Power for service

Introduction

By

Rev. B. H. Carroll, D.D., LL.D.

New Orleans, La.

From the Press of New Orleans Christian Advocate, No. 512 Camp Street,

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Copyright applied for.

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Contents

5. THE PLACE OF PENTECOST IN THE

PLAN OF REDEMPTION 53

10. THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN

I. The Person Of Power

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38.) Just before He was caught away from the earth Christ said to the expectant group standing around him, “Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high, and ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you.” (Acts 1:8.)

Here we have startling statements. In the first instance we are told that rivers of living water shall flow out of those who believe. In the other instance we are informed that power shall rest upon the disciples when they receive the Holy Spirit. This is a distinct advance in the teaching of Christ. He declares that in His followers there shall abide a positive force for righteousness. In the first teaching He is preparing them for the fuller announcement of the character of this indwelling power. In the last teaching, the time having come when He must ascend to the Father, He is giving the promise of an enduement which shall equip them for the task of evangelizing the world.

But we are interested most of all to know the nature of this promised power which shall be in the hearts of the disciples of Christ. We are informed that it is the Spirit. But what spirit? Some tell us that it is simply an influence emanating from the Divine One. Others tell us that it is a peculiar power of the inspired Word. While still others tell us that the Spirit here promised is a person distinct from the Father and from the Son, and yet of the same divine essence. Until we have settled this question and come to a true understanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit, we cannot get a just conception of His work.

We are so muck accustomed to speak of the influence of the Spirit that I am afraid we have acquired the habit of regarding Him as an emanation flowing from the Father and the Son, but not as being actually a person. I know that it is not easy to grasp the conception of the Holy Spirit as a person. We think of the Father as a person, because his acts are such as we can understand. We see Him hang the world in ether; we behold Him swaddling a new-born sea in bands of darkness, and we know that such acts are the acts of a person. It is so with the Son : we can realize that He is a person, because He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. It takes no great stretch of the imagination to picture the Babe in Bethlehem, or behold the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” or the King of martyrs, as He was persecuted in Pilate’s hall, or nailed to the accursed tree for our sins. Nor do we find it very hard to realize Jesus sitting on his throne in heaven; or, girt with clouds and wearing the diadem of all creation, calling the earth to judgment, and summoning us to hear the final sentence. But when we come to deal with the Holy Spirit, His operations are so mysterious, His doings are so secret, His acts are so removed from every thing that is of sense that we cannot so easily get the idea of His being a person. But we must; for he is not simply an emanation flowing from the Father: He is as much a person as is the Father and the Son.

We are not, therefore, to consider the name Spirit as one of the titles of God, designating Him at work in a certain realm, hut as a name given to denote a person distinct from the Father and the Son. He is a distinct personality. He has the characteristics of personality: consciousness, character, will. He is an intelligent being, who can say “I,” who can be addressed as “thou,” and who can act and be acted upon.

Designations Proper to Personality .

The divine writers, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, have used designations proper only to personality. You will notice some of them.

Christ, in speaking of the Spirit, says: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He also speak. He shall glorify me; for He shall take of mine and show it unto you.” (John 16:13-15.) Here the masculine pronoun, the strongest form with which to express personality, is used no less than ten times. ( See also John 14 :26 ; 16 :7-8 ; Eph. 1 :13. )

The Spirit is called the Comforter, which is a name of personality. Jesus said to His disciples, “I will not leave you comfortless (John 14:18) ; and the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things.” (John 14:26.) In all these passages the word “paraclete” is used. The term denotes an intelligent agent and not an abstract quality or influence. The Comforter, Instructor, Patron, Guide, Advocate, whom this term brings before us must be a person. This is evident from its application to Christ in 1 John 2:1, where Christ is called the Advocate, “Paraclaton,” with the Father.

Powers of Rational Understanding.

There are also personal powers of rational understanding ascribed to the Holy Spirit.

In the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians Paul attributes every gift of wisdom to the Spirit. “Now there are diversities of gifts,” says he, “but one Spirit.” And then after enumerating the different gifts, he says: “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He wills.” The last phrase, “as He wills,” signifies that the Spirit acts in the distribution of these gifts upon His own choice and judgment. He is Sovereign in

His realm. This designates personal powers.

