NEW
RELATIONSHIPS
"searches all things, yea the deep things of God" 1 Cor. 2:10
Confining the attention exclusively
for the moment to the new union as seen in the Man Jesus, it is evident that now God has moved
into a new
relationship with fallen man, and man is lifted in spite of his fall
into new
relation with God in the Person of Jesus. Jesus the unfallen is yet
Jesus, Who has kept the final issues, resulting from the fall. His reception
of the Spirit is therefore a representative fact declaring forevermore that in
spite of sin, a
way has been made back to fellowship with God. Such relation had
never been nor could be, apart from this great fact. The Holy Spirit Who knows
the mind of God, Who "searches all
things, yea the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10) Who is the Spirit of life forever proceeding from the
Father, is now vested in the Man of Nazareth, and through Him, is at the
disposal of all such as submit to His Lordship. The Spirit of God Who had been
grieved from humanity, and prevented operating in the human heart, as to the
knowledge of God and the life of God, and the power of God, is now through this
perfect Man, in Whom was no sin, yet in Whom is resident the moral value of
cancelled sin at
the disposal of the rebellious also. THE ASCENDED CHRIST HAS NOW
BECOME THE NEW CENTER OF A NEW RACE. Henceforth the Spirit will plead with man
the cause of Christ, demonstrating the fact that sin consists in rejection of
Him, declaring the evangel that righteousness is possible because He has
ascended to the Father, and denouncing forever the ultimate doom of evil,
because the "prince of this world
hath been judged." (John 16:11)
Having received this promise of the
Father, the ascended Lord poured out upon the waiting disciples the gift of the
Holy Spirit, and so the promise fulfilled to Christ, is fulfilled to those who have put their
trust in Him, and herein is revealed the explanation of all the
careful statements of His own discourses on the Paraclete. The Father has sent
the Spirit, because He has bestowed Him on the Man that represents the fallen
race. The Son has sent the Spirit, having received Him from the Father.
One brief glance at the fact on
earth will serve to complete the present article, and prepare for those that
remain. In the upper room at Jerusalem, a company of waiting souls received the
gift of the Holy Spirit, not in answer to their prayer but in answer to the
prevailing prayer in high heaven of the ascended Man of Nazareth.
Peter made that point in his sermon in Acts to prove He had arrived in heaven
fully explaining the question they asked at Pentecost concerning what they were
seeing and hearing. (Acts 2:12, 33)
The Holy Spirit falling upon them took up His abode in them, coming to them
from the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. In the Person of Jesus the point
of union between man and God has been found. Jesus is glorified by God in
exaltation to the throne of power. Jesus is glorified by man in his submission
to Him as enthroned.
The Spirit indwelling man administers all the values of
the finished work of Jesus.
This means that the men so indwelt,
are by that Spirit Who administers the values, made one with the risen Christ.
His life is their life as to its nature, for His life won out of death, risen
ascended and yet to be manifested; as to its expression, for it is life
interested in the things of God and devoted in its powers to the accomplishment
of Divine purposes; as to its whole for henceforth for them also the one and
only rule of life will, be the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.
And yet again, the Spirit's
indwelling initiates
a process of growth into perfect likeness to Christ by the subjugation of the
whole man spirit soul and body to the new life imparted in this miracle of
regeneration. (Jude 24)
Thus the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the demonstration
of the fact that the stupendous work to which God set Himself according to His
wisdom and His might in the Person and mission of Christ has been fully
accomplished. It now remains to consider how Christ answers the call of man in
all its deepest meaning.
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