The Spirit is, Pt. 3

John was in the Spirit on the Sabbath when the Lord of the Sabbath appeared to him in Spirit (see Revelation 1:10, 11). What Ezekiel heard was that “the Spirit” was said to be “the Lord GOD”, “the LORD”, “the God of Israel”, His “glory” (see Ezekiel 8:3, 1; Ezekiel 8:4, cf Ezekiel 9:3). The Spirit and the Lord GOD were synonymous to the prophet. Likewise, Job 38:1 shows “the Lord” speaking to Job from the same whirlwind as Ezekiel witnessed (see Ezekiel 1:4); and this whirlwind encompassing internal fire was the glory Ezekiel saw later in chapter 8 (see Ezekiel 8:4). No doubt both manifestations involved whirlwinds enveloping the glory of the Lord. The Lord didn’t move separately from His glory. In His pre-incarnate form, Jesus was “in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6). He, like His Father, was “a Spirit” (John 4:24). His glory came from Himself, and was His own self. Thus, His prayer to His Father, “Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee:… And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (John 17:1,5). Anciently that glory was likened to light and fire, as in “fire infolding itself” (Eze. 1:4). Glory is more than light; it is much more than photons. Glory convicts; it is quick and powerful, sharper than a two edged sword. Glory is divine; It is holy, and spirit. The “Spirit of glory” (1Pet. 4:14) writes His Law into our heart. Glory is the Spirit, which is the light that lightens every man that He brings into existence. We can say that God the Father so much is the origin of glory that the divine and holy One is glory; glory is the holy and divine One, the only true God. Yet, the Son is the bridge between the invisible God and His creatures. The angels of God have glory by loan. The Son had it by birth. Thus, He had a better name than they: Michael, “Who is like God”.

Like God, Christ the Lord GOD, was a Spirit. As the Father was the Law, the Son was the Word, “God’s thoughts made audible” The Desire of Ages, p. 19. The Son was the doctrine of God, the Law’s requirements made personable. He was the glory of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Son’s glory was always imbued glory from His Father God of love and tender care. From the beginning “God was in Christ” (2Cor. 5:19), reconciling the kingdom to Himself. The Father was in the Son, that is, the Father’s Spirit was in Him in all the Father’s fullness. “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” (John 3:34). Yet the glory from His Father was Christ’s own self because that glory from His Father came from Christ’s deepest soul. Like a human child expresses his parent’s speech perfectly, from deep within the child’s consciousness, likewise does the Son to His Father. The Son’s glory came so deeply from within Himself that essentially He owned it, His yearning identical to His Father’s, joining with His Abba’s at the moment of conception and eternally remaining with Him until His Father’s effulgence expressed itself in His Son’s glory. “God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” (Ps. 45:7).

His yearning was His Father’s since the dawning of His intelligence, and ever afterward. The Son of God was divine because He was begotten of God His Father, made a quickening Spirit since time incomprehensible. “In Him was life.” (John 1:4). The Son, being divine, and His glory more than simply a declaration of His Father’s, was truly His glory. In Him was life underived, and glory underived. And, similar to the thought that the Father and Son each are a Spirit or are in the form of Spirit (see John 4:24; Phil. 2:6), yet each also have a Spirit, i.e. “the Spirit of the Lord” who “is that Spirit [of the living God]” (2Cor. 3:3,6,17, cf 1Cor. 2:10-12). Likewise, the God of love, who has only love to give, is nevertheless love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1Jn. 4:8). And likewise again, the only true God and His only begotten Son are in the form of glory and have glory. Although the Father is obscured by distance, and the Son is now encapsulated in a human body, both Father and Son have never lost Their form of glory because Their glory comes from Their deepest soul.

“His doctrine… was with power” (Luke 4:32) to raise their dead souls. To His people Christ restored the glory of Eden by glorious spiritual lessons, which He drew from nature and placed before the people’s minds. As it had been in the days of eternity, His paths again dropped fatness. Through His words and lessons, which were Spirit and life, and which came from His own Spirit, life comes to our spirit today via truth, spiritual truth, entering our mind, awakening it to the newfound power to love, and registering as light—glory—in our souls. God is about truth, truth, and nothing but the truth; He is about truth without an iota of falsehood. He is about good without evil, and our minds are to feed only upon that. Jesus’ truth without any falsehood will bring light and life to our mind and spirit.

