Nor is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost, and those who are Christ’s, to be separated from Himself, or from “the unity of the Spirit,” of which He is the center; for sealing by the Holy Ghost is as truly connected with our salvation through faith in the finished work of Christ, as is our membership with Christ, as Head of His body—the Church. We are baptized by this same Spirit into one body, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. It is Paul who was set apart to declare the mystery of Christ, and of the body in its relation to Christ as Head. He had been caught up into the third heaven to be instructed in “the mysteries of God,” and to hear unspeakable things, and who, because of the abundance of the revelations, came back with a thorn in the flesh, lest he should be exalted above measure. John’s qualifications were derived from the bosom of the Lord whereon he lay, and his subjects were the Father’s love, and the Father’s house, and the Bride as the Lamb’s wife, as well as the reciprocal love of the family, maintained in the power of life in Christ by “this baptism of the Holy Ghost.” “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” “He that hath the Son hath life;” and as Christ is, so are we in this world, is our boast and glory. Beyond this we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. Perfect in this union of life in Christ by the Spirit, and of living relationship with the Father and the Son, it imparts to us its character, and rules our expectations— “He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure.” Blessed surely it is to see a new-born company presented to the world by Paul as “an epistle of Christ,” known and read of all men; and equally blessed to find the family under the baptism of the Spirit dwelling together in unity, even as Jesus has loved us, and given Himself for us. The beloved disciple writes, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” It is through this same grace of Christ that Paul says, “None of us liveth to himself, or dieth to himself; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s.” The “one thing needful” for light and testimony may vary in different dispensations, though each may be perfect in its time and season. For instance, David in his one desire to dwell in the temple of the Lord all the days of his life, or Mary and Martha in the company of Jesus in their house, or Paul in pressing onward to Christ in the glory. However encouraging to us these variations and measures may be, because so suited to our own state, and by men and women of like experience with ourselves, yet one gladly turns from all to Him who has put His comeliness upon us, and whose glory it was to say, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do... these doeth the Son likewise.”
It was in this same comprehensive and united circle, and with holy men of old in their “times and seasons,” that the Holy Ghost had long wrought, and tarried for “the eighth day power,” and “the circumcision of Christ,” that He might come forth in a new character as the rushing mighty wind—come forth to act in unity with the Father and the Son in Pentecostal power, and bear testimony by the newly-baptized apostles of Christ to Christ, and open out the things that were given Him to do for the glory of God, and for His own glory as the Son, and the glory of the Church as His body, and the Bride of the Lamb. The millennial union and glory of Israel and the Gentiles, and the blessing of every creature, as well as the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, waits in a yet further hope of the day when “the Son of man shall come back in His glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels,” and sit on the throne of His glory. In the midst of such promises and counsels in the unity of the Spirit, and by the will of God, as are thus made known, and to be displayed in such spheres and scenes as these, both in heaven, and in the heaven of heavens, and in this earth, the Son, in the glory of God will come forth. The unction of the Holy One, and the anointing which we have received, or else the baptism and outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh, will each and all find their new and happy fulfillments and ministrations when that which is perfect is come, and all that is in part shall be done away.
The good confession before Pilate which Jesus made, when challenged as to His royal rights and kingdom glory (as well of His mission against the usurpation and lie of Satan) is of great account in these scriptures. It corresponds also with the Baptist’s earlier testimony to our Lord’s titles, and mission, and sealing by the Spirit, as “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world,” adding, “The same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” Pilate said, “Art thou a King then? And Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King; but now is my kingdom not from hence, else would my servants fight that I should not be delivered up to the Jews.” Another object of this confession lay in “the mystery of God’s will;” viz., “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, to bear witness of the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” In like manner the Spirit of God writes, in 1 John 3:88He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8), “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil;” and another blessing precedes this in verse 5, “We know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” Another and a blessed result of these grand purposes flows forth to us in the statement, “Who is He that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” But beyond these victories over sin, and the devil, and the world, yea, and because of them, is the last great personal assurance in this epistle— “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Well may the Spirit in this unity add, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols;” for all outside this leads to idolatry, or is an idol.
These various quotations from one and another of the apostles show that purposes of blessing now and hereafter originate, and are perpetuated, in the good pleasure of God’s will, before the world was. They have been carried out through “the Son of His love” in this world, before angels and principalities in the heavenly places, and substantiated by His finished work on the cross for our faith and walk before God and men through the Holy Ghost. The truth becomes vital in us as the temples of God by the indwelling Spirit, and is a power by which to fix our affections on the things above (not on things upon the earth), where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
In conclusion we may ask, With what glory could “the Father of glory” glorify His only-begotten Son (who prayed to Him for it in John 17) but with His own glory? And if the same question were asked as regards “the mystery of Christ,” and of Christ and the Church as His body and His bride, the same answer must be repeated; viz., “With His own glory.”. Indeed, it is according to this glory of glories, with the Father and the Son-like “the holy of holies” aforetime—that the Holy Ghost forms the grand doxology for the Church in this chapter as being in this comprehensive and blessed “unity of the Spirit,” and “according to the good pleasure of His will,” which this epistle reveals: “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Practically we learn that the scope of the Holy Ghost’s testimony, and the range of His operations, are always in keeping with the will and mind of God at any given period or dispensation, and therefore limited or extended by the suited disclosure which He makes of Himself, whether it be to Enoch, who walked with Him before the flood; or to Abraham as the friend of God in the world that now is; or since by the Son of the bosom, who came to declare and reveal the Father. The lawgiver instructed Israel in these disclosures by the ways and acts of Jehovah in their midst, and even exceeded all previous examples by writing, in Deuteronomy 29:2929The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29), “The secret things belong unto the Lord: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Solomon, in his book of Proverbs, surpasses Moses and the Decalogue by affirming, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” The communication of His mind aforetime by prophets and holy men was necessarily in a certain unity of the Spirit, inasmuch as they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless all these previous and partial ministries become proofs of “the mystery of His will,” provided and kept in reserve for the subsequent and final revelation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in Godhead unity (and yet in the distinctness of divine operation), to which they all pointed “that they without us should not be made perfect.” For this they wait, and according to the character of their respective calling and hope of blessing till Christ shall come a second time, and His people be willing in the day of His power.
“The good pleasure” of His will (which has been the subject of our meditations), as the divine source of all blessing and blessedness, reproduces itself by the unity of the Spirit in us; as it is written, “It is God who worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.” So likewise is it the main spring in us for the endurance of every adverse influence, arising from ourselves or from others— “Do all things without murmurings or disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.” Indeed, we may ask ourselves, What else could “the good pleasure” of the Father’s will work out in us (below or above) whom He has sealed by the Spirit in this unity, but that we should be like the beloved Son in whom He was well pleased, both now and hereafter? Exhortations to walk worthy of the vocation, “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love,” are founded on these moral glories of Christ, and flow from His fullness as their source of supply; for He was this. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, casts us likewise on His unfailing love; for “unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” What a dignity attaches to the vocation wherewith we are called, whether viewed individually as in union with Christ, or as members of Christ, who is the Head of all principality and power, or as Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all!
“And is it so? I shall be like Thy Son,
Is this the grace which He for me has won?
Father of glory, thought beyond all thought,
In glory, to His own blest likeness brought?
“Nor I alone, Thy loved ones all, complete
In glory round Thee there with joy shall meet,
All like Thee, for Thy glory like Thee, Lord,
Object supreme of all, by all adored.”
(Concluded from page 224)
J. E. B.