Latest / Spirit of Christ / 034 - Note B The Spirit as a Person Chap 5

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034 - Note B The Spirit as a Person Chap 5 · Spirit of Christ

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  Speaker 1: Note be of the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Note B.
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  Speaker 1: The Spirit as a person, Chapter five. If we are
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  Speaker 1: to understand the place and work of the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 1: in us, we must know somewhat of his place and
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  Speaker 1: work in the Divine being. He has been given to
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  Speaker 1: make us partakers of the divine life and nature, to
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  Speaker 1: be in us, and to do for us what He
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  Speaker 1: is and does in the Father and the Son. The
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  Speaker 1: adoring and reverent contemplation of what he is as the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit of the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity,
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  Speaker 1: of what he was and wrought in the Man Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus on earth, and what specially his relation is to
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  Speaker 1: our glorified Lord, need not lead us away from the
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  Speaker 1: practical question of what he is to ourselves, but may
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  Speaker 1: help us greatly in realizing the wondrous claws and mystery
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  Speaker 1: of this the united gift of the Father and the
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  Speaker 1: Son their own spirit, the spirit of their personal life,
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  Speaker 1: to be the spirit of our personal life. The following
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  Speaker 1: suggestive quotations from one of the most deeply scriptural and
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  Speaker 1: spiritual theologians, J. T. Beck, may help us in our
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  Speaker 1: effort to apprehend what God has revealed to us in
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  Speaker 1: his word. It is a most blessed thing when a
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  Speaker 1: believer begins to realize the Spirit of God dwelleth in
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  Speaker 1: me and knows that God has given him something divine, yea,
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  Speaker 1: a divine person as his life. But it becomes a
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  Speaker 1: thousandfold more wonderful to him when he begins to see
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  Speaker 1: how really it is the very same Spirit who is
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  Speaker 1: the personal life of the Father, and the Son who
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  Speaker 1: has now become his own personal life, his inmost self.
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  Speaker 1: Here follows a quotation from J. T. Beck. In Christianity,
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  Speaker 1: revelation appears not only in the character of an elementary
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  Speaker 1: witness for God, as in the revelation of Nature, nor
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  Speaker 1: only as in the Old Testament revelation, in the character
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  Speaker 1: of special legislative organization and ideal promise, but as a
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  Speaker 1: new life organization of the quickening Spirit. Christianity thus brings
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  Speaker 1: a revelation in which the supernatural, the Divine, is spirit
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  Speaker 1: and life dynamically and substantially. To become personal. With this
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  Speaker 1: in view, it must be mediated differently than in the
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  Speaker 1: previous stages. It must have a higher organ for its revelation.
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  Speaker 1: If the Divine is indeed dynamically and substantially as a
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  Speaker 1: personal life to be organized into the human individuality. The
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  Speaker 1: only adequate organ for such a mediation will be one
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  Speaker 1: in which the revelation, or the divine principle of organization,
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  Speaker 1: shall make itself personal in a human being. That is,
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  Speaker 1: it will not be sufficient that the Divine should reveal
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  Speaker 1: itself in some man only with whatever strength in the
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  Speaker 1: way of his consciousness, through the channel of conscience, as
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  Speaker 1: little that it should, as by way of inspiration, develop
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  Speaker 1: its power to influence and elevate in the life of
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  Speaker 1: reason or spirit after the manner of prophecy. Conscience and
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  Speaker 1: inspiration do not suffice as the means of revelation in
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  Speaker 1: the revelation that is, to be perfect. What is needed
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  Speaker 1: is a mediation in which God concentrates his own peculiar
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  Speaker 1: spirit and life as a principle in a human individual
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  Speaker 1: to be personally appropriated in a revelation which is really
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  Speaker 1: to translate the divine into man's individual personal life. In truth,
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  Speaker 1: to form men of God, the Divine as such, that is,
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  Speaker 1: as a personal life, must first be embodied in a
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  Speaker 1: personal center in humanity. For this reason, something strictly new
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  Speaker 1: is concerned something that, in its peculiarity, has not yet existed.
