Christ and the Spirit by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 6, 1913

Christ and the Spirit

By G. B. Thompson

The Holy Spirit — No. 4

Christ and the Spirit

G. B. THOMPSON

WHEN Christ came into the world to redeem the race, he stood as the second Adam, with all the weaknesses and degeneracy of four thousand years of sin resting upon him. He came clothed in human nature to fight the battle against sin, as every child of God must fight it. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. And as the Son of man, he used no power in battling with the powers of darkness that every child of Adam can not use. He said of himself, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John 5:19. Again he said, “I can of mine own self do nothing” (verse 30); and again, “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” John 8:28.

He stood as a man, using no power other than man can lay hold of, in resisting temptation. As Son of man he was as weak as man. As Son of God he was as strong as God. He was not a Unitarian’s Christ. He was God. Divinity and humanity were centered in him. More than a man hung on the cross. Unfathomable mystery, God died.

“He voluntarily assumed human nature. It was his own act, and by his own consent. He clothed his divinity with humanity. He was all the while as God, but he did not appear as God. He veiled the demonstrations of Deity, which had commanded the homage and called forth the admiration of the universe of God. He was God while upon earth, but he divested himself of the form of God, and in its stead took the form and fashion of a man. He walked the earth as a man. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. He laid aside his glory and his majesty. He was God, but the glories of the form of God he for a while relinquished. Though he walked among men in poverty, scattering his blessings wherever he went, at his word legions of angels would surround their Redeemer, and do him homage. But he walked the earth unrecognized, unconfessed, with but few exceptions, by his creatures. The atmosphere was polluted with sin and curses, in place of the anthem of praise. His lot was poverty and humiliation. As he passed to and fro upon his mission of mercy to relieve the sick, to lift up the depressed, scarcely a solitary voice called him blessed, and the very greatest of the nation passed him by with disdain.

“Contrast this with the riches of glory, the wealth of praise pouring forth from immortal tongues, the millions of rich voices in the universe of God in anthems of adoration. But he humbled himself, and took mortality upon him. As a member of the human family, he was mortal; but as a God, he was the fountain of life to the world. He could, in his divine person, ever have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but he voluntarily laid down his life, that in so doing he might give life and bring immortality to light. He bore the sins of the world, and endured the penalty, which rolled like a mountain upon his divine soul. He yielded up his life a sacrifice, that man should not eternally die. He died, not through being compelled to die, but by his own free will. This was humility. The whole treasure of heaven was poured out in one gift to save fallen man. He brought into his human nature all the life-giving energies that human beings will need and must receive.

“Wondrous combination of man and God! He might have helped his human nature to withstand the inroads of disease by pouring from his divine nature vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. But he humbled himself to man’s nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled; and the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in his humiliation, that he must descend to make an expiation for the sins of a condemned, groaning world.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald, July 5, 1887.

During his entire life Christ communed with the Spirit. “From hours spent with God he came forth morning by morning, to bring the light of heaven to men. Daily he received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the early hours of the new day the Lord awakened him from his slumbers, and his soul and his lips were anointed with grace, that he might impart to others.”—“Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 139.

But when Jesus began his ministry, although he was begotten of the Holy Spirit, he received a special anointing, or baptism, of the Spirit for the work of the ministry.

“Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Heb. 1:9.

Peter in his sermon at Cæsarea told “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.” Acts 10:38. It was by this spiritual anointing that Jesus was strengthened for his work. He received, as the Son of man, his equipment for service in the same way that we do, by a daily baptism of the Spirit and power. We read that Jesus was tempted, even to the point of suffering (Heb. 2:18), and that he “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15. But he “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.” Heb. 9:14. He met these temptations in our flesh and overcame by the power of the Holy Spirit, and closed his life’s work “without spot.”

The time when he received this spiritual anointing, or baptism, of the Spirit for service, was at his baptism, when he stood at the threshold of his ministry. As he knelt on the banks of the Jordan after being baptized by John, he poured out a prayer that pierced the heavens with its power, and “the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21, 22.

This anointing was a mighty event in the life and ministry of our Lord. In a fuller sense he was now to unsheath his sword in his controversy with Satan. The very names given him in Holy Writ are expressive of this experience. In

the Old Testament he is called the Messiah. The word Messiah means the Anointed One. The corresponding name in the New Testament is Christ. This word also means the Anointed. John the Baptist said, “I am not the Christ,” that is, “the Anointed.” John 1:20. Peter said, “Thou art the Christ,” that is, “the Anointed One.” Mark 8:29. “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ,” or “the Anointed One.” John 20:31.

“How striking, then, is the thought that we are the anointed ones of God! . . . ‘Ye have an anointing,’ the same anointing as the Lord had. And we bear it in our names, as he did. He was called Christ, and we are called Christians, the anointed followers of the Anointed One.”—“The Eternal Spirit,” page 215.

It is of great interest to note in the ministry of Christ the results which followed the anointing of the Holy Spirit received at his baptism. He was anointed to preach. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18, 19. And surely if our divine Master, who was born of the Spirit, needed to be anointed with the Spirit to preach the word, those of his followers who are ordained to do the same work, should also be anointed. The words, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high,” reach down to our time.

Immediately after his baptism, “Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.” Luke 4:1, 2. But “he was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.”—“Desire of Ages,” page 123. He unsheathed the “sword of the Spirit,” and conquered the prince of devils. The principalities of hell were so thoroughly overcome that we read, “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.” Luke 4:13. The question was now settled. Satanic resources were exhausted; Christ had resisted the greatest temptation Satan could bring upon him; his decision was irrevocably made. Through the power of the Spirit he came forth from the conflict with the powers of darkness a conquering hero.

Concerning his return to Galilee from a triumphant ministry in Judea, where some notable miracles had been performed, 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.” Luke 4:14. The Spirit was not given to him “by measure;” he could be entrusted with it in the fulness of its power. When it came upon him at his baptism, we are told that it “abode” upon him. It was with him continually as his guide and companion. It was “through the Holy Ghost” that he gave “commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” Acts 1:2.

All that the Holy Spirit was to Jesus it may be to his followers. “There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, by putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour and day by day. He longs to reveal his grace. If his people will remove the obstructions, he will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human channels.”—“Desire of Ages,” pages 250, 251.