EXTRACT – THE SPIRIT AS THE OPERATIVE POWER IN CHRISTIANITY

With regard to the expression, “the Spirit of holiness” (Rom.1:4), I would notice that the Holy Spirit is, so to speak, the operative power in the resurrection as in everything that God has created or done. Thus Peter says, with regard to the Lord’s resurrection, “Put to death in flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Pet.3:18); and of the believer it is said. “But if the Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you”, Rom.8:11. But why is it spoken of as “according to the Spirit of holiness”? Because the Holy Spirit is, as it were, the operative power of God for producing in man all that is well-pleasing to Him. This power is, of course, always in God. By it He created the worlds; by it He wrought in the instruments of the Old Testament and in the prophets. But now He had been acting in the human life of Christ, and in the production of the new form of humanity according to this divine power.

… Christ as Man was born of the Holy Spirit; His life, though human in every respect, was the expression of the power of the Holy Spirit. He cast out devils by the Holy Spirit. His words were spirit and life. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, but His humanity was the expression of that which was divine by the Holy Spirit, in love, in power, and specially in holiness. He was the Holy One of God. By the Holy Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God. In all things He served His Father; but His service was the perfect presentation of what was divine, of the Father Himself, in the midst of men – He, as to His humanity, by the Spirit, at every moment answering to the Godhead, the expression and effulgence of it without spot or blemish.

… What a striking type of the humanity of Christ [the oblation was], which, as to its nature, was of the Spirit, and anointed with the Spirit, every part being characterised by the outpoured Spirit, and by which all the incense of His perfections was offered up to God as a sweet-smelling savour! So He had to be tried by fire, in death, to show that all was a sweet savour, and nothing else. Finally, the power of the Holy Spirit was shown in the greatest and most perfect way in the Lord’s resurrection. Being put to death in the flesh, He was made alive in the Spirit. The Spirit, who in divine power, had been energetic in His birth, and in His whole life, and by whom He at length offered Himself without spot to God, manifested all His power in quickening Jesus from death. It is true indeed that He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; also that He Himself raised up His body, the temple of God (John 2:19); but the Holy Spirit was the immediate agent in His resurrection (1 Pet.3:18); the body also of the risen One is a spiritual body.

J.N. Darby Collected Writings Vol.33 pp.314-316

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