"The Pentecostals say that 'You can receive the Holy Spirit, but not with sin in your heart.' Also, 'The Holy Spirit and sin cannot abide in the same heart.' This presupposes sinlessness. 'Pentecostalism . . . makes the mastery of . . . sin to be the condition for the grace of the Holy Spirit. Grace itself, or the forgiveness of sin, appears in Pentecostalism to play a role only in the Christian's conversion, rarely appears in other discussions, and thus ceases for all practical purposes to be the center and determinate of the whole Christian life. The reversal of the apostolic sequence of grace-then-obedience lies at the bottom of the Pentecostal error' (p. 233).
The smaller print on the same page is devastating. Bruner quotes, 'Many believers count on the 'Christ for us,' but not on the 'Christ in us' [Colossians 1:27]; and yet it is this 'Christ in us' who is the hope of glory. That means: the heavenly resurrection life can only be imparted to us when we let Christ live in us. The forgiveness of sins, as important and necessary as it is, does not suffice for this.' Then Bruner notes that 'in Col. 1:27 the not primarily individual or internal, but communal congregational. . . . Furthermore 'Christ in us' is not a higher better form of 'Christ for us.' 'Is Christ divided?''
When the Pentecostals say, 'As sinners we accept Christ, as saints we accept the Holy Spirit,' Bruner answers, 'Not only is the separation of the Spirit from Christ serious (is Christ without the Spirit?) but it is suggested that while sinners can accept Christ, the Holy Spirit must be obtained by men more highly qualified. The Pentecostal conditions define the meaning of 'saints'" (P. 235). - Gordon H. Clark, The Holy Spirit, Pg. 94
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