Message 162
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 30:23-30; Gen. 1:2; Judg. 3:10; Luke 1:35; John 7:39; Rom. 8:2, 9; Acts 5:9; 16:6-7; John 14:17; Phil. 1:19; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 10:29; Rev. 1:4; Rom. 8:16; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 2:7; 22:17; 1 Pet. 4:14
First Peter 4:14 says, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” In this verse Peter speaks of the Spirit of glory. Recently I was asked how the Spirit of glory is related to other aspects of the Spirit. The Spirit of glory is not related as much to the nature of God as other aspects of the Spirit are. Furthermore, the type of the compound ointment in Exodus 30 does not indicate much that is related to the glory of God. The four spices that were mingled with the olive oil are all elements. These elements are not for expression; they are not for glory.
Apart from 1 Peter 4:14, all the verses quoted above are related to the nature, the essence, or the element of the processed, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. The Spirit of God has the element of divinity, the element of what God is. The Spirit of Jehovah has the element of the divine Trinity, the element of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the element of the holy divine nature. Because the Holy Spirit has this element, the Holy Spirit can make us holy in nature, even as God is holy. This process of sanctification began with the conceiving of the Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary. Luke 1:35 speaks of Him as “the holy thing.” Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He is holy in constitution, not merely in position.
Not one of those who lived from the time of Adam until the birth of the Lord Jesus was holy in nature. Many had been sanctified in the sense of being separated unto God, but none of these sanctified ones was made holy with God’s nature. In other words, none of them had been constituted of the holy nature of God. For example, although Aaron was sanctified to serve God as a priest, he was not constituted of God’s holy nature. Therefore, the Spirit of God with the element of divinity and the Spirit of Jehovah with the element of the Trinity came as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit with the element of the holy divine nature, to produce a child who would be constituted of God’s holy nature. According to Luke 1:35, that child is called the “holy thing” or “the holy One.” He was holy not only in the sense of being separated unto God, but He was holy in nature, for the holy divine nature had been constituted into Him.
In the New Testament sanctification includes being constituted of the holy nature of God. In this sense, sanctification is a continuation of incarnation. In the incarnation, the Lord Jesus was constituted of the holy nature of God. Now through the process of sanctification, we who believe in Christ are also being constituted of God’s nature. If we see this, we shall realize that the teachings concerning sanctification among Christians today are very shallow, even more shallow than the concept of sanctification found in the Old Testament. Actually, New Testament sanctification is incarnation. It is the incarnation of the holy divine nature into our humanity so that we may become holy in nature, even as God Himself is holy.
The title “the Holy Spirit” implies the element of God’s holy nature. As we pointed out in the foregoing message, this title is not used in the Old Testament. In Psalm 51:11 “thy Holy Spirit” should be “the Spirit of Thy holiness.” In Isaiah 63:10 and 11, “his Holy Spirit” should be “the Spirit of His holiness.”
The aspects of the Spirit as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit are all preliminary to God’s New Testament economy. In God’s New Testament economy we first have the Spirit of reality. Apart from the Spirit of reality, in our experience we could not have divinity, the Trinity, or the holy nature of God. These would be nothing more than terms to us. We would not have the reality of divinity, the reality of the Trinity, and the reality of the holy divine nature, if we did not have the Spirit of reality. The reality of all these matters is the Spirit of reality.
While the Lord Jesus was still on earth, reality had not yet entered into man. The reality was present, for Christ Himself is reality. But this reality was only among the disciples; it had not yet come into them. Therefore, the Lord told the disciples that it was expedient for them that He go away. The purpose of His going was for Him to have a change in form, a change from the form of the flesh to the form of the Spirit. As soon as this change had been accomplished, His reality would become the reality of the Spirit, and the Spirit would become the Spirit of reality. Then this Spirit of reality would come to abide in the disciples. The Lord Jesus said in John 14:17, “Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” Because the Spirit of reality has come into us, reality now abides in us.
The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of incarnation, humanity, human living, and crucifixion. In particular, it is the aspect of the Spirit that includes the Lord’s sufferings. The entire life of the Lord Jesus from birth to burial was a life of suffering. He was born in a manger, an indication that He would live a life of suffering. Shortly after He was born, He became a refugee. That was part of His sufferings. When His family returned to the holy land after fleeing to Egypt, it was not possible for them to stay in Judea. They had to live in Galilee, in the despised city of Nazareth. The title “the Spirit of Jesus” implies the Lord’s sufferings in His human life. The extract of the Lord’s human life is included now in the Spirit of Jesus.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of life, the life-giving Spirit, and the Lord Spirit. The Spirit of Christ includes the element, the extract, of Christ’s resurrection. The Spirit of Jesus Christ includes incarnation, humanity, human living, suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection. The Spirit of life is the reality of the divine life. Christ is both life and the Giver of life. The Spirit is both the Spirit of life and the life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit has the ability to impart life to us. The title “the Lord Spirit” implies the ascension and lordship of Christ. Today the man Jesus Christ is the Lord of all. The reality of His lordship is in the Spirit. When we contact the Spirit, we touch the element of the Lord’s ascension and lordship.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of grace. This aspect of the Spirit is related to the enjoyment of the Triune God, for the Triune God is Himself our grace. Hebrews 10:29, a very important verse, speaks of both the sanctifying blood and the Spirit of grace.
