In the foregoing message we covered the Spirit’s coming to John the Baptist, to Mary the mother of Jesus, to Jesus Christ, and to the saints in the transitional period between Christ’s incarnation and resurrection. Now we shall go on to consider the Spirit’s coming to the New Testament believers.
We have seen that the Spirit came to Jesus Christ in two ways. First, the Spirit came essentially for the Lord’s being, His existence. Second, the Spirit came to Him economically for His work, His ministry. In principle, both aspects of the Holy Spirit are the same with us as they were with the Lord Jesus. With Him there was the essential aspect for His being and the economical aspect for His ministry. With us there is also the essential aspect of the Spirit for our spiritual existence as regenerated believers, and there is the outward aspect of the Spirit for our Christian work. Therefore, we need to see how the Spirit comes to the New Testament believers both essentially and economically.
First, the Holy Spirit was asked of the Father by the Son. John 14:16 says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter.” This other Comforter is the Spirit of reality (v. 17). The Son requested the Father to give the Spirit. The first Comforter, Jesus, asked the Father to send the second Comforter, the Spirit of reality of the first Comforter.
John 14:16 reveals that the Three of the Godhead work together to give us the Spirit. The Spirit’s coming to the believers thus involves the divine Trinity. This is indicated by the fact that the Son asked the Father to give us the Spirit. Whereas the Son’s coming was initiated by the Godhead, by the Triune God, the Spirit’s coming to the believers was initiated by the Son when He asked the Father to send the Spirit. The second of the Trinity asked the first to send the third.
The Spirit was given by the Father in answering the asking of the Son (John 14:16b; Luke 11:13). The Son requested that the Father give the Spirit, and the Father sent the Spirit at the request of the Son. The third of the Trinity was sent by the first in answer to the request of the second.
The Spirit was sent by the Father in the Son’s name. In John 14:26 the Lord Jesus speaks of “the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name.” The Spirit was sent in the Son’s name, not in His own name. The first sent the third in the name of the second. For the Spirit to be sent by the Father in the name of the Son means that He was sent as the Son. Here we see that the coming of the Spirit to the believers is a complicated matter. The Spirit came, but He came in the Son’s name; that is, He came as the Son.
The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was sent by the Father in the Son’s name. Hence, the Spirit comes in the Son’s name to be the reality of His name. The name is the Son Himself, and the Spirit is the person, the being, of the Son. When we call on the name of the Son, we receive the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). The Son came in the Father’s name (John 5:43) because the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30). Then the Spirit came in the Son’s name because the Spirit and the Son also are one (2 Cor. 3:17-18). This is the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-reaching us eventually as the Spirit.
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