02.03 - The Holy Spirit the Agent of Inspiration

(3) The Holy Spirit the Agent of Inspiration

Inspiration is the specific work of the Spirit of God. Various gifts, operations, and powers are ascribed to the Spirit of God in the Old and New Testaments, but inspiration is His special and distinctive domain. Sometimes in the Old Testament the “ Spirit “ or the “ Spirit of God “ stands for God Himself; at other times the term denotes a power or influence, like “ wind “ or “ breath “ going out from God, and by which “ things were created,” “ nature was renewed,” the “ heavens were furnished,” and all “ the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” The “ Spirit of Man,” and the “ understanding “ that is in him, are by the “ breath “ the “ inspiration of the Almighty.” The Holy Spirit’s action is upon as well as in man. It is both transcendent and immanent. The transcendence and freedom of the action of the Spirit of God are indicated, as also the immanence, which indicates the fixity and inner law of the divine movement. Both truths are important: under the one aspect the Spirit of God is spoken of as coming and departing from man, as given to him and with drawn from him, denoting the freedom of the Spirit’s action. By the other term we have represented the constancy and immutability of the law of the divine action in the universe, whereby we may come to realise how that it is the Spirit “ who worketh all in all.” The Spirit of God in the Old Testament is associated with man in all that pertains to life and business physical and intellectual, spiritual and official. The same Spirit that gave to man life and being, gave to him understanding and knowledge in all things; while He conferred exceptional powers on particular persons for special purposes. He gave His word to Abraham and to Moses and they be came His prophets: God gave His Spirit to Joseph, which made him “ wise and discreet “; while Bezaleel was “ filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom, under standing and knowledge, and all manner of cunning workmanship,” for the furnishing of the tabernacle. As a Spirit of might and strength, of wisdom and courage, of heroism and valour, He dwelt with the Elders under Moses, and with the Judges in Israel; while upon Eldad and Medad, upon Samuel also, Saul and David, rested the Spirit of God, and they did prophesy. There are instances in which the Spirit of God imparted to men in Old Testament times special gifts for special purposes; but these gifts and purposes were on the line of natural endowment, and of national life and calling. The higher and more spiritual endowments and activities of the Holy Spirit are connected with prophecy. These are witnessed in the acts and teachings of that succession of wonderful men, raised up, commissioned, and endowed by the Spirit of God to the work of ruling, guiding, admonishing, and instructing the people of Israel. They were known as the * Prophets of Israel,” as “ men of God,” who spake from God, being moved by the Spirit of God. The wisdom, power, and authority with which they counselled, admonished, taught, and instructed king and ruler, prince and people, were by the Spirit of God that was in them. “ The hand of the Lord was upon them,” “ the word of the Lord spake unto them; “they possessed the Spirit of Gocl, or were possessed by the Spirit, and their prophecy was the work of the Spirit that was in them.

It is in the New Testament, in the Person and ministry of Jesus Christ, to whom the Spirit was given in His measureless fulness, in the ministry of the Baptist the greatest of the prophets and in the promise of the Father to the Apostles, that the personality, work, and gifts of the Holy Spirit are most fully manifested. The same Spirit which rested on Jesus at His baptism, which is the Spirit of prophecy, is the special promise of Christ to His Apostles. He was to be to them “ mouth and wisdom,” the “ Spirit of truth,” the Spirit who “should speak in and through them “; who should be to them Advocate, Teacher, and Helper; who would “ guide them into all truth, and shew them things to come.” This same Spirit is given to the Church as the Spirit of grace and truth, of holiness and power, the Agent and source of all help and inspiration, imparting to believers divers gifts and powers “ knowledge, faith, healings, workings of miracles, prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues,” “dividing to each one severally even as He will “ (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). The activity of the Holy Spirit in and with the Prophets and Apostles as agents of inspiration was special and not general, extraordinary and not ordinary, official and miraculous, and not moral and religious and this differentiated it from that in ordinary believers. The purpose for which divine inspiration was given was special and extra ordinary, and so the enduement was extraordinary and miraculous. The calling and mission of Prophet and Apostle in the work of revelation and redemption were special, and so a special and miraculous endowment was given them for their work and calling, nothing less would be adequate to the exigencies of the case. Mere rational, moral, and religious enlightenment, the gracious illumination and operation of the Spirit vouchsafed to ordinary believers for the purpose of religious knowledge and experience, would not be sufficient for the purposes of the revelation of redemption and salvation of the race; nor would they explain the supernatural and miraculous gifts and powers possessed by Prophets and Apostles. The theory of “ illumination “ andreligious “ genius “ which identifies the theopneustic gift of the sacred writers with the enlightenment and gracious operations of the Spirit in believers generally, neither meets the necessities of the case, the claims and assurances of the sacred writers, nor the principles of Scripture exegesis. It may be the same Divine and gracious Spirit who worketh all in ail, but the gifts, powers, and operations of that Spirit in kind and degree are not the same in all cases. Men may speak of the knowledge, power, and gifts for service imparted to them by the Spirit as inspiration; and inspiration it is but not the same inspiration that came to “ holy men of old, who spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost,” and which prepared them for the higher task of revealing to us the divine purposes of grace and redemption.

Moreover, to identify the ordinary and extra ordinary, the general and special operations of the Holy Spirit, and to speak of them as the same, is not only to ignore the miraculous gifts and powers, the freedom and sovereignty of the Divine Spirit in His operations; but it also confounds things that differ, and misinterprets the purposes and work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and in the economy of revelation and redemption. The personality and agency of the Holy Spirit does not necessitate us to believe that His gifts, powers, and operations arc in all respects the same, an}” more than diversity of gifts, powers, and operations necessitate the belief that they are the work of a diversity or multiplicity of Spirits. Not only so, but it is this identification of all the powers and operations of the Spirit in all persons and cases that is at the core of that theory of subjective inspiration, or the theory of the “ inspiration of genius,” so prevalent among modern thinkers, and which is so subversive of the divine inspiration and authority of the Holy Scriptures. The theory varies somewhat in its presentation, but in all cases it identifies divine inspiration with mental and spiritual enlightenment, and denies to the sacred writers any specific supernatural aid in the production of their writings, beyond what was realised by scientists, philosophers, poets, and reformers in their productions.