HOLINESS - 1
AMB What is in mind for enquiry is the great matter of holiness. Holiness belongs to God; it is what characterises God’s nature. His nature is love and His love is a holy love; so holiness characterises that nature of His. I know it is a very deep subject. It is also testing for us to speak about, but I trust that the Lord will give us help in considering something of the matter.
We might speak this morning about holiness as characterising God Himself, and we see that in the first scripture read. God Himself is a holy God, One that dwells “amid the praises of Israel”. It is a very affecting scripture to every believer; every lover of the Lord Jesus would be affected by reading Psalm 22, including these words that the Lord spoke on the cross when He was suffering there. We might get help in speaking about the way that God’s holy love was manifested at the cross, what it cost Christ and what it cost the Father, how effective that love was, and what the results have been. We read also about the Lord Jesus in Hebrews as the One who “loved righteousness and … hated lawlessness”, which is an essential description of holiness. How blessed and holy a One He was and He is! That is further brought out in the scripture in Luke 3, a scene of holiness, where the Holy Spirit came down upon Him “in a bodily form as a dove” and marked Him out, and the voice of the Father was heard. We know it was the voice of the Father because it says, “Thou art my beloved Son”. It would speak to us of the holiness that was there. In the book of the Acts, the Holy Spirit is in activity towards men, towards believers.
This afternoon, if the Lord will and He indicates, we might speak about how holiness is worked out in us, in believers. We might also see that if anyone is to approach God, there must be holiness in the approach, and that there is holiness in the presence of God. These further thoughts might occupy us tomorrow if the Lord will.
One thing to bear in mind in our subject this morning is that in eternity past love was there, because the Lord speaks about it, in speaking to the Father in John 17: 24. He does not speak about holiness. Now God’s essential nature has never changed, but I think His holiness has been made known as He has made Himself known: He has revealed Himself as a holy God. Particularly as He has come into relationship, His holiness is emphasised. It is interesting to look at that. You do not find any references to holiness or to God being holy in the book of Genesis, but when you come to Exodus and God takes up His relationship with His people, He emphasises His holiness. It is always instructive to see the first reference to a subject in the scriptures, and holiness is first referred to where God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush - He says to Moses, “loose thy sandals from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest holy ground”, Exod 3: 5. God is moving towards the people that He had chosen in the way of relationship. If God was to find an answer suitable to the character of His love then this great transaction that is alluded to in Psalm 22 must take place. I trust the brethren will help in bringing out this matter.
NJH Yes, very helpful. I was thinking of Christ’s unbroken communion with His God. He was wholly and absolutely in keeping with the holiness of God while here. That brings out the intensity of this psalm, does it not, when He had to justify God in being forsaken?
AMB What you say as to Christ being the Holy One is helpful. Before His birth He is spoken of as “the holy thing”, Luke 1: 35. It is beyond us really, but when here He was the One who was entirely according to God. It seems to me that holiness is being according to God, and Christ - in every thought and in every word and every deed, every second of every minute - was according to God. The scriptures read in Hebrews and Luke bring out the quality that was in Him as the Holy One, and the delight that the Father had in Him. Such a One uttered these words on the cross “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt 27: 46. That forsaking had to be if God’s holy love was to be satisfied and find a way of coming out to us.
WMP Could you also say something about why you feel such an exercise is necessary for us in the present time?
AMB We live in a dispensation of grace. We give thanks that God has made Himself known in such a gracious way and has come out towards us in Christ. But that must never make us careless about the character of God’s love. His love has come out towards us in grace, and it is a holy love. So underlying that blessed attitude of grace and mercy and forgiveness that streams from heaven is the fact that the holy character of God’s love must be maintained. The suffering of Christ in bearing the judgment of God upon sin was essential, and we must appreciate that it is essential if we are going to know the love of God. It is a gracious love, and it is a holy love.
Another thing to say - and we will come on to it perhaps this afternoon in speaking about how these things are worked out in us - is that we live in and pass through an unholy world, and we are separated from that because of the holiness of the love of God.
WMP We might just become accustomed to things at another level, you mean? It is interesting in Exodus 3: 2 that the thorn bush was not being consumed; so you might say there is the grace, but the ground is holy ground.
