In our last we were considering the operation of the Spirit known as the new birth—“born of water and the Spirit.” We shall conclude this short series of papers by dwelling upon His blessed work in us. His operation is in the power of life, producing conflict, labor, discoveries of sin, and need of mortifying our members which are upon the earth; and the more all that Christ is is revealed to the soul, the more we find out what we are, and with it the deep need for humiliation before God. It has been well remarked, that “When the fulness and finishedness of our acceptance in Christ is not known, anxiety and spiritual despondency arise, and doubt sometimes issuing in a very mistaken and evil reference to the law—a sort of consecrating the principle of unbelief, putting the soul (on the discovery, by the Spirit, of sin working in it) under the law and its condemnation, and not in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free . . . The Spirit of God judges sin in me; but it makes me know I am not judged for it, because Christ has borne that judgment for me. This is no cloak of licentiousness. The flesh would indeed always turn it to this—it would pervert-everything. But the truth is, that same Spirit which reveals the Lord, who bore my sins, as having purged them, at the right hand of God, and which therefore gives me perfect assurance of their being put away, and the infiniteness of my acceptance in Him—that same Spirit, I say, judges the sin by virtue of its character as seen in the light of that very glory; and when this is not done, the Father, into whose hands the Son has committed those whom the Father has given Him to keep, as a holy Father chastises, and corrects, and purges as a husbandman the branches.”
Now in John 3, 4, and 7, we find the blessed Spirit set before us, as is said, in His characteristic living operations, and the three chapters stand thus:
1. Chapter 3—He quickens, gives life.
2. Chapter 4—He is as given, a well of water In us, springing up into everlasting life; connected with this, we have grace and riches in their fulness, knowledge of the Father as seeking worshipers to worship the God of love in spirit and in truth.
3. In chapter 7, the blessed Spirit is spoken if as flowing forth from us, “rivers of living water”—heavenly refreshings indeed, connected, too, with His glory as Son of man glorified; and along with this we have the earnest of glory, the power of refreshing, as well as the blessed testimony that man in Him prevails and has the glory; though yet he must needs be an expectant till He Himself is manifested to the world, then in its true order in that feast of tabernacles.
There is one point of great moment, to which I would earnestly call your attention, namely, the individual nature of the blessing; the words of another set this forth so blessedly that I would, while quoting them, adopt them as my own:
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ Here again you will remark, it is an individual matter—the believer’s portion, however it may be ministered. ‘This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet (given); because that Jesus was not yet glorified.’ Now this statement (as I think we shall see) is one of extreme importance, and connected with the whole character and state of the dispensation, except the fact of as being that of God’s blessings, which are beyond all dispensation, giving the Spirit as the power of divine life and worship, inasmuch as they lead into communion with Himself.”
Again, the same writer further says: “I feel it very important to remark here, the individual character noticed before, because it is the saving principle in the midst of desolation and evil, whatever common good it may produce; it is not they shall drink of the river from the rock, or drink of some common river, but ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water,’ it is the personal possession and indwelling of the Holy Ghost. So the Gospel of St. John, which gives what is essential and uniting and not consequences, continually treats it.”
May our hearts more and more delight in Him, the heavenly Operator in us as well as towards the world; if we would seek Him out, it must be by His own gracious help in holy scripture, wherein He is set forth as the Comforter sent by the Father and the Son.
Condensed Notes of an Address, No. 7