04.22. LESSON 22

LESSON 22 The solidarity and the interlocking works of the Holy Trinity throughout the universe (one turning), both physical and spiritual, are cardinal doctrines of the Bible. A good example of such working is Christ’s resurrection being attributed to God (Hebrews 13:20), to Christ himself (John 2:19), and to the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11). Not only does the Spirit reveal and glorify Christ, but Christ also holds the Spirit in high reverence and honor. Take for instance, his solemn statement: "Every one who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven." And his, "The Spirit of truth... abideth with you, and shall be in you... It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you," to show Christ’s reliance upon the Spirit’s supplementary, climactic work. The Spirit in no sense supplants Christ. His dispensational work is to communicate Christ to us. It is our privilege and responsibility to enter into vital, personal relations with the Spirit, Christ’s personal representative, yielding to his leadership, support, and comfort, both externally and internally for his service on our behalf is not limited to bearing "witness to us" (Hebrews 10:15), fundamentally, but also includes bearing "witness with our spirit that we are children of God." In that measure that these relations are established, we shall be conscious of Christ’s presence, have his mind, be occupied with him, and be conformed to his image—Christ in us through the office of the Spirit by virtue of which we share one life with Christ. The Spirit’s ministry is fulfilled as Christ is made known, believed on, obeyed, worshipped, and appropriated.

However, we may so ignore and depose the Spirit as to strive and live on a merely human level, as does the Christian in Romans 7:1-25. A brother wrote years ago: "Today, when we baptize, we might better perform the ordinance in the name of the Father, the Son, and the word." Extreme, no doubt. None the less, we must remember the Spirit’s warning against resisting, grieving, and quenching him; and that nothing less than the possession of the Spirit himself is God’s Christianity.

Mode of the Spirit’s Ministry

"Ye received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." A parallel verse reads: "God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). The fact that the cry is attributed to both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit in these verses throws light on the problem of how the Spirit continues to lead Christians, to bear witness with them, and to pray for them, as Romans 8 says he does, after they, by obeying his written requirements for becoming Christians, have opened up the way for his entrance and ministry.

Additional light is found in Acts 16:6-10. Paul being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach in Asia, assayed to go into Bithynia, but being again forbidden by the Spirit, he went to Troas, where in a vision a man of Macedonia invited him over into Europe. Paul, "concluding" ("assuredly gathering" – KJV) that God was leading, went to the new continent. This synthetic mosaic divine guidance is most instructive. Even in the days of miracles, the Spirit did not make mere puppets of those whom he led. Later, Paul wrote: "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" (1 Corinthians 14:32). Just as we do today, Paul had to do his own divinely supervised reasoning and "concluding." He could have willfully decided not to go to Macedonia. Incidentally, this blending of the divine and the human, as it is in Christ and in the Bible also, explains why Romans 8:1-39 does not always clearly distinguish between the Holy Spirit and human spirits.

It is not true only that "Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (1 Peter 1:21), but true also that Christians are "Strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inward man" (Ephesians 3:16). That the Spirit’s manner of entering, permeating, impregnating, and identifying himself with human spirits, both to write and to cry "Father," so that the result is the joint-product of the two, is not a logically demonstrable matter, transcends our present comprehension, and is not fully revealed, affords rich, deep soil for simple faith and honest trust. Is it not enough for us to know that the Holy Spirit, without violating human nature, can make our surrendered spirits, to their great enrichment, his organs? Enough to know that he can reproduce his holy life in us so as to make it our very own, free life? Who are we, with all of our consummate ignorance of the nature and workings of spirits, even of our own spirit, to question revealed Christian truth! Faith has reasons of her own, which lie above man’s rationalizing. The flesh is "a strong man," which Christianity does not propose to eradicate in this world. Rather, the Holy Spirit, "a stronger than he," binds him by so counteracting him that he "shall not have dominion"—the strong meets a stronger. This is the principle that enables motors in an airplane, not to suspend, but to counterwork the law of gravitation. The Christian fights the flesh, not in his sole, natural strength, directly, but fits into this Christian way of reckoning himself to be dead to sin, law, flesh, and self so that the Spirit, unimpeded, may produce his nine-fold cluster of golden fruit in him. The author of this sublimely spiritual chapter (Romans 8:1-39) was himself, as all his writings attest, always keenly conscious of the presence and activity of a divine energy, wisdom, purity, and efficacy within him far beyond and above his superior native endowments. This is what caught him up out of the futile eddies of unaided self-effort into the mighty stream of God’s eternal purpose, dissolved his self-contradictory dualism of Romans 7:1-25, prevented his being shattered on law, unified and energized his whole personality, and made him the most vital man in history, save Christ. This is what keyed life up to such peerless heights of power, zest, achievement, and peace. He wrote: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). Just as all Christians must do, Paul on the adventure of holy faith, proved the pudding by eating it. God grant that we too, as he so frequently and fervently prayed and exhorted that we might do, may imitate his faith and life, as he followed in Christ’s steps. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (Paul).

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