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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:13-14; 2:18; 3:16; 4:3-4, 23; 6:17; Phil. 1:19; 3:3; 4:12-13; Col. 1:8; 1 Thes. 1:5; 4:8; 3:13; 5:19; 2 Thes. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:14; Titus 3:5; Heb. 3:7; 9:8, 9:14; 10:15, 10:29; 6:4-5
Ephesians 1:13 and 14 speak of the Spirit as the seal and the pledge (cf. 2 Cor. 1:22), or we may say, the foretaste. Ephesians 1:11 says that we were designated as an inheritance to God. We are God’s inheritance, possession, and property. Therefore, God sealed us with the Spirit to testify that we are His. On the other hand, God has put His Spirit into us as the foretaste and a guarantee that God is ours. To be sealed proves that we are God’s, and the Spirit as the pledge, the foretaste, guarantees that God is ours.
Verse 18 of chapter 2 says of the Jewish and Gentile believers, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” The Spirit is revealed in Ephesians as the uniting Spirit because this book deals with the Body of Christ. In the Body, the Spirit is the uniting Spirit.
In Ephesians 3 the Spirit is the strengthening Spirit, the Spirit who strengthens us into our inner man (v. 16), and in chapter 4 the Spirit is again the uniting Spirit (vv. 3-4). Verse 23 says, “That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” This is the regenerated spirit of the believers, which is mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Therefore, this verse implies the renewing Spirit (Titus 3:5). Ephesians 6:17 mentions the sword of the Spirit, indicating the fighting Spirit. Ephesians mentions the human spirit a number of times. In those verses spirit should be rendered in lower case, denoting the human spirit. These verses speak of a spirit of wisdom and revelation (1:17), the dwelling place of God in spirit (2:22), the revelation to the holy apostles and prophets in spirit (3:5), being filled in spirit (5:18), and praying in spirit (6:18).
When the apostle Paul wrote Ephesians, he had a particular burden with a certain realization and thought. The particular thought in Ephesians is that the church is the Body of Christ composed of many redeemed ones from both the Jewish and Gentile peoples. These redeemed ones are God’s possession, property, and inheritance, so He put the Spirit as His seal on them. In ancient times God promised that He would give His Spirit to His redeemed ones. Now this Spirit has been given as a seal to prove and testify that all the redeemed ones are God’s inheritance. This seal is nothing less than God Himself. Moreover, the seal that God puts on His redeemed ones becomes a pledge, a foretaste, a down payment, a deposit, to guarantee that God is our enjoyment and possession. This Spirit as the seal and the foretaste unites all the redeemed ones together as the Body of Christ, of which the redeemed ones are members. He also strengthens us within, renews us, and fills us with Himself. Then the daily walk of the redeemed ones comes out of this infilling, and He becomes the fighting Spirit, equipping us to fight the battle for God in the Body. If we look into Ephesians with this point of view, this book will become new to us.
Philippians 1:19 says, “I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The term bountiful supply in Greek is a particular word used in ancient times to denote the leader of the chorus. The leader of the chorus was responsible for supplying all the needs of the members of the chorus. When they needed food, drink, clothing, or a dwelling place, the leader supplied them with those things. When they needed instruments and music, he also supplied them with those. For this reason, the term can be translated as “bountiful supply” or “all-sufficient supply.”
The Spirit in 1:19 is not only the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Christ but the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit today is no longer merely the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, including His divinity, His incarnation, His humanity, His human life, His suffering and death, His resurrection, His ascension, and everything He has attained and obtained. Because He is such a Spirit, He can afford us an all-sufficient supply.
Philippians 3:3 says, “We are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” In the book of Philippians the Spirit is revealed as the supplying Spirit who affords us the all-sufficient supply and as the serving Spirit for us to serve and worship God. In addition, 4:12 and 13 say, “I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” These verses should be put together with 1:19. The way Christ empowers us is by being the supplying Spirit. If Christ were not the supplying Spirit, how could He empower us? Christ is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), and it is as the Spirit that He empowers us.
