“Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church…, which he hath
purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28). Who purchased the church with
His own blood? God the Father? No. The third person of a trinity? Certainly
not. Only Jesus purchased the church with His own blood, His own life, His own
Spirit. Therefore, Jesus must be the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. A mystery?
Yes. Nevertheless the truth.
“And I beheld, and, lo, in
the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders,
stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are
the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” (Rev. 5:6).
“The first man Adam was made
a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45).
Ellen White wrote to W.W. Prescott in 1894,
“We want that complete and
perfect understanding which the Lord alone can give. It is not safe to catch
the spirit from another. We want the Holy Spirit, which is Jesus Christ. If we commune with God, we shall have
strength and grace and efficiency.” Letter
66, 1894, para. 18.
Jesus purchased our dead body
with His own Blood, our mind with His own Life, our soul with His own Spirit. “The
Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three [are] in one.” (1Jn. 5:8).
The Spirit, and the blood and water, are the same. The blood and the water that
flowed from His riven side visibly represented His expired life. His blood and
water represented His Spirit, soul, and body—all His love to His Father—which
He offered to our redemption.
“For the life of the flesh is
in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
(Lev. 17:11).
At such a cost He paid for
our restoration to captivity under His Father. “Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1Cor. 6:19,20).
“And if he [the guilty] bring
a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish. And he
shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay it for a sin
offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall
take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the
horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof
at the bottom of the altar: and he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the
fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings; and
the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by
fire unto the LORD: and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he
hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him.” (Lev. 4:32).
“And when Jesus had cried
with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit: and
having said thus, He gave up the ghost.” (Luke 23:46). Not only His blood, but
His Spirit Jesus entrusted to His Father. Their Spirit is the eternal Spirit,
the counsel of peace between Them both.
“But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
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.” (Rom. 8:9-11). Here we see that the Bible
definition of the Spirit is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. The
Father and Son incomprehensibly strong bond creates the Spirit, “the power of
the Highest” (Luke 1:35). And every redeemed child takes part in all of Their
fullness, filled with Their one Spirit.
“That He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His
Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fulness of God.” (Eph. 3:16-19). Our wills surrendered to Their will, our
hearts and minds opened to the influence of their hearts and minds, we can
comprehend the things of God and His Spirit fills us with all of His fullness.
“That we should be to the
praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom
also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His glory.… And [the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory] hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him
to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of
Him that filleth all in all. And you hath He quickened, who were dead in
trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 1:12-14,22-2:1).
“That in the ages to come He
might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:7). The promised holy Spirit of the Son is the only
Begotten Himself. Christ represents Himself by His holy Spirit. The Spirit we
sense in our spirit and that we know personally is from Christ. Jesus
personally quickens our spirit by His Spirit from His Father.
“God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).” (Eph. 2:4,5). Jesus
only does the work that His Father has Him do; He can do nothing of Himself.
Christ’s Spirit is motivated by His Father’s greater SPIRIT. The Father’s SPIRIT
wills that we be saved, which Jesus happily joins with His own propitiating Spirit
to make His Father’s will happen.
“Then said He, Lo, I come to
do Thy will, O God.… By the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:9,10).
Who purchased the church with
His own blood? Was it the third person of a trinity? God forbid. The third
person never suffered anything; in fact, he caused all of the Son’s suffering. Only
Jesus purchased the church with His own blood, His own life, His own Spirit. Jesus
is the Holy Spirit. And Jesus has the Holy Spirit. He inhales the Spirit of
heaven and oxygenates every soul of His earth-bound body.
“He answered them and said,
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo
here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within [or, ‘among’] you.”
(Luke 17:20,21, margin). The kingdom of God is the Spirit of God through the
Spirit of Christ.
Since the beginning Jesus was
the word. And He still is the word when His Spirit comes into our hearts as the
powerful word of God (see Hebrews 4:12). We don’t know how His word is Spirit
and life; and we don’t need to know how it is. It doesn’t matter that we don’t
know. He said that He is the word, and that the words He speaks are Spirit and
life (see John 6:63). That He promised they are Spirit and life is all that
matters. Holding His word close to our heart, and receiving the change it makes
in our lives, is all that matters. Jesus is the church’s husband who washes us
by the water of His word and breathes His Spirit of life into our hearts by His
word. Thus we become living souls.
“Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.” (John 3:5). “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1Pet.
1:23). Jesus said that the water represents His Spirit (see John 7:36,37). But,
He also said that the religious leaders wouldn’t come to Him in His scriptures
that they might have life. Through His Spirit Jesus lives in His words. That is
to say, through His Spirit acting upon the intellect and faith of the one
reading and studying the scriptures, Jesus gives them rest and peace; and thus
new life is born from above.
“Christ also loved the
church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious
church, not having spot.” (Eph. 5:25-27).
“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me bless His holy name. …who redeemeth thy life from
destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” (Ps.
103:1,4).
“So then if, while her
husband [the devil] liveth, she be married to another Man, she shall be called
an adulteress: but if her husband[the devil] be dead, she is free from that
law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another Man.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye
also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be
married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the
flesh, the motions of sins, which were by [the devil’s eclipsing the Person
behind] the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from
[the devil’s hiding Christ in] the law, that being dead wherein we were held;
that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the
letter.” (Rom. 7:3-6).
By making us unbelieving and
atheistic we can find no life in the word of God. We can’t see the loving
Saviour in every word written. We are full of dead works because we are full of
serving empty letters. But, to help us see His loving Son, God sent Him for us
to have and to hold (see 1Jn. 1:1). “For what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” (Rom. 8:3,4).
If we approach the Bible in
search for our Saviour from sin, He will reveal Himself to our spirits. In
Spirit He dwelt in the hearts of the people written of in the Old Testament.
And His Spirit in the Bible fills the hearts of every needy soul who sees Him
and loves to hear His words.
“If ye love Me, keep My
commandments.
And I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever;
Even the Spirit of truth;
whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:
but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless:
I will come to you.…
At that day ye shall know
that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
He that hath My commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved
of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.
Judas saith unto Him, not
Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto
the world?
Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We
will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:15-18,20-23).
“Yet a little while, and the
world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.… He
that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine,
but the Father’s which sent Me.” (John 14:19,24).
Jesus is the Holy Spirit who
purchased the church by His own blood.
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