Q.

Will the Holy Spirit leave a believer who contracts HIV?
Do they still have eternal life or is only Jesus necessary?

A.

Hello,

Thank you for your connected questions.

I’d like to address your second question first. The Bible repeatedly promises eternal life to those who believe in Jesus (John 3:15,16, 36; 5:24; 6:47). Those who believe in Jesus have eternal life. Not will have, but have. Can you have eternal life for a little while? No, because you can’t have that which is eternal for a short period of time. Furthermore, eternal life is not something; eternal life is someone. Jesus is called “that eternal life” (1 John 1:2; cf. 5:20). Those who have eternal life have Jesus because He is that eternal life. Even if someone dies on their worst day, they still have eternal life. All who go to heaven enter not on their own merits but through the credited righteousness of Jesus Christ.

As to the other question, Jesus says He will never leave or forsake us (Heb. 13:5). Therefore, the Holy Spirit of Jesus will never leave a believer in Jesus. Believers in Jesus are regenerated. Their spirit becomes a “new man” consisting of God’s divine nature (Eph. 4:24; 1 John 3:9), and the Holy Spirit moves into that new creation part of man. Once this occurs, “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:18). The Holy Spirit never “un-joins” those He joins because, once they are joined, they are one spirit.

I know of a believer who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion. I know of another believer who contracted HIV through a brief time of backsliding into fleshy choices. Both had HIV, one innocently, the other not. Although the consequences of the virus affected both of these men, both knew Jesus as their Savior. Therefore, both still had eternal life because both possessed the indwelling life of Christ. Salvation is of the Lord!

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