Jesus Christ Himself is the one perfect manifestation in history of the
complete work of the Holy Spirit in man.
1. _Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit._ We read in Luke i. 35,
R. V., “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee; and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee:
wherefore also that which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of
God.” As we have already seen, in regeneration the believer is begotten of
God, but Jesus Christ was begotten of God in His original generation. He
is the only begotten Son of God (John iii. 16). It was entirely by the
Spirit’s power working in Mary that the Son of God was formed within her.
The regenerated man has a carnal nature received from his earthly father
and a new nature imparted by God. Jesus Christ had only the one holy
nature, that which in man is called the new nature. Nevertheless, He was a
real man as He had a human mother.
2. _Jesus Christ led a holy and spotless life and offered Himself without
spot to God through the working of the Holy Spirit._ We read in Heb. ix.
14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who _through the eternal __
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God_, purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God.” Jesus Christ met and overcame
temptations as other men may meet and overcome them, in the power of the
Holy Spirit. He was tempted and suffered through temptation (Heb. iii.
18), He was tempted in all points like as we are (Heb. iv. 15), but never
once in any way did He yield to temptation. He was tempted entirely apart
from sin (Heb. iv. 15), but He won His victories in a way that is open for
all of us to win victory, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. _Jesus Christ was anointed and fitted for service by the Holy Spirit._
We read in Acts x. 38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth _with the Holy
Ghost and with power_: who went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” In a prophetic vision
of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament we read in Isa. lxi. 1, “_The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me_, because the LORD hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound.” In Luke’s record of the earthly life
of our Lord in Luke iv. 14, we read “And Jesus returned _in the power of
the Spirit_ into Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all the
region round about.” In a similar way Jesus said of Himself when speaking
in the synagogue in Nazareth, “_The Spirit_ of the Lord is upon Me,
because He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the poor; He hath
sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke iv. 18, 19, R. V.). All these passages
contain the one lesson, that it was by the especial anointing with the
Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ was qualified for the service to which God
had called Him. As He stood in the Jordan after His baptism, “The Holy
Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him,” and it was then
and there that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, baptized with the
Holy Spirit, and equipped for the service that lay before Him. Jesus
Christ received His equipment for service in the same way that we receive
ours by a definite baptism with the Holy Spirit.
4. _Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit in His movements here upon
earth._ We read in Luke iv. 1, R. V., “And Jesus full of the Holy Ghost
returned from Jordan and _was led by the Spirit_ in the wilderness.”
Living as a man here upon earth and setting an example for us, each step
of His life was under the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
5. _Jesus Christ was taught by the Spirit who rested upon Him. The Spirit
of God was the source of His wisdom in the days of His flesh._ In the Old
Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah we read in Isa. xi. 2, 3, “_And
the Spirit of the _LORD_ shall rest upon Him_, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the LORD. And shall make Him of quick understanding in
the fear of the LORD: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of His ears.” Further on in Isa. xlii.
1, R. V., we read, “Behold My servant, whom I uphold; My chosen in whom My
soul delighteth; _I have put My Spirit upon Him_; He shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles, etc.” Matthew tells us in Matt. xii. 17, 18,
that this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
6. _The Holy Spirit abode upon Jesus in all His fullness and the words He
spoke in consequence were the very words of God._ We read in John iii. 34,
R. V., “For He whom God hath sent _speaketh the words of God_: for He
giveth not the Spirit by measure.”
7. _After His resurrection, Jesus Christ gave commandment unto His
Apostles whom He had chosen through the Holy Spirit._ We read in Acts i.
2, “Until the day in which He was taken up, after that He _through the
Holy Ghost had given commandment_ unto the Apostles whom He had chosen.”
This relates to the time after His resurrection and so we see Jesus still
working in the power of the Holy Spirit even after His resurrection from
the dead.
8. _Jesus Christ wrought His miracles here on earth in the power of the
Holy Spirit._ In Matt. xii. 28, we read, “I cast out devils by the power
of the Spirit of God.” It is through the Spirit that miracle working power
was given to some in the church after our Lord’s departure from this earth
(1 Cor. xii. 9, 10), and in the power of the same Spirit, Jesus Christ
wrought His miracles.
9. _It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead._ We read in Rom. viii. 11, “But if the Spirit of _Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead_ dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth
in you.”
The same Spirit who is to quicken our mortal bodies and is to raise us up
in some future day raised up Jesus.
Several things are plainly evident from this study of the work of the Holy
Spirit in Jesus Christ:
First of all, we see the completeness of His humanity. He lived and He
thought, He worked, He taught, He conquered sin and won victories for God
in the power of that very same Spirit whom it is our privilege also to
have.
In the second place, we see our own utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
If it was in the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God, lived and worked, achieved and triumphed, how much
more dependent are we upon Him at every turn of life and in every phase of
service and every experience of conflict with Satan and sin.
The third thing that is evident is the wondrous world of privilege,
blessing and victory and conquest that is open to us. The same Spirit by
which Jesus was originally begotten, is at our disposal for us to be
begotten again of Him. The same Spirit by which Jesus offered Himself
without spot to God is at our disposal that we also may offer ourselves
without spot to Him. The same Spirit by which Jesus was anointed for
service is at our disposal that we may be anointed for service. The same
Spirit who led Jesus Christ in His movements here on earth is ready to
lead us to-day. The same Spirit who taught Jesus and imparted to Him
wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge and the fear of
the Lord is here to teach us. Jesus Christ is our pattern (1 John ii. 6),
“the first born among many brethren” (Rom. viii. 29). Whatever He realized
through the Holy Spirit is for us to realize also to-day.
FOOTNOTES
1 Both the translators of the Authorized Version and the Revised
Version, and even the translators of the American Revision, seem to
have lost sight of the context, for while they spell “Spirit” in the
third verse with a capital, in the sixth verse, in all three
versions it is spelled with a small “s.”
2 The ministry of many an orthodox preacher and teacher is a ministry
of death. It is true that the Word of the Gospel is preached but it
is preached with enticing words of man’s wisdom and not in the
demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. ii. 4). The Gospel
comes in word only and not in power and in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess.
i. 5).