In speaking of the wisdom of God as manifested in the Gospel, Paul says: “But w T e speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, wdiich God ordained before the w r orld unto our glory; which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. * * * But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” In this passage the Spirit is represented as intelligently looking into those inscrutable regions, above all that the eye can see and that comes up into the heart of man; into those regions w^here God’s plans for mankind are developed, and bringing those plans out and revealing them unto man. Surely, if He is able to make knowrn to us the mind of God and unfold to us the mighty working of the divine will. He must be more than a mere influence.

Performs Personal Acts.

The Holy Spirit is represented as performing a number of personal acts. In the Scriptures, some of which have already been quoted, the following acts are ascribed to the Holy Spirit: He creates (Gen. 1:1) ; He searches (1 Cor. 2:10); He speaks (Acts 13:2); He intercedes (Rom. 8:26); He testifies (Jno. 15:26) ; He guides (Rom. 8:14); He teaches (Jno. 14:26); He communes with (2 Cor. 13:14) ; He gives power (Acts 1:8, 10:38); He convicts (John 16:8-11); He regenerates (John 3:8); He calls and commissions (Acts 13:2-3, 20:28); He inspires (2 Peter 1:21); He sanctifies (1 Peter 1:2); He quickens our bodies (Rom. 8:11). Here are no less than fourteen different personal acts. How can a person be more clearly set forth? This, then, cannot be a mere attribute or power of God, but must be a person.

Manifested in Visible Form.

The Holy Spirit has manifested Himself in visible form in direct connection with the Father and the Son, and yet distinct from them.

In the story of creation, in the first chapter of Genesis, we read : “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen. 1:2-3.) Here we have the creating Father and the “brooding Spirit” at work together in the formation of the earth. Behold the process. There is the chaos, the seething waters, the wild abyss, the starless night, and over it all, over the darkness and desolation the Spirit of God, like a mother-dove, brooded until there was brought into being the bright and happy world.

The descent of the Spirit upon Jesus at His baptism in the form of a dove as recorded by Matthew (3:16), Mark (1:10), Luke (3:22), John (1:32), shows in bold relief the Holy Spirit in visible manifestation, and yet in direct connection with the Father and the Son.

He was also manifested in the tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come suddenly there came a sound as of a rushing mighty wind from heaven, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” Here is a direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s presence apart from the Father and the Son. These visible manifestations show that the Spirit is a person. An influence cannot appear in any visible form. We cannot see an attribute. Powers cannot assume form and shape. Only a person can. The Holy Spirit must, then, be a person since He has been seen by mortal eyes, and has come under the cognizance of mortal sense.

Affected by Acts of Others.

The Holy Spirit is affected as a person by the acts of others. Certain feelings are ascribed to the Spirit, which can only be understood upon the supposition that He is actually a person.

“And Peter said unto Ananias, why hast Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” (Acts 5:3-4.) Paul, in his instruction to the Ephesians, says: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Eph. 4:30.) Only a person can perceive an insult or be offended by it.

Christ says all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. (Matt. 12:31.) Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost cannot be blasphemy against a mere influence emanating from God, for then blasphemy against an influence of the Deity would be a greater sin than blasphemy against the Deity Himself. That against which the unpardonable sin is committed must be more than a mere influence — it must be a person.

These considerations are sufficient to establish the personality of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who regenerates the soul. It is the Holy Spirit who imparts the first gleam of life, convicting us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come; and after the flame is kindled it is the Spirit that fans it with the breath of His mouth and keeps it alive. Oh! can it be said that it is the Holy Spirit who strives in men’s souls; that it is the Holy Spirit who brings them to the foot of Sinai, and then guides them into the sweet place called Calvary; can it be said that the Spirit does all these things, and yet is not a Person? Surely not.

Nor can these passages be explained on the ground of personification. It is indeed admitted that inanimate and irrational things are introduced as speaking and are addressed as persons. But this creates no difficulty. The Spirit is introduced as a person so often, not in excited and poetic discourse, but in simple narrative and didactic instruction, and His personality is sustained by so many collateral proofs that to attempt to dispose of it on the ground of personification would be to do violence to all the rules of interpretation.

