The Holy Spirit and the Cross

Tue Holy Spirit ever leads us to the Cross. It was so with Christ. The Spirit taught Him, and enabled Him to offer Himself without spot to God.

It was so with the disciples. The Spirit, with whom they were filled, led them to preach Christ as the Crucified One. Later on He led them to glory in the fellowship of the Cross when they were deemed worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake.

And the Cross directed them again to the Spirit. When Christ had borne the Cross, He received the Spirit from the Father, that He might be poured out. When the three thousand bowed before the Crucified One, they received the promise of the Holy Spirit. When the disciples rejoiced in their experience of the fellowship of the Cross, they received the Holy Spirit afresh. The union between the Spirit and the Cross is indissoluble; they belong inseparably to one another. We see this especially in the Epistles of Paul. ‘‘Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you.... Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?’’ (Gal. 3: 1, 2).

‘‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith’’ (Gal. 3: 18, 14). ‘‘God sent ‘His Son... to redeem them that were under the law...and... hath sent forth the Spirit of His

Son into your hearts’’ (Gal. 4: 4-6). ‘‘And they — that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh... If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit’? — (Gal 5: 24, 25). ‘‘Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ... that we should serve — in newness of spirit’’ (Rom. 7: 4-6). ‘‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For...God —. .. condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous- — ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’? (Rom. 8: — 9-4). ‘

In everything and always the Spirit and the Cross are inseparable. Yes, even in heaven. The Lamb, as it had been slain, standing in the midst of the Throne had ‘‘seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth’’ (Rev. 5: 6). Again: ‘‘He showed me a pure river of water of — life, clear as crystal [Is this other than the Holy Spirit?] proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb’’ (Rev. 22: 1). When Moses smote the rock, the water streamed out and Israel drank. When the Rock Christ was actually smitten, and He

had taken His place as the slain Lamb on the Throne

of God, there flowed out from under the Throne the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the whole world. How foolish it is to pray for the fullness of the — Spirit, if we have not first placed ourselves under the full power of the Cross! Just think of the one hundred and twenty disciples. The crucifixion of — Christ had touched, broken, and taken possession of their entire hearts. They could speak or think of nothing else, and when the Crucified One had shown them His hands and His feet, He said unto them: ‘‘ Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’? And so also, — with their hearts full of the Crucified Christ, now received up into heaven, they were prepared to be filled with the Spirit. They dared to proclaim to the people: ‘‘Repent and believe in the Crucified One’’; and they also received the Holy Spirit. Christ gave Himself up entirely to the Cross. The disciples also did the same. The Cross demands this

also from us, it would have our entire life. To comply with this demand requires nothing less than a powerful act of the will, for which we are unfit, and a powerful act of God of which he may be assured

who casts himself, in helplessness, but unreservedly

on God.