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  Speaker 1: Every new type of life, before it can multiply itself
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  Speaker 1: to a number of specimens, must first have its full
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  Speaker 1: contents combined in perfect unity in an adequate new principle.
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  Speaker 1: And so for the making personal of the divine among men,
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  Speaker 1: the first thing needed is one in whom the principle
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  Speaker 1: of the divine life has become personal. Christianity concentrates the
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  Speaker 1: whole fullness of revelation in the one human personality of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ as mediator, that is, as the mediating central
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  Speaker 1: principle of the new divine organism, in its fullness of
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  Speaker 1: spirit and life in and for the human personal life.
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  Speaker 1: With the entrance of Christ into the human individual, the
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  Speaker 1: divine life becomes imminent in us, not in its universal
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  Speaker 1: world relation, but as a personal principle, so that man
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  Speaker 1: is not only a being made of God, but a
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  Speaker 1: being begotten of God. And with the growing transformation of
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  Speaker 1: the individual into the life type of Christ, there is
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  Speaker 1: perfected the development of the personal life out of God
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  Speaker 1: in God and to God, the development not only of
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  Speaker 1: a moral or theocratic communion, but a communion of nature.
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  Speaker 1: By the fall of man. The divine and human in
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  Speaker 1: man has been rent asunder, and the separation has grown
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  Speaker 1: into an estrangement and enmity. Man has become an ungodly personality.
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  Speaker 1: In opposition to this, both the divine and human love
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  Speaker 1: have been reconciled and united in Christ's divine personality as
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  Speaker 1: the human manifestation of the otherwise invisible God. As regards
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit, it is never said of him the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: is God, or the Spirit is the Lord. But on
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, God is Spirit, and the Lord is Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: the quickening Spirit. It is thus the Spirit through whom
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  Speaker 1: God and the Lord each is the person that he
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  Speaker 1: is is theos is curios. But the Spirit does not,
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  Speaker 1: on this account, belong to the divine being without an
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  Speaker 1: independent existence. As little is he a separate person outside
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  Speaker 1: of the Father and the Son. But he himself forms
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  Speaker 1: the divine personality within the Father and the Son, outside
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  Speaker 1: of God. In the world and man, he effects an
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  Speaker 1: independent revelation of God which reaches into the hidden depths
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  Speaker 1: of Deity on the one side and on the side
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  Speaker 1: of man, inwardly communicates God's very own life, even to
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  Speaker 1: the production of a divine son life. The one, divine
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  Speaker 1: personality of the Father is the all including divine central subject,
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  Speaker 1: in whom the Son and Spirit, in unity of being,
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  Speaker 1: yet have a self standing existence, and from whom they proceed.
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  Speaker 1: The Son as the speaking self of the Father, in
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  Speaker 1: whom he reveals himself as in his image, the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: as the inner self of the Father, and the Son,
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  Speaker 1: in whom the inner life of God, in the power
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  Speaker 1: of its personal being, maintains and communicates itself. It is
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  Speaker 1: just because the Spirit is the bearer of the inner
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  Speaker 1: life of God, that he does not manifest himself externally,
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  Speaker 1: that there is no personal appearance as of the Son.
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  Speaker 1: Just as in the Son the phanarosis manifestation of the
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  Speaker 1: Father took place externally as in his outward self John
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  Speaker 1: fourteen nineteen and twelve forty five, so in the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: as the inward self of the Father and the Son,
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  Speaker 1: all belongs to the inner life, that the perfected phanorosis,
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  Speaker 1: the manifestation of God to us, may become the apocalypsis,
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  Speaker 1: the revelation of God within us. What is needed for
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  Speaker 1: the redemption of human nature out of its bondage to
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  Speaker 1: the world and its sin, and the revival within of
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  Speaker 1: the supernatural for which it had been destined, was such
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  Speaker 1: a union with the divine life that it should be
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  Speaker 1: revealed in man not only as a law or a hope,
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  Speaker 1: as the postulate of the will or the desire, as
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  Speaker 1: an ideal, but as an actual fulfilling of the real
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  Speaker 1: need of the personal life. That is, that the divine
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  Speaker 1: life should become the real personal life in virtue of
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  Speaker 1: its absolute worth, belonging to it by its very nature.