THE PERSON OF TOWER

Let us, then, grasp the personality of the Spirit. This is essential to the completion of our faith. Without this glorious doctrine we have no Trinity. A gospel without the Trinity is a pyramid upon its apex. Get, then, the thought of the three persons in the Godhead, know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and you have the marrow of all divinity. This is the golden key to all the secrets of divine grace; this is the silken clue to the labyrinth of all divine mystery, this is the open door to all divine power.

II. The Divine Paraclete

The system of redemption cannot fail to excite the gratitude and admiration of every serious inquirer. Great and marvelous indeed are those dispensations of divine grace which are unfolded in the Bible. Who can contemplate the person, the character, the work, and the offices of the Savior without being stirred to the very depth of his being? The cross is the proof supreme and eternal of the everlasting love of God. And yet all this provision for our deliverance would be totally useless if there were not some divine influence exerted upon our minds to induce our ready response to the call of divine love. Such an influence is afforded. The Holy Spirit is the divine and sovereign agent in the economy of man’s salvation that makes effectual application to us of all that Christ hath done and suffered for us.

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This person, who bears so important a part in the wondrous plan of human redemption, must be of matchless dignity. He is above the angels, for they are represented as desiring to look into the marvelous doings of God in the unfolding of the Gospel scheme of salvation. (1 Peter 1 :12.) Surely, then, being admitted to a part in that amazing system by which the earth is to be redeemed; associated with the mighty Son of God in the matchless movement of all the ages ; being a factor in things which angels desire to look into; we cannot think of His being employed as an inferior agent, but He must possess all the glories of the Godhead, and be equal with the Father and the Son. That such is the case it is now our purpose to show.

On this point there is little dispute. So completely do the Scriptures identify the Holy Spirit with God, representing Him as possessing divine attributes and exercising divine prerogatives, that since the fourth century His divinity has not been denied by those who admit His personality.

Divine Titles Ascribed to Him.

The titles ascribed to the Holy Spirit are such as belong to God only. In the Old Testament all that is said of Jehovah is said of the Spirit of Jehovah. In the New Testament the same mode of representation is continued. There is no hint that he is not divine, but every indication that the divine writers recognized Him as equal with the Father and the Son.

Peter says to Ananias, “Why hast Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” (Acts 5:3-4.) Here in the most express and full sense of the word the Holy Spirit is called God. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. If the Spirit be not divine, then this passage is made to teach a direct falsehood.

Isaiah says, “Then said I, woe is me! * * * for I have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5-9.) Paul, quoting this same passage, says: “Well spake the Holy Ghost by the prophet Isaiah unto our fathers.” (Acts 28:25-27.) Here the person who appeared to Isaiah and who is called by him the “Lord of Hosts,” of whose glory the whole earth is full, is by Paul called the Holy Spirit. This is one of the highest titles of Deity.

He is also called the “Spirit of God,” and the “Spirit of the Lord.” These titles, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Lord, are each used about twenty-five times in the Scriptures, and are as conclusive of His divinity, says Strong, as are the passages which speak of Christ as the Son of God conclusive of the divinity of the Son. Spirit is nothing but the innermost principle of life — it is the essence of the life. The spirit of man is man. So the Spirit of God must be God — must be of the same divine essence — must be divine.

We cannot hesitate to pronounce the one to whom the sacred writers apply such exalted titles anything less than divine. Identified with God in names and titles as the Spirit is, we cannot doubt that He is God.

Divine Attributes Ascribed To The Spirit.

His attributes will also lead us to the same conclusion. There are certain perfections appropriate to Deity, which we consider as incommunicable to any creature, and by these the Holy Spirit is described and distinguished.

In Hebrews we find this passage, “How/ much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Heb. 9:14.) In this passage the Spirit which overshadowed the virgin in the divine conception, which came upon Christ at His baptism in the form of a dove, and through whom He offered Himself to God without spot, is called the Eternal Spirit. This is an attribute of God alone.

