With regard to the expression, “the Spirit of holiness,” I notice that the Holy Spirit is, so to speak, the operative power in the resurrection as in everything that God has created or done. Thus Peter says with regard to the Lord’s resurrection, “Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)); and of believers it is written, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:1111But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)) But why is it said, “According to the Spirit of holiness?” Because the Holy Spirit is, as it were, God’s operative power for producing in man all that is well-pleasing to Him. This power is, of course, always in God. Through it He created the world; by it He wrought in the instruments of the Old Testament and the prophets. But now He was acting according to this divine power in the manhood (that is to say, the life) of Christ, and in the manifestation of man’s new condition. The prophets uttered what was given them to say, and then the divine inspiration ceased; also what they announced was not for themselves. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. But Christ as Man was born of the Holy Ghost; His life, though human in every respect, was the expression of the power of the Holy Spirit. He cast out devils by the Holy Spirit; His words were spirit and life. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, but His manhood was the expression of the divine nature through the Holy Spirit, in love, in power, and specially in holiness. He was the Holy One of God. By the Holy Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God. In all things He served His Father; His service was the perfect presentation of what was divine, of the Father Himself, in the midst of men, inasmuch as that every moment, through the Spirit, His manhood answered to His Godhead, and was the expression and glory of it without spot or blemish. All the offerings of the Old Testament are types of Christ; but the meat-offering bears the most striking likeness as a type to what we are considering. Cakes of fine flour, unleavened, mingled with oil, anointed with oil, parted in pieces, and oil poured upon them. What a striking type of the humanity of Christ, who, as to nature, was of the Spirit, and had been anointed by the Spirit, each piece being characterized by the outpoured Spirit, and by which all the incense of His grace was offered up to God as an odor of a sweet-smelling savor! It was thus that He was tried by fire, in death, to show that all in Him was a sweet-smelling savor, and nothing else. Finally, the power of the Holy Spirit was shown in the greatest and most perfect way in the Lord’s resurrection. Put to death in the flesh, He was quickened by the Spirit. The Spirit, which in divine power had been efficacious in His birth and throughout His life, and by which He at length offered Himself to God, manifested all its power in quickening Jesus from among the dead. It is true indeed that He was raised by the glory of the Father; also that He Himself raised up His body, the temple of God (John 2:1919Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. (John 2:19)); but the Holy Spirit was the immediate agent in His resurrection (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)); also the body of resurrection is a spiritual one.
Thus man was brought in resurrection in the person of Christ into an entirely new place on the other side of death, sin, judgment, and the power of Satan; and it was thus that Christ was declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection. This Spirit was the power of holiness throughout His whole life; for “by the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God,” and through this Spirit He is declared Son of God with power, and by it He was justified on the earth. As all was accomplished for God’s glory by a Man, who was the Son of God, and who as Man has manifested perfect obedience and love to His Father, man, in virtue of this accomplished work and in the living power of the Holy Spirit, is brought into an entirely new standing in the person of the Son of God, so that by faith we are accepted and become sons. Christ, who, as Son of David, was the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, being rejected on earth, entered in resurrection the other side of death, which He endured as the fruit of sin, into the position of the second man, the last Adam.
Thus we have here presented to us in the person of Christ the two essential points in the ways of God—the fulfillment of the promises (although the Jews through rejecting Christ have lost all right to them), and the revelation of the Son of God, declared such according to the living, mighty power of the Holy Spirit in a risen Man. The power of God is thus shown, not in the fulfillment of a promise, but in the present life and standing of the second Man in connection with an accomplished redemption. But here the divine power of life and the new standing in resurrection are specially seen in connection with man’s relation to God, as brought into this standing, yet in the person of the Lord Himself in power.
How blessed is the thought, that the eternal Son of God, become a Man, has taken this new position of which we have spoken, and that as Pattern and Firstborn among many brethren, who will be perfectly like Him according to the living power of the Holy Spirit, and in the glory itself. “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” (Hebrews 2:1111For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, (Hebrews 2:11)) In truth it is not the glory that is here spoken of; but the Lord, after His resurrection, could say (He could not before), “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17))
Thus the object of the gospel, for which Paul was set apart, is Jesus Christ our Lord as Son of David for the fulfillment of the promises, and declared Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Doubtless the apostle speaks in this epistle of righteousness, explaining it all fully and clearly; but the principal object which he has in view is the Person of Christ Himself, and what He is as the fulfillment of the promises and as Son of God in power and in resurrection, which is what the Holy Spirit presents as the object of God Himself in the gospel. It was from Him, as already glorified, that Paul “received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith amongst all nations for His name.” The Romans were amongst these nations. He does not address them as an assembly, which he usually did when writing to any of the assemblies which he had founded, but he addresses his letter to all the beloved of God, called saints, which are in Rome. As apostle of the Gentiles, he could write to all with the authority of Christ.
He always begins his epistles with grace and peace from the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, names to which we often pay too little heed. In the one we have God Himself as Father, known as such in grace; in the other, the glorified Man, the Son of God, who is seated (and that officially) to preside over the house and people of God. With the one we stand in the relation of children, with the other in that of servants.
The apostle would gladly have paid an earlier visit to the Christians at Rome, but he had been hindered by Satan; for the Lord’s work goes on always in presence of the enemy, who seeks to stay its progress, be it through persecution, or through stirring up evil in the assemblies, with which laborers have to be occupied; be it through heresies, which again claim their time, or through all sorts of other devices. It is important for the Lord’s servant to observe this. He thereby learns dependence, and that the strength and efficacy of the Lord are absolutely needed. Therefore Paul, whilst giving thanks for the believers at Rome, whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world, prayed always that God would open the way for him to go to them. He longed to see them, that He might impart unto them some spiritual gift, to the end they might be established; but in the same breath he takes the low place in love with them, and says, “That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” He was the apostle, and acting in love he could come down as apostle to the weakest, to raise them up to divine confidence. He had often purposed coming to them, that he might have some fruit among them. He was debtor to all nations to bring the grace of God to them, and so, as much as in him was, he was ready to preach the gospel to them that were at Rome also.
How solicitous he is to express himself suitably! He could not call them Greeks, nor yet barbarians, for that would have been an offense to the inhabitants of the imperial city. He thinks of it all, so as to be useful to all.
This brings the apostle to the doctrine of the epistle. He was ready to preach to those who were at Rome because He was not ashamed of the gospel; “for,” said he, “it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” It is not man’s power even for the acquisition of human righteousness, as he explains more clearly and fully further on. It is a salvation brought to man—a holy, righteous salvation—but a salvation from God, through the power of God, and truly, inasmuch as the righteousness of God is therein revealed, in contrast to human righteousness. It is the righteousness of God Himself in which we participate by faith; His righteousness on the ground of faith. All is already accomplished, before we believe. It is by faith that we have part in it. This righteousness is not by the works of man, nor by the law, else it would be only for the Jews, who alone had the law. On the contrary, it is for all men on the principle of faith, and so all the Gentiles on believing have part in it.
J. N. D.