DCW Holiness becometh God’s house (Ps 93: 5), so that it is essential that we should be in conformity with that, and not just take things for granted.
AMB That is a fine touch in Psalm 93; “holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever”. It is never going to be any other way! But He dwells “amid the praises of Israel”; so that house which holiness becomes is to be filled. God is able - as a result of what Christ has done and who Christ is - to fill that house of His with those who are according to Him, conformed to Christ.
DCW So what God had in mind for His people was that they should be a holy nation.
AMB That comes in early. God speaks of that in Exodus 19: 6, “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation”. Such a people would be able to serve Him in His own environment, speaking carefully.
DCW So He brings that in before the commandments are given.
AMB Indeed.
GBG The words of the Lord on the cross, of which we have read in Psalm 22, were drawn out of Him as having been made sin, and feeling in His soul what it was to bear God’s judgment as having been made sin.
AMB These were words drawn out of a completely holy soul. We need the Spirit’s help to think and speak about these holy matters, but I trust the Spirit will help us all in our own spirits to contemplate these things and get the benefit of them. As to Christ Himself, His nature was sinless. He was a real Man, but His nature was not like mine; He was sinless. The scripture speaks of Him as the One “who knew not sin”, but has been “made sin for us”, 2 Cor 5: 21. It also says of Him “who did no sin”, 1 Pet 2: 22, and “in him sin is not”, 1 John 3: 5. There was nothing in Christ on which sin had any leverage whatsoever, He was entirely holy, and this utterance was drawn out of Him as He was made sin in these three hours of suffering and judgment and forsaking on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.
GBG While we cannot enter very far into this as to what it meant to the Lord, it has an instructional bearing upon us, does it not?
AMB We are to learn deeply from this psalm and from the Lord’s quoting of it on the cross. We learn God in it! If there was one outcome from these meetings, my desire is that at the end of them we would each feel that we had a greater appreciation in our souls of the nature and character of God Himself. So what you say as to this being instructive is right. It would remind us of the solemnity and awfulness of what Christ bore as being made sin. The contemplation of that is intended to have a deep effect on the soul of every believer. Is that what you had in mind in speaking about what is instructional?
JRW Could you help us as to the distinction between holiness and righteousness? Romans tells us that the righteousness of God is “towards all, and upon all those who believe”, chap 3: 22.
AMB It is important to have these things clearly in our minds and in our hearts. Good ministry is important, and I commend that to all of us, and to younger folk particularly. Mr Darby, Mr Raven and Mr James Taylor all speak about righteousness as having to do with relationships, and relationships being right. “Fidelity in every divinely appointed relationship” was Mr Raven’s expression as to righteousness, vol 3 p210. For us it is doing what is right, what is according to God. It is, as it were, an outward expression of what is right. Holiness brings the heart in. God’s love is holy and that is what is to mark us. In so far as holiness marks us as believers - I trust that we will get help together about that - it is seated in our affections as they are drawn out to Christ. It was God’s holy love that led to this scene that is described in Psalm 22. God’s love desired objects, and the objects were the creatures that He has made, mankind, and we know that God’s love is towards all men, but it is a holy love. God cannot have men approaching Him and in His presence on their own terms, it must be on God’s terms, and His terms are such that His holy love is satisfied. Does that help?
JRW Yes, it does. In relation to God it seems that holiness is intrinsic, and therefore He can only do what is right. It is different with us because we are intrinsically unholy.
AMB Yes, God’s holiness is absolute and, as you say, intrinsic. There is a very interesting footnote that Mr Darby puts in Hebrews 7: 26. The scripture says, “For such a high priest became us, holy …”. The footnote is worth reading as the commentary of a devoted and spiritual servant of the Lord; to quote part of it, ‘This, when applied to God, designates him as holy, knowing good and evil perfectly, and absolutely willing good and no evil’ (footnote i); that is what He is. But then that holiness comes out in the expression of His love towards its objects. He has made objects for His love, and therefore His holiness that characterises His love must be involved in the expressing of His love towards men.
