1878 167 Each of the divine persons in the eternal Godhead has, in connection with Christianity, obtained a blessedly distinctive expression, which never previously had any place in the revelations made to faith. The Father has been Himself revealed; the Son, as man, risen from the dead, has been glorified in heaven; and the Holy Ghost has for eighteen centuries been a dweller in the house of God upon earth, and in each member of the body of Christ.
Yet it would be difficult to predicate which of these blessed facts — facts which constitute the essential character of Christianity — has been most ignored, not to say denied, by Christendom. How many are they who rank as Christians, but have no solid apprehension of the revelation which has been made of the Father, who have no divine perception of union with Christ in glory, and perhaps, least of all, have clear, conscious possession of the Holy Ghost in person.
These remarkable verities of Christianity which, impinging at every point upon our souls, are unfolded in all their wondrous bearings in Paul's epistles, constitute the framework — the very bone and sinew — of that special character of truth which sitting at the feet of Gamaliel gave no qualification for apprehending, but for which the "light above the brightness of the sun," and the voice that spake with him, afforded preparation, and which was itself divinely supplied by the revelations made to him in the third heaven. But the Christianity which prevails around us, even where divine life really exists, is the crude, and alas! almost purely selfish, thing which is undisturbed by divine claims, and unimpressed by divine desires. Relief from the load, deliverance from the guilt, escape from the wrath, in a word, forgiveness of sins, and, at the most, some knowledge of justification, exhausts the ordinary conception of it as a present reality; finally, heaven after death!
Could anything more perfectly ignore every divine thought of God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus before the world began, which not only requires the meeting the exigencies of the sinner, but the satisfying in righteousness every claim His holiness preferred; and, above all, the fulfilling those cherished desires of His blessed heart which can find no adequate answer until His Christ is invested in all His glories, heavenly and earthly? Nothing could, perhaps, more strikingly indicate how imperfectly people enter into God's thoughts, than the comparative readiness with which they accept truth as to themselves, as to Israel, and as to the nations, without ever grasping the scope of divine purpose to which all these things are absolutely subservient, being really but the means to that pre-ordained end. Man's unhappy egotism shuts God out, even where God must be everything, or He is nothing; for if, as to His eternal purpose, or as to His ways with us in time, we lay claim to be anything more than vessels of mercy, "afore prepared unto glory," but meanwhile broken pitchers, for the light to shine out, we entrench upon what is due to the divine persons, and thus is the Head dishonoured in His members, and the Spirit of God grieved. Practically, what more than anything else conduces to this deplorable failure in the appreciation of these things is a defective apprehension of the presence of the Holy Ghost in person, and what it carries with it to faith.
The great mass of souls have no personal knowledge of the Father, nor sense of union with Christ, the glorified Man on high, and this because they have not the Holy Ghost in person. They stand, as it were, between the two things of Ephesians 1:13 "After that ye believed ye were sealed." So far from believing, and sealing being synchronous, the word "after" clearly marks how positively it is otherwise in every case, although setting no limit, long or short, as to duration of the interval. In point of fact the Christians around us are just there; to speak broadly, they are all occupying that interval; they have made it their halting-place; they have not gone "on unto perfection" (Heb. 6:1), and since the Holy Ghost is given of God "to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32), many remain unsealed, and consequently fall short of the knowledge of the Father, and of eternal life, which embraces it. (John 17:3.) To take another scripture (1 John 5:13), they believe on the name of the Son of God, but do not know that they have this eternal life; and, though God's children by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26), they are scarce, as to stature, up to the "little children" who have known the Father. (1 John 2:13.)
Where shall we find believers in the great christian communities who have practically, to the joy of their souls, a real, precious, personal acquaintance with the Father and the Son? So blessed and so abiding a privilege is absolutely beyond the reach of souls, until the Holy Ghost is known in person as the indwelling divine Paraclete, by whom alone that holy, blessed, happy intimacy can be enjoyed!
If we turn to the Lord's words to "His own," as given in the Gospel of John, we find how wonderfully He stamps a reprobate character on this scene, by the fact, with its issues, of the Holy Ghost being here in person. "I will send him to you, and, having come, he will bring demonstration to the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." (John 17:7-8.) It is the fact of His presence in person which convicts the world of its sin in having made away with the blessed Son of God, and these are its present relations to God in blood-guiltiness, thus and thereby infinitely enhancing His grace in delivering eclectically the souls whom He brings out of the world to Himself. Then, further, the Holy Ghost's presence demonstrates God's righteousness in His exaltation of the Son to the throne of the Father, consequent upon His finished work, and in attestation of the divine satisfaction in it and in Him. Again, His presence demonstrates that judgment is pronounced, for that the world and its prince are alike judged, is proved by the fact that He, who was refused of the world, and afterwards met the power of Satan at the cross, has through death annulled him that had the power of death, has been received up as a Man into glory, and has Himself sent down the Holy Ghost in person as the promise of the Father.
But if His personal presence has this threefold aspect towards the world and its prince, so also has it a singularly blessed tripartite character in respect to Christ and His saints. In this same pathetic discourse of our beloved Master the same night in which He was betrayed, He unfolds the deep and precious significance of the Comforter, for whose advent it was even gain to them for Himself to go away, and connecting John 14:26 with John 16:13, we find how blessedly the past, the present, and the future are comprised in the wonderful scope of His current ministry to our souls.
