The Inbeing and Operations of the Spirit in Christ
“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Bpirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and might; the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” — Isa. xi. 2.
To whom but the Lord Jesus can these words refer? He alone is the ‘rod’ arising ‘out of the stem of Jesse, the ‘ branch growing out of his roots, the lineal descendant of the royal house of David; yet in the circumstances of his parentage, birth, and subsequent life, — poor, mean, and lowly, — as saith the same prophet, a “root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” To this agrees the testimony of Paul in his argument on the Messiahship of Christ addressed to the Jews: “And when he had removed him (Saul) he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shgll fulfil all my will. Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.” Clearly, then, is it a beautiful and striking prophecy of Christ, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord in such plenitude and richness was to rest.
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In the preceding pages we have presented to view, in various points of light, the different actings of the Holy Spirit in the believer; tracing them from the first conviction of sin in the soul to its i sealing unto the day of Jesus Christ, There is yet another and a deeper unfolding of the Spirit’s operation not hitherto, or but indirectly, touched upon; and yet so closely allied to his work in the regenerate as not to be overlooked and disregarded. We allude to the Operation of the Spirit in Christ. In treating this subject, we purpose, in, the first place, making a few observations explanatory of the doctrine of the indwelling of the Spirit in our Lord. This will prepare us for considering some of his operations in Christ. We shall then be conducted to the practical instructions which this truth conveys.
The doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus would seem at first sight to be a most inexplicable one; if not contradictory of other doctrines of the Bible long and fondly cherished by the Christian church. But as we advance step by step in its elucidation, with the same Spirit for our guide, we shall not find it difficult, we trust, to comprehend a truth so clearly one of express revelation, and fraught with such immense blessing to the believer.
We commence with a broad and emphatic declaration of the absolute Deity of the Son of God. The very nature of which doctrine must exclude all idea of an indwelling of the Spirit in Christ considered as God. The Deity of our Lord could not depend for one moment upon the Spirit. That instant it felt its dependency, it ceased to be divine. It is the glory of God that He is independent and self-existent; deriving neither His being nor His happiness from any others, while all others necessarily 24 *
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derive both from Him. Thus the indwelling of the Spirit had no reference to the Godhead of our Lord; that standing alone, independent, self-existent, resplendent in its own essential, uncreated glory. Let no man lightly esteem this doctrine. Its rejection involves a virtual rejection of every fundamental doctrine of revealed religion. “He that denieth the Son hath not the Father.” Words that should sink down into the ears in tones of awful import and solemnity. In vain we attempt to worship God, while we rob His Son of his essential glory. In vain we profess to serve Him, while in doing so we trample in contempt beneath our feet His ‘unspeakable gift.* Will God regard such worship, or accept such service? Never! If we destroy the only ‘ glass ’ in which He is perfectly seen, how can we know Him? And if we turn from the only ‘door’ by which he is approached, how can we come unto him? The Son of God is that ‘ glass for “no man knoweth the Father but he to whom the Son shall reveal him.” The Son of God is that ‘Door;* for he hath so emphatically declared it, — “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” 0 tremble at entertaining the shadow of a thought derogatory to the essential dignity of the Son of God! He whom you ignorantly worship has issued His command and rolled His tremendous thunder round the universe, “All men shall honour the Son even as they honour the Father.”
We proceed now to state in what part of our Lord’s twofold or complex nature the Holy Spirit dwelt; and to whose inbeing and operation we are to ascribe so much of the remarkable and the glorious in his wondrous life. The humanity of our Lord was that nature. As man, the “Spirit of the Lord rested upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” Now it is of the utmost importance in the further discussion of this subject, that we keep clearly in view the perfect manhood of our Lord, else we shall find it difficult to comprehend many things which can only he predicated of his inferior nature. When the Holy Ghost therefore affirms that the “Word was made flesh:” that as the “children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of tho same;” that he was “bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,” then we hesitate not fo give the fullest credenee to the doctrine which teaches the pure and perfect humanity as part of the mysteriously-constituted person of “God manifest in the flesh.” In no sense whatever must the humanity of our Lord he considered as partaking of the substance of that divinity. It was not deified in any degree by its union with the Deity, any more than the Deity was humanized by its union with the humanity. The similarity of our Lord’s human nature with ours, runs its parallel to the utmost limit, with the exception, emphatically expressed, and when not expressed, always so understood, of his perfect sinlesmess. All the essential properties of our nature he assumed, — reason, conscience, will, affections, desires; in a word, all the affinities of which our material humanity is composed, belonged to him. “He took not upon him the nature of angels, hut he took upon him the seed of Abraham.”
