No. 2.
IF it is only by “the communion of the Holy Ghost” that we can truly have “fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ;” and if it is only by the gracious operation of the Holy Ghost, through the Scriptures, that we can have any tame knowledge of the Godhead, how important that we should “search” the inspired pages of truth, in humble dependence upon Him who searcheth “the deep things of God,” particularly when we remember that blessed saying of our adorable Lord, “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou had sent;” and also that when the beloved disciple, by the Spirit, touched on the same glorious subject, he added, “These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:3, 4.)
In meditating upon a subject so amazingly profound and sublime, we may well take our shoes from off our feet; for it is holy ground. The psalmist said, “Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah?” “Who can show forth all His praise?” Surely it is not by our “searching” that we can find out God, that we can find out the Almighty to perfection (Job 11:7); but, taught by that same Spirit, who indited the Scriptures of truth, who “searcheth all things,” teaches all things, and guides into all truth, we find that the “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come,” is revealed to us (though in measure now,) in the glorious perfections of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Taking, then, the Holy Scriptures as our only sure guide, we find very early in the sacred records some blessed intimations of a plurality of persons in the Eternal Godhead. “God said, let us make man in our image. So God created man in His own image. (Gen. 1:26, 27.) “Behold the man is become as one of us.” “So He drove out the man.” (Gen. 3:22, 28.) “Let us go down and confound their language. So the Lord scattered them abroad.” (Gen. 11:7, 8.) In Isa. 6 we see the same truth brought out; “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I: send me. And He said, Go.” The Spirit of God also strikingly intimates, in Prov. 8, that there was One lying in the bosom of the Father before all worlds, in the sweet repose of ineffable delight and affection. “Jehovah possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep: when He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as One brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men.” Surely this is none other than the beloved Son, who, in the days of His flesh, said, “Now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. (John 17:5.) And is not this view of the subject greatly confirmed by the words of Agur, in the same book? “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou canst tell?” Other Old Testament Scriptures speak of the “Spirit of God” (Gen. 1:2; 41:88. Ex. 31:8); and also of Emmanuel, the virgin’s Child; the Son given, the mighty God; and Nebuchadnezzar declares that he saw in the fiery furnace one “like the Son of God.” (Isa. 7:14; 9:6. Dan. 3:25.) These Scriptures unquestionably teach us about plurality of persons in the eternal Godhead; at the same time, the Spirit of God continually preserves the doctrine of the One living and true God. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” (Deut. 6:4.) “Is there a God beside Me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any.” (Isa. 44:8.) “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.” (Jer. 23:24, 24.) “The Lord of Hosts is Ilia name, the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa. 47:4.)
But with all these various ways, in which it pleased Jehovah, at different times, to reveal Himself to His people, by the prophets, it remained for God to speak to us by His Son, by whom He made the worlds, in order that the true light might more fully shine forth. “No man,” said He, “hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (John 1:18.) And blessed be His name, He could say with emphatic truthfulness, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9.)
In the New Testament, God is everywhere set before us as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; yet “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.” And most blessed it is that in reference to the work of eternal redemption, we find the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, continually presented to us, as acting in the unity of divine wisdom, power, and grace. We know full well that it must be so, but how blessed to find it so repeatedly set before us in the Scriptures for our comfort and blessing. Let us, beloved, with reverence and godly fear, approach the oracles of truth, to see, as the Spirit may graciously anoint our eyes, this great sight!
In the incarnation of the Son, that Eternal Life which was with the FATHER, was manifested unto us―the FATTIER sent the SON to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 1:2; 4:14.) He said, “I came forth from the FATHER,” &c. We read also that the angel said unto Mary, “that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the SON of God.” (Luke 1:35.) And further, that which is conceived in her is of the HOLY GHOST. (Matt. 1:20.)
At the Lord’s baptism, also, we find that, when Jesus came up out of the water, the SPIRIT OF GOD descended upon Him like a dove, while a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved SON, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:16, 17.) Then we find Him who was in the form of God, and who emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, returning from Jordan, full of the HOLY GHOST, without measure, (John 3:34,) tempted and overcoming, preaching and teaching, doing good and working miracles, and yet declaring, “The FATHER that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” (John 14:10.)
Again, look at the cross. The FATHER, not sparing, but delivering up His own Sox. (Rom. 8:32.) The FATHER, giving the bitter cup. The SON freely drinking the cup. (John 18:11.) The Son willingly laying down His own life for the sheep. (John 10:11.) The SON delivering Himself up―knowing all things that should come upon Him, “He went forth” (John 18:3-8); and we are also taught that it was by the ETERNAL SPIRIT that He offered Himself. (Heb. 9:14.) Look further, at the resurrection of the Lord. Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the FATHER (Rom. 6:4), also the Sox triumphed over principalities and powers; like Sampson, he arose in the darkness of midnight, and took the doors and posts of the city, and carried them up to the top of the hill (Judg. 16:3), for He rose again the third day. (1 Cor. 15:4.) He had power to lay down his life, and power to take it again. (John 10:18.) Yet, we are also taught that He was quickened by the SPIRIT. And yet still further, does not the same gracious instruction meet us in reference to the ascension and glorification of Christ? When the Sox had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:3.) Eph. 1:20 teaches us that the FATHER not only raised Him from the dead, but” set Him at His own right hand.” And we are elsewhere instructed, that” THE HOLY GHOST was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified; and in another place we read, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the HOLY GHOST, He hath shed forth this which we now see and hear ... therefore God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (John 7:39; Acts 2:33, 36.)
Our hearts might still go onward in the contemplation of Him that sitteth on the throne, and the Lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne, and the seven Spirits before the throne; but we may well pause, beloved, and adoringly worship, while we linger over the wonderful revelation of God in Christ crucified. Great, indeed, is the mystery of God manifest in the flesh; and great, beyond all conception, was the love that led Him to give His life a ransom for many. It is dwelling here that our souls increase in the knowledge of God; it is here we learn the deceitful and unsatisfying character of every other science; it is here we behold with ever new and varying beauty that God is for us; it is here we find ourselves launched on an ocean of everlasting love; it is here we realize that peace which passeth all understanding, and it is here we see written in indelible characters, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
May we, beloved, enjoy closer and more abiding fellowship, in the Spirit, with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ!