God the Spirit
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND JESUS
God the Spirit
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND JESUS
When one studies the redemptive work of Jesus, one finds that He has a constant companion, the Person of the Holy Spirit. This should not be surprising since both God the Son and God the Spirit are as interested in the salvation of humanity as God the Father. All three Persons of the Godhead are involved in the marvelous plan of redemption. Each has a cooperative role that He appropriates and fulfills while in an inseparable relationship with the Trinity.
It should be noted at the beginning of our present investigation that all the attempts we make are scripturally based. This is a way of paying tribute and honor to the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge a point of beginning as did the apostle Peter when he wrote: “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21).
This passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit guided the prophets in their speaking and in their writing. Moreover, the Holy Spirit’s work with the Word extends far beyond the prophetic utterances. Indeed, “all Scripture is inspired [theopneustos = God-breathed] by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Therefore, being convinced that the entire Bible (all Scripture) is the product of the Holy Spirit, we can safely say that the Holy Spirit speaks to us today.
From of old the coming of a Savior was expected because this pronouncement was repeatedly made by the Holy Spirit through God’s prophets. It was the Spirit that pinpointed the Messianic hope as resting on Jesus of Nazareth.
Note the relationship of the Spirit with Jesus during Jesus’ time on Earth in the flesh. It was the Spirit Who begot the holy child Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35). This was an absolutely unique event in the annals of history. It transcended all human experience and can be accounted for only on the basis of a one-time miraculous act of God. If one can believe a miracle ever happened, then one can believe that which was conceived in Mary was of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is brief and clear about how Jesus made His entrance in human history.
In the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Jesus we find the Spirit was the one Who authenticated the pronouncement of the Father that Jesus was indeed God’s Son (John 1:29-34). This is important. As we contemplate this scene of Jesus' baptism, we realize how rare it is to find the Father, Son, and Spirit historically manifested together at a particular point and time. The Trinity converged at Jesus’ baptism. This showed the involvement of the Godhead in the plan for mankind's eternal salvation.
Jesus began His ministry on earth with baptism, fully acclaimed and identified by the Father and the Spirit. As John the Baptist prepared for the baptism, Jesus said, “. . . in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). As the baptism was completed, “. . . the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him; and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16b-17).
The Holy Spirit did not recede into the heavens as the sound of the Father’s voice faded away: Indeed not! The Spirit was not merely an authenticating agent of God the Father. The Spirit was to remain with Jesus “without measure,” fully, personally, as a constant companion. However, the Scripture says that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
“When I heard this text read in the worship assembly as a child, I always wondered whose side the Spirit was on. Is that the way to treat a Friend? Through the maturing process, I have come to see something happening in the life of Jesus of which we should all be aware.” (Dr. James E. Priest)
After about thirty years, Jesus took His public step into His personal ministry. His baptism became His launching pad, so to speak. In that decisive act He publicly committed Himself to fulfilling all the righteousness of God and in turn was publicly acknowledged as Son of the Father and presented with the presence of the Spirit.
The inevitable happened. Jesus became vulnerable to Satan, who saw Him as his most formidable public enemy. In full commitment to the will of His Father and in full possession of the Spirit, Jesus separated Himself from the furor of the world to face His arch enemy head-on in the desert of loneliness. The fight was not a standoff. Jesus won hands-down. He resisted every type of temptation that Satan brought to bear. And what kinds of temptations were these? Note: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
From Matthew 4:1-11 one concludes that Jesus resisted the “lust of the flesh” (vv. 3-4), the “pride of life” (vv. 5-7), and the “lust of the eye” (vv. 8-10), as He “was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, while tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1b-2).
The Spirit did not lead Jesus into the wilderness in order to be tempted. Jesus was being led by the Spirit in His commitment to the redemptive work of God. This commitment inevitably requires a separation from “the world.” This was a commitment that always leads to temptation. Jesus did not enter into and lead a sacrificial life in order to be tempted! Rather, His personal choice to live that life of service to mankind resulted in His being tempted.
This is the drama of the wilderness temptations. The application is clear. The key to victory is available. “Jesus returned [from these temptations] to Galilee in the power of the Spirit . . .” (Luke 4:14a).
The Spirit and the Word were together with God in creation. The New Testament makes the astounding announcement that “the Word was God.” Jesus was the living Word (John 1:14). He came out of the wilderness after the temptations full of the Spirit and in His power.
He went to worship at the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth. When He stood up to read the Holy Scriptures, He read from the great Messianic prophet Isaiah as follows: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’” (Luke 4:18-19). To the amazement of the worshipers, He said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). In this memorable example we see the inspired (God-breathed) written Word made audible by the Spirit-filled Living Word! The crucial role of the Holy Spirit cannot escape our attention. When we follow the life, preaching, and teaching ministry of Jesus, we realize that the Holy Spirit’s relation to the Word, both written and living, is a matter of life and death for us. Through the written Word we learn of Jesus. Through Jesus and His teachings we see the supreme revelation of God the Father. From God comes every perfect gift (James 1:17), including eternal life (Romans 6:23). Consider the significance of Jesus’ statement: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). The “wonderful words of life” Jesus shared in His teaching and preaching serve as a channel for the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The healing ministry of Jesus was one of the most outstanding features of His earthly sojourn. That marvelous work also was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Many of those miracles were recorded to help us believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in His name (John 20:30-31).