Jesus has always been the source of that truth and light and life. As a quickening Spirit, He is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (John 1:9). In His glorious Spirit, pre-incarnate form Jesus was the Word of Wisdom. Yet, in His new incarnate body, His Spirit has never ceased to be the Word of Wisdom. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1,4,14).

“God [the Father] is a Spirit.” (John 4:24). The invisible things of God the Father, His eternal power and Godhead, were clearly seen, being understood by the things that were made. God, “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see…” (1Tim. 6:16).

“When Adam and Eve in Eden lost the garments of holiness, they lost the light that had illuminated nature. No longer could they read it aright. But for those who receive the light of the life of Christ, nature is again illuminated.” Lift Him Up, p. 255.

Adam and Eve had the mind of Christ. Their thoughts were deep and penetrating. They had life that brought perfect activity to their consciences and intellects, heart and brain working together in union for communion with the Most High. Without a written language or a codified Law, they understood the thoughts of God woven into His created works. The angels thrilled to guide the minds of the holy pair, to bring these special children of God into a closer union with their Father than they themselves could ever have. This has been the privilege offered to the Adamite Christian, the Hebrew Christian, the apostolic, Protestant, and Adventist Christians.

    

It was Jesus, in His Father’s power upon Their reunion, who caused the divine “rushing mighty wind” “sent down from heaven” (Acts 2:2; 1 Pet. 1:12, cf Eze. 3:12; Gen. 8:1; Ex. 14:21) to fill the upper room, putting glory upon every head. “Faithful to his promise, the Divine One, exalted in the heavenly courts, imparted of His fullness to His followers on earth. His enthronement at God's right hand was signalized by the outpouring of the Spirit upon His disciples.” Education, p. 95.

The Early Rain of the Holy Spirit was sent unrestrained in response to the tears of relief and joy within the Godhead, as the Father finally received His Son home, once again safe and sound after His great victory. Prior to His ascension (see John 20:22), Jesus simulated the coming Spirit of God’s breath, His sweet love, joy, and peace. The Lord desired to imitate the soon arrival of His Father’s electrifying grip of divine virtue upon hearts and minds and tongues at Pentecost (see Psalm 33:6; Matthew 13:34). God’s abundant gift of His Spirit at Pentecost came via His Son’s victorious death on the cross. In the poetic, prophetic Hebrew language speaking of Their dual source of original, underived, divine life: “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12, cf John 12:31, 32; 14:30; Rev. 5:6; 12:7).

Referred to above, the Holy Spirit was the “whirlwind [that] came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself” (Eze. 1:4, 20, cf Job 38:1); and there was the hiding of His power. The Spirit was the Angel inside of the cloudy whirlwind which cloaked His glory to Pharaoh and his armies (see Exodus 23:20; Isa. 51:10) and which brought the chosen people into promise (though they often vexed “his holy Spirit”) (see Isaiah 63:10; Ephesians 4:30). “The Spirit” is “Christ…the Spirit” (Rom. 8:10, cf vs. 9) creating in us a new spirit to know Him, and reiterating to our heart, “Thou art My beloved [child], in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11, cf Gal. 4:6). His all-powerful Spirit, who comes “in all the fullness of the Godhead” Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 62, 63, God has “sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6, cf Matt. 28:18; Zech. 4:10; Ps. 19:3). There is no language where His voice is not heard.

The angels bring us the word from Jesus through the power of His recreative, mediating Spirit (see Revelation 22:6-8). “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14, cf Eze. 1:12, 20). Jesus is “captain of the host of the LORD” (Josh. 5:14); He is “the LORD of hosts” (1 Sam. 17:45). “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven” (Dan. 4:35). The angels are not the Holy Spirit (see 1 Peter 1:12), but are co-workers with Christ through His Spirit. He was the great center of their beehive-like activity. Every day of His ministry on earth the angels of God ascended and descended upon Him, going and coming in the power of His Spirit, and receiving of His Spirit to do His will (see John 1:51, cf Matthew 8:8-10; Ezekiel 1:14). Wherever the Lord went the angels loved to go and the crowds surrounding Him followed, with eyes full of wonder and happiness. The angels worked to focus the people on Jesus (see Ezekiel 1:19, 20; 10:12). He taught with the justice and mercy of His Father, and the angels directed the thoughts and helped the understanding of the multitude. The people joyfully followed Him whithersoever He went, “angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” (1 Pet. 3:22, cf Rev. 14:4).