Now in this perfect and pure humanity the Holy Ghost entered and dwelt. To his influence are we to ascribe those actions which threw such interest and beauty around every step of the Lord’s short but eventful life as man. We have thus, as briefly as the importance of the sub-INBEING AND OPERATIONS OF
ject would admit, explained the doctrine of the inbeing of the (Spirit in Christ, preparing the way for considering more fully the nature of those operations resulting therefrom.
We commence with what may be regarded as the foundation truth — the formation of our Lord’s humanity. Here was seen the first operation of the Holy Spirit in Christ. About to tabernacle upon earth, he would himself prepare the temple he was to fill and grace with his presence. It would be in every respect worthy of so glorious a being. In ascribing to the Holy Spirit the creation of our Lord’s human nature, we do not overlook either the concurrence of the Father in the work, as clearly evidenced by the words of the Son himself, A body hast thou prepared me;” nor the voluntary assumption of that body by Christ, thus emphatically expressed, “Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” In laying this the foundation of the great work of redemption, it is delightful to trace a unity of counsel, of operation, and of end in the three persons of the one God, as we do through every subsequent part of the grand expedient. Nowhere does the truth of a Triune God appear so clear or so glorious as when viewed in this the mightiest of all divine achievements — the salvation of man. The wisdom that planned, the love that undertook, the power that executedjit, unite in ascribing equal, glory and praise to the groht Three in One.
But the creating act we must ascribe especially to the Holy Spirit. He it was who framed and constructed the glorious temple into which he himself was about to enter and dwell. The testimony of God’s word on this interesting and important truth is written as with a sunbeam. “The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” See also Matt. i. 18, 20. On this point a multiplicity of proof were needless. One such passage as that which we have just quoted establishes the doctrine to demonstration. The conception we must acknowledge was miraculous. That a virgin should conceive and bear a son, was a thing unheard of before or since. Where shall we look for the solution of a mystery so great? We find it not in the power, or in the wisdom of man. In the accomplishment of a work so marvellous, and with an end so transcendant as this, God sets man aside, and retains to Himself the almightiness of the achievement. Behold the virgin overshadowed by the Holy Ghost! Enveloped in divine, essential holiness! Covered with the power of the Highest! What hand can lift the veil and reveal the mystery? Enough for us is it to know “that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost that the “holy thing which is born of her is the Son of God!” Let us turn aside and see this great sight — the “Word made flesh!” Marvellous event! Astonishing prodigy of infinite wisdom and love! The Creator assumes into union with Himself the form of a creature. The Sovereign of the universe descends from the height of His heavenly sanctuary, and tabernacles with men. The ‘ everlasting Father’ is seen in the person of a weeping, suffering babe. Infinite Majesty stoops to become our near kinsman, ‘ bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,’ that his might be the right of redemption. How wretched and forlorn, and desperate must have been our condition to have demanded an ex-INBEING AND OPER VTIONS OF
pedient of salvation and recovery so new, so strange, so vast as this! How holy must he that law, how inflexible that justice, how sinful that sin, which required a stoop so profound, a sacrifice so costly, a sin-offering so great! Let us join in the anthem of the heavenly host, and echo back from earth their song of praise, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” “Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.”
The holy temple — the pure humanity of Christ — thus prepared, the Holy Ghost proceeds to fill and enrich it with all grace, and wisdom, and holiness, thus fulfilling the evangelical promise. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” This took place contemporaneously with the miraculous conception of our Lord. The divine power that created the temple of his flesh, at the same moment replenished it with all grace. In other words, it became in an instant filled with the Holy Ghost. John bore witness of him and said, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” This concurs with the same testimony in another place, “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him” (John iii. 84) as he did to the prophets; who had it but partially, in a very limited degree. But Jesus, the great Prophet whom God was to raise up, — the Prophet of his church, — was to be filled with the Spirit, yea, to possess it without measure. The reason for this will appear more evident as we advance. Let us now trace some of the operations of the Spirit thus dwelling in Christ in an immeasurable degree.
