The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself

Compare 2 Peter 1:21 with 1 Peter 1:10,11.

“Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who 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.” (1Pet. 1:10,11).

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2Pet. 1:21).

According to Peter, the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. Revelation makes this clear in its introduction.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.” (Rev. 1:1).

The light of heaven originated from God, to His Son, to Gabriel, to John. Paul agreed. He defined the Spirit as the union of Father and Son, Their infinitely united Spirit.

 “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.” (Rom. 8:9).

According to Paul, the Spirit is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. It is Christ’s Spirit that must dwell in us, or we are none of the Father’s.

“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. 8:10,11).

The Spirit of God is not another person beside the Father and Son, but it seems like it to the one that Christ is inhabiting. Here the Spirit is described as the power of God to resurrect Jesus. The Spirit of God is God’s Spirit, as Romans 8:11 calls it, “His Spirit”, God’s Spirit.

But, the Spirit comes through Christ from the Father. Hence, it is called “The Spirit of His Son” who enters “into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6).

The Spirit is Christ Himself, as the Father empowered His Son. Paul was very bold to explain the Spirit as something like we have since we are made in God’s image.

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Cor. 2:9-12).

1 Corinthians 2:10 says that we have our own spirit just like God has His own Spirit. As I sit here, no one knows what I’m going to write next, except me. Paul wrote that no one can know what I think except me, and no one can know what God thinks except Himself. But He will reveal His thoughts and plans to His Son and His Son only; and His Son searches His Father’s face and His Spirit to know what is in His Father’s Spirit.

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.

All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:25-27).

Because the Son seeks to know all His Father’s heart, He finds Him out. And then Jesus reveals His Father’s Spirit to all who need a Saviour from sin, and search for Him and His truth as for hidden treasure.

“Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” (Isa. 50:10).

The Spirit is “the spirit which is of God” (1Co 2:12), and also “His Spirit” (1Co 2:10). It’s not a third person, any more than my spirit is an independence person from myself. My spirit does not leavesmy body after death and travels around the land. The immortal soul came from paganism and the darkest errors of Satan’s spiritualism, which must have resulted in the pre-Christianity God having a separate Spirit, and thus gave rise to Christianity’s Godhead having the third person of a Trinity.

The Spirit is God, God who “is a Spirit” (John 4:24), and is also Christ, who is the fullness of His Father bodily. Jesus is our only way to God and our only intercessor. Jesus searches our hearts and sees how Their Spirit has power upon our spirit, and then the Son of God makes intercession for us that is in tune with what God should hear in our prayers.

“Likewise the Spirit also 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 that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:26,27).

God’s Spirit comes from God to Christ to us. It also translates to the power of possession by the heavenly agencies to all who desire victory over sin and Satan. They come to Christ and receive power to do His work.

“Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” (Jer. 15:19).

“And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father. And I will give him the morning star.” (Rev. 2:26-28).

Every human has a spirit; and all who have surrendered to God have a new spirit that is re-empowered to restore in them the spirit that Adam originally had—one fully under the control of God’s Spirit.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45).

Adam was made a living soul. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7). Adam was a living soul, and therefore Adam had a living soul.

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” (Ps. 42:1-3).

But, even the many who have not surrendered are still in the image of God to a degree, unless they have committed the unpardonable sin, living off the sparks receiving the mark of the Beast and seek to destroy God’s redeemed children. Short of the unpardonable sin, they still have a spirit that can choose to adopt the divine Spirit of their Creator. The Spirit of His Son is the only path back to the Spirit of God through repentance and renunciation of living independently of the Son and His Spirit. Then the glory of God’s Spirit will replace the sputtering sparks of our own spirit.

“Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” (Isa. 50:11).

Ellen White was not a Trinitarian. The subject of the Spirit was a touchy one and one that needed gentle and careful explanation.

“For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;

Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.

Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:

So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” (Act 19:24-27).

The whole world worships the third person of the Trinity, which is Diana of the ancient world. I know a woman from India whose maiden name was Arumagum, “the god with five heads.” Many paintings of the Christian Trinity were no different from the Trinities of the pagans—the heads of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit look identical, like identical triplets on one body. It all came from paganism. But, such a deeply rooted paradigm will not be easily removed. Only those who need a Saviour in the Father and Son, and see the self-sacrificing love that was revealed from both of Them, will realize that the Father and Son are the only Saviours. The “Holy Spirit” third person of a trinity never suffered the chastisement of our peace. It is no other than Azazel, the scapegoat who never knew the pains of death, but was presented alive before the Lord.

“And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat [H5799 ‘āzâ’zêl].

And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.” (Lev. 16:8-10).

Azazel comes from two Hebrew words, H5795 ‘êz or H5810 ‘âzaz (a strong, hardened, stout, proud, female goat) and H235 ‘âzal (to disappear and wander to and fro)

All of God’s creatures, including the god of this world, Jesus says, “have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” (Ps. 50:5).

Self-sacrifice is the very foundation of God’s eternal kingdom of love. He and His Son have buttressed their kingdom with self-sacrifice because of the great controversy. Self-sacrifice will remain forever the eternal quays that keep sin from every rising again. And self-sacrifice had nothing to do with Azazel, therefore the scapegoat, which escaped the sacrifice, represented Satan who, for a millennium, would wander among the carcasses that he hoped in. Because the third person never suffered with the Father and Son for the redemption of our transgression, Azazel, who never suffered for the redemption of the children of Israel, also represented the third person of the pagan trinities: Mary in a trinity with God and Jesus (or Satan in a trinity with Jesus and Mary?); Set in a trinity with Osiris, Isis; Tammuz in a trinity with Baal, Ashtoreth. The trinities had two gods that were polar opposites in nature—brutal, domineering, and sexually abusive Baal/Osiris/Bel; and pretentious to revere her husband god, supportive, and sexually seductive Ashtoreth/Isis/Astarte—and the third god who was a threat and kept the worshippers filled with sympathy toward the first two gods. Prayers went up from all over the earth to discourage the third god from hurting the dysfunctional husband/wife favorites.

But the early Church fathers having assumed all the trappings of pagan religion, now the Christian Trinity gets first billing in every creed, beginning with the Nicene. And 1500 years of repeating the creed had dug into Christendom too deeply to be removed, even for the Reformers. The human tradition continued during the Reformation and the Puritanical denominations to this day. A century ago, as the time of the end neared and the investigative judgment was in full swing, the need arose to bring all the truth out from the rubbish of the Dark Ages. The world needed to know all the truth of God, the great controversy, and the science of salvation. But, the move away from the rubbish of error needed to be gradual but systematic.

However, Satan was able to get into the last movement of God on Earth—the Advent movement. “The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Rev. 11:7). Among other doctrines affected, such as righteousness by faith and keeping the commandments of the Spirit of Prophecy, was the trinity doctrine. The Adventist forefathers were unanimously anti-Trinitarian, and the next generation was also. But Satan had changed the heart of Adventism from a self-sacrificing leadership and body to a combative/ debating leadership and a Laodicean body. We were under attack by the beast from the bottomless pit, and we were being overcome, according to the prophecy. Today we are killed. We are not at all what we were at the beginning. Self-sacrifice is rare and found only among a few Adventist Enochs. We are repeating the history of Israel.

