For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Everything good that ever was wrought from the creation of the world was done by the power of the Holy Ghost. He moved upon the face of the waters in the Creation. By Him souls were new-born. He inspired the prophets to write or to speak God's mind. Bezaleel was filled with the Spirit of God to prepare the tabernacle, ark, vessels etc. (Ex. 31:3). David was instructed by the Spirit of God in preparing the pattern of the temple for Solomon (1 Chron. 28:12-19). The saints were guided and instructed by Him. David prayed that the Holy Spirit might not thus be taken from him (Psa. 51:11). Noah preached righteousness by the Spirit of Christ. John Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. To multiply instances is unnecessary. Still all this is far from dwelling in them.
The statement in John 7:39 cuts in a clean line between the saints before the Lord's glorification and since that time. Had the Holy Ghost been given then, God would have been sealing souls in a state short of the consciousness of redemption, thus accrediting such a state. Consciences were unpurged then (although God was known in grace) and the Holy Ghost could not have sealed and accredited such a state. When the work of redemption was accomplished and the soul thus introduced into the liberty of grace, the Spirit of God could then take up His abode and dwell in the body of the believer as a seal of the perfection of Christ's work.
We see this clearly brought out in type in the case of the consecration of the priests. The High Priest was anointed with oil (type of the Holy Ghost), without sacrifice. This was typical of the perfection of Christ's person, the Holy Ghost descending in bodily shape like a dove upon Him. The priests, Aaron's sons, were anointed after sacrifices which were a figure of the perfection of Christ's work in which they stood.
Habits of thought have confounded the state of the saints before the day of Pentecost with those since that time. Many souls today are not free-they are not enjoying the liberty of grace which the Holy Ghost ministers to them now. Consequently they accept a state short of Christian liberty before God. They limit their experience to that of a godly Jew under law before redemption. They have almost come to the state of the men of Ephesus in Acts 19: "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Nothing can be clearer than the line drawn by the Spirit of God in John 7:39, between believers before the glorification of Christ and since that time. Before that time all that was ever done in or by a saint, prophet, or otherwise, was by the power of the Spirit acting in the vessel for the time. Now He dwells in the body of the believer, as in a temple (1 Cor. 6:19), seals him who has believed (Eph. 1:13,14), until the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). He may grieve the Spirit of God, but he never can lose Him.
Besides all this, it was an action of the Holy Ghost, in whatever way it took place, in the Old Testament times. This is a different thing from His descending personally from heaven on the day of Pentecost and dwelling amongst men. His person and presence upon earth are as distinct as that of the Lord Jesus when here, in the believer individually, and in the Church corporately. The Lord's promise of the Comforter-the Holy Ghost, was that He would not only be with them (not for a limited time as Christ had been), but in them as well and that forever. To this end it was expedient that the Lord should go away. if He went not away, the Comforter would not come (John 16:7).
E.G. Patterson