In Romans we have this expression : “Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God.” (Rom. 15:19.) He is also called “the Power of the Highest,” and “the Finger of God.” (Luke 1:35,

11 :20. ) That this power of the Spirit is omnipotent is evident from the fact that the most wonderful works of the Lord are ascribed to Him. This supreme power belongs to God alone. When we find it attributed to the Spirit and behold the Spirit exercising it we are bound to admit that the Spirit is God.

Paul tells us that the Spirit searcheth all things, “Yea the deep things of God.” ( 1 Cor. 2 :10. ) It is here declared that the mind of God is entirely known to the Spirit. All regions are laid open to Him. In fact* the whole realm of divine intelligence and divine activity is occupied by the Holy Spirit. His knowledge is commensurate with the knowledge of God. The consciousness of God is the consciousness of the Spirit. He pervades every avenue of divine thought. Surely, He can be no less than divine.

The Psalmist says: “Whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Paul says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor.

3:16.) Christ promised His disciples that, “Where two or three are gathered in His name there He would be in the midst of them, and that to own and bless.” (Matt. 18:20.) Here He is presented as the Omnipresent One. He fills the earth with His presence. Though you take the wings of the morning, and fly away to the uttermost parts of the earth — lo, He is there. Though two or three trembling souls meet in dark, damp, subterranean caverns, from the eyes of men hidden away — lo, the Spirit hath spied them out, and is in their midst to own and bless. Wherever a human heart trusts in Christ there is erected a temple of the Holy Ghost, and He immediately comes and fills it, and all over the world to-day the tens of thousands of living temples are the abiding places of His divine presence. Surely, such an one is very God.

Divine Works Ascribed To The Spirit,

His works are such as show Him to be divine, for they are such that no being of limited or imperfect faculties could perform.

He “garnished the heavens” and “moved upon the face of the deep” to reduce the confusion of chaos to order, and to impregnate dead matter with life and animation. (Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13; Psalms 33:6.) Surely, that power which hovered over the world when it was a mass of chaotic matter — a valley of darkness and of the shadow of death — and sowed the seed and impreg-, nated it so that it pulsated with life, must have been divine.

Peter tells us that the “prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:21.) In Hebrews we are told, “That in times past God spake unto the fathers by the prophets.” (Heb. 1:1.) That which Peter calls the Holy Ghost, the writer of the Hebrews calls God. The prophets were messengers of God, but the revealing power by which they were enabled to carry out their mission was the Holy Spirit. When Moses penned the Penteteuch the Holy Ghost moved his hand ; when David wrote the Psalms, and made rOWER FOR SERVICE melodious music on his harp, it was the Holy Spirit who gave his fingers their seraphic motion; when Solomon spoke the proverbs of wisdom, or when he hymned the Canticle of love, it was the Holy Spirit who gave him words of knowledge and hymns of rapture. Ah! what fire was it that touched the lips of the eloquent Isaiah? What hand came upon Daniel? What might made Jeremiah so plaintive in his grief? Who kindled the imagination of Ezekiel so that he could soar aloft and see the Mighty Unknown beyond our reach? Who was it that made Amos, the herdsman, a prophet? Who taught the rugged Haggai to pronounce his thundering sentences? Who pointed out to Habakkuk the horses of J ehovah marching through the deep? Who kindled the burning eloquence of Nahum? Who caused Malachi to close up the book with the muttering of the word of curse? Ah! It was the Holy Ghost. Surely, he can be no less than divine.

We are assured that at the last day our

THE DIVINE TARACLETE scattered dust shall be collected and revived by him: “He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Rom. 8:11.) Such work can only be the work of God. As Hodge says: “The work of the Spirit is the work of God. He fashions the world. He regenerates the soul. He is the source of all knowledge, the giver of inspiration. He fashions our bodies. He formed the body of Christ as a fit habitation for the fullness of the Godhead. He is to quicken our mortal bodies. Surely, a person of so much dignity as this is no less than divine.”

The Honors Bestowed Show Him Divine.

The supreme honors bestowed upon the Spirit show Him to be divine. His place in the divine economy is unique.

Christ, in giving the command to His disciples, said: “Go ye into all the world and disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19.)