(1.) "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26.) What the Master Himself had done or had said, but which could not then be communicated in power to the heart, and precious, and beautiful, and full of divine import as it was, was often unheeded or forgotten, because its significance was wanting to their souls, should all come back in mighty volume and enhanced blessedness, every word melodious, and every act fragrant with the virtue and the value of His atoning work and glorified person, now disclosed to faith, and ministered by the Holy Ghost, that other Comforter. For an instance of this character, compare John 7:39 with John 12:16.
(2.) "Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak." (John 16:13.) If we might reverently say so, He is the mighty, living, divine Telephone, by means of which celestial harmonies are conveyed to the soul, the mind of heaven conducted into our hearts, and all the present thoughts of Christ, not only as to the assembly, but also in respect to His interests of grace in the world, are brought home and unfolded in divine power and heavenly freshness to the members of His body here.
(3) In same verse — "He will show you the things to come." (Compare 1 Cor. 3:9-10.) All of the church's portion, whether her path of sorrow and, alas! of defection here, or of glory beyond; all of the new creation, wherein is no sorrow and no defection, but "all things are of God," to the glory of its exalted Head; all of the coming kingdom of the Father above, and of the Son of man below, when Israel shall be gathered, and the nations universally blessed, after the indignation and wrath have been poured out, as they must be; all of the new heaven and the new earth for eternity, so far as revelation of it has been vouchsafed; all this, and much more — yea, every precious thing of God and of Christ — does the Holy Ghost in person occupy Himself in ministering to those who, by His indwelling presence, are personally sealed for God, as of the many sons He is bringing to glory, and are corporately constituted the body of Christ.
But further; certain things are set forth in a very definite way. The word is "the sword of the Spirit." (Eph. 6:47.) How clearly does this imply, not only that the Holy Ghost is here in person, but that He alone enables us to use the word rightly! Prayer, supplication, and intercession are very distinctly in connection with Him. (See Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18; Jude 20.) So that I may not trust myself either as to how to pray, or what to pray for; but He, divine person though He be, "joins his help to our weakness." Do I mortify the deeds of the body? It is through the Spirit. (Rom. 8:13.) Do I want guidance, as a son of God away from home in this world? I am led by the Spirit of God. (Ver. 14.) Do I covet to be more like Christ in glory? This practical transformation is by the Lord the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18.) Do I need a positive check in service, or the sounding of a warning note as to where I should labour? The Holy Ghost knows how to bring it to pass. (Acts 16:6; Acts 20:23.) And in fine, all the personal path of the saint, if according to God, whether as to growth, devotedness, service, communion, worship, or whatever the spiritual exercise may be, as well as the whole administration of gifts in the assembly, and their exercise in subjection to Christ, must be in the energy and power of the Holy Ghost, or it is mere fleshly activity, and the workings of the human will. (1 Cor. 12:3-13.) And while speaking of the assembly, it may be added, that when the glorified Head of His body draws out the affections of His members, and inspires towards Himself the ardent longings of His bride for His coming, the Holy Ghost, in unison with the saints, takes the lead in this desire of heart also; "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." (Rev. 22:17.)
Once again; "All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he [the Spirit of truth] shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." (John 16:15.) Is there anything so dear to the Father as the person, the character, the ways, the work, the interests, the glories of Christ? In all this our fellowship is with the Father, which is only possible to us by possession of the Holy Ghost in person. Has God children on earth through faith in Christ Jesus? He gives them the Holy Ghost to witness of this to their spirit, and that they may address Him, "Abba, Father" by that "Spirit of adoption," who is "the Spirit of his Son." (Rom. 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6.) Do they, then, seek access to their Father? It is "by one Spirit." (Eph. 2:18.) Are they strengthened of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with might in the inner man? It is "by his Spirit" (Eph. 3:16). "Fellowship of the Spirit" (Phil. 2:1), and "love in the Spirit" (Col. 1:8), are alike theirs. Sowing to the Spirit, they "shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:11); and, should they fall asleep, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken their mortal bodies by, or on account of, His Spirit that dwells in them. (Rom. 8:11.)
May we not fittingly ask ourselves (implicitly accepting, as we do, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost's presence) whether we anything like adequately apprehend all that is involved in it, either as to the world, or as to the saints of God? He whose presence here in person is the pledge of the world's impending doom, is "the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." (Eph. 1:14.) Meanwhile, in this interregnum, Christ, the glorified Head, has "One body" and "One Spirit" here below (Eph. 4:14), to whom His interests are confided. How little have we understood all that is implied in "the communion of the Holy Ghost." (2 Cor. 13:14.) How little, for instance, is it practically recognised by saints, that not only every spiritual victory obtained, but every single thing done that is truly and purely spiritual, everything essentially pleasing to the Father, or glorifying to Christ, is due to our possessing the Holy Ghost in person! Every bit of divine love that descends into our hearts (Rom. 5:5), as well as every bit of true, divine apprehension of heavenly things and heavenly joys, is the result of our possession of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Ought we not, then, to be free to confess how much we need the touching appeal which He, the Holy Ghost, has addressed to us, and which is found in the midst of that divine unfolding of the very highest truth — the Epistle to the Ephesians? "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." R.