We could not present the truth of the Father and His only begotten Son in distinction from the Trinity with its co-equal triplets, and have Their Spirit for power to give the Latter Rain gospel preaching for a witness to “they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations” (Rev. 11:9). even if we had a shell of the truth concerning the Father and Son Godhead, we were greatly deficient in the experience of Their Spirit. Despite Ellen White’s constant plea to be spiritual, we were losing ground. We were returning to the world, and Jesus had to let us go, along with the truth of the Godhead. We would be taken captive to the spirit of the world, filled with worldliness, unbelief, serve the gods of commercialism and soul corruption. And we would serve the gods of the Trinity and the Mass. Spiritual Formation is but an extension of the Mass. Together with the corrupted relationship with Jesus that comes out of the Trinity dogma, and the excitement of coming into God’s presence without being humbled by the Law of the Spirit of Prophecy, as Spiritual Formation allows, we are joining the Catholic church in a grand Mass. Such a Mass is so large and spread out that we don’t recognize it as the Mass, but the Trinity and Spiritual Formation do the same to the Protestant world that the Mass does to the Catholic world.

But, we would not be given over to the world without rebuke and warning.

“I am filled with sadness when I think of our condition as a people. The Lord has not closed heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God. Pride, covetousness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemnation. Grievous and presumptuous sins have dwelt among us. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders.

The church has turned back from following Christ her Leader and is steadily retreating toward Egypt. Yet few are alarmed or astonished at their want of spiritual power. Doubt, and even disbelief of the testimonies of the Spirit of God, is leavening our churches everywhere. Satan would have it thus. Ministers who preach self instead of Christ would have it thus. The testimonies are unread and unappreciated. God has spoken to you. Light has been shining from His word and from the testimonies, and both have been slighted and disregarded. The result is apparent in the lack of purity and devotion and earnest faith among us.” Testimonies for the church, vol. 5, p. 217.

Just as salvation was only of the Jews, it is still found only in Adventism. Yet, that Adventism is a sleeping, snoring movement today. As we all have heard, “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” (Matt. 25:5). The character of having an ear to hear the Commander and a readiness to preach only what He wants seems beyond all possibility. We lay in the streets of the great city, according to Revelation 11:8. But, a revival will come according to verse 11 and the Lord will bring us up out of our miry pit and put a new song in our mouths, which no man can sing except the 144,000. Our new song will be as different from today’s song as a butterfly is different from its larva caterpillar.

Jesus would not let us go without first leaving hints, hidden in Mrs. White’s writings, that would bring the earnest seekers back to the truth of God and His only Begotten when they were ready to come under the true Spirit experience and take the responsibility that goes with having It. Therefore, the truth of the Spirit remains in the writings of Ellen White, but presented in a way that would not prejudice the people who would read her books.

Being sensitive to the difficulty of our Protestant brethren and of the non-Protestant world with regard to their reception of the truth of anti-Trinitarianism, the Lord through Ellen White drafted the subject of the Spirit so that the presentation of it could sound like Adventism did accept the trinity. But, the reality is that later, as the truth of the Spirit of Prophecy would become known, it would be clear that the Spirit is of the Father and Son.  It is all that we can receive of Them. Writing the truth in such a veiled way is not being dishonest, but gentle and wise. Just as the apostolic church boiled down the requirements of God to four essentials, so did the Lord’s messenger present the Godhead truth without being too pointed and sharply contrary to Protestant understanding.

For example:

“Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, Christ sought for the most essential and complete gift to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of grace. ‘I will pray the Father,’ He said, ‘and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; 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 orphans: I will come to you.’ John 14:16-18, margin.  {DA 668.5}

Before this the Spirit had been in the world; from the very beginning of the work of redemption He had been moving upon men’s hearts. But while Christ was on earth, the disciples had desired no other helper. Not until they were deprived of His presence would they feel their need of the Spirit, and then He would come.  {DA 669.1}

The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if He had not ascended on high.” Desire of Ages, p. 669.

This quotation, written for a large audience, sounds Trinitarian; but it actually is not. The biggest need from the five conflict series books was instruction with regard to the high standard in the areas of character-building and spirituality. The issue against the Trinity was certainly important, but not the priority at that time. So, the truth that Christ was the Spirit remained veiled. Yet it was the truth, as we read below.

“The Pharisees were horrified at this declaration of Christ’s, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.’ They were beside themselves with rage that [He] should express such awful blasphemy, claiming to be the I AM. They would have stoned Him then and there, but the ‘I am’ blinded their eyes that they should not see Him, although He went out of the temple, passing through their very midst. As Jesus passed through the multitude, He saw a man who had been blind from his youth, and healed him.  {14MR 22.5}

     When Jesus came to our world, He proclaimed Himself, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me’ [John 14:6]. ‘Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man’ [John 1:51].  {14MR 23.1} 

     Although our Lord ascended from earth to heaven, the Holy Spirit was appointed as His representative among men. ‘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 forever; 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’ [John 14:15-18].  {14MR 23.2} 

     Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent. ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall (although unseen by you), [THIS PHRASE WAS ADDED BY ELLEN WHITE.] teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’ [John 14:26]. ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will come not unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you’ [John 16:7].  {14MR 23.3}

     It is not in the order of God that any man, or any class of men, should assume that God has made them conscience for their brethren, or put forth the finite hand in a patronizing manner to control the Lord’s delegated workers, thus endangering the safety of the Lord’s heritage as well as their own, and retarding the work of God. God does not confine Himself to one man, or to a set of men, through whom to accomplish His work, but says of all, Ye ‘are laborers together with God.’ This means that every believing soul should have a part to act in His sacred work, and every individual believer in Jesus Christ is to manifest to the world a symbol of Christ’s sufficiency, to represent to His church the higher laws of the future immortal world, and an obedience to the mandate of Heaven that is without a parallel. They should reveal a depth of knowledge independent of human inventions.  {14MR 24.1} 

     The Lord must be believed and served as the great ‘I AM,’ and we must trust implicitly in Him. Let not men prescribe laws to take the place of God’s law. Never educate men to look to men, to trust in men; for man’s wisdom is not sufficient to decide as to their right to engage in the Lord’s work. When God lays a work upon individuals, men are not to reject His sanction. God must not be impeded in the working out of His plans by man’s interference, but this has been done again and again.  {14MR 24.2}

     If the church on earth is to resemble a temple, let it be built according to the pattern shown in heaven, and not according to man’s genius. The invention of man often counteracts the working out of God’s plans. The golden measuring rod has not been placed in the hands of any finite man or any class of men, whatever their position or calling, but is in the hand of the heavenly Architect. If men will not meddle with God’s plan, and will let Him work upon minds and characters, building them up according to His plan, a work will be accomplished that will stand through the severest of trials.--Letter 119, 1895.

Ellen G. White Estate Washington, D. C. August 16, 1984.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 14 p. 23, 24.

While Sr. White agrees with the metaphical usages of Christ concerning pronouns that He used to explain the Spirit, she also divides pronouns referring to the Spirit between personal and impersonal. She continues to use “what” instead of “who” the Spirit is, and “it” instead of “Him”. Although she speaks against the effort to intellectually figure out the Holy Spirit, she was not against allaying errors that paganism brought into the Godhead truth, and teaching the world about the Spirit’s work on the heart and the life, and especially in the soon expected Latter Rain.

“It is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Spirit is the Comforter, “the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father.” It is plainly declared regarding the Holy Spirit that, in His work of guiding men into all truth, “He shall not speak of himself” (John 15:26; 16:13). {YRP 11.2} 

     The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden. {YRP 11.3} 

     The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: “When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening influence of the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements. {YRP 11.4} 

     To the repentant sinner, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you,” Christ said. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 16:14; 14:26). {YRP 11.5} 

     The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer. The Spirit is constantly seeking to draw the attention of men to the great offering that was made on the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things of the Scriptures.--The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 51, 52.” Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 11.

 

Below are examples of her use of It for the Spirit. The Bible writers and Ellen White never referred to the Father and Son, who are definite persons, as an It.

“Would that every one whose name is written in the church books could from the heart utter these words. The church-members need to know from experience what the Holy Spirit will do for them. It will bless the receiver, and make him a blessing. It is sad that every soul is not praying for the vital breathe of the Spirit; for we are ready to die if it breath not on us.  {PH154 4.1} 

     We are to pray for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls. The church needs to be converted, and why should we not prostrate ourselves at the throne of grace, as representatives of the church, and from a broken heart and contrite spirit make earnest supplication that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high? Let us pray that when it shall be graciously bestowed, our cold hearts may be revived, and we may have discernment to understand that it is from God, and receive it with joy. Some have treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive the rich gift, refusing to acknowledge it, turning from it, and condemning it as fanaticism. When the Holy Spirit works the human agent, it does not ask us in what way it shall operate. Often it moves in unexpected ways. Christ did not come as the Jews expected. He did not come in a manner to glorify them as a nation. His forerunner came to prepare the way for him, by calling upon the people to repent of their sins, and be converted, and be baptized. Christ’s message was, “The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” The Jews refused to receive Christ, because he did not come in accordance with their expectations. The ideas of finite men were held as infallible, because hoary with age. This is the danger to which the church is now exposed,--that the inventions of finite men shall mark out the precise way for the Holy Spirit to come. Though they would not care to acknowledge it, some have already done this. And because the Spirit is to come, not to praise men or to build up their erroneous theories, but to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, many turn away from it. They are not willing to be deprived of the garments of their own self-righteousness. They are not willing to exchange their own righteousness, which is unrighteousness, for the righteousness of Christ, which is pure, unadulterated truth. The Holy Spirit flatters no man, neither does it work according to the devising of any man. Finite, sinful men are not to work the Holy Spirit. When it shall come as a reprover, through any human agent whom God shall choose, it is man’s place to hear and obey its voice.” Special Testimony to Battle Creek, vol. 154, p. 4,5 (1896).

Paul’s two laws

The two laws—the law of righteousness by the Spirit and the law of sin without the Spirit.

 

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2).

 

“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).

 

Can this be understood? Is it a bunch of theological or spiritual mumbo jumbo? Can it actually be put into practice? Is it for the common person to have?

 

Let’s see.

 

What is the law of sin and death? Can we find where Paul first brought up the subject?

 

The first word regarding the law of sin, that I see, is from the previous chapter, verse 21.

 

“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” (Rom. 7:21).

 

The law of sin. A power dwells in all of us that keeps us subjugated to a selfish, self-indulgent, self-exalting, self-pitiful state of mind. We need deliverance from self—“the flesh”. “For the creature was made subject to vanity…because the creature” is in “the bondage of corruption. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Rom. 8:20-22). The flesh.

 

“The flesh” and “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1) stand counterposed. They are opposites. “It is the spirit that quickeneth [comes to life]; the flesh profiteth nothing.” (John 6:63). Whether or not we have the Spirit determines who controls us. We all are controlled by Christ or Satan. Our conscience is either inhabited by the holy power of Christ or the demonic power of the devil.

 

From our first birth, our naturally fallen condition has no holiness to guide our thoughts, words, or actions. That holy guide from natural birth left our race when Adam abdicated His loyalty to God and fell under the influence of the serpent. No longer could Adam’s progeny inherit a holy nature because Adam had none to bequeath. All that Adam could pass down was a physical body, empty of the holy nature that made him wholly in God’s image.

 

But that holy internal guide can be restored through faith in Him who was God incarnate, made the fullness of God bodily. Christ had the eternal Spirit, the Spirit without measure. If we will come under His influence, that is, His Spirit, by realizing His goodness and His everlasting love, then we can have some of His Spirit upon our mind and heart. Then we will have a new spirit, an impowered spirit.

 

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Rom. 8:16).

 

This is the law of the Spirit of life. It only comes to us when Christ comes to us. The Spirit comes with Jesus. The Spirit is Jesus divested of His human form, “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:2).

 

“Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent. ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall (although unseen by you), teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’ [John 14:26]. ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will come not unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you’ [John 16:7].” 14MR 23.3.

The law of sin and death is how Paul described the presence of the Law of God in a conscience that was not submitted to God. This was the condition of Paul before He met Christ, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9:1). His conscience had been quickened to the knowledge of sin by the Law. “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Rom. 7:9).

 

Christ’s power of conviction latched hold onto Paul’s conscience and wouldn’t let go. Through his natural pride Satan was influencing him to cast arrogant mockery at the Law’s sky-high requirements. The Spirit of Christ was fighting for him to surrender to the Law. Paul couldn’t see enough benefits to obeying righteousness to find any worth in the Law because the devil wouldn’t let him see the benefits. Satan was keeping him blinded to all the good life that comes from the Law of love. “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” (Rom. 7:10,11).

 

Looking back from the perspective of his new nature, Paul could see the clear deception from Satan’s whispering, that the Law is worthy of abrogation. But, even at the time and the condition of Paul’s unsurrendered heart, something in him kept him coming back to the Law; the Spirit of Christ kept calling to him that to not reverence the Law was a delusion from Satan. Hence the only natural conclusion in Paul’s mind: “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom. 7:12). Only the work of Christ could lead a sinner to come to that conclusion.

 

Paul was fighting a battle with the powers of darkness. But he was not alone. Christ Himself was fighting Satan. “Thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” (Isa. 49:25). As Christ delivered so many people from devil possession when He had walked among us, He was doing the same with Paul.

 

“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Rom. 7:13).

 

God doesn’t make His Law of love and life death to any sinner. Satan makes the Law death, binding his victims by his miserable and commiserating influence, and preventing the presence of Christ to inhabit their conscience. Their tastes, the thoughts and intents of their heart, the whims and bent of their nature, Satan rallies all that is within to enlist them against the entrance of Christ’s Spirit. Christ is making His move to free the soul by His Father’s Law, but the soul must consent to the new Master. Until the soul consents to the love of Christ, he will not be delivered from Satan, even if he hopes in the Law of God.

 

Paul said, “I consent unto the law that it is good.” (Rom. 7:16). Yet consenting to a Law didn’t deliver him from sin and Satan. He still cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).

 

It took time for Paul to see his own ability to be good before he could admit to complete moral and spiritual deformity. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Rom 7:19,20). He needed the Spirit of Christ filling his empty conscience with “all the fulness of God.” (Eph. 3:19).

 

Slowly, as Paul analyzed the situation and his condition with a growing appreciation for the righteousness of God’s Law, silently a new discernment developed and a vision solidified. “I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom. 7:22,23).

 

His help lay beyond anything he could humanly conceive of. Help must come from outside of him and apart from his personal resources. Now he was floating on an ocean of hopelessness without a rudder and feeling alone.

 

“Who shall deliver me”?? (Rom. 7:24). Suddenly, Christ moved in by His Spirit. The environment was perfect for His entrance in Paul. During his wrestling with righteousness, Paul had filled his mind with the precepts of the Law, and had pinpointed and repented of all his personal weaknesses. Even if his repentances were not prayers to Jesus, Jesus heard them nonetheless, and knew this pitiful heart.

 

Christ’s power having permission to overthrow the devil by Paul’s efforts to please God, now a new law held sway in Paul—“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:2).

 

Happily delivered from Satan and the devil’s efforts to darken his mind of all delight in righteousness and to amplify fear of ramifications for following after obedience to the Law, Paul proclaimed his means of deliverance, “God through Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 7:25).

 

From that day forward Paul knew how to cooperate with Jesus for a continued freedom from the power of the devil. “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Rom. 7:25).

 

Notice that at this point Paul doesn’t yet counterpose the flesh with the Spirit. He is counterposing the flesh with the Law. Paul doesn’t despise the Law, nor desire its non-existence. Paul felt that way while Satan held his mind captive, but he doesn’t feel that way anymore. He knows the importance of the Law of God for convicting the conscience of sin for the means of surrendering to the authority of God over the sinner and for the means to having the blessedness of God through Christ’s Spirit. “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom. 8:7). “O how love I Thy Law; it my meditation all the day.” (Ps. 119:97). And the importance of the Law of God in the mind of man is Paul’s segway to unleash the principle and the power of the Spirit for kicking Satan out of every weakened and confused sinner, and giving them a new lease on life.

 

The flesh and the Law are as equally contrasted as the flesh and the Spirit are. Our controlling element must be either the flesh or the Law and Spirit. The Spirit of Christ brings the deadened spirituality to life in the new Christian. Redemption is actually re-creation. or spiritual creation. It is restoring fallen creatures to their original freedom that Adam and Eve had in paradise.

 

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of Hhis inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…. You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 1:17-19; 2:1).

 

This was not an arbitrary quickening (bringing to life), but a new source of life that resulted from the soul’s tireless search for a knowledge of God seen in His Son. Trusting in the Son of God brought power, energy, effort, freedom to choose, and the ability to accomplish the choice, for aligning with the Law of righteousness. “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” (Eph. 1:12). Everything necessary for obedience with a good conscience is what came to Paul with the Spirit of Christ as He presented Himself through His word. It was the touch of Omnipotence, the finger of God. Rest, true rest from Jesus.

 

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1).

 

The new avenue to holiness and the new approach to the Law of God through beholding Christ took hold of Paul. It possessed him. The love of Christ possessed Paul. Christ possessed Paul; He moved this holy man of God. Paul could draw back from the possession by Christ whenever he so desired, but the holy love of Christ was what became Paul’s greatest delight during his wrestling over the Law in Romans 7. Paul’s greatest delight was to be possessed by Christ. Possession by the heavenly agencies was the solution to every problem in the world. Why should he be ashamed or doubtful of this panacea solution that could help every living soul on planet Earth? To be wooed away from his paradise would be as great a foolishness as Adam’s loss.

 

To return to dependence on the flesh with its law of sin and death would be suicide. The flesh without help from the Spirit only makes bad habits increasingly binding. Satan mishandles the pure principles of the Law and makes them say the opposite to their true message. “It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character.” Desire of Ages, p. 671.

 

“The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Cor. 15:56-58).

 

“The Comforter is called ‘the Spirit of truth.’ His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood.… Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.” Desire of Ages, p. 671.

 

Approaching the Law without the Spirit ends in humanism and dead works from a conscience dead to holiness. And God understands this. God has been involved in conversions since the day He bought back the heart, soul, will, and loyalty of Adam and Eve by the sacrifice of the very first lambs. Our Creator knows better than we do that having “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6) is the only way to obedience to all His commands.

 

“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.” (Rom. 8:3).

 

It is impossible for us to do God’s will by using our empty soul to achieve obedience. We need the Son of God in the likeness of our fallen flesh, who will expose sin from the context of love and His personable helpfulness. This is the way Jesus condemned sin before our eyes. In Him we have a model of friendliness and of perfection of holiness. We have a friend in our Deliverer who we can trust in, yet who helps us to have His holiness that we tremble before. “In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” (Heb. 2:17). But, “being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Heb. 1:4). “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:9), the Prince of princes whose glance convicted everyone of sin.

 

Now He has passed into the heavens, and is beyond our sight and hearing. But by Christ’s Spirit, “the Spirit of Christ” (1Pet. 1:11), which is “the Holy Ghost” (2Pet. 1:21), He still helps us obtain His righteousness through His written word, the Law. When we see Him in His strong inspired writings or in His Father’s stronger Law then He can again “be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” (Heb. 2:17).

 

By His gift of faith, we come to Him and we expose ourselves to His high and Holy Scriptures. “Search the scriptures; for…they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39,40). As we surrender to the holiness, righteousness, and goodness seen in the Law, we become more susceptible to the Spirit of Christ that uses the holy Law as His avenue to our soul. By His Law He puts in us enmity against sin and love for His character. We gradually transfer our loyalty to God’s character and He gives our mind and heart the law of the Spirit of His Son. We no longer have to see our wretched selves counterposed to the blinding light of the Law of a pure God. Having the evidence of God’s love for us individually, we no longer have to live under Satan’s relish for the mixture of good with evil in his fallen race that derange our hope in pure goodness. So long as we look for Christ in the Law, we are delivered from the condemnation and hopeless shame, perpetual service to temptation, and a walking death, which Satan’s fixation on our sins brings to us.

 

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified inthe Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (1Tim. 3:16).

“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4). We are God’s through “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9); and we are Christ’s through the “the law of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:2), the principle of coming to Christ in His Holy Writ for life and a spirit after the divine nature.

The Spirit third dimension

We have two eyes. Each eye sees all that is possible for an eye to see. Every object, every movement, every color, etc. All that the left eye sees the right eye also sees. Cover the left eye and let the right eye capture the scene. Cover the right eye and let the left eye capture the scene. Cover both eyes and compare the scenes. They saw the same things.

But, what happens when both eyes are open to the scene. All the same images are present to either eye; but a new thing happens. A new dimension is created—the third dimension comes into existence. Before when either eye was in use the images were two dimensional; neither eye could not discern distance. But the parallax created by two individual eyes, positioned at a different spot spatially, caused an automatic response by the brain to compare the minute differences in the perspectives of each eye. Thus, depth is comprehended; near and distant objects make a fuller, bigger sense of visible reality.

 

We have God, the King, the Father of all who sees all. We have His only begotten Son, sole Heir to the throne, who is due all the honor of Him who sits on the throne, and who liveth forever and ever. As the Father sees and knows all, so the Son sees and knows all. They both see all that comprises existence; They both see all that Their kingdom is. But, like our left and right eye,They both have slightly different perspectives.

 

The Father emphasizes justice, yet not without mercy. But, His justice is so powerful that when He expressed it all from Gethsemane to Golgotha upon His Son as the God-Man, it destroyed His Son. But, His mercy was also seen in that the destruction of His Son destroyed Himself in His heart, for the love that He had for His spotless Son and for His Son’s fallen sons. That day They both poured out Their souls.

 

The Son emphasizes grace, yet not without truth. His grace is so powerful that when He gave everything to save His fallen children He preserved His determination to sacrifice Himself for His children’s eternal restoration to His Father’s full trust. But, His truth was also seen in that He never once deviated from His Father’s Law, and never taught anyone to deviate. They both lived for righteousness. For both of Them righteousness is life.

 

Combined from the days of eternity, Their two perspectives created a third perspective, a deeper love and righteousness that ensured a home of Their making that was invulnerable to any adversary, even though all enemies could only come internally. The third Perspective, the deeper union of perspectives, the Council of peace, the Spirit of God in His Son, was an omnipotent balance of justice and mercy that could not be controverted. The third Power, which only existed upon the existence of the characters of Father and Son, was the resolution of all tension between the two original perspectives and their Originators, which challenged Their unity yet made it stronger, thus preserving Their kingdom of free willed creatures. The tension and improved unity of omnipotent justice and equally omnipotent mercy brought perfect happiness to Their free-willed spirit hosts and illimitable worlds.

 

“And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:9-11).

 

The Father had known from the beginning that it was not good for His omnipotent justice perspective to exist alone. Therefore, in eternity past He had brought forth His only begotten Son filled with omnipotent mercy and called His name Michael, for Michael would save His future children from the skewed perspectives of justice without mercy or mercy without justice. As He came forth, so did the third Dimension of Their union.

 

When the arch cherub ceased to appreciate the Godhead omnipotent justice and mercy, he sought to improve upon that foundation of the eternal kingdom. So, Michael gathered His loyal hosts about Him in His home and traveled across the way to a teeny, lifeless world to create a miniature of His Father’s heavenly kingdom. Michael made the progenitors of a race in a corporeal image of the spirit Godhead—His Father and Himself. And He surrounded these privileged progenitors with an infinite variety of everything imaginable, animate and inanimate, floral and faunal, intelligent and unintelligent. Life! Life everywhere! Corporeal life everywhere represented the spiritual life that pervaded His Father’s house. It was His Father’s peace on earth, and His Father’s third Dimension good will toward man.

 

When the arch cherub was able to trap the special race in his rebellion against the very Godhead who they represented, then the Parent of these His children, the unique Steward of the special race, the most merciful and intimate Creator of these corporeal examples of His Godhead, vowed to correct them and protect them. He swore to restore them to the larger kingdom, in full loyalty and trust.

In His own omnipotent mercy mixed with His Father’s omnipotent justice, the eternal, omnipotent third Dimension was roused and brought to bear upon Adam and Eve, the new beloved, yet indigent, lifeless, poisoned and intoxicated abusers of justice and mercy. The drunken, yet beloved, couple and their progeny needed more than either Jehovah or Michael could readily muster from their individual perspectives. The Godhead submitted to the added synergy of Their third Dimension unified Spirit to keep Themselves infinitely honest beyond any debate throughout eternity. And Their unified third Power kept Their loyal spirit hosts of heaven on purpose and on point to perfectly cooperate with the original two great Powers of the Godhead for the preservation of the special human race, and for the riddance of the plague that had attacked their kingdom home from within.

 

The Spirit of God, the “eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14), His measureless Spirit which He gave His Son, the greater third Dimension union of Their individual love which the Father had initiated, would hold the Father steady when His Son must be given up to make a permanent, impermeable, impregnable, legal solution to the questions and the unruly spirit that cursed His family of heaven and earth. The third Dimension Spirit would keep the Father on purpose and on point when fainting at the contradiction of His corrupted creatures against His gentle Child. The eternal Spirit would also hold the Son steady as He personally fought in hand to hand combat with the evil cherub and poured out of His sensitive soul in the presence of a world under the power of that mocking, wily master of temptation.

 

Together They worked out the Son’s authority to take up our redemption and settle the great controversy which the arch cherub caused.

“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

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.

And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.

And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever.” (Rev. 5:5-14).

 

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14).

 

We are invited now to enter the third Dimension of the Father and Son.

 

“I…in the Father, and the Father in Me.” (John 14:11).

“I…in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20).

“I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” (John 17:23).

“And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26).

 

If we tasted it now, we can have a permanent place reserved in Their parallax union. Their third Dimension Representative of infinite justice and infinite mercy will fill us without measure. Their omnipotent, combined Spirit will purge our hearts and minds and consciences of all proud thoughts and lifeless actions, and restore us to serve the living God, the great Source of life and redemption, the great Originator of the provision for our salvation, and the great Initiator of the eternal Spirit third dimension Representative of Them both.

 

Abraham, Isaac, the Sovereign of heaven, and His only begotten Son

The infinite closeness of God the Father and His only Begotten makes our one God sufficient to atone for us; and Their infinite closeness also makes Their atonement effectual in us.

Our whole life of sin is not too big for God to forgive. When God forgives us because we have regretted our sins, because we have sorrowed for our life of sin and cast those sins from our hearts, thus repenting of them all, then He forgives us completely and we are restored perfectly as if we had never once sinned. All of our judgment God put upon the Son, and He willingly stood in our place on damnation day. Jesus was treated by heaven and earth with the punishment that we deserve, so that we could be treated with the blessings and honor that Jesus deserves. Amazing love toward a race that did not love Them! How sweet the sound of Their amazing grace! Despite our accumulation of sins, our sins are not a mountain bigger than the mountain of God, “My holy mountain” (Isa. 11:9). He is able to cast them all into the midst of the sea; and He will do that for all who turn to Him with their whole heart.

“Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Mic. 7:18,19).

“‘Oh, the unspeakable greatness of that exchange,—the Sinless One is condemned, and he who is guilty goes free; the Blessing bears the curse, and the cursed is brought into blessing; the Life dies, and the dead live; the Glory is whelmed in darkness, and he who knew nothing but confusion of face is clothed with glory.’ — D’Aubigne, London ed., b. 12, ch. 2.” Great Controversy, p. 212.

It is that infinite bond between Father and Son broken because of our sin, it was the ultimate sacrifice of Them both, that alone could legally and justly pay for our justification and restoration into Their bosom. Their infinite parent-child bond, though seen every day in our world of sin, can only be comprehended by striving to grasp the greatness of Their promises to receive us again.

The incomprehensible union of the Father and His Son has no room for the other male God that made a Trinity. The Father and Son love has been pure, and has needed none other to supplement it. What is Their mutual love like? How close are They? We see it in Abraham and Isaac.

“And He [God] said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Gen. 22:2).

“Thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest” was everything to Abraham. Isaac was the object of love for whom Abraham had waited many decades.

“And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as He had spoken.

For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.

And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.

And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.” (Gen. 21:1-7).

The deep love Abraham had for his son, after so long waiting for Isaac, caused an exceptional bond of sonship, a natural love that was intensified by the long years of desire and separation. Abraham was separated from Isaac before Isaac was even born. This pre-Isaac separation was real, as over the years Abraham could envision the son of all his dreams. Such was the love of God while He withheld from Himself the Son of His bosom. But, in due time the Son came forth, Prince Michael, who was just like the King. His coming forth, which had “been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2), was a great day of excitement and rest to the Father. All the anxious anticipation was now realized. All of His faith was made sight, “and They began to be merry.” (Luke 15:24). “And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.” (Gen. 21:8).

 

The joy that Abraham and all of his servants had when Isaac was weaned shows a shadowy picture of the unearthly joy among the angelic hosts of heaven when the Prince was publically exalted to be their King. No sin marred the heavenly hosts, and the happiness of their Father and His only Begotten caused the happiness of the angels. This is the best picture of the Godhead available to this fallen world until Michael came here personally to better reveal Himself and His Father.

Jesus did not come to reveal any other person than His beloved Father. His Father was all that He uplifted before the people.

“Jesus, the divine Master, ever exalted the name of His heavenly Father. He taught His disciples to pray, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.’ Matthew 6:9, A.R.V. And they were not to forget to acknowledge, ‘Thine is . . . the glory.’ Verse 13. So careful was the great Healer to direct attention from Himself to the Source of His power, that the wondering multitude, ‘when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see,’ did not glorify Him, but ‘glorified the God of Israel.’ Matthew 15:31. In the wonderful prayer that Christ offered just before His crucifixion, He declared, ‘I have glorified Thee on the earth.’ ‘Glorify Thy Son,’ He pleaded, ‘that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.’ ‘O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.’ John 17:4, 1, 25, 26.” Prophets and Kings, p. 69.

Jesus taught us to pray to, to praise, and to worship His Father and no one else. And He did leave it open-ended for Himself to be given the same love and honor as His Father. But, none other was to receive that worship. The infinite closeness of Father and Son is Their infinite protection from unrighteousness; and our participation in Their union protects the kingdom of God as well. None else except the two, Father and Son, have the special and unique agape love.

“Maschil, A Song of loves. My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the King: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever….

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” (Ps. 45:1,2,7).

A third God non-congenitally related to the Father and Son can only detract from the omnipotent love of the Almighty and His only Begotten, His precious Prototokos. The strong bond between Abraham and Isaac was the very basis of the everlasting covenant and, for the everlasting gospel, their tight bond points to the union between the Father and Son. Adding a third person does not improve on the power of the Father’s and Son’s love that binds together Their kingdom.

The only respectable possibility for a third person that is added to the already infinitely united Godhead would be a feminine Holy Spirit, such as a divine mother of Christ, a Mary Queen of heaven, an Ashtoreth. But, that is unacceptable to Protestantism and to the Bible, yet it has long been well received into the most ancient of pagan religions. Such a third person of the Trinity is making its way into New Age religion, and then into Christianity through the back door.

But, the only other option beside a female person Holy Spirit is a male person Holy Spirit. Satan, by a male third person within the Christian Trinity, has made our Father look like a homosexual God. The Trinity is a gross distortion of the Abraham-Isaac love within the Godhead, and a male third person distortion can never be acceptable any more than Adam and Eve could have also had a Steve with them in the garden—Adam and Eve and Steve. But, that is the Christian Trinity’s subtle advertisement to the world—a subtle gospel of homosexuality; a subtle gospel of bisexuality. The submersive doctrine of the Trinity undermines the Godhead’s original example to the second institution that the Lord God gave man on the first day of his existence—the Trinity dogma is an attack on the nuclear family that the Lord God gave us before sin entered the world. Subconsciously, the Trinity doctrine excuses homosexuality within the Church today. The Father requires of us, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1Thess. 5:22), yet the Trinity perverts that rule before the Father’s “family in heaven and earth” (Eph. 3:15). The Christian Trinity is worse than the pagan trinities; at least they have a female mistress deity as the Spirit, although a whore.

The true biblical Godhead includes only the Father and His Son. Their Spirit is not another God, It is not another person. The “Spirit” is the result of the Father-Son heart-to-heart powerful communion, just like the synergy that happens when a man knows his beloved wife. The love within a husband-wife marriage divinely reveals the power of creation by the Abraham-Isaac love between God the Father and His only divine Son. And love within the husband-wife marriage typifies the equally great power of redemption from the Father and Son Godhead when Their eternal Spirit of love was broken at the Son’s death, and then when They were reunited again in the Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary after the Son’s ascension.

One God plus another god equal a trinity

“And God [Elohim] said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Gen. 1:26-28).

“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. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life.” (John 1:1-4).

“[Christ] who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.” (Col. 1:15,16).

“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” (Gen. 5:1,2).

“Adam”, “man, in the likeness of God”, “male and female”, “their name”.

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9).

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD^H3068 our God^H430 is one LORD^H3068.” (Deut. 6:4).

H3068 is Jehovah.

H430 is Elohim.

“I and My Father are one.” (John 10:30).

What we see in the above verses from the Old Testament is that Elohim is one, yet really two Heads over Their creation, and we see that ultimately Elohim includes a whole heavenly host created by Them. Likewise, in the New Testament we see that Theos made all things through the Word, Jesus Christ.

“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. His ‘goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . 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.’ Proverbs 8:22-30. 

     The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

The oneness of the Godhead was a union of only two persons—the Sovereign Father, and His Son, “the Prince of princes” (Dan. 8:25). On the first day of creation week, the Spirit of God which moved upon the face of the waters was the glorious presence of God Himself, His glory, as Jesus prayed in the garden, “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). The Spirit of God was the same Spirit that filled Jesus to the full. “For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” (John 3:34). The Spirit of God at creation was not another person, but was God’s presence that was also on the Mount of transfiguration.

“And as He [Jesus] prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering.

And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias:

Who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem….

While he [Peter] thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them [Peter, James, and John]: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.

And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him.” (Luke 9:29-31,34,35).

“For He [‘our Lord Jesus Christ’] received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (2Pet. 1:17).

The cloud present at Christ’s transfiguration was visible to the disciples in the pitch black night because it was not a cloud of water vapor, but a cloud of glory. That cloud of glory was so different than what they had ever before seen that it scared them as it moved upon them. Then the voice came from it, the voice of God Himself. This cloud of glory was the presence of God, His Spirit, “the Spirit of God” that had “moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2) and who had said, “Let there be light.”

Theos created all things through the Word Jesus Christ. They were the antitype of Adam who in God’s image was two persons—man and his wife, and ultimately a whole race of children generated by them.

In other words, there were only two divine Beings present for the creation of Earth, as there ever had been during Their other creations. “God…hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” (Heb. 1:1,2).

“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.” (Rom. 8:9). Since this text shows the definition of “the Spirit” as the Spirit of two, both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, then the Spirit must be the power of God manifested through Christ. Therefore, the two divine Beings, Father and Son, are the sources of the same Spirit. The Spirit that They give us is the product of our acceptance of their invitation to be in Christ, who Himself is in His Father’s bosom. When we are in Christ we take part of the Spirit—Christ’s Spirit that is His Father’s Spirit. The Father and Son were the only two Persons involved in our creation, as well as the only two involved in our recreation.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2Cor. 4:6). “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:5). God, His holy Spirit, shines in our hearts as He shined forth at creation. His Spirit, Himself, the riches of His glory, the great gift from God, all the fullness of God, strengthens our inner man.

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

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. 3:14-19). Where was a third person Spirit in the saints’ regeneration? Non-existent, according to Paul. The miracle of conversion was from God and His regenerating power, His Spirit.

The title of this post says that two persons make the Trinity. Who are the two persons that I mean?

What I will say next may sound convoluted, but it isn’t really confusing. I don’t mean to say that the Father and Son aren’t two, but, relationally speaking, They are one. And They explain it that way. While it is true that They are two distinct persons and personalities, and two physically separated individuals having their own individuality, They are undivided in their purposes and in their relation to the truth in the Law of God. Both are equally, infinitely, eternally true to the Law of love, the Law of righteousness. Both were involved in the high standard passed to humanity through the OT prophets of the Lord God and the NT apostles of the Lord Jesus (see John 5:19). Both made up the Testimony of Jesus (see Revelation 1:1). Jesus always could have acted and spoken from Himself, but He never did, except on one occasion—at His propitiation during Gethsemane to Golgotha—and that only because His Father thrust it on Him, not because He wanted to do it or enjoyed living separate from His Father.

The Son of God is just as much divine as God the Father. The Lord God is as much to be worshiped as Elohim, Him who is over all, “Him that liveth for ever and ever.” (Rev. 5:14). Michael, “the Messiah the Prince” (Dan. 9:25) is to be honored as much as the King (see John 5:23). And They both bear the same name, Jehovah; Jehovah and Jehovah are one. They are perfectly one in Spirit, and their oneness in creation is seen in the oneness of Adam and Eve.

“Therefore shall a man…cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24).

So then, if Father and Son are one in character and in heart, and thus God is one God, then who is the second person that makes up the Trinity? Here lies a big problem. Because this second “God” did not take part in creation, according to John 1:1-3 and Ephesians 3:9. All the apostles speak of the Spirit, but when they describe who of the Godhead were involved in creating the family of heaven and earth, they fail to list a third person, the Spirit.

Neither is the Spirit listed by John as an individual person in the Testimony of Jesus, according to Revelation 1:1. The chain of delegated revelation goes from God to Jesus to His angel, then to John. The Spirit is not included in this chain of authority. Therefore, the “Holy Ghost” which “moved” (2 Pet. 1:21) the prophets was not an individual person, but the power of “the most high God” (Gen. 14:18), “the power of the Highest” (Luke 1:35) through His Son, then through His Son’s delegated messengers, Gabriel to the revelator to the churches.

The erroneous third person of the church’s trinity came into being at the time of Nimrod, his wife, Semiramis, and her illegitimate son, Tammuz. This archaic trinity against the just punishment for their rebellion was passed down the eons through the spiritual center of ancient Babylon until the Persians were about to conquer Neo-Babylon in the days of Belshazzar. At that time the priests of the Babylonian spiritualistic mysteries escaped to the city of Pergamum and there re-established spiritualism’s lordship over the earth. Then in 133 BC, Attalus, the dying last priest-king of Pergamum willed his city to the developing Roman Empire with the stipulation that the ruler must continue the damning work of high priest of spiritualism, Pontifex Maximus, which, from the beginning of the Nimrod apostasy, “didst weaken the nations” (Isa. 14:13). For some years there was no one who could openly lay claim to all the dignity and powers inherent in the title of the kings of Pergamos, namely that of Sovereign Pontiff. But, eventually Julius Caesar adopted the office of Pontifex Maximus, and then all the Babylonian mysteries were officially turned over to Caesar and held by the emperors of Imperial Rome.

An article at https://fr-fr.facebook.com/notes/michael-terrence-ampem/the-antichrist-pontifex-maximus-the-papacy-and-its-origin/381876440975/ says,

 

“Julius Caesar was elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus in 63 BC. He subsequently assumed the position of supreme ruler of the Roman state. Thus he had vested in him all the powers and functions of the Babylonian Pontiff, and he was the true legitimate successor to Belshazzar. Not satisfied with this, he was declared to be Jupiter’s incarnation on 25th December 48 BC in the temple of Jupiter in Alexandria. The Encyclopaedia Britannica [81 also says about Julius Caesar: ‘There are signs that in the last six months of his life he aspired not only to a monarchy in name as well as in fact, but also to a divinity which Romans should acknowledge as well as Greeks, Orientals, and barbarians.’ Julius Caesar, by laying claim to be divine, followed the pattern of the Kings of Pergamos. The Roman Emperors that followed Julius Caesar were commonly regarded as gods.”

Later, the old mysteries that required “faith” transferred to the apostate official religion of Rome, Christianity. This new accession of the church into the empire obliged upon the church the most archaic trinity of gods Bel, Ishtar, and Tammuz, which in Rome became Jupiter (king of gods), Janus (queen of gods), and Minerva. Another version of their trinity was Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury.

Another article at http://www.livius.org/articles/concept/pontifex-maximus/ says, “In 381, the Roman emperor Gratian was the first to decline to use the title of pontifex maximus. It was accepted by the pope.” Like a snake, Satan moves slowly. Inch by inch he moves in close, readying himself to get in range. Then he strikes quickly. In 381 the Church committed the unpardonable sin. Henceforth, everything related to the official Christian Church was from Satan, and more and more pagan concepts would be openly received into Church doctrine.

When in the early 300’s Emperor Constantine had asked the Christian leaders to accept the honors of official priesthood, the church fathers were already prepared to adapt the gospel doctrines fully to paganism. They found it easy to transform the biblical “power of the Highest” into a deified person, who could join the union of Father and Son, a real spirit that moved upon the popish high priests of spiritualism. This is how the ancient Roman term “vates” or “vatic”, “prophet, seer” was adapted to “Vatican” and “the holy See”. This work of receiving the trinity from the most archaic spiritualism was easily accepted because the multitudes of Christians had lost their first love and had ceased to study their Bibles. They couldn’t understand the Bible, and so they didn’t bother striving to learn from it and be sanctified by it. The truth was not being taught from the pulpits, and the leaders were working hard to lead the sincere people away from the Bible so that they could adopt the ways of the old heathen religion of the empire. This scenario in the church during the Roman Empire was prophesied of as a little horn, a biblical “horn” figuratively representing a source of power and force in the earth.

“And out of one of them [one of the four winds] came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.“ (Dan. 8:9-12). Because the church departed from the gospel and its first love, God gave it over to the satanic little horn. The church had not repented of its lost first love, and God took away their light.

Lucifer had threatened God a long time before, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isa. 14:13,14).

This is exactly what Satan had done in the pagan religions around the world, with exception to the Hebrew religion, which the Creator had given Israel. Yet, the local religions still competed for Israel’s fallen natures. Satan’s Baal and Ashtoreth spiritual puppets continually made their way into the hearts and minds of the people who Jehovah had chosen to serve Him in righteousness and spirit and truth.

