The Ministry of the Spirit - A. J. Gordon (fantasy novels to read TXT) 📗

not properly begin. The office of the Holy Ghost is to communicate Christ to us—Christ in his entireness. However perfectly the photographer's plate has been prepared, there can be no picture until his subject steps into his place and stands before him. Our Saviour's redemptive work was not completed when he died on the cross, or when he rose from the dead, or even when he ascended from the brow of Olivet. Not until he sat down in his Father's throne, summing up all his ministry in himself,—"I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore,"—did the full Christ stand ready to be communicated to his church.[5] By the first Adam's sin, God's communion with man through the Holy Ghost was broken, and their union ruptured. When the second Adam came up from his cross and resurrection, and took his place at God's right hand, there was a restoration of this broken fellowship. Very beautiful are {31} the words of our risen Lord as bearing on this point: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."[6] The place which the divine Son had won for himself in the Father's heart, he had won for us also. All of acceptance and standing and privilege which was now his, was ours too, by redemptive right; and the Holy Ghost is sent down to confirm and realize to us what he had won for us. Without the expiatory work of Christ for us, the sanctifying work of the Spirit in us were impossible; and on the other hand, without the work of the Spirit within us, the work of Christ for us were without avail.

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come." What these words mean historically, typically, and doctrinally, we are now prepared to see. The true wave sheaf had been presented in the temple on high. Christ the first-fruits, brought from the grave on "the morrow after the Sabbath," or the first day of the week, now stands before God accepted on our behalf; the seven Sabbaths from the resurrection day have been counted, and Pentecost has come. Then suddenly, to those who were "all of one accord in one place," "there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all {32} the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." As the manger of Bethlehem was the cradle of the Son of God, so was the upper room the cradle of the Spirit of God; as the advent of "the Holy Child" was a testimony that God had "visited and redeemed his people," so was the coming of the Holy Ghost. The fact that the Comforter is here, is proof that the Advocate is there in the presence of the Father. Boldly Peter and the other apostles now confront the rulers with their testimony, "Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree . . . Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins; and we are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Ghost, whom God, hath given to them that obey him." As the sound of the golden bells upon the high priest's garments within the Holiest gave evidence that he was alive, so the sound of the Holy Ghost, proceeding from heaven and heard in that upper chamber, was an incontestable witness that the great High Priest whom they had just seen passing through the cloud-curtain, entering within the veil, was still living for them in the presence of the Father. Thus has the "dies natalis," the birthday of the Holy Spirit, come; and the events of his earthly mission will now be considered in their order.

[1] "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man," by Pastor Tophel, p. 32.

[2] See epistles to the seven churches: Rev 2: 11.

[3] John 14: 10.

[4] Lev. 23: 11-16.

[5] "Christ having reached his goal, and not till then, bequeathes to his followers the graces that invested his earthly course; the ascending Elijah leaves his mantle behind him. It is only an extension of the same principle, that the declared office of the Holy Spirit being to complete the image of Christ in every faithful follower by effecting in this world a spiritual death and resurrection,—a point attested in every epistle,—the image could not be stamped until the reality had been wholly accomplished; the Divine Artist could not fitly descend to make the copy before the entire original had been provided."—Archer Butler.

[6] John 20: 17. "Because though he and the Father are one, and the Father his Father by the propriety of nature, to us God became a Father through the Son, not by right of nature, but by grace."—Ambrose.

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III THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT

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"The name Paraclete is applied to Christ as well as to the Spirit; and properly: For it is the common office of each to console and encourage us and to preserve us by their defense. Christ was their [the disciples'] patron so long as he lived in the world; he then committed them to the guidance and protection of the Spirit. If any one asks us whether we are not under the guidance of Christ, the answer is easy: Christ is a perpetual guardian, but not visibly. As long as he walked on the earth he appeared openly as their guardian: now he preserves us by his Spirit. He calls the Spirit 'another Comforter,' in view of the distinction which we observe in the blessings proceeding from each."—John Calvin.

