The previous announcements which heralded the baptism of Pentecost, and
all the attendant facts and statements unite to indicate that in the
very nature of the gift then conferred there was something essentially
new and different from any previous endowments bestowed on the
church,—something by which peculiar honor was reflected on the baptizing
office of the Lord Jesus, upon this its first assumption and exercise.
It is a question to be considered,—What were the new characteristics of
grace now first imparted to the church?
The Holy Spirit was no novelty, now first bestowed. At the coming of
Christ, the Jews were familiar with the doctrine of the personality and
offices of the Third Person of the Godhead. Of this the evidence is
conclusive,—in the story of John’s birth,—in the theme and style of
John’s preaching,—in the facts stated as to the birth, anointing, and
ministry of Christ,—in His manner of reference to the subject in his
teaching,—and especially in his warning as to the sin against the Holy
Ghost, which is only explicable upon the supposition that the doctrine
of the Spirit was familiar to the Jews. The knowledge thus evinced had
its source in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. So full are they on
the subject that there is scarcely an aspect in which it appears in the
New Testament which has not its counterpart in the Old. In them his
agency is distinctly and fully recognized, both in the inspiration of
the prophets, and in the gifts and graces which have been common to
God’s people in all ages. See for example, Psa. li, 11-13; cxliii, 10;
Isa. lxiii, 10, etc. The graces which Paul testifies to be the fruits of
the Spirit (Gal. v, 22; Eph. v, 9), and which are in the above cited
places, by the Old Testament writers referred to the same source, were
abundantly displayed in the saints of the former dispensation, insomuch
that Paul holds them up as ensamples to us. (Heb. xi and xii, 1.) The
Psalms, which gave expression and nourishment to their graces, are never
exhausted by the profoundest attainments of Christian experience. And
with all the lamentable facts of unfaithfulness and apostasy which
darken the pages of Israel’s history, there were periods of fidelity, in
which the church shone in the beauty of holiness, fair and comely in the
eyes of God. In fact, with all the disposition which we sometimes
realize to dwell on the unbelief and apostasies of the twelve tribes,
and lamentable as they were, it is certain that the New Testament church
is in no condition to boast herself against Israel. If we survey the
nominally Christian church, in its various sections—the communions of
Rome and of the east, and of the various Protestant churches in Europe
and America—a just judgment will pronounce them, on the whole, scarcely
less unfaithful and surely more inexcusable than was Israel. Assuredly,
there is no such difference in our favor as to indicate the absence of
the Spirit from the latter, and his peculiar presence with the former.
In what then did the peculiarity of the day of Pentecost consist? To
this question, Peter in his discourse on the occasion, gave an explicit
answer. “This is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel:—And it shall
come to pass, in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit
upon all flesh.”—Acts ii, 16, 17. In this citation of prophecy, and in
the discourse which followed, Peter defined the peculiarities of the
occasion as consisting in three things: First, that the outpouring of
that day was made by the Lord Jesus in person. Second, that the
miraculous phenomena attending it were designed to attest the fact that
He, being risen from the dead and exalted to God’s right hand, was
endowed with supreme and universal authority. Third, that the gifts of
salvation by him dispensed were adapted and designed not for Israel only
but for “all flesh,”—for the world. Thus was implied a change in the
whole aspect of grace, in the hearts of God’s people.
We have formerly seen that God’s entrance into covenant with Israel, at
Sinai, implied a temporary withdrawal of his overtures from the
nations,—“suffering them to walk in their own ways,” (Acts xiv, 16), but
with a distinct assertion of a reserved right, inserted in the covenant
itself,—“For, all the earth is mine.” So long as God “winked at” the
wickedness of the Gentiles, the church had neither commission nor call
to labor for their salvation, nor impulse of grace to look for it. The
doors of salvation and of the church were held open to all, and the word
and ordinances maintained in Zion were an invitation to the world to
enter freely. But, beyond that Israel was not called to go. On the
contrary, she was discouraged from all active or intimate contact or
intercourse with the apostate nations. Her primary and paramount office
and obligation it was to keep her own self pure, and to preserve and
transmit the oracles and ordinances of God faithfully, until the time of
the Messiah. In the meantime, since the operations and graces of the
Spirit can not but be in harmony with the will and purpose of God, his
influences in the hearts of Israel, corresponded with the purpose thus
indicated concerning the nations. For, grace is nothing but harmony of
affections and will with the character and will of God. Grace, in
Israel, was therefore without disseminating zeal or power, as toward the
Gentiles. It contained no impulse to seek their salvation. But, knowing
them as apostate and enemies to God and to his people, and as the
objects of his indignation and wrath, it concurred in that indignation,
and at times gave expression to it, in forms which offend a shallow and
unsanctified criticism. Yet are they no more incongruous to the active
enjoyment and exercise of the profoundest and most abundant measure of
the Spirit’s graces, than is the absence in heaven’s blest inhabitants
of zeal for the welfare of Satan, and their adoring approval of God’s
justice in his doom. All this was rather confirmed than modified by the
fact that the Spirit of prophecy constantly indicated that a day was
coming when all the ends of the earth should see and share in the
salvation of God. The more distinctly it was revealed as the purpose of
God for the future, the more clearly was it seen to be not of the
present.