The Christian Trinity has been Satan’s foot in the door of the heavenly sanctuary for him to cause confusion and raise havoc to all who worship there by faith. Thus, Satan has cast down “the sanctuary of strength” (Dan. 11:31), their stronghold. Through the Trinity doctrine, the Godhead Father and Son have had a competitor and a usurper in the third person “Holy Spirit” in the minds of His church. The parousia of this wily enemy has been as treasonous to the kingdom of God as Judas was to the Lord when He was on earth. The post-apostolic Church leaders and people hungered for the pagan elements of the wildly popular, carnal, spiritualistic religion that was all around them.

It was at the adoption of those Babylonian religions into the New Testament church that Satan insinuated himself directly into the Godhead. Ever since the church adopted the Holy Spirit person as the third member of the ancient Trinity, the little horn power found open arms into the faith and love of millions within Christendom.

Today, almost 2 millennia later, this third person trespasser of heaven is most deeply entrenched in church doctrine and in the minds of Christians. It is absolutely inconceivable to the 2 billion believers and even to the agnostics in the Christian religion today to deny the third person false deity that has substituted itself for the presence of Christ in the hearts of His followers.

 

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20). Most of Christendom cannot read this without adding the third person deity into the verse. If it is missing in any verse, they feel that they must assume it. That is, they say that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is in the midst of two or three gathered in His name. They simply cannot grasp the Spirit to be the presence and redemptive power of the Father through His Son. The Spirit as only mind and the power of God unto salvation is an impregnable, wrong paradigm.

If Paul thanked God through Jesus for delivering him from his wretched nature, the multitudes cannot accept the word of Paul that the Father and Son simply were all who were involved in his deliverance. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 7:24,25). Paul, an expert on the Spirit, makes no mention of the Spirit during his Romans 7:9-24 labor toward his new birth. Even a cursory reading of Romans 7 and 8 shows that the Spirit in Romans 8, is a new gift of God to Paul’s process of salvation that began in Romans 7:9. And the only “persons” Paul worships and exalts is God the Father and His Son. The Spirit that comes after Paul’s surrender to God in Romans 7:25 is gifted, and which comes as a result of surrender and conversion. But, all the work to get Paul surrendered and converted came from “God” and “Christ Jesus our Lord”. It was Christ, speaking for His Father, who promised, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:15). Jesus will put hatred of sin in our natures and will deliver us from all temptations.

“Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: and call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and though shalt glorify Me.” (Ps. 50:14,15).

Yet, so many will insert the third person imposter of the deeply rooted pagan trinity into the process which Paul experienced, rather than being willing to question established traditions from an apostate Church, and reading Paul’s experience enough times for prejudices to fall off their eyes. Certainly it is a scary venture to step out of the crowd and be hit by all their rotten tomatoes. Ostracism from church society and friends is a strong disciplinary measure. Being forced into silence during group Bible study because everything that a non-Trinitarian says is suspect and considered subversive is a difficult trial. Accusations of heresy and the unpardonable sin plague the conscience and can create real fears. Peer pressure, bombardment by proof texts from highly reputed and godly elders, pastors, and Bible students, walking alone with the Lord as He walked alone, bring much sorrow to honest hearts yearning for fellowship. Since the very beginning of the fall of man, the people of God have had to deal with rejection. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

“Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” (Num. 23:9).

“They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” (Heb. 11:37,38).

But, the Lord has promised, “God setteth the solitary in families.” (Ps. 68:6).

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” (2Cor. 4:8,9).

All who have been anointed with the true Spirit of God, that is, God’s Spirit, will bear up under the sorrows of jeopardized friendships and alienated beloved brethren. For all who have been anointed, the truth and the presence of Jesus will count for more than all else besides. Will we love God, the Spirit of truth, with all our heart, mind, and strength?

The Vital Presence of God

     In His instruction to His disciples, Christ dwelt upon the great gift of the Spirit, declaring that nothing was too great to be expected from the coming of the divine Spirit. He longed to quicken and enlarge the conception of His disciples by communicating to them His own complete appreciation of God’s love, that they might be able to comprehend the value of the gift of all gifts, given by God with the giving of His beloved Son, —the gift of the Holy Spirit. On all who love and serve God this gift has been bestowed. Christ has made provision for all to receive His Spirit; for He desires to see human nature released from the bondage of sin, and, by the power which God gives, renewed, restored, raised to a holy rivalry with the angels.

     To the woman at the well Christ said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. . . . Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

     Yes; in giving the Holy Spirit, it was impossible for God to give more. To this gift nothing could be added. By it all needs are supplied. The Holy Spirit is the vital presence of God, and if appreciated will call forth praise and thanksgiving, and will ever be springing up unto everlasting life. The restoration of the Spirit is the covenant of grace. Yet how few appreciate this great gift, so costly, yet so free to all who will accept it? When faith takes hold of the blessing, there comes rich spiritual good. But too often the blessing is not appreciated. We need an enlarged conception in order to comprehend its value. Signs of the Times, August 7, 1901 par. 2-4. (Emphasis mine.)

 

The gift of the Holy Spirit comes at a cost. Why is it “so costly”? Because it comes from the reconciled heart of God, made one again with Adam’s race by the sacrifice of His Son. It was the loss of His Son that cost so much, and by which the Father emptied Himself so fully. Thus, empty of all but love, God can restore His vital gift of life to every suppliant soul.

 

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (2 Cor. 5:19). Hanging lifeless from the cross which God provided, shell-shocked by Heaven’s thunders, the silenced Christ woos us back to His Father, who pleads with humanity to love Him again. He calls all who have a needy ear that can hear Him.

 

God’s execution of One equal in worth to our world’s six thousands years and its billions of fallen children showed His readiness to destroy sin. Yet, the souls of both God and the participating penitents die together with the pure sacrificed lamb of God. They both partake of the lamb’s spotless sacrifice; we, because we needed the humbling, and God, though He didn’t. His lamb with Him again, the Father forever remembers Their sacrifice for our sake. The lamb brought God and us together for one greatly needed cooperative effort. And thus, having united two alienated parties, the self-sacrificing Mother of all living whose sorrows God greatly multiplied for our second birth achieved atonement between His Father and all Their children who fall on His life-giving body in sorrow for and hatred of their sin. His still, spotless body touches their “body of sin” “and death” (Rom. 6:6; 8:2, cf Rom. 7:24), charging it with life and power to yield themselves to God, and their will to His.

 

“And they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.” (2 Ki. 13:21).

 

The Son, our “everlasting Father” (Isa. 9:6), together with His Father, allowed the beating and murder at the hands of all Their dysfunctional children, in order to break the enchantment of Satan. When, once we have expended our wrath, and have witnessed with horror the death and destruction that it resulted in, then They can place our loyalty back in Them and in Their holy Law. The Ancient of days, the Life-giver who alone has immortality, needed an Advocate to help Him have the pains of death. God facilitated His own death as His Son let Them both die together so that They can call Their children home again. The Seven Trumpets and the Investigative Judgment, p. 42, 43.

 

Death, infinite death, is the level at which the infinite God functions to know His own deep gift-giving. God provided for His own reconciliation with rebellious man when He sent His beloved Son to give His life a ransom for men. Having reconciled with mankind, He gave them His “vital presence” in a most stunning demonstration on Pentecost. “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:2-4).

 

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1Jn. 4:16).

 

Now, to dwell in God is to be in the Spirit. “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20). “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” (1Jn. 4:13). “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” (Rev. 1:10). “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:11).