RDP Holiness is not just sterile, is it? We think of holiness as characterising an area in which everything is according to God - everything else is excluded. But I do not think holiness is just sterile, like a sterile condition that men require for some of their operations, and so on.
AMB I very much agree. Where God’s holy love is free to move out, all the riches and variety of blessing that He has in His heart of love come out. They are expressed and are effective towards those that have been made fit to approach by Christ into the presence of God. That is what God’s holy love is bent on bringing about and the work of Christ that we read of in this psalm has made that possible. Would you agree with that?
RDP Yes; I was thinking of your reference to God’s holy love, and of this expression, “thou art holy”. He also speaks about God being “far from my salvation”. Perhaps we have a limited conception of how far man’s sin has taken him away from God. It was not just a temporary aside, but the Lord felt how far away sin had taken man from God. Then He says, “thou art holy”. I was thinking of God’s feelings at a moment like this as being holy, and yet surely not unmoved or neutral as to what the Lord was enduring.
AMB We get some impression in our souls of what the holiness of God is by contemplating the scene at the cross. All through the centuries since the creation God had looked for a Man who was entirely according to Himself, and He found that Man in Jesus! He was the One in whom God delighted, and we have that public testimony to His delight in this One. But the One in whom God delighted was forsaken in bearing the judgment of God upon sin so that people could come into the presence of God. That was what the holiness of God and the love of God together required - such a transaction, if we could use that term. It should affect our hearts and our spirits deeply.
JL In simple words, is it helpful to remember that holiness shrinks from sin, whilst righteousness deals with sin? And both were displayed fully at the cross.
AMB Yes, righteousness is the action and the motivation of the action, but holiness repels sin; it shrinks from it. The affections are involved in it. God’s affections were deeply involved in this matter.
JL However much it is necessary that we should be brought to holiness, we should not miss the glory of the point that is brought out here, “thou art holy”; that is what God is and what was seen in Christ in manhood too.
AMB God never reduces the standard of His holiness. He did not need to, for in Christ God found total complacency! You think of Him speaking to the Father as “Holy Father”, John 17: 11. God’s holiness and His love have been upheld, and have been made effective in relation to man, because of what Christ bore on the cross.
QAP Do we see it at Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me”, Matt 26: 39? He recoiled from being made sin because He was holy.
AMB Yes. I think that bears out exactly what has just been said; that His holy soul recoiled from what lay before Him.
JTB The Lord Jesus was “the holy thing”. Does Ezekiel’s presentation of the sufferings of Christ bring out the contrast between the holiness of the Lord Jesus and man? He had to lie on his left and right side, and bore the iniquity of Israel. But the food that he was required to eat was perfect in its content, was it not? The wheat and the barley and so on, but it was baked in what came out of man, the contrast between the sin bearer and man’s corruption and defilement is illustrated there, do you think, Ezek 4: 4-15?
AMB Yes, everything in the Lord stands in contrast to what man is as away from God. Of course He is also the Firstborn of a new race entirely, and we will come on to that. But the foundation of everything that is for God, and all that was necessary to make it possible for God to enter into relationship with mankind, is laid here.
NCMcK Holiness comes into relief in the presence of God, does it not? If a person approaches God, all that God is comes to light. It is not enough to be righteous. God sees every defilement, every matter. In Christ there was more than righteousness: He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Heb 7: 26); no influence of the world had any effect on Him, completely and altogether free of everything adverse and unsuitable to God!
AMB It was really His nature. God’s nature was revealed in Christ - His love, and it is a holy love. It has been spoken of as the character of the love. This was seen perfectly in Christ because Christ’s revelation of God, of the Father, was a perfect revelation. If anybody had seen Christ they had seen the Father! This included God’s nature and His character, and also His attributes. Righteousness is an attribute: it can be attributed to God. It is the way in which He acts. The motive is love, and it is holy love.
JCG You were speaking of the sin offering, and in the offerings in Leviticus the oblation and the sin offering and the trespass offering are spoken of as “most holy”. Does that bring out the character of what was presented to God in Christ as on the cross?
AMB I think the types of the offerings in Leviticus are very helpful in reinforcing these matters to us, because they were prior indications of what God would find in Christ. Everything about the offerings was altogether according to God’s instruction.