But, now, the time had come. The Son of man, the Prince Messiah, to whom
was reserved the ingathering of the Gentiles (Gen. xlix, 10), had
assumed the scepter and received the Spirit of life for the nations. The
sanctifying grace of that Spirit must be essentially the same in all
ages and times. But there was now a change in its aspect to the
Gentiles, coincident with the change of the divine attitude toward them.
Instead of the old passive sentiment concerning the world’s
ruin,—instead of the former ardor of indignation against its
ungodliness,—the apostles and the church were now inspired with a divine
pity and beneficent love,—with an active and aggressive zeal for the
conversion of men. While the enclosed water of the laver at the
tabernacle was the symbol of the Spirit’s influences, under the former
dispensation, the increasing river of Ezekiel’s vision is their
representative in the New Testament times. Flowing forth out of Zion,
with a widening and deepening current, it pours its living waters into
the dead sea of our apostate humanity, to the healing of the waters.
This difference in the nature of the Spirit’s influences, now, and of
old, is beautifully exhibited in two figures employed by our Savior, the
distinctive features of which should not be overlooked because of the
points of analogy. Speaking to the woman of Samaria of the personal
blessings which the Spirit bestows, he tells her,—“Whosoever drinketh of
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life.”—John iv, 14. A well, within; living, active, but
confined. But, at Jerusalem, at the festival of the pouring of water,
which anticipated the giving of salvation to the Gentiles,—“In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as
the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water.”—John vii, 37, 38. “_Out_ of his belly shall _flow_.” Here is
grace, not enclosed and restricted in its sphere, but outflowing and
aggressive, disseminating itself without stint or limit. Hence the
explanation which the evangelist adds:—“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.”—Ib. vs. 39.
Hence, also, the selection made by Peter, in explanation of the
Pentecostal scene. Among the prophecies, there are many in which the
outpouring of the Spirit is spoken of. But of them all the apostle
selected that which, in the briefest and completest manner, indicates
the breaking down of the wall of partition. “I will pour out of my
Spirit _upon all flesh_.” This he afterward explains. “For the promise
is unto you, and to your children, and to _all that are afar off_, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call.”—vs. 39.
But there was another point, equally important, in the endowments
bestowed on that memorable day. Heretofore, not only had commission to
the Gentiles been withheld from the church, but gratuitous labors by her
in that behalf would have been necessarily futile, for lack of power
accompanying the word. But, said Jesus to the apostles, “Ye shall
receive _power_, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”—Acts i, 8. What was
the nature of the power thus given, Paul tells the church of Corinth.
“God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in
the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”—“And my
speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”—2 Cor. iv, 6,
7; 1 Cor. ii, 4, 5. This illuminating, convincing, and converting power
of the Spirit of God attending the word, remains the perpetual endowment
and authentication of the Christian ministry. In addition to the zeal
and power thus conferred, the apostles were by this baptism invested
with those gifts of courage, wisdom, inspiration, and miracles, which
had been promised by the Savior, and were requisite to qualify them for
their special office and to attest their ministry. (Mark xvi, 17, 18;
Luke xxi, 15-19; John xiv, 26; xvi, 13-15.)
Such was the change wrought by the baptism of Pentecost; such the new
gifts by it conferred. With the coming of God’s set time of mercy to the
world, it awakened in the hearts of his people a zeal for souls of every
class and nation. And it imparted to the word of the gospel a
demonstration and power of converting grace, correspondent to the
breadth of the new commission, and to the saving purposes of our blessed
God, toward an apostate race. In proportion as we, in these latter days,
have part in the baptism and Spirit of Pentecost, will we share in the
same ardor of zeal for the spread of the gospel and the conquest of the
nations to the banner of Christ.