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  Speaker 1: The divine can never be satisfied with being accepted as
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  Speaker 1: one of other elements only in having a place in
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  Speaker 1: our personal thinking, willing, and doing. It is not enough that,
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  Speaker 1: along with other things that touch and interest us, it
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  Speaker 1: too should have a place in our regard and actions,
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  Speaker 1: and be something from which we gain certain desirable results
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  Speaker 1: for our life. Such an apparently moderate or sober view
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  Speaker 1: drags the divine down and places it on a line
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  Speaker 1: with the objects of this world. Nor does it make
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  Speaker 1: any real difference when the divine is spoken of as
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  Speaker 1: the highest and most worthy of all objects. The divine
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  Speaker 1: only receives its true acknowledgment when it is accepted as
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  Speaker 1: what it really is, the absolute world principle, and becomes
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  Speaker 1: the absolute life principle of our personal development. The Divine has, however,
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  Speaker 1: no longer creative personal power in our bondage to the
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  Speaker 1: power of the world with its sin and death. To
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  Speaker 1: make the Divine become the personal in us is what
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  Speaker 1: under such circumstances our spiritual power or reason cannot accomplish.
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  Speaker 1: This needs the organization of a new nature, and to
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  Speaker 1: organize anew is the work of the Creator and of
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  Speaker 1: the divine principle of organization in the world. And this
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  Speaker 1: is now that in which revelation fires its perfection, in
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  Speaker 1: the organizing of the Divine as a living, formative spirit,
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  Speaker 1: the life giving spirit, so that as a productive life principle,
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  Speaker 1: or as the power of a personal life, it could
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  Speaker 1: become imminent in a man's moral life, so that out
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  Speaker 1: of that, in continuous development, the Divine could be reproduced
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  Speaker 1: in the individual as his personal life. And so God,
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  Speaker 1: in harmony with his idea as the Absolute, should indeed
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  Speaker 1: be the all determining life principle in man. It is
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  Speaker 1: in this that revelation finds its perfect completion. Christ, as
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  Speaker 1: the personal word of God, had first as the incarnate
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  Speaker 1: sum to perfectly organize his special witness and mediation, before
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit could in a new hitherto transcendent way
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  Speaker 1: of working come forth from God as the spirit imminent
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  Speaker 1: in the Father and the Son, as the divine personal
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  Speaker 1: life principle, and as the person constituting principle begin his
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  Speaker 1: life begetting work. The divine personal spirit, flowing forth from
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  Speaker 1: the divine personal Word, now becomes the highest principle of inspiration,
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  Speaker 1: which apprehends the mysteries of the kingdom, as well as
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  Speaker 1: the highest personal life forming principle of a new type
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  Speaker 1: of man, the image of the only begotten Son. The
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  Speaker 1: personality has its ground in the individualizing of the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: It was thus in the first Creation, when God, by
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  Speaker 1: breathing the spirit of life, man became a living soul,
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  Speaker 1: a personality. It is even so in the Second Creation,
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  Speaker 1: in regeneration, when in the imparting of the Spirit to man,
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  Speaker 1: not only this and that becomes renewed in him in
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  Speaker 1: his consciousness or conduct, but there comes into existence a
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  Speaker 1: new man, a new godlike personality. End of quote. Adawner
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  Speaker 1: writes as follows, the difference between the revelation of God
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  Speaker 1: in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. The character of
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  Speaker 1: Christ's substitution is not negative nor repressive of personality, but
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  Speaker 1: productive he is not content with the existence in himself
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  Speaker 1: of the fullness of the spiritual life into which his
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  Speaker 1: people are absorbed by faith. Believers are themselves to live
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  Speaker 1: and love as free personalities. Christ's redeeming purpose is directed
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  Speaker 1: to the creation by the Holy Spirit, whom he sends
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  Speaker 1: of new personalities in whom Christ gains are settled established being.