On one occasion Jesus was pushing through the throng on His way to the home of a synagogue ruler named Jarius to answer his request to heal his daughter. A woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years made her way through the crowd and touched Jesus’ garment, believing that by doing so she would be healed. She was healed because power proceeded from Jesus to affect this miracle (Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:40-48). At other times, Jesus healed many people from the multitudes by the “power of the Lord” that was in Him (Luke 5:17; 6:17-19).
Also, those “troubled with unclean spirits were being cured.” One may doubt that this power of Jesus to heal people and to cleanse them of unclean spirits was the power of His companion, the Holy Spirit. The scenario we now examine should remove that doubt.
Jesus healed a demon-possessed man. The Pharisees claimed He did it not by the power of God, but by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Jesus rebutted: “And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges.
But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:26-28).
This scene is a snapshot of the cosmic struggle between Satan and God. Just as a photo does not show the entire context of a picture, so this confrontation implies more than it shows. It reflects a provincial skirmish in the cosmic warfare. The war is between God and Satan, light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong, angels and demons, righteousness and sin. The unleashed powers break out of the boundaries of earth and time. They pervade the universe. Therefore, they affect the destiny of the human race. We, made in God’s image, are Satan’s prime target. He was defeated in His temptations of Jesus. Now he is after us. But Jesus brings the kingdom (rule) of God to bear in this scene. He shows His supremacy over the demonic world and attributes His source of power to God’s Spirit.
On another occasion when Jesus healed and exorcised demons, the Pharisees said, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons” (Matthew 9:34). Others said, “He is possessed by Bee1zebul” (Mark 3:22), and, “He has an unclean spirit” (Mark 3:30). Some said, “He has a demon!” (Matthew 11:18).
There was general acknowledgment of Jesus’ power. However, assigning it to Satan was the testimony of those who affirmed that Jesus and Satan were partners. This was a monstrous position to hold! It still is. If propagated and believed by enough people, it could destroy any hope for our salvation. It would turn God into Satan, light into darkness, good into evil, right into wrong, angels into demons, righteousness into sin. The consequences of such a transformation would be nothing short of total disaster. “You shall not murder” would become: “Murder anyone who gets in your way!” “You shall not commit adultery” would become, “Commit adultery as often and with as many people as you care to!” “You shall not steal” would become: “Steal everything you can get your hands on!”
Are we talking fantasy? Is the preceding scenario an exaggeration? Of course, God will not allow His people to be completely and eternally destroyed. Anything that tends in that direction is so serious that God takes an emphatic stand against it. One can scarcely conceive of anything more serious than admitting that Jesus had great power but believing it was the power of Satan!
This belief is so serious that Jesus, in the confrontation described previously, said, “Therefore I say unto you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come . . . but [he] is guilty of an eternal sin” (Matthew 12:31- 32; Mark 3:29, NASB, 1962).
The belief that the Holy Spirit is “unholy” and the power Jesus had was given to Him by the Devil is a conviction people must scrupulously avoid in any age. Otherwise, the consequences are too horrible to imagine.
As Jesus continued in the time table of His ministry, He expanded His efforts by selecting twelve men to be His apostles (Luke 6:13-16). They were given power to do miracles and were sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God (Luke 9:1-2). Eventually, Jesus chose seventy (NIV: 72) others to join them. They, too, were given great power and the commission to preach the nearness of God’s kingdom. They traveled ahead of Jesus from city to city (Luke 10:1-9).
When they came back from their mission, they were joyous that they had cast out demons in Jesus' name. Jesus, knowing the extent of the power even more than they, spoke of the superiority of the Spirit’s power in terms of Satan’s “fall from heaven” (Luke 10:17-18). However, He instructed them not to rejoice over their power but to rejoice because their names were written in heaven. In other words, their proper allegiance was of prime importance (Luke 10:19-20).
Jesus took this occasion to rejoice “greatly in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). Jesus was witnessing the expanding work of the Holy Spirit. These seventy men, as well as the twelve apostles, had received from Jesus the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, exorcise demons, and proclaim the kingdom of God. The reception of these precious gifts by those whose names were written in heaven was, indeed, an occasion for rejoicing. These gifts, and many others, were of assistance to the early Christians after Jesus returned to His Father.
However, Jesus’ return to His heavenly Father was preceded by an event of stupendous significance. We may correctly say our personal destiny hinges upon it. We are speaking of the Gospel event. The apostle Paul spoke of this event later when he wrote to the Christians at Corinth, saying: “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Paul discussed this Gospel event in his letter to the Christians at Rome. He said: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to every one who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Paul was speaking of a power strong enough to raise Jesus and us from the grave to immortality. This is why we are told “of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). The power of the Gospel becomes the power of our salvation when “we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
The preceding references to Christ’s resurrection tell us that “Christ was raised.” This is a passive voice expression, which means that Someone applied power to resurrect Jesus. The Scriptures speak of God the Father raising Jesus from the dead (Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20a). Jesus Himself spoke of rising from the dead (Luke 24:7; John 10:17-18). The power of the resurrection is the activating power of the Holy Spirit (1 Timothy 3:16).
