Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Holy Spirit, Ch 2

The Holy Spirit can be called "the Spirit of Christ". We see that Holy Spirit was involved from before the cradle until after the grave in Jesus' life. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, much like the Spirit hovered over the waters in creation, and Jesus was conceived. The sanctifying effect of this is deep yet summed up in this: Jesus was fully man from His birth by a human mother, yet his origins are holy and undefiled by the conception.
Second, the Spirit empowered Jesus at His baptism and drove Him into the wilderness to be tempted. By the Spirit His ministry was one of power and authority. The Spirit that had forged the created order was redeeming it in the Person of Christ. Jesus offered Himself up in the Spirit on the cross as Hebrews tells. The Spirit also "declared" Jesus to be the Son of God in His resurrection from the dead via Romans 1:4. At all points, Jesus was empowered by the Spirit in all aspects of His mission. Now He has ascended, the Spirit testifies concerning Him and empowers His servants to speak the gospel by the Spirit to a lost world.
At all points it is the Spirit of Christ. God is three, and the three are one. This unity within diversity is clearly seen and understood by this interrelation of Christ and the Spirit in His life and ministry and resurrection.

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