JCG The priest was to eat certain offerings, so that occupation with the way in which Christ moved and the character of the way that He moved is food for us spiritually, is it not?
AMB That is good. Lord willing we will speak about that further, that it is occupation with and affection for Christ that brings about holiness in the believer. You have also drawn attention to the offerings and their holiness, and to the priest too. The high priest would speak to us powerfully of Christ. The holy diadem - that thin plate of pure gold that was attached so that it was upon the forehead of the high priest - was “Holiness to Jehovah!”, Exod 28: 36. That was what would be seen, the high priest going in; that is Christ in figure, is it not?
TM Is that the difference between the cherubim and the seraphim? I was thinking of how the cherubim deal with God’s righteousness, and the seraphim presented in Isaiah 6 speak of holiness.
AMB Yes, it is interesting. Isaiah 6 is the only reference to seraphim in the scriptures. You get the cherubim right at the beginning in the garden of Eden, guarding the way to the tree of life (Gen 3: 24), so that what is right according to God should be done. But the seraphim in Isaiah 6: 3 say, “Holy, holy, holy”. They are ascribing holiness as appreciating it, I think.
We might be exercised to have a greater appreciation in our souls and hearts of the holiness of God, how the holy character of His love has been expressed, and what that meant for Christ.
PAG Would it help us to see that every affront to God’s holiness was met at the cross, and every affront to His righteousness was met in the shedding of the blood of Jesus? So now love can be in perfect liberty because everything that might have stood in the way has been dealt with by Christ!
AMB That is helpful. It would emphasis to our hearts that it is as coming to Christ that we come into the gain of what He has accomplished. The work of Christ does not mean that God is regarding the whole race as holy and therefore able to approach Him and come into His presence. It is those who come through Christ and in Christ that are so regarded. That is because of the work that Christ has done. And a corresponding change that is brought about in a soul by believing in that blessed One, and by receiving the Holy Spirit.
PAG I think that is helpful because really in order to come into the good of it we have to understand what God thinks about sin, and Christ gave perfect expression to that - “thou art holy”. As being made sin He said that. It is sin that was condemned, but then we have to have the forgiveness of sins too for these were the acts; and then we also have “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1: 7. It is only by that means that there can be approach to God.
AMB Yes, it is very important to be clear about these things. Your comment as to what sin means to God, being fully fathomed and understood completely by His Son, is so important. And the affront to God that sin represents - sin is independence from God and a challenge to Him. Christ perfectly understood that, and He was made what so offends God! It is beyond our comprehension that God did such a thing, but He did, and Christ bore the judgment and exhausted it!
RWMcC Would that link with the scripture that says Jesus tasted “death for every thing”, Heb 2: 9? I have heard that linked with the verse quoted from Ezekiel 4: 4. It just gives us a sense as to the awfulness of sin, does it not, and of what God thought in relation to it?
AMB Would you think too that that is also conveyed in the thought of the cup: “the cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?”, John 18: 11. It suggests something dreadful being felt in the holy soul of that One, but, in perfect submission and blessed dependent manhood, He tasted and drank that cup. It was a dreadful judgment that He tasted.
RWMcC And it was received from the Father’s hand.
AMB I think there is a great deal for us to contemplate in that.
JAB Should we get a sense of the blessed God’s intense pleasure in the holiness of this One that we are speaking of? In Hebrews and Luke there is a divine pleasure expressed because of the holiness of Jesus.
AMB We should go on from Psalm 22, while keeping in our minds the deep meaning of it, and seeking to develop in our apprehension; I do not think we can say our comprehension, but our apprehension of what was transacted at the cross, and the Father’s delight in Christ on the cross. Christ was forsaken there, He was made sin and bore the judgment of God, but there was deep delight for the Father in Christ on the cross.
JAB It has been said He was ‘never so acceptable in obedience as on the cross’, JND Collected Writings vol 7 p147. Nature cannot understand that.