Paul tells us that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit ; differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and diversities of operations, but the same God who worketh all in all. (1 Cor. 12:4-6.) Meyer, in commenting on this passage, says : “The divine Trinity is here indicated in an ascending climax, in such a way that we pass from the Spirit who bestows the gifts to the Lord who is served by means of them, and finally to God, who, as the absolute First Cause and possessor of all Christian power, works the entire sum of all Cliristmatic gifts in all who are gifted.” In the apostolic benediction the Spirit is also associated with the Father and the Son. (2 Cor. 13:14.) Surely, that person associated with the Father and the Son in the baptismal formula, in connection with the bestowal of all Christmatic gifts, and in the apostolic benediction, must be of the same divine essence with the Father and the Son. Such an one must be divine.

We are taught throughout all the Scriptures to seek for his influence by fervent prayer, to depend upon him for the mortification of sin and for growth in holiness, and to yield ourselves to His dictates with unfeigned submission. (Luke 11:13; Kom. 8 :13-14 ; Gal. 5 :25. ) There is an injunction to every trusting soul to grieve him not (Eph. 4:30), and admonition not to quench the light and fire which this gracious visitant brings. (1 Thess. 5:19.) He is our leader and with him we are to walk. In baptism we are reminded of his equality with the Father and the Son, and are dedicated to his service. Our bodies are his temple, and the description implies, not only that he dwells in us, but that he claims us as his property, and that in us as in his temple He will be revered and worshipped. (1 Cor. 3 :16-17, 6 :19-20. ) Are these, then, we ask, the claims of a creature? Do we not understand that the Holy Spirit is to be believed in just as the Father and the Son are believed in ; that He must be received by faith as they are received by faith ; and that without this faith in the Holy Spirit we have an incomplete Deity? Surely, a character who is to receive our heart's devotion, a thing which we acknowledge as a right only of the supreme and Almighty God, can be no other than Divine.

It has been shown that the most exalted titles, attributes, works and honors, such as belong by right to God only, are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we deny the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, we are reduced to the glaring absurdity of saying that the highest titles, the supremest attributes, the most exalted works, and the most sacred honors of the Deity Himself are in the Scriptures, most explicitly and repeatedly, ascribed to a mere abstract principle. Surely, to deify an influence, or anything else besides the great and eternal God, is idolatry. Thus we must conclude that the Holy Spirit is God ; that the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit — these three persons — are of the same divine essence.

It is here that the mind of man is lost in mystery. A trinity of persons in the unity of the Godhead is something of which we can form no definite idea. The fact is revealed to us in Scripture, but as to the manner of that fact, while reason lies humbled in the dust, shorn of her vaunted strength, we can never know definitely. But where reason cannot tread, faith, in its upward flight, can comprehend. And so with our faith fixed in the deep of His eternal love we can take from His Word what we cannot comprehend through human reason. Only let me know Thee, Lord, in the pardon of sin through the Son of Thy love, and the enlightening and comforting influences of the Holy Spirit, and my poor soul shall be sanctified. I look to Thee, the great Three in One. I believe in the Father who loves, in the Son who saves, and in the Holy Spirit, who calls and sanctifies.

III. Christ And The Comforter

The redemptive economy includes the work of the Trinity. If we would understand the divine process of salvation, in all of its fullness, we must study it in the light of the three-fold personality of God and the specific work which each person performs. We cannot overlook the mutual relation of these divine persons. The work of each blends into the work of the others, and the work of the three is woven into a divine and perfect whole.

Christ, in His last instruction to His disciples, says: “I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter; even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” (John 14:16-17.) The three persons of the Trinity are here related in the work of salvation. “ I will pray,” says the Son; “I will send,” says the Father; “I will comfort,” says the Holy Spirit. This three-fold personality secures a life-movement. It is through the activities of the three persons that God evermore objectifies Himself and gives forth of His fullness. The Son is the centrifugal force of Deity, but there must also be a centripetal force. This the Holy Spirit supplies. In the Son, God evermore goes out from Himself in saving power. In the Holy Spirit, God evermore comes back to Hiinself with the results of His saving activity. And so the circle of action is established by which God reaches men and lifts them up to Himself.