What Is the “Witness of the Spirit”?
Feeling or emotion should not be discounted, but should be kept in its right place. Praise God for every blessed emotion that is of his Spirit, but praise him also when the emotion is entirely absent. He and his grace remain the same, while the feelings go up and down. There should be, indeed, a continuous consciousness of his presence, but consciousness is based on fact and is not to be confused with emotion.
As to the “witness of the Spirit,” there is no suggestion in the Word of God that this “witness” has any connection with a great flood-tide of feeling. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son. And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:10, 11). The witness is God’s record, or God’s eternal Word to us, that he has done something, that he has given us a gift. He does not want us to feel this word, or witness of his. He wants us to believe it. One who does not believe it makes God a liar, and this is what Christians are in danger of doing, both in regard to salvation from the penalty of sin and salvation from the power of sin. When we believe this word, and the wonder of the gift breaks upon us more and more, we shall have feelings, of course, and they will find expression according to our different temperaments and environments.
(Dr. Griffith Thomas notes that the often abused passage on the witness of the Spirit in Romans eight does not say that the Spirit beareth witness to our spirit, but with our spirit, that we are children of God. That is, our spirit says “Father,” and the Holy Spirit says “Father” with us.)