Philippians is a book on the Christian life and living. The Christian life is a life that always has the all-inclusive, bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and it is a life of always serving and worshipping God by the Spirit. Moreover, the supplying Spirit and the serving Spirit is the very Christ who empowers us within, in whom we can do all things.
The only explicit mention of the Spirit in Colossians is in 1:8, which speaks of the believers’ love in the Spirit. This book does not speak much about the Spirit because it deals with Christ as the Head directly. Thus, we go on to 1 Thessalonians 1:5, which says, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.” Then 4:8 says, “Consequently, he who rejects, rejects not man but God, who also gives His Holy Spirit to you.” His Holy Spirit in Greek is literally “the Spirit of Him the Holy.” The Holy Spirit given to us by God is the Holy One who sanctifies us, making us holy before God. Verse 23 of chapter 5 says that God Himself will sanctify us wholly in all the three parts of our being — spirit, soul, and body.
Second Thessalonians 2:13 says, “God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” Putting all these verses together, the Spirit in 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the sanctifying Spirit. These two books in the New Testament deal thoroughly with sanctification and “the Spirit the Holy,” the sanctifying Spirit. This sanctification is for our preparation for the Lord’s coming. Verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 3 says, “So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” According to these books, the Holy Spirit within us is “the Holy,” doing the work of sanctification to work holiness into us. Therefore, since this Spirit is always working within us, we must not quench Him (5:19).
Second Timothy 1:14 says, “Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” This is the keeping Spirit, who dwells in us to keep the good deposit. In his Epistles to Timothy, the apostle Paul charged Timothy to keep, by the indwelling Spirit, all the things that he had received from Paul and not to lose them. Thus, the indwelling Spirit is the keeping Spirit.
Titus 3:5 speaks of the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we may say that in this book the Spirit is the renewing Spirit (cf. Eph. 4:23).
Hebrews first reveals that the Holy Spirit is the speaking Spirit. Verse 7 of chapter 3 begins, “Even as the Holy Spirit says.” Hebrews does not tell us who the writer of this book is, and it presents quotations from the Old Testament without telling us from which books they are taken. Rather, the book begins, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son” (1:1-2). It is God, not a mere human writer, who speaks; that is, the writer is God Himself. In the ancient times God spoke through the prophets, and today God still speaks through the Son. Therefore, this book does not tell us the name of the writer, but simply says, “The Holy Spirit says.” Hebrews 9:8 confirms the thought of the speaking Spirit, saying, “The Holy Spirit thus making this clear.” This means that the Holy Spirit speaks, points the way, and tells us the way. Verse 15 of chapter 10 says similarly, “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us.” Therefore, in this book the Spirit is the speaking Spirit.
Verses 4 and 5 of chapter 6 say, “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” These verses speak of tasting certain items and partaking of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in this book is an enjoyment to us. To be a partaker of the Spirit means that we have tasted the Holy Spirit. Then in 10:29 this Spirit is called the Spirit of grace. Because He is the Spirit of grace, He can be our enjoyment; He can be tasted by us. Therefore, in the book of Hebrews, the Spirit is revealed in two main aspects: He is the speaking Spirit, and He is the Spirit for our taste and enjoyment.
The main items of the Spirit in the book of Hebrews are the speaking Spirit and the Spirit as our foretaste. There is an additional item, however, in 9:14, which tells us that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit, “the Spirit the eternal” (Gk.) This means that the Spirit is not only eternal but that the Spirit is eternity. With Christ as the sacrifice, the offering to God, there is no matter of time. We may say that Christ offered Himself to God two thousand years ago, but to speak in this way involves time. Rather, the Bible says that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit without the limitation of time. Revelation 13:8 speaks of “everyone whose name is not written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.” Christ as the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world. This is possible because Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit.
