CHAPTER V – The Actions of the Holy Spirit
CHAPTER V – The Actions of the Holy Spirit The unique actions of the Holy Spirit in this business.
THIRDLY, in a few words we may consider the actions of the agent who is the third in order in that blessed One, whose all is the whole: the Holy
Spirit. In his own distinct operation, he evidently concurs with the several chief or grand parts of this work. We will refer to three of these parts:
First, The incarnation of the Son The Holy Spirit concurs with his plenary assistance in the course of the Son's life while he dwelt among us. For his mother was found with child,
"to have conceived in her womb of the Holy Ghost," Matt. 1:18. If we ask, along with Mary, how that could be, the angel resolves it for both us and her in Luke 1:35 (as far as it is lawful to be acquainted with these mysterious things): "The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing [NT:40, hagion] which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." It was an overshadowing power in the Spirit, an allusion to fowls that cover their eggs so that their young may be hatched by the warmth. This conception was by the sole power of the Spirit, who brooded over the fetus "incubare foetui," as in the beginning of the world. Now, in process, as this child was conceived by the power of the Spirit, so he was filled with the Spirit, and he "waxed strong" in it, Luke 1:80. Having received a fullness of the Spirit in its gifts and graces, without any limited measure, he was thoroughly furnished and fitted for his great undertaking.
Secondly, In the Son's oblation His oblation (offering), or passion, is by the Eternal Spirit. They are both the same with respect to what he suffered, and what he did through those sufferings. "By the Eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God,"
Heb. 9:14. This may refer to offering himself as a bloody sacrifice on the cross, or presenting himself continually before his Father. Willingly offering himself through that Spirit was the eternal fire that burned under this sacrifice, and what made it acceptable to God. I see no great ground for what some contend, that the "eternal Spirit" meant our Savior's own Deity.
Some Greek and Latin copies read pneuma hagios [NT:4151, 40], not as we commonly have it, pneuma aionios [NT:4151, 166], and so the doubt is quite removed in those copies. I see no reason why he may not be said to offer himself through the Holy Spirit, if he is elsewhere "declared to be the Son of God, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead," as in Rom. 1:4; or "quickened by the Spirit," as in 1Pet. 3:18. The working of the Spirit was as required in his oblation as in his resurrection, in his dying as in his quickening.
Thirdly, In the Son's resurrection His resurrection is spoken of by the apostle in Rom. 8:11: "If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you."
And thus we have discovered the blessed agents and undertakers in this work, their several actions, and the orderly concurrence to the whole.
Though they may be distinguished, they are not so divided as to preclude every one from being ascribed to the whole nature, of which each person is a partaker "in solidum." And as they begin it, so they will jointly carry along the application of it to its ultimate result and accomplishment. For we must "give thanks to the Father, which has made us meet" (that is, by his
Spirit) "to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins," Col. 1:12, 13.