When the Lord Jesus was ministering and working, the Spirit was the means for God to anoint Him. The Lord was absolutely under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 4:18 the words of Isaiah are applied to Christ: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.” Acts 10:38 tells us that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power. Furthermore, Matthew 12:18 reveals that God put His Spirit on Christ for the announcing of judgment to the nations. Hebrews 1:9 tells us that God has anointed Christ with the oil of exultant joy. All these verses show the work of the Spirit in God’s anointing of Christ. Although Christ is the almighty God, He, as God’s Christ in His humanity, still needed to be anointed with the Spirit for His ministry to carry out God’s economy. Therefore, when Christ worked, He worked by the Spirit.
Luke 4:1 says, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan.” This verse indicates that while the Lord Jesus was working, He was filled with the Holy Spirit inwardly and essentially. In the New Testament the phrase “full of the Holy Spirit” refers to an inward, essential filling for living, not an outward, economical filling for working (Acts 6:3, 5; 7:55; 11:24). “Full of the Spirit” is the condition after being filled with the Spirit inwardly and essentially. The Greek word for “full” in Luke 4:1, pleres, the adjective form of pleroo, signifies an inward filling. A particular aspect of the Spirit’s work in Christ was to fill Him inwardly, essentially, for life.
Matthew 4:1 says, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.” After being baptized in water and anointed with the Spirit of God, Jesus, as a man, moved according to the leading of the Spirit. This indicates that His ministry in His humanity was according to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was always leading Him. The Spirit led the Lord Jesus concerning where He should go, what He should do, what He should speak, and whom He should contact.
Luke 4:14 says, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” The Spirit here is the Holy Spirit who descended upon the Lord Jesus at the time of His baptism for the accomplishment of His ministry and who filled Him essentially (v. 1). Therefore, Christ had the Holy Spirit both essentially as life for His being and economically as power for His ministry. In Luke 4:14 we see that the Holy Spirit empowered Christ economically. The Spirit was continually working to empower the Lord Jesus to carry out God’s commission.
Luke 10:21 tells us that Christ “exulted in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Your sight.” This indicates that the Spirit was the means for Christ’s exultation. He lived in the Holy Spirit and therefore exulted in the Spirit. In His exulting in the Holy Spirit Christ praised the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding the knowledge of the Son and the Father from the wise and intelligent and revealing it to babes. With praise, the Son acknowledged the Father’s way to carry out His economy. This Christ did by the Spirit as the means of His exultation.
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