The eminent and habitual holiness which characterised our Lord, must be ascribed to the Spirit. It was not enough for Christ’s fitness for his great work that he should be created pure and sinless. So are angels; yet angels, summoned to a work like that of oujr Lord Jesus, would find mere sinlessness of nature an imperfect fitness for its accomplishment. There was something more requisite for his work than that he should be free from sin. His human nature required supernatural holiness; it needed to be filled with all grace. He was to live a life of faith even as we do. As man he was a is dependent upon supernatural grace as we are. The human nature was a real substance with ours. Its separation from the slightest moral taint did not invest it with supernatural power of itself, thus rendering it independent of the Spirit. He as much leaned on the grace that makes us what we are as the feeblest child of God. We do not say that our Lord grew in grace by that same process of progressive sanctification which marks the history of all believers. This were to falsify and overthrow our position of the plenitude of the Spirit at his birth. Nevertheless, as our Lord increased in stature, the grace with which he was endowed as a babe developed itself, increasing in magnitude and splendour until his work was finished. Thus our Lord “increased in stature, and in favour with God and man:” u He waxed strong in the Spirit.”
To the Spirit, too, must be ascribed the various gifts with which Christ was so richly and pre-eminently endowed. We see him while yet a little child, straying from beneath the maternal eye. After three days, where
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is he found? “In the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers. ,, From whence had he this wisdom and understanding, this counsel and knowledge? We answer, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon him! It was the Spirit speaking in him, and speaking by him. The intellectual light which darted forth its beams through the humanity of our Lord, emanated from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Before it vanished the sophistry, the infidelity, and the cavilling of the Jewish doctors, as the night vanishes before advancing day. What extraordinary endowments! How glorious the Spirit that created them!
The miracles of Christ — the authentication of his divine messiahship and mission — must be traced to the power of the Holy Ghost. Who but God could turn the curse into a blessing, educe good from evil, make the wrath of man to praise him, and restrain the remainder? How strikingly does this appear in the false estimate which the Jewish Sanhedrim formed of the miracles of our Lord. They ascribed them to Satanic agency! This brought out the truth in the clearest point of light. But for their blasphemous assertion, we should not perhaps have received so clear a vindication of the nature, character, and design of our Lord’s miraculous works as we have. The Jews infamously and blasphemously declared, “This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” Jesus (who knew their thoughts) instantly meets their assertion by declaring that this would be to present the anomalous spectacle of Satan divided against Satan, a thing fatal to the security of his kingdom. Then he asserts the power by which he did eject devils — “But if I cast out devils bp the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you/* Matt. xii. 24 — 28. In thus ascribing the miraculous operations of our Lord to the devil, they were found guilty of “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost,” the sin that “shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” The doctrine of the Spirit’s agency in the miracles of Christ finds yet another proof in the words of Peter on the day of Pentecost — “Ye men of Irrael, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.” What power of its own had the humanity of our Lord to produce such stupendous works as these? — “the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up?” None whatever! It was totally incompetent to a work so divine, pure and sinless though it was. These ‘miracles and wonders and signs God did by Christ,’ through the agency of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in him. He was to rest ‘without measure’ on Jesus as a ‘ Spirit of might!’ And these were the puttings forth of that ‘might.’ The Spirit in Christ poured the brilliant light of day on the sightless eye-ball, and sweet sounds of music on the deaf ear; the Spirit in Christ made the lame to leap as an hart, and restored to the banished leper the soundness and freshness of a little child; the Spirit in Christ fed the thousands in the wilderness fainting with hunger, and summoned back to life the only son of a bereft widow, and the beloved brother of the sorrowing sisters. These prodigies of mercy Jesus wrought, — and wrought, as he most distinctly and solemnly declares, ‘ by the Holy 25
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Ghost, Reader, beware how you tamper with our Lord’s miracles! Remember there is a sin for which no atonement provides, which for its tremendous turpitude extends beyond the range even of infinite mercy, — that sin is denying the divinity of our Lord’s miracles, ascribing them to any other power aught than that of God the Holy Ghost.
