THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE HOLY SPIRIT
“The promise of the Spirit through faith” is the blessing now given in Jesus Christ to us gentiles in answer to the faith of Abraham, as we gather from Galatians 3: 14. First we learn the greatness of this blessing, given to crown and to perpetuate all that had been wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ. “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”, John 7: 39. When God had been fully glorified here by a Man - the Man Christ Jesus - that Man was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father: “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2: 33. There is a day coming when, as we read (Joel 2:28): “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”. That day has not come yet, but the promise of the Father has come, according to Christ’s request in John 14, that the Father would give to His own another Comforter, who should remain here and dwell in them. It is important to bear in mind the difference between the word ‘on’ which will be fulfilled in the future day, and the word ‘in’ which belongs to the church period. ‘On’ signifies more an influence like wind upon a sail. Many do not see the Spirit to be more than an influence, whereas the word ‘in’ implies identification. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”, Romans 8: 26. I see that the first sense the soul has of the gift of the Spirit is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. This is illustrated by the father kissing the returning prodigal; Luke 15: 20. As far as I see, we do not know experimentally the power of the Spirit of God, until, according to Romans 7: 25, we can say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. As we see in the prodigal, he had to have the best robe put on him before he could make merry in his father’s presence: so, as in Romans 8: 2, we then know that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. This is the great day to the believer, and you have not truly entered on your christian history until you know that you yourself are in Christ. It is not merely that you are not thinking of the flesh, but you are rejoicing that you are in Christ, and thus you meet every intrusion of the flesh. Here properly John 4 begins to be known. When Isaac gets his place, Ishmael has no place. You have a new personal identity when Christ is acknowledged in His true place, according to His rights: you are conscious of power, and you can “stand fast .. . in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free”. (Galatians 5: 1) It is not that Ishmael or the flesh is not there, but you are “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”. (Romans 8: 9) And now you learn the great truth as to the old man being crucified with Christ so that you can say, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. (Galatians 2: 20)
Once you have acknowledged that Christ has the right to your whole being, you lose a good conscience if you do not walk accordingly; and here it is that [p. 335] even after having had the sense of liberty and the power of the Spirit, if you give way to some influence of the flesh, and thus grieve the Spirit of God, you are not only powerless, but you are like a bird with a wounded wing, you are depressed with a sense of loss, and in sowing to the flesh you have only reaped corruption; whereas if you walk in the Spirit, you daily enjoy more and more the wonderful nature of your new position, as set free from the religion and the desires of the flesh.
It is important to bear in mind that a snare often commences with something that seems simple and harmless - a snare may not be anything morally wrong, but is generally that which you naturally like best; when it becomes a ruling desire so that discontent ensues if you do not possess it, as with Eve, the carnal mischief has begun, you begin to “thirst”; and though you do not lose the assurance of God’s grace in your soul, you are really asleep, that is inactive, and you will not be happy or in power until you have judged the desire which led you captive, and have turned to the Lord with a deeper sense of His love; for when Christ is in His right place the snare is broken and you are delivered; you are filled with thankfulness at the completeness of your deliverance, and the ease with which it is effected.
You are delivered from the snares of the mind in quite another way; we learn that the Corinthians were ensnared by human wisdom; the apostle addressed them as carnal, as babes in Christ; and having exposed their failure in the first epistle, he presses upon them in the second how he had presented Christ to them. From the law there was a ministration of condemnation, while from Christ there was a ministration of righteousness from the glory: “We all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. (2 Corinthians 3: 18)
[p. 336] The Galatians had to learn the power of the Spirit for deliverance, and to them the apostle shows that the flesh with all its pretension is to be supplanted by Christ Himself, the true Isaac. The Corinthians had to learn in the gospel of the glory of Christ their acceptance with God. When this is learned His wisdom and the rule of it become the joy of your heart; like the queen of Sheba, you are beside yourself under the sense of His wisdom; you not only see it in Him, but you are made through grace to share in it, so that you come from His presence controlled by His wisdom; your own mind is silenced, and you learn that you have the mind of Christ.
