04.49. LESSON 49

LESSON 49

Throughout the Bible, "God is one." This eternal Oneness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit was taught by Christ so plainly and earnestly that the Jews said he blasphemed. God, Christ, and the Spirit interweave their redemptive workings over the centuries until they culminate and focus "In the power of the Holy Spirit" on Pentecost into a working unit—the church.

Workings of the "Trinity" in justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying men are as inseparable as are the working of light, heat, and energy of the sun in making grass. To use a simpler comparison, as the power of steering wheel, transmission gears, and wheels are integrated to run cars, so the power of Father, Son and Spirit is integrated to save sinners. The constituent parts in such cases, not named, are implied. For example, to make Paul’s "Christ in you, the hope of glory," read, "God, Christ, and the Spirit in you, the hope of glory," is but to state Paul’s gospel more fully, not to alter it. "Christ in you" is therefore, also "The Spirit in you." To remember that the expressions, "The Spirit," "The Spirit of God," and "The Spirit of Christ" are all three used in one verse (Romans 8:9) to designate the Holy Spirit is helpful in studying the question of the Spirit.

"The Mysteries of the Kingdom" (Christ) With Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, "Unto the Father... that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith," with his reminder to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you," and with many more Scriptures to the same effect, all Christians surely believe, in some sense at least, that the Holy Spirit dwells in them. A common reaction to this truth however, is doubt that the Holy Spirit himself actually dwells in us, because we do not see how he can do so. Are not we who "Walk by faith, not by sight" inconsistent in demanding to understand God’s mode of working? In nature, we make no such demand. Does not this reaction take the matter out of the realm of faith? Christianity begins with "Great is the mystery of godliness" and continues with Christians "Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" (1 Timothy 3:9-16). Christians believe that "God is a Spirit," and that, as he says, "Not by might... but by my Spirit" (Zechariah 4:6) his works are performed. They refuse to regard what they do not understand as ultimately inexplicable. They cannot believe that God, were he unable to dwell in them without violating their basic moral nature, would mock them by telling them that he can do so. All this is but simple elementary Christian faith.

All attempts to explain such mysteries as how God’s foreknowledge leaves man free to choose, or as how spirits can mix and commune with each other without losing their individuality, are inadequate, for none of them probe to the kernel of the matter. Moreover, since the benefits of God in religion depend no more on man’s understanding the process involved than they do in nature, such vain attempts are quite uncalled for. But worse, do they not signify a mistrustful heart? If such mysteries, uninvited and unwelcome, intrude and disturb us, to remember that God reminded Job, by a long list of questions that he could not answer, of his creatural limitations and pride in order to set him in his place, repenting, should bring us to our knees, repenting and seeking more faith. Should not baffling animal instinct, astounding workings of our minds, including their complex reflex and deep subconscious activities, and the insoluble mystery of the origin and growth of our own spirits so fragilely dwelling in us to be dismissed at last by grisly death against our struggling wills—should not these mysteries, and many, very many, more (the speaking of Balaam’s ass and Saul’s interview with Samuel, brought up from "the gulph of death," to name two) condition us to accept by faith that on Pentecost Christ "poured forth" his Spirit, and has continued to infuse his Spirit into the spirits of his own ever since? Does not the spiritual likeness and affinity between God and man, made in God’s image, make this, at least, not impossible and incredible? Christ’s prayer for Christians, "That they all may be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also be in us... I in them, and thou in me, that they may all be perfected into one" (John 17:1-26), is not to be explained, thank God, just simply believed and used. Did not Adam’s companionship with God in Eden, similarly to the instinct of animals possibly, keep him from all sin and error? Is not Christianity God’s way to break man’s rebel spirit and bring him back to the original life-preserving fellowship with himself, again guided and guarded by his wisdom and power? Is an unfinished, pre-Pentecostal Christianity before the Spirit was given equal to the super-human task of re-creating a dead humanity? Would God plan and work from all eternity past to give his Spirit to Christians who would not need him? The Holy Spirit himself pleads with Christians not to resist, grieve, and do despite unto him. Did not Paul’s honest response to these pleadings, and his unreserved surrender to Christ account for his, "I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me," and for his superlatively powerful life? Who knows to what depths the Spirit by his writings and prayers in unutterable groanings for us may not yet permeate, impregnate, and vitalize our spirits, if we but present them, all stops open, for his harmonizing, enabling deep workings, "according to the power that worketh in us?" How much of our Laodicean lukewarmness is due to our failure to let God use the power he has provided for our strengthening?

"Through Faith" In his prayer that the Ephesians might be strengthened through the power of the Spirit in the inward man, and that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith, Paul reveals the practical "how" of God indwelling Christians. It is through and according to their faith. By his question, "Receiveth ye the Spirit by the works of law, or by the hearing of faith," he reminds the Galatians that they got the Spirit by believing the gospel, just as they got the remission of their sins—no miracle, no magic, no burglarizing invasion of their personality. God’s workings are so perfected that his supernatural unites with his natural without a discernible joint. Everything God does for Christians must ever be in conjunction and agreement with his word —never contrary.

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