We find a remarkable manifestation of the Holy Spirit at the period and in the act of our Lord’s baptism. The passages which record the circumstance are these: “And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matt. iii. 16, 17. “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan.” Luke iv. 1. This was a remarkable period of our Lord’s history, and a most significant act. From this time he may be said to have dated a new era of his life. Previously, he had been but preparing for his work; now he fully entered upon it. Before, the Spirit of God was fitting him for his office, now he fully invests him with it. It would seem as if the full development of the Spirit in Jesus was reserved to signalize this eventful period and wondrous act of his life. At this moment he entered upon his public ministry — the great, the mighty, the persuasive Preacher of his own most glorious gospel. It was meet that he should be inaugurated in his office beneath the canopy of the Holy Ghost, — heaven parting and throwing back its curtains to let down its splendour around his head. It was proper that divine attestations should be given authenticating the mission in which he was now about publicly to engage. And so it was. All this transpired at the baptism of Christ. Emerging from beneath the waters of Jordan, the heavens opened and shed down their soft lustre on the scene. The Holy Ghost descended in the emblem of a dove, and rested upon him. And lo! the Father’s voice is heard amid the stillness and solemnity of that moment, — 44 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Now was he “filled with the Holy Ghost.” All that his human nature was capable of containing it now received. Every gift and grace needed for the great work which he was about to accomplish was included in this immeasurable gift of the Spirit. Now too was he 44 anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.” As the Prophet, Priest, and King of his church, he was pre-eminently enriched, having all-sufficiency for himself, and an ample supply for all the need of his people. 4 With him’ was to be the residue of the Spirit.’
In the conflict of our Lord in the wilderness, we again must note a remarkable interference of the Spirit. The Evangelist Matthew thus narrates the circumstance: 44 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” Mark, in recording the same event, employs somewhat different phraseology. “And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.” Both versions are true. In the former sense he was 4 led ’ by the Spirit into the wilderness, implying the intelligent, rational, and free current of his mind, and the facile yielding of his will to the gentle and peaceable drawings of the Holy Ghost. In the latter sense, he was 4 driven 9 of the devil into the wilderness, denoting the extraordinary and impetuous power with which he was now filled, and the holy impatience with which he panted
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for the conflict and the victory. In that conflict, mark the operation of the Spirit. It would seem as if the battle were not so much between Christ and Satan, as between the Holy Spirit and Satan. This would appear from the fact, that our adorable Lord met and repelled every suggestion of the subtle foe by the “Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit.” Who can compute the comfort, the strength, the succour, which as man he was the recipient of in that trying period of forty days and forty nights, proceeding from the Holy Spirit the Indweller, the Guide, the Comforter of his people. Blessed Jesus! thou didst know what the temptation of Satan was, and thou didst know too what were the consolations and the soothings of the ‘Spirit. Having enlarged upon the temptation of our Lord in another work,* we allude to it here only as illustrating the mighty power and operation of the Spirit in Jesus.
Retiring from this long and fearful conflict — covered with the glory of his triumph — we read that “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” Still did the Spirit hover round him and attend upon his steps. He then came to Nazareth, went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up to preach. And what was the first sentence that he uttered? Most significant of the great truth we are now upon: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them v that are bound, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Wondrous words! Worthy of the Spirit who indited them, and worthy of the Saviour who uttered
* “The Glory of the Redeemer in his Person and Work/* and applied them to himself. Here was the source of our Lord’s fitness for his office, and the secret of his power as a Preacher of the gospel — even the anointing of the Spirit. 44 Never man spake like this man,” because never was man so filled and anointed of the Holy Ghost as he. All ‘marvelled at the gracious words that fell from his lips,’ because into those 4 lips grace was poured.’ It was this anointing that constituted him the Prince of preachers. He was “anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.”
As a witness to the Deity of the Son of Grod and to the truth of his Messiahship, the Holy Spirit filled a distinct and important office. Who so well calculated to vindicate the person and character of the Lord Jesus from the reproaches and aspersions cast upon him by the scribes and rulers, and assert and prove his divine nature, character and mission, as God the Holy Ghost? This testimony the Spirit bore. To this our divine and adorable Lord alludes when he says, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” And to what would the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, thus testify? That Christ was both the Son of God and the Son of Man; the two natures constituting him the great and all-sufficient Saviour of lost sinners. He would testify to the holiness of his character, to the love of his heart, to the grace of his nature, to the loveliness and glory that adorned him. We find two other allusions to this testimony of the Spirit for Christ in the words of his apostles equally as strong — “And we are his witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him,” Acts v. 32. 44 God INBEING AND OPERATIONS OP
also bearing witness with them, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his will.” Heb. ii. 4. And still the Spirit testifies of Christ in the church and in the world. Still he “reproves the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.” And still he dwells in the hearts of all his regenerate, ‘ taking of the things that are Christ’s, and showing them to their souls.’
