The G. Campbell Morgan Archive

XXX THE NEW UNION
aving attempted to follow the Lord as He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and having seen Him in the height of the heavenly glory, a perfect Man, fulfilling the Divine ideal, the perfect Saviour having provided a ransom for the lost; and having moreover, recognized anew the fact that this exalted Man is our God, there remains to be considered somewhat more closely, the new union between God and man, consummated when the Man of Nazareth received the promise of the Father.
n his first sermon after Pentecost, Peter, referring to the ascended Christ, declared that He "having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit," had poured forth the gift upon the waiting disciples. The present study is an attempt to understand what the apostle meant, when he said that Jesus had received the promise of the Spirit.
ost certainly this is a declaration that upon the basis of His finished work of life, and on the occasion of His arrival in heaven, Jesus of Nazareth did receive, by a solemn and official act from the Father, the Holy Spirit according to promise. The first question that suggests itself to the mind is, Why was the Spirit now given to this ascended Man, and in what sense was the Spirit given to Him? It cannot possibly be that the bestowment of the Spirit was for Himself. His whole human life had been conditioned by the abiding presence in Him of the Holy Spirit of God, and that in fulfillment of the primal Divine intention concerning man. It is important that there should be perfect clearness of understanding of this fact. His reception of the Spirit in heaven was not the crowning by God of His Manhood. It was rather the answer of God to the claim this Man made upon Him, by the work He had accomplished for others.
o state this even more fully. The whole Being of Christ, and the whole mission of Christ were so closely associated with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that there could be no necessity for any new bestowment of the Spirit merely for Himself. His very human life was due to the mystery of the overshadowing Spirit and through all the years of privacy, there can be no doubt that He lived under the immediate guidance of the Spirit of truth. He did not, at the baptism, receive the Spirit. At that crisis, the presence of the Spirit was manifest, and in a new symbolism that suggested the truth that His work would be carried out in the power of the Spirit. The dove-like form in which the Spirit then appeared,—a form in which He is never manifested in connection with any other person, save the Christ: a form suggestive of tender gentle patience—revealed the truth concerning the character of Jesus; and announced that in keeping with that essential of His nature, all His work would be carried forward. Filled with the Spirit, He passed to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and in the power of the Spirit He went forth to His ministry, when all the temptation was accomplished. And at the last it was "through the eternal Spirit" He "offered Himself without blemish unto God." And yet we have a declaration that having passed through death, and having ascended to the presence of the Father.
e received there from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.
n explanation of the declaration will be found in a correct apprehension of what is meant by the promise of the Spirit. Where, and to whom was the promise made? The whole subject may be considered under the following heads, first, the promise of the Spirit fulfilled in His bestowment upon the ascended Man; second, the Spirit received by the ascended Man for those whom He represented as Saviour; third, the union of God and man resulting.
I. n the final charges delivered to the apostles, Christ distinctly commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but "to wait for the promise of the Father." Here is the same thought, uttered by the Lord Himself, and here also He distinctly tells them when the promise was made, "which, said He, ye heard from Me." Thus it is evident that we are approaching an explanation of this statement. Christ had promised the Spirit, and He had done that in the name of the Father, for Whom He ever spake to men. Is there no definite account of His having made such a promise? Most assuredly there is an account, which is not only definite, but also detailed, and it is to be found in the Paschal discourses, which are chronicled by John alone. "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive." "But the Comforter even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name." "When the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father." Thus in view of His approaching Cross, and in preparation of His disciples for the days when He in bodily form should be no more with them, He declared that in answer to His prayer, and in His Name, the Father would send them another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more evident in reading these discourses than the quiet majestic confidence of Christ. "I will enquire of the Father." He will send you." "The Father will send in My name." "I will send you from the Father." That is the promise of the Father, and when the One Who made the promise to the band of disciples, ascended into heaven, the Father recognized the prevailing plea of His presence there, and gave Him the Spirit that He might fulfill the promise to the waiting men upon the earth.
t is evident therefore that His reception of the Spirit was, as has been shown, not for Himself but for others. This however will be dealt with more fully subsequently. It would be sufficient to leave the statement at this point, and yet that phrase "the promise of the Father" has more in it than is indicated by this answer. As the whole of the Old Testament economy had culminated in Christ, and as in His teaching He had fulfilled all that was symbolized and suggested in that economy, so His uttering of the promise of the Father concerning the Spirit was the explanation of a constant message, sounding through the previous centuries, concerning a new dispensation of power. The seers and the prophets of the past all saw and spoke of a day full of light, full of force, a day of restoration that was yet to come. Through these prophets the Father had promised the Holy Spirit to men in larger, fuller measure than had ever been experienced. In the midst of the darkness that characterized the age in which these men of old had spoken, they had looked on towards the suffering Servant, Who was yet to be the all-conquering Deliverer, and stretching away beyond His day of suffering, they caught the light and glory of the dispensation of the Spirit. One or two illustrations will suffice.
saiah, in lofty and terrible language is announcing the coming of judgment. He tells of woe and of desolation, and ends with a paragraph pulsating with hope, which begins with the words "until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest." Here the prophet, telling the message of Jehovah, promises the Spirit.