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III THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT

The Son of God was named by the angel before he was conceived in the womb: "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Thus he came, not to receive a name, but to fulfill a name already predetermined for him. In like manner was the Holy Ghost named by our Lord before his advent into the world: "But when the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father" (John 15: 26). This designation of the Holy Spirit here occurs for the first time—a new name for the new ministry upon which he is now about to enter. The reader will find in almost any critical commentary discussions of the meaning of the word, and of the question of its right translation, whether by "Comforter," or "Advocate," or "Teacher," or "Helper." But the question cannot be fully settled by an appeal to classical or patristic Greek, for the reason, we believe, that it is a divinely given name whose real significance must be made manifest in the actual life and history of the Spirit. The name is the person himself, and only as we know the person can we interpret his name. Why {36} attempt then to translate this word any more than we do the name of Jesus? We might well transfer it into our English version, leaving the history of the church from the Acts of the Apostles to the experience of the latest saint to fill into it the great significance which it was intended to contain. Certain it is that the language of the Holy Ghost can never be fully understood by an appeal to the lexicon. The heart of the church is the best dictionary of the Spirit. While all the before-mentioned synonyms are correct, neither one is adequate, nor are all together sufficient to bring out the full significance of this great name, "The Paraclete."

Let us consider, however, how much is suggested by the literal meaning of this word, "the Paracletos" and by all that our Lord says concerning him in his last discourse. "To call to one's aid," is the meaning of the verb, parachaleô, from which the name is derived. Very beautiful therefore is the word in its application to the disciples of Christ at the time when the Spirit was given. They had lost the visible presence of their Lord. The sorrow of his removal from them through the cross and the sepulchre had after three days been turned into joy by his resurrection. But now another separation had come, in his departure to the Father after the cloud had received him out of sight. In this last and longer bereavement, what should they do? Their beloved Master had told them beforehand {37} what to do. They were to call upon the Father to send them One to fill the vacant place, and he who should be sent would be the "Paraclete," the "one called to their help."[1]

But what deep questionings must have arisen in their hearts as they heard the Saviour's promise: "If I go not away the Paraclete will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you." Did they begin to ask whether the mysterious comer would be a "person"? Impossible to imagine. For he was to take the place of that greatest of persons; to do for them even greater things than he had done; and to lead them into even larger knowledge than he had imparted. The discussion of the personality of the Holy Ghost is so unnatural in the light of Christ's last discourse that we studiously avoid it. Let us treat the question, therefore, from the point of view of Christ's own words, and try to put ourselves under the impression which they make upon us. To state the matter as simply and familiarly as possible: Jesus is about to vacate his office on earth as teacher and prophet; but before doing so he would introduce us to his successor. As in a complex problem we seek to determine an unknown quantity by the known, so in this paschal discourse Jesus {38} aims to make us acquainted with the mysterious, invisible coming personage whom he names the "Paraclete" by comparing him with himself, the known and the visible one. Collating his comparisons we may find in them several groups of seeming contradictions, and just such contradictions as we should expect if this comer is indeed a person of the Godhead. Of the coming Paraclete then we find these intimations.[2]

1. He is another, yet the same: "And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter" (John 14: 16). By the use of this expression "another" our Lord distinguishes the Paraclete from himself, but he also puts him on the same plane with himself. For there is no parity or even comparison between a person and an influence. If the promised visitor were to be only an impersonal emanation from God, it would seem impossible that our Lord should have so co-ordinated him with himself as to say: "I go to be an Advocate for you in heaven (1 John 2: 1), and I send another to be an Advocate for you on earth."

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But if Christ thus distinguishes the Comforter from himself, he also identifies him with himself: "I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you" (John 14: 18). By common consent this promise refers to the advent of the Spirit, for so the connection plainly indicates. And yet almost in the same breath he says: "The Comforter whom I will send unto you" (John 14: 26). Thus our Lord makes the same event to be at once his coming and his sending; and he speaks of the Spirit now as his own presence, and now as his substitute during his absence. So what must we conclude but that the Paraclete is Christ's other self, a third Person in that blessed Trinity of which he is the second.

2. The Paraclete is subordinate yet superior in his ministry to the church. "For he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you" (John 16: 13).

Well may we mark the holy deference between the persons of the Trinity which is here pointed out. Each receives from another what he communicates, and each magnifies another in his praises. As Bengel concisely states it: "The Son glorifies the Father; the Spirit glorifies the Son." What