Eventually, in the book of Revelation, the Spirit is called the seven Spirits. The title “the seven Spirits” indicates that the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold. This Spirit intensifies all the elements of the Spirit: He intensifies divinity, the Trinity, incarnation, crucifixion, the power of resurrection, the essence of reality, the imparting of the divine life, and grace as our enjoyment.
Ultimately, the Spirit of God is the Spirit. As we have pointed out, the Spirit is a totality, an aggregate, of all the elements of all the titles of the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit is the all-inclusive Spirit.
The Spirit of glory in 1 Peter 4:14 is the Spirit of expression. In his First Epistle, Peter refers to the Spirit only three times. He speaks of sanctification of the Spirit, of the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of glory (1:2, 11; 4:14). In our Life-study of 1 Peter we pointed out that Peter even had the boldness to indicate that the function of the Spirit of Christ is not only with the New Testament believers, but was also with the prophets in the Old Testament.
In God’s economy a fact is one thing, and the accomplishment of the fact is another. For example, the accomplishment of the Lord’s crucifixion occurred approximately nineteen hundred years ago. But long before the incarnation, even from the foundation of the world, the fact of the crucifixion of Christ existed in the sight of God. From God’s point of view, everything, including the death of Christ, is eternal. What God cares for is the fact, rather than the accomplishment of the fact in time. Consider the divine fact of God’s selection. God the Father selected us before the foundation of the world. But this fact still had to be accomplished in time.
Peter’s brief writing concerning the Spirit indicates that the sanctifying Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who indwells us. Peter does not say anything about Christ being in us. There is not a word in his Epistles concerning the indwelling of Christ. One verse indicates that the Spirit of Christ is in us. If the Spirit of Christ was in the Old Testament prophets, then how much more is this Spirit in us?
Last, Peter mentions the Spirit of glory. The context of this reference to the Spirit is the saints’ experience of suffering and persecution. To the suffering saints, the Spirit was not only in them as the indwelling of the divine element, but the Spirit was also upon them as glory. This is true of any genuine martyr. I have already told you of the case of the young woman who was martyred during the Boxer Rebellion in China. A young man who saw her, later testified to me that she was shining with glory. He told me that her face was full of light. This light was the shining of the Lord’s glory. The Spirit of glory surely was upon her.
Years ago I was told about a missionary who was martyred. This missionary had written a poem which says that the face of every martyr is like the face of an angel, and the heart of every martyr is like the heart of a lion. I would also say that with every genuine martyr there is the shining of the Spirit of glory. The Spirit of glory is the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of grace, becoming the glory shining upon the believers.
In Romans 1:4 Paul refers to the Spirit of holiness: “And was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead.” The Spirit of holiness here is in contrast to the flesh in Romans 1:3. As the flesh in verse 3 refers to the human essence of Christ, so the Spirit in this verse does not refer to the person of the Holy Spirit of God, but to the divine essence of Christ, which is “the fullness of the Godhead” (Col. 2:9). This divine essence of Christ, being God the Spirit Himself (John 4:24), is of holiness, full of the nature and quality of being holy.
Those who persecuted Christ and opposed Him regarded Him as nothing more than a common man. Through the Spirit of holiness He was designated, marked out, in resurrection as the Son of God. Yes, He is a man, but He has the nature of the Son of God.
The term “the Spirit of holiness” is actually very difficult to understand or interpret. Translators have found it hard to decide whether or not to spell the word “Spirit” in this verse with a capital letter. Does the Spirit here refer to the Holy Spirit, or does it refer to the human spirit of the Lord Jesus? When the Lord died, He committed His spirit to God (Luke 23:46). However, although this matter of the Spirit of holiness cannot be clearly defined, we do know that it was by the Spirit of holiness that Christ in resurrection was designated the Son of God.
If we try to systematize the divine revelation in the Bible, we shall get into trouble. It is difficult to analyze our human life, much less the nature of the Triune God and the Spirit. As human beings, we have life. We have a bios life and also a psuche life. When we die, what kind of life is it that dies? Is it the bios life or the psuche life? Atheists claim that when a person dies, his life is extinguished. They say that nothing remains after death. They regard human beings the same as animals. The late Premier of China, Chou En-Lai, instructed that his body be cremated and that his ashes be scattered from an airplane. He was an atheist who believed that nothing remains after death. But we believe in the living God and in the Scriptures.
Also, in a living way, we believe in trichotomy: we believe that man is of three parts — spirit, soul, and body. After a person is regenerated, he has three lives: a bios life, a psuche life, and a regenerated spirit with the divine life. Because of this, it is extremely difficult for us to define life. When you speak of life, what do you mean? According to the Lord’s word in Luke 16, both the rich man and Lazarus died. Although they died in their bios, they were still alive in their soul, in their psuche.
I say this in order to point out that we do not agree with the systematizing of the theologians. It simply is not possible to systematize the mysterious things of life. As we consider the Spirit and in particular the Spirit of holiness in Romans 1:4, we should not become involved in the attempt to systematize the revelation in the Word of God. We should also be cautious when considering the Trinity. Instead of trying to systematize the revelation concerning the Triune God, we should simply believe whatever the Bible says concerning the Trinity.
