THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
[p. 359] THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Romans 5: 1 - 11; Romans 8: 1 - 13; John 4: 14
JBS We are not in the flesh but in the Spirit; that is the great thing to start with. The two things cannot be mixed. We are born of the Spirit and sealed with the Spirit: every bit of growth in the soul is by the Spirit of God, and no one is beyond the measure of the Spirit’s work in him. We may read and know a great deal, but we are never beyond what the Holy Spirit has effected in us.
Ques Does not all belong to every christian?
JBS It is all his, but he may not have got it. Everything is true to us, but we have only as much as the Spirit has wrought in us.
A very important point for evangelists is the special revelation they present to the new-born soul. There is a great distinction between learning the work of Christ and learning Christ as a Person. At the first, forgiveness was preached through the exalted Man. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins”. A great many souls are detained in Romans 3, because they do not see that God has raised Christ from among the dead. We may learn from the types that the blood was upon the mercy-seat before it was on the person; the oil was put on the blood.
Ques Would you say any forgiven person had not the Spirit?
JBS You begin with the work. In Ephesians we read, “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed”. There is faith in the Person and in His word.
Ques When is acquaintance with the Lord [p. 360] first made?
JBS The first positive link with Christ personally is in receiving the Spirit of Christ.
Ques Do you make any difference between the link formed and the acquaintance?
JBS I think there could not be. First, Saul of Tarsus was turned to God, and in three days he was cleared. I do not doubt he learned in a most wonderful way the value of Christ’s work for him during those three remarkable days, but it is on the visit of Ananias that he receives his sight and is filled with the Holy Spirit, and the bond with Christ personally is thus formed. I think it is important to see that the bond is formed with the Person.
Ques Is it not clear that we must not connect the sealing of the Spirit (having the types in view) with the Passover, but with the Red Sea?
JBS Yes, “The Lord ... hath triumphed”, etc., shows you that.
Ques Is there not a contrast between the work of the Spirit as presented in Romans 5 and in chapter 8?
JBS I understand the first eleven verses of Romans 5 to describe the terms on which God can be with you; chapter 8, the way in which you can be before Him. The prodigal got the first before he entered upon the second.
Ques How can you enter into the terms on which God is with you?
JBS You have to learn the fact that you are brought on to new ground with God; that is seen in chapter 5. Chapters 6 and 7 come in as a sort of treatise, taking up the questions of deliverance from sin and law, otherwise the apostle would have gone on to chapter 8. In the history of the soul, one has the first eleven verses of chapter 5 before chapter 8, and when you have got chapter 8 you go back to chapter 5; you cannot get higher than chapter 5.
Ques But you enter into chapter 5 in a different way from what you [p. 361] did before?
JBS Yes. A great many souls are thinking how they stand with God, instead of thinking how God stands with them.
Romans 5 is the prodigal reconciled, but not yet in the Father’s house. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. There is the sense of how God stands towards us, and how everything is removed from His eye, before we know in the soul that everything is removed from our eye. Ask all in this room, Do you believe all is gone from the eye of God? Yes. Is all gone from your own eye? Ah! that is another matter. When the prodigal comes to the father his thoughts were all about what he had done and what he was. In chapter 5 the Spirit is acting on God’s side. His love was towards us, but it could not be in us but by the Spirit.
It is a great point to see that the Spirit is acting on God’s side in verse 5.
The gift of the Son is the proof of God’s love for us. The Spirit diffuses His love in our hearts.
Importing our side into chapter 5 makes it difficult. The father was on as good terms with the prodigal outside as he was when he was brought into the house. Heaven is the proper sphere of God’s love, but it is revealed to us in this world.
Ques Would you say the love is apprehended by the Spirit?
JBS Now you bring in the Spirit on our side; you must have it first on God’s side. God’s love is shed abroad by the Spirit. Our translators could not catch the idea in John’s epistle; they said “Herein is our love made perfect”, instead of “love... with us”.
Ques Would it be true of every christian that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit?
JBS Yes, no one else would be a christian; he would not be on christian ground; but they do not see that the christian’s portion is the most wonderful [p. 362] that can be conceived; his portion is in the love of God. In John’s first epistle we have the verse, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us”, etc.; this and the context show how the love of God is connected with us all through our path here, first in our state as sinners, then in our christian course right on to the end.
Ques Do not the first eleven verses of Romans 5 give us the terms on which we are with God - “We boast in God”?
JBS No, the terms on which He is with us. We are boasting in God because of what He is to us. I understand chapter 5 as illustrating the prodigal outside the house, and chapter 8 as his being inside. The soul wants to take in the two great things, i.e., everything gone from God’s eye, and everything gone from my own eye.
