opportunity you can, and you will know what your gifts are. And don’t be surprised if you find unmet needs that require your gifts, as if they were waiting on you, because they probably were.
This is of course by God’s design, who is not a passive spectator but is actively empowering us through his Spirit to use the gifts that he has given us in serving the body of Christ. And because he empowers us to use what he has given he gets all the glory, as he should. Is my gifting greater than yours? Does your gifting grant you a greater status than me? Of course not: You did not earn your gifts; I did not earn mine. God has given them to us, every one of us, for every one of us, no exceptions. “To each,” Paul says, “is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).
Please be advised though: If you use your gifts to serve others in the church for the Lord’s sake, you will experience a sense of sanctified satisfaction and Spirit-filled joy. So, prepare yourself!
One Body
In the human body, all the parts (or members) work together for the benefit of the body as a whole. Though all the parts differ, their differences don’t work in opposition to the health of the body but in unity. This is why Paul uses the human body to describe a healthy church:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12).
As we are “in Christ,” we are all one in him, as his body.
Paul makes this point using the significance of Christian baptism: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). While baptism does not save, it signifies our incorporation into the visible church. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism explains, “Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.”[6] “Baptism is,” as one commentator puts it, “a sacrament of incorporation and unity.”[7]
But it is not the sacrament of baptism in itself that makes us “in Christ,” but the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Of course, we cannot physically see the Holy Spirit work, as Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). But, God does give us baptism, a visible sign signifying the spiritual reality. For those who were baptized as covenant children, when you came to faith in Christ, you looked back to your baptism, as it symbolized the reality of the Spirit’s regenerating work. For those who were baptized after you professed faith, your baptism confirmed the reality of the Spirit’s regenerating work. In both cases, baptism signifies and seals our “engrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.”[8]
Christian baptism then is not merely a memorable act of our past, done and perhaps forgotten, but is an essential aspect of our sanctification. When we are tempted to sin, we should look back to our baptism, remembering with gratitude the grace it signifies, for the sin it mortifies, by the faith that sanctifies. In looking back to our baptism, we remember that the Lord “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5). Or, as Paul encouraged the Galatians, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). I am reminded of the example of Martin Luther who fought temptation and the snares of the devil by reminding himself repeatedly, “I am a child of God, I am baptized, I believe in Jesus Christ crucified for me.”[9]
And all of this we share in the church, regardless of our ethnicity, or social status, or whatever else once divided us, “in one Spirit . . . baptized into one body.” We who have received the sign and seal of God’s covenant of grace are a covenant family made up from every tribe, tongue, and nation, as we together profess that “Jesus is Lord.” Continuing with the metaphor of water, Paul says, we “all were made to drink of one Spirit.” The verb translated “drink” here is a word commonly used in agriculture, such as the irrigation of crops. In this sense, we have been, as it were, “saturated with one Spirit,”[10] and so are “one holy, catholic, apostolic church,”[11] as we confess.
This is a fact, but it doesn’t make unity automatic. Sometimes unity in the church can seemingly disappear. Which is why we must heed Paul’s counsel to a conflicted and error-ridden church: “I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). What unifies us is the gospel, true faith in the righteous life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we believe only through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit.
When we remember what we once were apart from Christ, it unites us. When we remember that not according to our works but the grace of God, we were saved, it unites us. When we remember that all that we have in Christ has been given to us, it unites us. When we remember God has given us the same Spirit that we may serve one another, it unites us. Let us then, by the power of God the father, to the praise of God the Son, through the work of the Holy Spirit, celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ, that sinners saved by grace, like you and me, may be as one.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Acts 2:3
[3] Calvin’s Institutes, 3.1.4 quoted in Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), 604.
[4] Acts 2:41
[5] Gal. 5:22-23a
[6] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 95, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 399.
[7] Kim Riddlebarger, First Corinthians (Powder Springs: Tolle Lege Press, 2013), 333.
[8] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 94, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 398.
[9] https://bredenhof.ca/2017/01/26/luther-baptizatus-sum-i-am-baptized/
[10] Goodspeed’s translation quoted in Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 169.
[11] “The Apostles’ Creed,” Trinity Hymnal, Rev. Ed. (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, 1990), 845.
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