With the death of Christ, we find the Holy Ghost closely and solemnly identified. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Heb. ix. 14. In what sense may it be understood our Lord offered himself up by the Spirit? Certainly not in that sense which would imply any intrinsic virtue accruing to his atonement from the Holy Spirit. The atoning work of our Lord derived all its importance, its value, and its efficacy from the dignity of his person; his Deity stamping his sacrifice with an infinite value, thus rendering it expiatory of sin and satisfactory to Divine justice. But it was by the acting of the Holy Spirit in the humanity of our Lord which enabled him to offer himself without spot to God. The great glory of our Lord’s sacrificial death lies in his having “offered himself.” In another place he says, “For their sakes I sanctify myself.” Now it was the same Spirit working so powerfully and graciously in him in the offering up of his humanity, which had formed that humanity, and which had so remarkably manifested forth his glory in it up to the time of its immolation. To what are to be traced the self-consuming zeal — the ardent love — the holy submission to the will and the full obedience to the command of the Father, so conspicuous in, and so necessary to, the death of Christ, but to the operation of the Holy Spirit in him? It was the Spirit who wrought his obedience, and faith, and love, and all the gracious actings in the soul of Christ, which rendered the offering of himself a “sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour unto God,” — and this he did “through the eternal Spirit.”
Nor must we overlook the operation of the Holy Spirit in connexion with the resurrection of our Lord. He has himself most clearly set forth this truth. “Christ hath also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” 1 Pet. iii. 18. “But if the Spirit that raiseth up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,” &c. Rom. viii. 11. This testimony concerning the Holy Spirit by no means invalidates that which also ascribes this act to the Father, Acts ii. 24; and to the Son himself, John x. 17, 18. But to the operation of the Spirit who doubtless during the three days of its entombment watched over it with sleepless vigilance, must be ascribed the immediate, acting, efficient power by which our Lord was raised from the dead. In this sense we understand the apostle’s expression, — “Justified in the Spirit.” Thus in raising Jesus from the dead, the Holy Spirit justified all the previous manifestations of his divine glory and his assertions of divine supremacy: thus, too, the Spirit vindicated his character from the aspersions which the ignorance and malice of his enemies had cast upon him, and so our Lord was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Most clearly then, was the prediction of the evangelical prophet literally fulfilled in Jesus, “And the Spirit of
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the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of oounsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
Let us now briefly attempt a spiritual and practical improvement of this rich and interesting theme.
And first, we learn the pre-eminent fitness of our Lord as the head of his church. We just needed such a glorious head as appears from this subject Jesus is. Moses could not have done; Aaron could not have sufficed. We wanted a head in whom “dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” We needed One not only ‘filled with the Spirit,’ but possessing it illimitably, even ‘without measure.’ With sufficient not only for himself, but for his poor needy people, who as empty vessels should hang upon him as their true Eliakim. In him there was no lack of the Spirit’s anointing. And 0 how much of that Spirit needed he himself in order to work out the great problem of man’s recovery! How could he have accomplished it, considered in his inferior nature as man, but as he was replenished or sustained by the supernatural grace of the Spirit! As the head of the church, then, expect from a source so full, so rich, and so ample, all spiritual blessings. “With him is the residue of the Spirit.” He is our true Aaron whose anointing floweth down to his feet in streams of grace adequate to the deepest necessity of the most feeble and lowly believer. To that fulness repair, nothing doubting of a welcome and a blessing. There was a sufficiency of the Spirit in Christ for himself, and there is a sufficiency in him for you. Come, then, and receive “grace for grace.” Grace needed by you, equal to all grace dwelling in him.
A solemn inference from this subject is — if our blessed and adorable Lord needed the Spirit, how much more do his people! If he needed him to strengthen, to comfort, to uphold, to teach, to anoint, how much deeper is our necessity of the same exalted blessing! He had no human sinful infirmity; there was no conflict in his soul between the antagonistical principles of sin and holiness; and yet as man he was a pensioner each moment upon the sanctifying, teaching, upholding grace of the Spirit, his deity operating by this divine and glorious agent. But our need of the same Spirit, 0 how infinitely greater! We are encompassed with innumerable sinful infirmities; we have a law in our members warring against the law of our mind; and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members. We are constantly assailed by Satan, and as constantly liable to yield. 0 with what power and constant actings of faith should we throw ourselves upon the Spirit! How ceaselessly should we pray to him with all supplication, imploring his guiding, teaching, sealing, comforting grace, to help us in every time of need!