There are four great things in Romans 8 into which the Spirit of God conducts us. First, liberty - the mortification of the deeds of the body; second, the place of sonship; thirdly, though in a groaning creation, we wait for the redemption of the body; fourthly, He helps our infirmities and makes intercession for us, because we know not what to pray for as we ought. The last verse of the chapter - nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God”, etc. - takes us back to chapter 5.
The actual history is that all that was against me has gone from the eye of God in the cross, judicially so, and consequently cannot be revived; the status in the flesh could never be revived. If you are trying to correct the flesh you are not walking in the Spirit. I remember I used to think that if I read the Bible diligently I should keep from sin; but it is the Spirit alone who can keep me - “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. The greatest mortification a man can have is to be taken no notice of, that is the way of the Spirit’s dealing.
[p. 363] He engages you with Christ and excludes the flesh. In the end of Romans 5 you have changed your man. Many read their Bibles as a pious Jew would; they say, ‘I must act up to this, or that’. It is true there is a certain kind of piety with this, but it is not the way of a soul walking in the Spirit, it is manifestly a legal state.
People try what is called self-control, but if we were walking in the Spirit, He would control us. Walking in the Spirit is simply that Christ is the One before me; if you have Him kept before you by the Spirit you are sure to go on well.
A christian is formed by the place in which God has set him; the grace of God has set him in the love of God which is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, and he is formed by the place he is in. What Christ was in human life among men here was the outcome of the place in which He was with the Father.
Ques “Keep yourselves in the love of God” - does that come in here?
JBS Yes, but the Spirit of God does it; you could not be in it but by the Spirit. I do not think any christian will advance unless he has learned Romans 8; you must first know what “dead to sin” is; but that depends upon your having learned by the Spirit that you are dead with Christ.
Ques Do you not think many dwell on Romans 7 with no desire to get out of it?
JBS A great many people like Romans 7 because they are experimentally there in their souls. A further reason is that it suits man on the earth. There are many converts who are not in the good of the gospel, that is, that whilst we are here on the earth, we have a part and portion that is not of the earth. If Christ were here, earth would be the place for us; but as He is rejected we must share in His acceptance in the place where He is.
There is another thing, the revelation of the fact [p. 364] that you can be in that place; but we do well to bear in mind that we should never have been in the heavenly scene, had He not as Man entered it first. It is of great value to see how the Spirit of God links us with Christ where He is.
If you do not know what “dead to sin” is, you could not take an interest in the things of Christ; you must be settled first, then service. The thought of “dead to sin” is taken up as a question of position which belongs to every christian, but all are not practically dead to sin. Saints are not in it, so the resurrection of Christ is held as a doctrine by those who have never accepted death.
It is a great help to see that man is gone judicially, and consequently never to be revived. If I do revive it, I come under chastening here “for the destruction of the flesh”. God judges us in present circumstances, for there is no more offering for sin.
Now as to chapter 8. If you are walking in the Spirit you would necessarily see as God sees. Pious people say, If I am dead with Christ one minute, I could be two. The first part of the sentence is right, the last wrong; they leave out “with Christ”. You are not dead one minute unless you are dead with Christ; if I part company with Him one minute I am not dead. In Romans 6 you are dead with Christ; then in Colossians you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world. That is to seek the new place where Christ is, and I have to do with the new man in this way. Anyone can understand that a christian must part from the man here to have part with the Man there. We have to see that the old would not suit the new at all. When it comes to a question of the flesh, ease, or enjoyment, we should judge the way in which it is a hindrance to us, to our getting on in the new place. It is not a question of maintaining propriety on earth at all; the question is, Is it a hindrance?
We cannot insist too much that the truth of death [p. 365] with Christ is experimental, a thing to be daily realised. Paul learned the way out of all that he was through the death of Christ, and he could say, “I am crucified with Christ”. It is gone never to be revived, and not simply dead, but crucified, a judicial termination.
Ques “I am crucified with Christ” - is that standing?
JBS No, Paul says “I”; it is experimental, the result is that I really enjoy the Lord and find the flesh an intrusion. In Galatians 4 we learn that the educated, well taught, religiously brought up man does not like Christ. It is a most painful experience to learn that man in his best estate will not have Christ; like the young man in the gospel.
It is a moment of glad experience when you can say of the man who does not like Christ; he must go. It is the coronation day; Christ has got His place. But, you say, he may come back; well, walk in the Spirit and he cannot come back; the Spirit will not let him.
Ques What is the “first-fruits of the Spirit”?
JBS The first thing that grew, the first bit of ripe fruit.
Ques How does it apply to the Spirit?
JBS Because we have Him in a way nobody else ever will.
Ques Is it not in connection with the earth, and by and by to be poured out on all flesh?
JBS Yes, but we have the first-fruits, that is the chief. It is in connection with the earth.