AMB When we think of what Christ was working out in bearing that judgment, offering Himself spotless to God, there was no flaw, He was utterly impeccable in His flawless offering. How pleasing He was to God. He offered Himself to God and that holy judgment came upon His head, and because He was perfect and sinless He exhausted it! He could say, “It is finished”, John 19: 30. Because of that, all of God’s holy will is effected, is made good! If it had not been for Christ doing what He did and bearing the judgment as He did, the holy love of God towards us, and towards the whole of mankind, could not have come into expression. More broadly, in the millennium there will be holy conditions on the earth where God’s holy people will be for Him, and in eternity the whole universe will be a holy universe: all will be according to God. None of that could be, except for what Christ has done. All the holy will of God is worked out!
PJW Not only was He personally spotless then, but the whole of His life was an offering of Himself. I wondered if that linked with this verse, “Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated lawlessness”, and whether that was seen perfectly in His life here.
AMB I do not think that any prophecy as to the Lord was in any sense nominal. It was worked out substantially in every step, thought, word and deed in the Lord’s holy life. And the Father took intense pleasure in it!
PJW And yet He could touch the leper (Mark 1: 51), and be in the presence of sin as hating lawlessness!
AMB He had nothing to do with the sin, but He loved the sinner, which is a remarkable matter; One who was in Himself holy could touch the leper.
RHB Is God glorified in that? His heart is free to flow forth without any compromise of His essential integrity.
AMB I like what you say! God is glorified in what Christ has done, and there will be a response to God eternally, a wonderful response entirely according to His holy desire, His holy love answered to eternally because of what Christ did in glorifying Him there on the cross!
RHB When He said, “Father, save me from this hour”, He then said, “But on account of this have I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name”, John 12: 27-28. You get the Father’s response, “I both have glorified and will glorify it again”. What you are setting out is the way that God has glorified Himself publicly.
AMB That is a fine reference. I think it is good to open up the scope of what took place on the cross by bringing that in. So that the Father glorified means that every thought of His, and every feeling of His, is expressed and upheld, made good in one blessed Man. Because of that God’s favour is towards us; we are brought into favour in that One.
RHB The question is raised earlier in the book of Psalms, “who shall dwell in the hill of thy holiness?”, Ps 15: 1. To an Old Testament saint it must at times have seemed impossible, God being what He is. God tabernacling with men is the ultimate vindication of His ways, and His own glory, is it not?
AMB That is the closest expression of the presence of God: tabernacling with men. It refers to dwelling in tents, with no distance. His holy love will be at home and complacently resting on men, all as a result of what Christ has done. How fully God is pleased! What a wonderful matter, God coming out in revelation in the Person of His Son, and that would include the revelation of His love in its intensity and in its holy character at the cross.
DCB I was wondering about the way in which sweet savour comes into the offerings, suggesting that the excellence that was always there in Christ was particularly for the pleasure of the nostrils of God.
AMB Yes, it was so in His life, and then never more so than in His suffering and death. The sweet savour came out particularly in those offerings that were subject to the fire.
RT We have spoken about the cross, but did it not really begin at the incarnation? The earth took on a different bearing altogether in Christ coming into manhood. The angels were affected by it, were they not?
AMB Very good; “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, Luke 2: 14. The whole scene shifted, it changed in the coming in of God’s Man, a different Man altogether, the Man who would justify and glorify and satisfy God. And then to see that He is the Forerunner, He is the Firstborn of a race that is like Him, and we come into it! To rest our souls in the delight of God in that One is a tremendous thing.
JCG What would you say about “oil of gladness”; is that something extra? We know the Father’s satisfaction in raising Christ and anointing Him, but “with oil of gladness” is an additional touch, is it not?
AMB It is a result of “Thou hast loved righteousness and has hated lawlessness”. It says, “therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with oil of gladness”. We are speaking of this, are we not; the Father’s delight in Christ? He “has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6: 4), and the Father has given Him a Name, which is above every name, Phil 2: 9. The Father is delighting in Him, and we could think of Christ delighting in having perfectly fulfilled the holy will of God. There is joy in heaven as a result of this; there is gladness. And then it is “above thy companions”; so it is with a view to a whole race being brought to God on His terms, which have been secured through the work of Christ.
JCG I was thinking of that expression that is used in Psalm 2: “And I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness”, v 6. God’s satisfaction in what had been transacted by Christ flowed from accomplishment of what He had purposed before time.