First Peter 1:19 and 20 say that Christ as the Lamb was “foreknown before the foundation of the world but has been manifested in the last of times for your sake.” To be foreknown is to be prepared. Christ was prepared before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8, however, uses a different preposition, saying that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. He was prepared before the foundation, but He was slain from the foundation of the world.
The last phrase of verse 8 may also be translated, “Written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” It is difficult to decide from the Greek text whether from the foundation of the world modifies the slaying of the Lamb or the writing in the book of life. Certain versions, such as Darby’s New Translation, seem to indicate the latter. However, the best translators agree that from the foundation of the world refers to both the slaying of the Lamb and the writing of the names in the book of life. It was at the time that Christ as the Lamb was slain for our redemption that our names were put into the Lamb’s book of life.
God foreordained us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), but in His foreknowledge He foresaw that His chosen people would become fallen, so He foreordained Christ as the Lamb before the foundation of the world, that is, before creation. Then after creation, at the foundation of the world, man fell. Therefore, in the eyes of God, Christ was slain from that time. We were ordained, foreordained, and predestinated by God, but we became fallen and lost. Therefore, at the time we fell, Christ was slain, we were redeemed, and our names were written in the book of life.
We may illustrate the writing of our names in the book of life in the following way. As long as a group of people are all honest and faithful, there is no need for keeping a record of their status. However, if some people do not behave properly, there is the need of a record to distinguish between them. Before the fall, everything was proper before God, so there was no need for a record of the names of people according to their status. It was after the fall that a distinction arose between men. God made an eternal redemption for man and presented it to him. Now there is the need of the book of life as a record of those who receive God’s prepared redemption. In the future when God will judge humanity, He will judge according to this record. This is why the book of life is mentioned several times in Revelation. It became necessary due to man’s fall.
Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. Eternal spans all time. This word is mentioned several times in Hebrews, including eternal salvation (5:9), eternal redemption (9:12), the eternal Spirit (v. 14), the eternal inheritance (v. 15), and the eternal covenant (13:20). Verse 12 of chapter 9 says, “Not through the blood of goats and calves but through His own blood, entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, obtaining an eternal redemption.” The eternal Spirit in verse 14 corresponds to eternal redemption, which is in contrast to a temporary redemption. In ancient times the people had only a temporary redemption in type. If someone committed a sin, he would go to offer a sin offering. This would afford him a temporal redemption. However, the next day he might commit another sin, requiring him to offer another sin offering. Moreover, if two different persons committed a sin, they would both need to offer two different sin offerings. The redemption they received in type was only temporary, dealing with sins only in specific situations. It was not an eternal redemption.
Christ has now accomplished a redemption which is eternal, dealing with sins wherever there is the need. If we need redemption today, Christ’s eternal redemption is here, and if tomorrow we need redemption again, it is here again. If the Jews need redemption, it is there, and if the Gentiles need redemption, it is there for them also. This redemption is always here to deal with all sins, in whatever condition we are and wherever redemption is needed. This is the proper meaning in the Scriptures of eternal redemption. The redemption accomplished by Christ is eternal, and salvation as the issue of this redemption is also eternal. All this is because Christ offered Himself not through a temporary agent but through the eternal Spirit.
We may compare temporal and eternal redemption to the jurisdiction of governments. What the governor of California says applies only to California, and what the governor of New York says applies only to New York. These decrees are narrow in their scope. However, if the President issues an order, it applies to all the fifty states. Only the orders of the President supersede all jurisdiction. Similarly, that something is eternal means that it applies everywhere, regardless of space and time.
Some offerings were made at Shiloh, and later the offerings were made at Jerusalem. These offerings were subject both to space and time. However, one day Christ came and offered Himself to God, not merely in Jerusalem at a point in time but in the eternal Spirit. We should not say that Christ was offered only at Golgotha two thousand years ago. That is the human point of view. The divine point of view is that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. This offering covers all people, from Adam up to the last one who will be saved, without regard to location or continent and without regard to the generation in which they were born. We have Christ as our offering, who offered Himself through the eternal Spirit.