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  Speaker 1: But by this very means God exists in them after
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  Speaker 1: a new manner. Knew not only because the power of
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  Speaker 1: redemption inheres only in God's being in Christ, but knew
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  Speaker 1: also because although Christ remains the principle of this life,
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  Speaker 1: this life shapes itself in freedom and distinctnessness from Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Only by means of such freedom can the bond between
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  Speaker 1: Christ and man, instead of remaining on one sided, one,
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  Speaker 1: become two sided, and therefore all the firmer the reciprocal
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  Speaker 1: relation of love. But at the same time, the fullness
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  Speaker 1: of the spirit of light and life, grace and truth,
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  Speaker 1: which dwells objectively in Christ, no longer remains merely objective
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  Speaker 1: to the world, but lives and unfolds itself in the
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  Speaker 1: world as a living treasure of salvation through the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: It comes to pass that Christ's impulse is not simply
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  Speaker 1: continued and extended to men, but becomes an indigenous impulse
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  Speaker 1: in them, a new focus being formed for naturalized divine powers.
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  Speaker 1: As a new divine principle, the Holy Spirit creates, though
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  Speaker 1: not substantially, new faculties, a new volition, knowledge, feeling, a
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  Speaker 1: new self consciousness. In brief, he creates a new person,
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  Speaker 1: dissolving the old union point of the faculties and creating
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  Speaker 1: a new pure union of the same. The new personality
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  Speaker 1: is formed in inner resemblance to the second Adam on
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  Speaker 1: the same family type. So to speak, everything by which
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  Speaker 1: the new personality, in its independence, makes itself known, is
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  Speaker 1: ascribed by Holy scripture to this third divine principle. Through
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, the believer has the consciousness of himself
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  Speaker 1: as a new man, and the power and living impulse
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  Speaker 1: of a new holy life that is free in God.
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  Speaker 1: He is the spirit of joy and freedom. In opposition
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  Speaker 1: to the grammar or letter subjection to the divine impulse
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  Speaker 1: is now in the blending of necessity and freedom. Without
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  Speaker 1: spontaneous impulse, mere passivity and receptiveness are transformed into spontaneity, nay, productiveness,
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  Speaker 1: and independence through the Holy Spirit The individ personality is
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  Speaker 1: thus raised to complete charismatic personality. By all these means,
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit plants and cherishes the one relatively independent factor,
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  Speaker 1: the presupposition of the origin of the Church, namely, the
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  Speaker 1: new believing personality. End of quote from DAWNA system of
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  Speaker 1: Christian doctrine. This thought that the Spirit of God, as
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of the divine personality, becomes the life principle
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  Speaker 1: of our personality is one of extreme solemnity and of
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  Speaker 1: infinite fruitfulness. The Spirit not only dwells in me as
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  Speaker 1: a locality or within me, alongside and around that inmost
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  Speaker 1: ego in which I am conscious of myself, but within
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  Speaker 1: that I becomes the new and divine life principle of
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  Speaker 1: the new personality. The same spirit that was and is
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  Speaker 1: in Christ his inmost self, becomes my inmost self. What
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  Speaker 1: new meaning it gives to the word He that is
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  Speaker 1: joined to the Lord is one spirit with him? And
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  Speaker 1: what force to the question? Know ye that the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: of God dwelleth in you. The Holy Spirit is within
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  Speaker 1: me as a personal power with a will and a
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  Speaker 1: purpose of his own. As I yield up my personality
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  Speaker 1: to his, I shall not lose it, but find it
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  Speaker 1: renewed and strengthened to its highest capacity. Oh to see
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  Speaker 1: how entirely the Spirit will take the charge which the
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  Speaker 1: flesh has hitherto had we thought ourselves free, and we
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  Speaker 1: were slaves. The Holy Spirit working out his will and
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  Speaker 1: purpose in me. Teaching me to work it out makes
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  Speaker 1: me free. End of note be