AMB All this, the unfolding scene at the cross and what was accomplished there, was in God’s counsels. His purpose was that He should have men before Him forever, and His counsels compassed what would be worked out that His blessed nature should be made known. The book has been linked to eternal purpose and counsel, that He should come to do God’s will, Heb 10: 7; and CAC Outline of Hebrews, vol 23 p62.
RT The angels said, “for to-day a Saviour has been born”, (Luke 2: 11); that altered the whole course of history, did it not? “A Saviour has been born ... who is Christ the Lord”. It has been said that His holiness would have set Him apart from the race, but His love made Him the Servant of all!
AMB Thank you for that, dear brother! His holiness would have set Him apart from the race; His love made Him the Servant of us all! That is something for us all to hold in our hearts!
PM Did the angels witness the incoming of the order of Man who could not sin and in whose heart was the full expression of the love of God, and in every movement was in keeping with the love of God?
AMB Yes, the angels wondered at it! What is being said as to the blessedness of the incarnation is very affecting. There was no incoming, no birth like the Lord’s. It was holy; it was guarded; it involved the activities of the Holy Spirit and the fulfilment of scripture so intimately. The will of God was involved in the whole matter. What was there was utterly unique, a real Man, and yet absolutely apart from sin.
PM Would it be right to say that, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, His holiness was not just the absence of sin, great as that was?
AMB That is absolutely right. He brought into manhood, speaking carefully and reverently, all the character of the Godhead; it was expressed fully in that Man, and in connection with others here. It was expressed in what Christ was, including in what He was among men. Would that be right?
PM Yes, and is that why Paul says in Colossians, “for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”, chap 1: 19.
AMB Yes, divine perfection in a Man!
DJW Does loving righteousness and hating lawlessness involve sensitivity? The degree in which He measured things was according to God’s standard.
AMB That is right. The fact that it speaks of Him as “loving righteousness” shows that the affections of Christ were involved. His submission to the Father’s will was a matter of affection. Another speaks of doing a thing to please a father as motive enough, JND Collected Writings vol 30 page 64. The Lord was motivated by love for the Father’s will, love for righteousness. Because lawlessness is what sets itself against God Christ hated that. It is contrary to God and contrary to what God is. And yet we solemnly remember from our first scripture that He was made that very thing.
DJW So He was drawn to the one, and He recoiled from the other.
APG The two references in Acts 4 to “thy holy servant Jesus” (v 27, 30) would suggest all that He did among men was marked by holiness.
AMB Would that link with what has been said as to Him becoming a Servant to all? It is a very sweet expression in these early chapters of Acts - “thy holy servant Jesus”. Those that had eyes to see it saw One who “loved righteousness and … hated lawlessness”. What a sober matter that there were those that rejected this One.
PJW Peter felt it when he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord”, Luke 5: 8. That was the last thing he wanted really in his heart, do you think?
AMB Yes; Peter had a sense of who Christ was, and then later on he says, “we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”, John 6: 69. That was something that Peter came to in his soul. We have to come to it that He is “the holy one of God”; all God’s delight is in Him. We have that expressed in the beginning of Luke where we read - God’s delight in Him. It is an exclusive delight: God does not take delight in anything that is apart from Christ. We give thanks that as a result of the work of Christ, and as the brethren have already been saying, a great number and a great area are secured for God’s delight as a result of what Christ has done. He did not go the way of the cross for Himself, He was the sinless One as we have been saying, but He went that way for us.
BWL There is a reference to the throne in Hebrews 2: 8, just before the verse you read. God’s throne is eternal in character, is it not? Sin coming in was a challenge to that. The throne did not come into existence because of a challenge; it was there eternally. I wondered about what you said in your outline in relation to God’s holiness; it is not mentioned in Genesis but it ever existed.
AMB That is right, and it is ever going to exist. His holy love is the character of love in which God will tabernacle with men. He will dwell eternally with them, and will be responded to in worship and praise by those who correspond to Him. We are not speaking about it so much in this reading, but we also remember that God’s holy love is a present matter, and in His grace, wisdom and power He has made it possible for us to answer to His holy love now, through the work of Christ and through the action of the Holy Spirit - the One who so beautifully identifies Himself with Christ in Luke chapter 3.