nd yet again the same prophet, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. One shall say, I am Jehovah's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto Jehovah, and surname himself by the name of Israel," again an inspired promise of the Spirit.
here remains the most radiant and remarkable foretelling of the Spirit's dispensation, which Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost itself. "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered." Thus it is seen that the men who kept alive in the heart of the nation this spiritual hope, were men who served, and spoke in the hope of the coming of a new day, which should be a day of the poured out Spirit of God. Thus the promise which Jesus made in the Paschal discourses was the repetition of the promise made to the fathers by the prophets, by the One Who now not only promised, but was working towards the mighty consummation, which should consist in fulfillment.
n order to catch a true perspective, let this argument now be summarized. God, through the prophets in the past had promised the Holy Spirit to men. These heroic souls hearing and seeing, declared to their age the gracious announcement, and yet passed away without seeing the day of which they spoke. In fullness of time the Messiah came. He accomplished the will of God, and at last, passing into the presence of God, claimed as the inevitable issue of His victory, the fulfillment of the Divine promise, made to, and through the prophets, and finally uttered by His own lips. In answer to that claim, God acting at once in love and justice, gave Him the Spirit. Through Him the dreams of the prophets moved into the realm of deeds.
II. aving clearly seen that this bestowment of the Spirit was not for Himself, it becomes perfectly evident that it was a bestowment for such as were represented by that infinite work accomplished through His death and resurrection. The fact of His death makes righteous demands upon God, which, God answering, Jesus receives for bestowment, that which He Himself already had possessed for personal life and victory. His death having been accomplished for sinners, the Spirit is now bestowed for them also. What symbols or figures of speech are equal to helping men to understand this solemn and wondrous transaction. Reverently conscious of the inadequacy of all figures of speech, it may be said that God placed the Spirit at the disposal of Christ, that He might bestow Him upon all such as trusting in Jesus have counted to them the value of His death upon the Cross. Having accomplished that Mediatorial work through which man may in the value of His death be brought back to God, He now commences that Mediatorial work through which God the Holy Spirit may come back into relation with man, for the administration of the virtue of His life.
III. onfining the attention exclusively for the moment to the new union as seen in the Man Jesus, it is evident that now God has moved into a new relationship with fallen man, and man is lifted in spite of his fall, into new relation with God in the Person of Jesus. Jesus the in-fallen is yet Jesus, Who has borne the final issues, resulting from the fall. His reception of the Spirit is therefore a representative fact, declaring forevermore that in spite of sin, a way has been made back to fellowship with God. Such relation had never been nor could be, apart from this great fact. The Holy Spirit Who knows the mind of God, Who "searches all things, yea the deep things of God," Who is the Spirit of life forever proceeding from the Father, is now vested in the Man of Nazareth, and through Him is at the disposal of all such as submit to His Lordship. The Spirit of God Who had been grieved from humanity, and prevented operating in the human heart, as to the knowledge of God, and the life of God, and the power of God, is now through this perfect Man, in Whom was no sin, yet in Whom is resident the moral value of cancelled sin, at the disposal of the rebellious also. The ascended Christ has now become the new Centre of a new race. Henceforth the Spirit will plead with man the cause of Christ, demonstrating the fact that sin consists in rejection of Him, declaring the evangel that righteousness is possible because He has ascended to the Father, and denouncing forever the ultimate doom of evil, because the " prince of this world hath been judged."
aving received this promise of the Father, the ascended Lord poured out upon the waiting disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so the promise fulfilled to Christ, is fulfilled to those who have put their trust in Him, and herein is revealed the explanation of all the careful statements of His own discourses on the Paraclete. The Father has sent the Spirit, because He has bestowed Him on the Man that represents the fallen race. The Son has sent the Spirit, having received Him from the Father.
ne brief glance at the fact on earth will serve to complete the present study, and prepare for those that remain. In the upper room at Jerusalem, a company of waiting souls received the gift of the Holy Spirit, not in answer to their prayer, but in answer to the prevailing prayer in high heaven of the ascended Man of Nazareth. The Holy Spirit falling upon them, took up His abode in them, coming to them from the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. In the Person of Jesus the point of union between man and God has been found. Jesus is glorified by God in exaltation to the throne of power. Jesus is glorified by man in his submission to Him as enthroned.
he Spirit indwelling man, administers all the values of the finished work of Jesus.
his means that the men so indwelt, are by that Spirit Who administers the values, made one with the risen Christ. His life is their life as to its nature, for it is life won out of death, risen, ascended and yet to be manifested; as to its expression, for it is life interested in the things of God, and devoted in its powers to the accomplishment of Divine purposes; as to its whole, for henceforth for them also the one and only rule of life will be the good and perfect and acceptable will of God.
nd yet again, the Spirit's indwelling initiates a process of growth into perfect likeness to Christ by the subjugation of the whole man, spirit, soul, and body to the new life imparted in this miracle of regeneration. Thus the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the demonstration of the fact that the stupendous work to which God set Himself according to His wisdom and His might in the Person and mission of Christ has been fully accomplished. It now remains to consider how Christ answers the call of man in all its deepest meaning.