The Spirit is Christ “the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God.... In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him”.--Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900 (Evangelism, p. 615.2).

These dateless ages are not unquantifiable, indefinite, as it is with the Father “who liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 4:9; Rev. 5:14), the eternal Father. In Daniel’s vision, the Father “Ancient of days” is seen in clear contrast to “the Son of man” (Dan. 7:9,13), One who Daniel recognized to be “Michael, your prince”, “Messiah the Prince” “which standeth for the children of thy [Daniel’s] people” (Dan. 10:21; 9:25; 12:1).

The “dateless” ages are quantifiable, but are a tremendous space of time. They refer to Proverbs 8:24,25,30. “When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth…. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.”

In the next paragraph is the original article from which comes the “dateless ages” sentence. In her quotation of Proverbs 8 of that article Sr. White added, “When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth”, giving definition to the Bible writers’ (and possibly her) concept of “in the beginning” (John 1:1) and “of old, from everlasting^H5769” (Mic. 5:2). (H5769, ‘ôlâm, “out of mind” “vanishing point”.) Creation was the furthest point in the past of which the prophets could conceive, and that means it is senseless to use extreme Greek philosophy to pinpoint an exact time of Michael’s birth from His eternal Father “who only hath immortality” (1Tim. 6:15). Simply admit that God, in the distant past, birthed His only divine Son, and be glad for that. With the angelic hosts, let’s worship the Son of the Father.

“  ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God. The message He gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel was, ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.’ The prophet Micah writes of Him, ‘But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, tho thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of Thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’  {ST, August 29, 1900 par. 13}

     Through Solomon Christ declared: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. . . . When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth; then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.’  {ST, August 29, 1900 par. 14} 

     In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him.  {ST, August 29, 1900 par. 15} 

     Christ’s words were spoken with a quiet dignity and with an assurance and power that sent conviction to the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. They felt the power of the message sent from heaven. God was knocking at the door of their hearts, entreating entrance. But they refused to listen. By their persistent rejection of warnings and invitations they caused Him to abandon them to their blindness and its results. Satan was working with all his power to secure them in his cause, and under his control they developed a stubbornness which brought upon them their ruin.

                                                           Mrs. E. G. White.”

Signs of the Times, August 29, 1900.

Thus, Christ, the Word of Wisdom who appealed to men from this world’s beginning, is the eternal Spirit. And lo, He is with us unto the end of the world.

“The Spirit” (Acts 8:29, cf Acts 2:4; 5:9; 8:39; 10:19; 11:12; 16:7; 18:10) was Christ commanding His apostles to “turn to the right hand, and…to the left” (Isa. 30:21). The Spirit is Jesus’ testimony (see Revelation 19:10). The Spirit is “God’s thought made audible” The Desire of Ages, p. 19. The Spirit is the word of God, the communication of which His Son so fully assumes, and with which He so identifies in every respect, that He is called the Word. The Spirit is all the revelations from Jesus Christ, “which God gave unto him” (Rev. 1:1). Christ has been and always will be the only voice of God to His people. With power and authority the Spirit of the Lord Jesus spoke to the apostles as He spoke loudly to John when the apostle communed with Him on His holy day (see Isaiah 58:13; Mark 2:28). “I…heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” (Rev. 1:10, 11).

“In all these revelations of the divine presence the glory of God was manifested through Christ. Not alone at the Saviour’s advent, but through all the ages after the Fall and the promise of redemption, ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.’ 2 Corinthians 5:19. Christ was the foundation and center of the sacrificial system in both the patriarchal and the Jewish age. Since the sin of our first parents there has been no direct communication between God and man. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man and vindicate the authority and holiness of the law of God. All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel. They looked for salvation through man’s Substitute and Surety. These holy men of old held communion with the Saviour who was to come to our world in human flesh; and some of them talked with Christ and heavenly angels face to face. 

     Christ was not only the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness—the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host—but it was He who gave the law to Israel. Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father’s law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone. 

