THE GAIN OF HAVING THE SPIRIT
[p. 88] THE GAIN OF HAVING THE SPIRIT
There is immense gain in having the Spirit. I do not think we are sufficiently impressed with it. The disciples were wonderfully favoured to be in company with the Son of God when He was here. No doubt in His presence they anticipated, in some measure, the Spirit’s day. He did much for them that was afterwards the province of the Spirit. But notwithstanding this, we cannot help seeing how little they entered into what was present with them in the Son of God, or into the communications of His love. He could say to the Father, “I have declared unto them thy name”, yet how little they knew the holy name that had been manifested to them by and in the Son! Fulness of grace and truth was in Him; every ray of divine glory shone out in Him; but how little was it apprehended! In this very chapter Thomas says: “Lord, we know not whither thou goest ..”. and Philip says: “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us”. Again and again He spoke of His death and resurrection, but they did not understand. It was all a mystery to them.
For the understanding of all that came here in the Son of God everything depends on the presence of the Spirit. If we look at things from the Father’s side everything was declared when the Son was here, but on our side everything hangs on the presence of the Spirit. Mental quickness or natural ability will not help us in these things. But the Spirit can and does make the Son of God and His words and works more of a reality to us than they were to those who were with Him in the days of His flesh. Saints understand now by the Spirit much that was a mystery to those who were in the very presence of the Son of God when He was here.
“He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”. The Spirit brings in an abiding order of things in contrast to all that was broken up by the death of Christ. It was very blessed for the disciples to go about with the Messiah on earth, but it was an order of things that came to an end. Death broke in upon it. The Shepherd was smitten and the sheep were scattered. Paul said: “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now hence-forth know we him no more”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16. That order of things came to an end; it was not “for ever”.
But when the Lord said: “Mary” to the one who sought Him in the grave He had for ever left behind, He formed a link between Himself and her that was “for ever”. When He made Himself known in breaking of bread to the two at Emmaus, and when He stood in the midst of His disciples at Jerusalem and said, “Peace be unto you”, He was attaching their hearts to Himself outside the scene and range of death’s power altogether. It was a new order of things — a resurrection and ascension order — which goes on “for ever”. It is from that side that the Spirit has come. What the personal presence and words of the risen One were to His own on the resurrection day the Spirit is to us today. He is the link with a risen and ascended Christ and an order of things which is “for ever”. We have tasted deep joy in the Lord, and in the thought of our association with the Son of God. Will death ever cast a shadow on that? No, it is “for ever”. The Spirit is in relation to an eternally abiding order of things. Nothing can touch those things, nothing can break them up. What an immense gain it is to have a vital link with such blessed things! In the Spirit we become conscious of our association with Christ. It is a stainless and deathless joy.
“Ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”. Now, do we know the Spirit? How do we know any friend? Is it not by what he brings before us, by his communications to us? It is in this way that we know the Spirit. No one but the Comforter could make the Son of God a present reality to our hearts, or give us the joy of His love. If Christ is before us, and His blessed things engage our hearts, it is by the Spirit, and we know the Spirit by what He does for us in this way. He makes the Son of God a present reality to us, so that we are not bereaved of Him. The world has lost Him, but we have not. The word is fulfilled, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”.
It is as having the Comforter that we see the risen One who says: “Because I live, ye shall live also”. We live in association with the risen and glorified Son of God.
Then, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. That verse conveys to my mind the thought of a wonderful system of divine affections. I understand it to mean that the Son dwells in the Father’s affections, the assembly dwells in the affections of Christ, and Christ dwells in the affections of the assembly. The whole [p. 90] of this blessed and divine system of love is pervaded by the Spirit and it is He who gives the intelligence of it for our souls’ deep joy.
How great is the gain of having the Spirit! May we realise that gain more and more!