JRW Does the anointing bear on this? The anointing here in Hebrews is the way in which God has marked Him out; it is a seal of God’s approval. It is really a seal of God’s acclamation. That also comes out in Luke, does it not, when Christ is anointed by the Spirit?
AMB The Spirit came upon Christ and at that point there was this expression of delight drawn out from heaven. It was a glad acclamation from heaven of the beloved Son in whom the Father had found His delight. It conveys such a scene of complacent rest - the Spirit coming upon Christ, and the Father’s delight in Christ. What a Man He is!
JRW It has often been said there is a mutuality here. In Acts 2, there are tongues, as of fire, but here there is mutuality, is there not?
AMB Yes, and complete complacency! “The Holy Spirit … in a bodily form” would remind us of the scripture that was quoted in Colossians as to “the fulness of the Godhead” dwelling bodily in Him. The Father’s voice was heard from heaven rejoicing in being able to acclaim this unique, holy, sinless and blessed One. And love was expressed, “Thou art my beloved Son”. What it must have meant to the Father, to be able to use that expression!
RJF Is that emphasised in John, where it says as to the Holy Spirit that “it abode upon him”, chap 1: 32. The expression seems to imply that there was nothing that needed to be displaced; there was perfect rest and complacency.
AMB I am glad you brought that in. What you are quoting is very helpful because the Holy Spirit as a dove speaks of what is sensitive and discerning, and suggests that the sensitive soles of the feet of the dove - the Holy Spirit, as it were, descended and rested upon that One. There was entire consistency with the holiness of the Holy Spirit in that holy Man.
AAC This acclamation here in Luke relates to that part of the life of the Lord Jesus that we know almost nothing about, but is what we have here sufficient for us, do you think? It speaks of the perfection of those thirty years, which God knew in perfection and this is what He said as to it.
AMB That is a helpful insight into the matter. This was right at the very beginning of the Lord’s public service. It says, “and Jesus having been baptised and praying”. That gives some indication of what this Man was through all these years of private life, about which we know almost nothing. There is almost nothing said about the Lord’s life prior to this, but it was all for the Father. Every sinless motive, every example of devotion to the Father’s will, was taken account of in heaven. You might say it was pent up, and came into expression here. What more would you say?
AAC We do not know if man took account of it, but what God took account of gave Him tremendous joy, and was expressed in this way.
AMB So really it was for the Father’s delight.
DCW The Lord’s baptism was a matter of righteousness too - “thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”, Matt 3: 15. It is part of the perfection of the Person and His work, is it not? So John’s service was complete when the Lord was baptised. So no fault could be found in Him; His uniqueness is preserved always.
AMB Yes. He was also taking His place beside His people Israel, which is a remarkable thing, for He came to bring deliverance to them. Of course, He was rejected. But it says, “and praying”; it is a lovely reference to the Lord’s perfection and yet His dependence and simplicity in the matter. You get some impression from that of His harmlessness and of His guilelessness that are noted in Hebrews and in Peter.
DCW So that has not been recorded of any of the others John had baptised. The Lord alone is said to be praying.
AMB Yes, as well as an object of our contemplation and deep affection, He is also a model for us, is He not?
JAB We have been speaking about the holiness of God, and also the holiness of the Lord Jesus as a Man has been before us, but this blessed divine Person who came bodily on Christ, and then in Acts 2 filled these persons in the upper room, He too is a divine Person who is intrinsically holy, and He too has sensitivities. I am just thinking of the importance of understanding that the Holy Spirit is holy, and that He is in us. He came upon Christ, but in Acts it says, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. I am now not so much thinking of us, but thinking of this blessed divine Person who came upon Christ and has come upon those who love Him.
AMB I am glad you bring us on to that. His characteristic title is “Holy Spirit”. The scriptures speak of Him as the Spirit, and the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Father, but characteristically He is spoken of as the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures emphasise the fact that He is holy. He is the One who came entirely complacently upon Christ. But upon these believers at the beginning He came as “parted tongues, as of fire”, Acts 2: 3. So that whatever was not in accord with the Holy Spirit was judged before He sat upon each one of them.