     It was Christ that spoke to His people through the prophets. The apostle Peter, writing to the Christian church, says that the prophets ‘prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.’ 1 Peter 1:10, 11. It is the voice of Christ that speaks to us through the Old Testament. ‘The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ Revelation 19:10.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 366.

The Spirit is the omniscience of God, “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God”. The Spirit is His “unsearchable…judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Rom. 11:33). “Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught Him?” (Isa. 40:13). “Who hath known the mind [G3563, “understanding”] of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” (Rom. 11:34, cf 1 Cor. 2:10-16). “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor. 2:16). The fullness of the riches of His wisdom He has forever given to His Son. Jesus is so filled with His Father’s omniscience that He metaphorically calls Himself omniscience. Metaphorically, Jesus is omniscience as He is the word and the truth.

“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions….

Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength….

The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old….

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water….

Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” (Prov. 8:12, 14, 22, 24, 30).

The Spirit of Jesus mirrors the Spirit of God in His Father’s absence and by His Father’s authority. He is the Sent, the Angel Ambassador of God, the only Vicar of God. He is the approved Guardian of His Father’s Law, the roving King of heaven. Jesus stands on the hills; He cries out to everyone, and the law of kindness is in His mouth. God pronounces His Spirit (His understanding and thoughts) through His chosen Representative, His willing Son (see Revelation 5:6).

The Father’s Spirit manifests Itself as His glory, visibly or invisibly, over His earthly operation (see Ezekiel 1:20, 3:12, 11:22, 23, 43:5, Revelation 14:4; Numbers 10:35, 36; John 17:22; Isaiah 63:10, Exodus 16:10, Numbers 14:10, Isaiah 60:1, 2; Luke 9:34, 35). The Spirit is the manifestation of the Father’s person which He infuses into the holy Offspring of His bowels of mercy. “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5, cf Luke 9:34). And His Offspring then infuses Himself into us, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

And our Lord Jesus is the only Mediator of that Spirit of God to fallen man (see Revelation 5:6; 1 Timothy 2:5), so much so that “the Spirit…” is defined as “…the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9). “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). The Son personally dispenses the Spirit of His Father to us as the word of the Lord (see 1 Samuel 15:26; 1 Chronicles 10:13; John 1:51; 1 John 2:27; Revelation 1:1).

“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:4-6). “For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). “The Spirit of adoption” is “the Spirit of His Son”.

“Only the spirit of adoption can reveal to us the deep things of God, which ‘eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man’.” The Desire of Ages, p. 412.

The Spirit of adoption comes from the Son calling within us His own eternal desire, “Abba, Patēr (Father)”. Only the Spirit of the Son “can reveal the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10) for “no man knoweth…the Father, save the Son” (Matt. 11:27). It was the Spirit of His Son that rained down at Pentecost (see Revelation 5:6), and that will still distill upon us with new revelations of God as we see Jesus “through the law” (Gal. 2:19; Rom. 7:9, 24, 25, 4; John 6:40; 5:39; Deut. 32:13). “The anointing which ye have received of [Christ] abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:27, 28, cf 2 Cor. 1:21). The anointing comes from God through Christ.

“The Spirit” that we know is “Christ” (Rom. 8:9, cf 1 Pet. 1:11, 12) through the use of His ministering spirits. Christ makes intercession for His weak and spiritually infirmed children (see Matthew 18:2-6, 10, 11). He sanctifies their hearts, and instills in them urgency and burdens which they cannot otherwise have, moving them with humility and hope (Job 33:15-17). And God who sees their heart recognizes in them the childlike mind of His Son because His Beloved has been working into them sanctified and earnest supplications to God. “The Spirit [of His Son]…helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He [God] that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind [G5427 “purpose”] of [His Son’s] Spirit, because He [the Spirit of Christ] maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26, 27, cf Gal. 4:6; Heb. 7:25; Luke 11:1-4). Thus, we, “as lively stones,” “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).

Likewise, the mediating Spirit of His Son helps us to understand God’s deep, eternal verities. Christ’s love plumbs the depths of His Father’s judgments that are otherwise past finding out. “God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” (Prov. 20:27). The “Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21) moving the prophets was “God” (Heb. 1:1) through the Spirit of His Son, “the Spirit of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:11). By abiding in Christ, His little ones have His anointing that teaches them profound things that God has “kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25). Those revelations appear profound to unbelievers, “in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:7), only because they reveal the things of humility and righteousness and everything that the unregenerate hearts seek to avoid and overlook (see 1 Corinthians 2:6-8). That is why He can teach His knowledge and doctrine only to “them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts” (Isa. 28:9) and that only “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength” (Ps. 8:2).