The subject places the personal dignity and the official work of the Spirit in a striking point of light. Too lax views of the Holy Spirit we may entertain, but too exalted views we cannot. The great danger is in dishonouring and grieving him by low thoughts of the place which he occupies in the church of God, and of the part which belongs to him in the salvation of man. But who can trace his operations in our Lord and not rise from the contemplation of the subject with the deepest conviction of the necessity and the importance of possessing a large portion of the Spirit, in order to deep holiness of heart and great usefulness of life? Christian reader, accustom yourself to address the Spirit in your approach
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at the footstool of mercy, as a divine and distinct person; recognizing him in all the offices which he sustains in the great economy of grace. This will very much tend to expand your mind with exalted views of his divine and personal glory; and at the same time, by devoutly contemplating his all-sufficiency, will make you more thoroughly acquainted with your own deep and urgent necessity of his grace. And whatever that necessity may be, ever bear in mind the Spirit is more than equal to it. *
How evident is it from the preceding outline of the Spirit’s work, that one especial part of his office is to glorify Christ. Who can reveal Jesus to the soul save the Spirit? As he only could work in Christ the glory which beamed forth from the Godhead through the manhood, so he only can throw that glory in upon the soul of man. Do I want the peace-speaking blood of atonement upon my conscience? — the Spirit applies it. Do I desire to know my acceptance in the righteousness of Christ? — the Spirit seals it. Do I long to see the Father revealed in the Son? — the Spirit unfolds him. Do I need in all my trials and conflicts to see the Lord Jesus to be my comfort? — the Spirit, the Comforter, takes of the things that belong to him and shows them to my soul. Thus in these and in a thousand other ways, the Spirit glorifies Christ, first in himself, and then in his people.
Few subjects of divine truth admit of so solemn and pointed an application to the unrenewed mind as this. In connexion with it there is one passage of most awful import. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his.” Here is a declaration which decides, reader, your state for eternity. It foretells your probable condition beyond the grave. If you have not now the Spirit of Christ as a convincer of sin — as a revealer of God’s dear Son within you — as an indweller and sanctifier, you are none of Christ’s! Nothing short of this gives you union to Jesus. The Spirit of life can alone make you a partaker of Christ’s life. We have already, in the first part of this volume, proved from the Scriptures of truth, that no outward rite or ceremonial observance, can possibly infuse life into dead matter; or, in other words, that neither baptism, nor the Lord’s supper, nor any other external rite can convey regenerating, saving, sanctifying grace to a soul “dead in trespasses and in sins.” The words again return, uttered as in tones of solemn thunder, “Ip any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Without Christ’s Spirit you are none of Christ’s members — you are none of Christ’s flock. That same Spirit who created the original and beautiful temple of the Lord’s humanity, filling it with grace and glory, must form you a temple of God, — dwelling in, sanctifying, and meetening you for heaven. Dying without this, poor sinner, hell must be your portion for ever. You may deny that there is any such Person, or any such operation as that of the Spirit. You may repudiate his existence — scorn his influence — and mock his grace, — but hark! — “Whosoever speaTceth against the Holy O-host, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come /” Awful words! Appalling declaration, falling from the lips of him who now pleads as a Saviour, but who will soon appear enthroned as a Judge.
To the Christian reader I would once more say, — Jesus is in heaven, alive at the right-hand of God, having received the promise of the Father, and is prepared to bestow the Spirit in all the plenitude of his grace on those who ask the gift at his hands. He who so fully possessed the Spirit himself, waits as richly to give it to others. As man, Jesus knew his own need, — as man he sympathizes with your’s. Be not contented, then, with asking this richest of all boons in a stinted measure, but seek it in its fulness. You are coming to the heart that loved you unto death, — that bled for you on the cross,
—that lives for you on the throne; that heaves and pants with all the intensity of infinite affection to pour down upon you the greatest, the richest of all blessings
—his own Spirit. Want you to gain the ascendency over your easily-besetting sins? then, “be filled with the Spirit.” Want you to hold creatures and creatureblessings in their proper place? then, “be filled with the Spirit.” Want you that Jesus should be the chief in your affection? then, “be filled with the Spirit.” Want you that there shall be no room in your heart for carnal joys, for worldly delights, for sinful pleasures? then, “be filled with the Spirit.” Want you to have much of the element of heaven below, inspiring you with longing desires for the full fruition of heaven above? — then “be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Thus will you be a ‘living epistle known and read of all men, Thus will the world ‘take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus, And thus, whatever your lawful calling may be, inscribed upon yourself, your labour, and your all, will be holiness to the Lord.