Chapter 30
Chapter 30

The Holy Spirit

   In the Old Covenant, God manifested Himself to Israel as One God. This was a startling revelation to man at a time when the world around him was a sea of polytheism.
   Then, after many centuries when God came to earth in the person of His son, He was presented as three in one. As we study the life of Christ, we are conscious of the Three in One.
   At the beginning of Jesus' public life, at His baptism, the voice of the Father spoke out of heaven. "This is my beloved son," and the Spirit descended visibly upon Him in the form of a dove (Matthew 3:16-17). Here a three-fold revelation of God is given to man on the level of his physical senses.
   In Christ's teaching, preaching, and private conversations, He constantly spoke of His Father and Himself as two distinct persons, and yet declared equality, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Again He said: "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

Trinity Revealed

   In Christ's teaching, a third is brought in as being God also. In His last and longest recorded talk with His disciples in the upper room, the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus said, "The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said unto you." (John 14:26)
   A major part of Christ's last talk with the disciples dealt with the Holy Spirit who was to come to take His place. This message is recorded in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of the Gospel of John.
   Everything in the description in the Bible relating to the Three called Father, Son and Holy Spirit, presents definitely and absolutely no more and no less than three persons in the Godhead. It has been called by theologians and philosophers, the "secret of the universe, and absolute threeness, and an absolute oneness."
   In an absolute threeness, each one is distinct from the other two. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. No one of the three could possibly be either of the other two; and no two of the three can exist without the third.
   God is manifested as an absolute threeness; yet He is also an absolute oneness. The three are absolutely one. Each one is represented as God. That does not mean that each one is a part of God, but each one is God. Each one is the whole of God. Personality is not divisible. God cannot be divided.
   God is three in one. Each one of the three is God, and each one is the whole of God. The three are represented as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three modes of being which God is. It is not primarily three ways in which God acts, but three modes of Being.
   The Word of God, makes clear to us that the Father is first; the Son is second; and the Holy Spirit is third (Matthew 28:19). It does not mean that one is first in deity, for all are God. It does not mean that one is Creator, for all are infinite. It does not mean one is first in time, for all are eternal. It can only mean that the Father is first, the Son is second, the Spirit is third in logical order.
   The scripture represents the Father as the source. The eternal Son is begotten of the Father, and the eternal Spirit is the "Comforter, whom the Father will send you in My name" (John 14:26). God works through the Son. In Him and through Him He creates.
   Colossians 1:16 "For in Him were all things created, in heaven and upon the earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things have been created through Him and unto Him."
   Christ works now among men through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, like the Father is unseen. His chief work is to reveal the Son, and in the Son He reveals the Father. Therefore, His ministry, although unseen, is to reveal the fullness of the Godhead to man, and through man.
   We are living in what is termed the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that has made the Father and the Son so real to us. Therefore, knowledge of the Holy Spirit is essential to us. We want to know His nature, His ministry in us and through us.

Need of Definite Study of the Holy Spirit

   There is a real need for definite study of the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. A small portion of attention has been to the present day work of the Holy Spirit in comparison to that which has been given to the earthly life of Christ.
   A. J. Gordon in his book entitled The Ministry of the Holy Spirit asks, "Why not employ the same method in writing about the third person of the Trinity as is employed in considering the second person?"
   Many stories of the life of Christ have been written, beginning with His incarnation, and ending with His ascension on Mt. Olivet. The Savior lived before His incarnation, and has continued His ministry since the time of His ascension to the Father; yet it gives to us a definiteness of impression to distinguish His visible life from His invisible.
   So also, as we study the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit, we find it advantageous to separate His special present day ministry on this earth from His ministry before and after. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the age of Grace of God (John 1:17) began on the day of Pentecost and shall continue until the Second Coming of Jesus.
   When Christ came to earth as a man, He had a ministry to fulfill, and when He had accomplished it, He returned unto the Father. His ministry on earth had a time limit. So also in His appointed time, the Holy Spirit came into the world, having a certain definite mission to fulfill. This ministry is being carried on now, in us, and through us, and shall continue until completed.
   Christ existed and had a work and ministry before His incarnation; He had a work and ministry on earth, which made the incarnation necessary. Since His ascension from the Mt. Olivet, He has a definite ministry. Even so, the Holy Spirit existed and had a ministry previous to Pentecost; He has a work and ministry since Pentecost; He will have a ministry after the Second Coming of Christ.