As “God…created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9), so the Spirit of God is “the power of the Highest” (Luke 1:35) manifested through His self-effacing, mothering Son. During creation week, the “Spirit of God”, that “moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2), gave “the word” (Ps. 33:6) to His co-Creator. The Lord God then took in His Father’s powerful will for creation, and, by “the breath of his mouth”, (Ps. 33:6) Christ “spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:9, cf Mark 4:39; Isa. 48:13). The Spirit is His Father’s procreative voice, through His Son, that He bundles with life (see Hebrews 1:2). His power throughout the universe is displayed. “And [the Lord] said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet” (Eze 2:1, 2). There is power in the Spirit of the Lord’s voice. “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8).

The above Bible texts clearly show that the Spirit is the manifestation of the Father and of His powerful love through His Son, and that the Spirit is no third Being or third Person in the Godhead. This is in full agreement with the following statements.

“The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate ― a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father ― one in nature, in character, in purpose ― the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. ‘His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah 9:6.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

“The King of the universe summoned the heavenly hosts before Him, that in their presence He might set forth the true position of His Son and show the relation He sustained to all created beings. The Son of God shared the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both.” Ibid., p. 36.

“Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped Their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race. This pledge Christ has fulfilled. When upon the cross He cried out, ‘It is finished,’ He addressed the Father. The compact had been fully carried out. Now He declares: Father, it is finished. I have done Thy will, O My God. I have completed the work of redemption. If Thy justice is satisfied, ‘I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.’ John 19:30; 17:24.” Desire of Ages, p. 834.

   

The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ’s toiling, struggling ones on earth are ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ Ephesians 1:6. Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified. Where He is, there His church shall be. ‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’ Psalm 85:10. The Father’s arms encircle His Son, and the word is given, ‘Let all the angels of God worship Him.’ Hebrews 1:6.” The Desire of Ages, p. 834.

The “only begotten of God” was the “only” other “being” in the Godhead. Other than God and the only Begotten, everyone else in the universe were “created beings”. In the work of creation God “had an associate ― a co-worker”. “Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father ― one in nature, in character, in purpose ― the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God.” And this last statement infers that Christ was the only Being who was one with God in all respects. The glory of God encircled Them “both”, excluding any other person from the Godhead. The only Persons that compose the true Godhead are the “Ancient of days” and “one like the Son of man” (Dan. 7:9, 13), Jehovah Elohim and His only Begotten.

Apart from the Father and the Son, the Spirit has no self-actuating power, creative or recreative. Apart from Father and Son the Spirit has no personality; It is Their holy manifestation. It is the holy intervention, the representative of the holy God within His kingdom. The holy Spirit of God is the divine-material, the divinity-creation Interface of the Holy Father and Son Godhead to manifest God’s almighty, all-seeing knowledge, and holy, righteous love. The Spirit is holy because the Father and Son, Its originators and owners, are holy. The Spirit speaks authoritatively because It is God’s voice and power from His Son joyfully proclaiming the holy authority of God who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. The Spirit is holy as every article associated with the Lord in His earthly sanctuary was holy ― and that only because the Holy One abode there. Of the priests He said, “Every one that toucheth them shall be holy” (Lev. 6:18, cf Ex. 29:37; 30:29), the type being that His servants must recognize their holy anointing and must not allow uncleanness into the Lord’s sanctuary through indiscriminate contact with unclean people or things; but, they were holy only by virtue of their proximity to Jehovah. As an object lesson of Christ’s Spirit, Peter didn’t have to touch the sick; his shadow was holy and healing by his connection with Christ (Acts 5:15). Every place forever remained sacred ground where the Lord showed Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts were perfect toward Him; and, likewise the holiness of the Spirit of God. Every creature must honor the Spirit, as much as they honor the Son because the Spirit comes from God and from His divine ambassador Son. He that grieves the Spirit, grieves away both the Son and the Father who supplied It.