It must be borne in mind that the Spirit of God is occupied with each of us individually before He conducts us to the portion that is common to us as belonging to the bride of Christ. After a soul is settled as to his acceptance and deliverance, the next step is to know Christ in communion with His own in the assembly. Each individual has to be conducted like Peter to the Lord’s side, and thus having come to the living Stone is a component part of His assembly, where His present mind and interest on the earth are to be known. I see many take this their true position without being in the reality of it, and this accounts for the want of concert there is in those who take part in the meetings, for we cannot truly be competent to enter into Christ’s mind if we are not at rest as to our own state. If there had been no apostle to correct the Corinthians and Galatians, into what a fearful state of confusion they would have fallen; that is very much what we find generally in christendom now, and what we are all prone to, unless there be real guides, like Timothy, who know the path to lead in.
It is an era of great blessing to a soul when he realises that he has come to the presence of Christ as the living Stone. The Spirit then leads him into the present interest of Christ. Surely, if, as we find in the [p. 337] temple of old, God could be learned, in any measure, when there was only a cloud of glory, how much more now when we are in the presence of the Lord of glory, and the Spirit unhindered in glorifying Him to us. In the Colossians we find a devoted company commended for their faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints, but they did not know the mystery of God; they had not learned that they had died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, and so they could not be free from the two evil forces which now prevail in christendom - then in the bud, but now full blown - rationalism and ritualism. The apostle shows them that if risen with Christ they are in the sphere of His life, and the Spirit can then unhinderedly make known the Lord’s pleasure to each. I refer to this because, though the Spirit has come down to us, His great aim is to carry us up to heavenly things, to make known to us the things of God; “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God”. (1 Corinthians 2: 11)
No one is truly built in who has not come to the living Stone, and known the Lord at the other side of death; I believe that one might enjoy this grace for a time in the assembly, and yet not have entered experimentally into the momentous fact of having crossed the Jordan, and of being in the sphere of Christ’s life. There the Spirit of God is in His own sphere, and He conducts you to Christ as Eliezer conducted Rebecca to Isaac, and you enter into the knowledge of union with Christ, and thus is fulfilled to you what we read of in John 16: 14 “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. Thus we become acquainted with things that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit”. (1 Corinthians 2: 10) You are then, so to speak, within the region where the Spirit is at home, and where you can drink of the fountain of [p. 338] living water (John 7), and out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water, according to the measure of Christ’s will.
In conclusion, I may add a word as to the leading of the Spirit in the assembly. Every christian who is at peace with God desires to break bread in remembrance of Christ in His death, though few know at first the solemnity of having communion with His death, but as each one is drawn to Him, and feeds on His death, by the Spirit, he is awakened to desire the Lord’s presence, and to know what the disciples knew when that word was fulfilled to them: “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16: 22) - “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord”. (John 20: 20) This can only be known by the Spirit, for Christ is only to be known at the other side of death, and when you know Him thus you have come to the living Stone. A new day is opened to you when you find yourself in His presence, and enter into the reality of what is typified in Leviticus 8. Having remembered Him in death, you are of the consecrated company feeding on the blessedness of His acceptance in the presence of God where He is known as the One greater than Moses; where not only you find your own rest, but where He, according to John 14, fits you for Himself in divine seclusion, so that you can come forth abiding in Him to bear fruit; and so answering to His mind, you learn that you are His friends; the Holy Spirit from Himself in heaven makes you superior to all the power of evil here, and at the same time makes known to you what eye hath not seen. You come to the range of His own delights.
One word more in the way of caution. Though the Spirit does not leave us, yet when we grieve Him by sowing to the flesh, indulging in our own thoughts or tastes, He does not help us to the next step until the evil is judged. It is then failure occurs, because the [p. 339] Spirit does not help; He makes us sensible that we have lost His support; so that in praying we have no assurance of being near the Lord. I say this because it is often an occasion of much loss to suppose that a good well-expressed prayer is really praying; you can have no sense of God or of having come to Him, or of His presence but by the Spirit of God; and if the Spirit is grieved you have not the sense of nearness to Him. Many derive a certain satisfaction from listening to prayers, because their wishes are expressed, but this is not really praying. When you pray you know that you have come to God, you know that you have told Him, made known to Him your requests, as in Philippians 4, and the proof is, that though you may not get answers to your petitions, you get His peace which passeth all understanding. But also we have this confidence “that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us and .. . whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him”. (1 John 5: 15) But this can only be known by the Spirit. If the Spirit is grieved, you really do not pray, though you may utter words and express yourself well.
The Lord lead us to walk before Him with the Spirit ungrieved, our only bond to Him now and for ever.
Scarborough,