JAB So just as the holiness of God induces in anyone who is spiritual a feeling of reverence, we are to have reverence for this blessed Person. He dwells in us but we are to revere Him as a holy divine Person, are we not?
AMB I am glad you bring that out. The matter of reverence in the presence and in the contemplation of God in the way that He has been made known to us in Father, Son and Holy Spirit is very important. The spirit of the present age is not one of reverence at all, but among believers who have come to know God in Christ and have received the Holy Spirit, the spirit of reverence is very important. Then there is also the tremendous resource that we have in this One, which opens up so much. We should end this reading with an impression of the holiness of the indwelling Spirit.
DCW The Holy Spirit was involved in that great matter - it is, “Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14.
AMB Yes, we can contemplate the fact that it was by the Spirit who indwelt and abode upon that blessed One that He offered Himself in His dependent perfection as a Man.
JBI “The dove found no resting-place for the sole of her foot” (Gen 8: 9), but the Holy Spirit found complacent restfulness in coming upon the Lord Jesus.
AMB What a blessed matter! We think of the Spirit in His activities with us; He searches us, He knows everything about us, He knows our motives and our actions and things that are hidden from everyone else, but He rested entirely complacently upon that One. Christ’s every motive was entirely according to God; every thought of His was entirely according to God, and yet He was a real Man. We can feed on this thought, that God had complete satisfaction in that One, and that the Spirit rested complacently upon Him.
JTB In the law of the oblation there is a reference to the oblation being “saturated with oil”, Lev 6: 21. Would that bring out the Holy Spirit descending in totality on Christ? We cannot speak of individual believers in the same way; but in relation to the Lord Jesus, it can be said that God does not give the Spirit by measure; and, as has been said, the whole idea of the Spirit is in the assembly, JT vol 73 p171.
AMB There was no part of the offering saturated with oil that was not characterised by the oil. It has been said in one place in ministry that we cannot separate between the Lord and the Spirit, CAC vol 25 (Outline of Corinthians) p230.
JTB You think of Him being “led by the Spirit in the wilderness”, Luke 4: 1. There was a complete identity between the two.
NJH The Holy Spirit is holy, but it was righteous for Him to come in in Acts 2. It was an act of righteousness that He came in among a company that was the product of the death of Christ, and whose histories had been met. They were Christ’s brethren and Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness in the midst of them. Is that right?
AMB That is fine! So they were that, and then the Holy Spirit brought His seal upon them so that they were maintained in what they were. Also it became a public matter; there was testimony, ample testimony.
PAG I wondered if you had a thought as to why the first thing that happens when the Holy Spirit comes is that they speak with other tongues. Why would it be that?
AMB My only thought is that it was what was needed at that stage in the testimony. The work of God on the earth now that Christ was in heaven was concentrated in an upper room in one hundred and twenty or so persons. The need of the testimony was that that should be spread abroad, and the Spirit moved and gave particular power in that way.
PAG That is helpful. There were different tongues because of man’s sin (Gen 11: 9), but man’s sin is not going to inhibit the spread of God’s holiness. God is not going to be defeated by the incoming of sin; so if something came in as a result of sin God is now meeting it, because Christ is on high and the Spirit is here.
AMB That is helpful, and magnifies the work of Christ in our eyes, that the way is cleared for God. Christ Himself came to “undo the works of the devil” (1 John 3: 8), and in completing the work and in going on high, the way is cleared for the Holy Spirit to operate here. We had reference recently to “that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified” (2 Thess 3: 1), showing that there would not be anything that would hinder the word of the Lord. You see that here.
JL Would you say that, just as it is truly right that the Holy Spirit should be respected because of what He is, and because of His holy character, so there should be respect for all that belongs to the assembly, because He dwells there?
AMB Yes, very good! He gives character to what He dwells in and that includes believers, but particularly viewed in the light of the assembly. It is an exercise that we might come to in the next reading, whether the Spirit finds something in me that He can be pleased with and complacent in.
Glasgow 3 Day Meetings
10th August 2018