Reality of the Holy Spirit's Ministry

   The coming of the Holy Spirit into the world, and His appointed ministry here is just as real and definite as was the incarnation and earthly ministry of Christ. The ministry of the Holy Spirit has become vague and mysterious to us because there has not been a revelation of the Holy Spirit to the physical senses of man, as there was of Christ.
   Christ's ministry necessitated His becoming a man in order to legally take man's place and die for man's sin (Hebrews 2:14-15). Therefore, He was revealed to the senses of man. John said, "That which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we have beheld and our hands have handled concerning the word of life" (1 John 1:1-2).
   Christ as a man could be seen and touched by man; therefore, His ministry has been more real to us than the ministry and person of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit cannot be contacted by our five senses. We may form a mental picture of Christ, while we cannot of the Holy Spirit.
   The purpose of the Holy Spirit's ministry upon the earth is not the same as that of Christ's earthly ministry. Christ came to pay, as man's substitute, the penalty of Adam's sin. This made it necessary that He identify Himself with man (Hebrews 2:14 cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, He has been revealed to us as a man in a body like ours. Christ's earthly ministry was local. He could only be in one place on earth at one time. Now He has His position as Mediator between God and man.
   The Holy Spirit could not come in a human body as Christ came. His ministry could not be fulfilled in that manner. His ministry could not be localized. He came to impart the nature of God to the spirit of man. He came not in a human body, but to indwell the bodies of those who had become new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet, His coming was as positive, as definite, as the coming of Christ in the incarnation. He, the third person of the Godhead, is actually here upon the earth, working in and through the Body of Christ, the New Creation, His Church.

The Coming of the Holy Spirit Foretold by Christ

   Christ's coming to earth was foretold by prophets and angels. Christ, Himself foretold the advent of the Holy Spirit into the world in His last discourses to His disciples in John 14, 15, and 16. He foretold the coming of the One who was co-equal with Himself and who should take His place.
   Read John 14:16-20, John 15:26-27, John 16:1-16, and Acts 1:4-5. Do not only read, but also carefully study and mediate upon these scriptures.
   The Holy Spirit did not come on this divine mission until the Day of Pentecost. He had been the divine agent of creation. In the creation of the physical world He had imparted life, form, and power of development to dead formless matter. Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
   He had illumined and inspired the prophets of the Old Covenant. 1 Peter 1:10-12 tells us, "Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of God which was in them did point unto when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow. To whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto you did they minister these things which have now been announced unto you through them who preached the gospel by the Holy Spirit, sent forth from heaven; which things angels desire to look into." Then 2 Peter 1:21 states "For no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit."
   He had descended upon Christ in the form of a dove at Jesus' baptism (Mark 1:10), and anointed Him for His earthly ministry. Luke 4:1 "And Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, returning from Jordan and was led in the spirit in the wilderness" and in Luke 4:14, "And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee."

Why the Holy Spirit Had Not Been Given

   Yet the Holy Spirit had not yet been given to the believers in Jesus Christ. The time for the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the believers in Christ had not yet come, because the work of Calvary in atonement and resurrection had not yet taken place.
   John 7:39 "But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Spirit was not yet given (to believers in Christ Jesus) because Jesus had not yet been glorified."
   (Note: in Old Testament times the Holy Spirit was given without any discernable qualifications. Now, after the glorification of Christ, the Holy Spirit's activity would be exclusively to believers in Christ.)
   The Holy Spirit could not come until Christ had been glorified. Christ had to die for man's offenses, rise when man had been declared righteous (Romans 4:25), and enter into the Holy of Holies with His own blood, obtaining eternal redemption for man (Hebrews 9:12).
   Christ came that man might have life (John 10:10). The object of His death and resurrection was to free man from Satan's dominion (Hebrews 2:14) and make it possible for man to receive the life of God (John 1:12).
   The Holy Spirit came to impart the nature of God to the spirit of man in the New Birth (John 3:3-8) and then to fill this new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) with the fullness of the God (Ephesians 3:19).
   Man could not receive the nature of God until our heavenly Father had accepted the blood of Jesus. When Jesus entered the Holy of Holies and cleansed the heavenly utensils (Hebrews 9:23-24), He then sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 9:11-12).
   He had put sin away (John 1:29, Hebrews 9:26). The acceptance of the blood of Jesus by the Father signified that man's redemption from Satan's authority was complete. Man now had a legal right to receive the nature of God. The blood of Jesus became the seal of man's redemption. Christ became the Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Man, a child of Satan, now had the right to approach God through a Mediator and receive the life and nature of God.
   And now the Holy Spirit could be given to the believer in Christ. Jesus had been glorified; man's redemption was complete.
   No man was born again before the Day of Pentecost. The disciples had not become the sons of God. They had been called "friends" by Christ (John 15:15). They were under the old covenant, until the blood of the New Testament was shed on the cross. They did not understand the death or resurrection of Christ. They were expecting Him to set up an earthly kingdom, even after His resurrection (Acts 1:6).


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