When the Lord Jesus came out to minister at the age of thirty, He was the representative of mankind in two aspects. On the one hand, He represented the God-created man; on the other hand, in appearance He represented fallen man. Have you ever realized that when the Lord Jesus came to be baptized by John, He represented the God-created man and, in outward appearance, the fallen man? We would emphasize the fact that the Lord Jesus did not have the actual nature of fallen man, but He did have the appearance of fallen man. Therefore, in actual nature He represented the God-created man, and in appearance, likeness, but not in nature, He also represented fallen man. In His actual human nature He represented the man created by God; in appearance He represented the man who had become fallen.
We have seen that fallen man certainly needs to be judged, terminated, and buried. We have also seen that even the God-created man must be set aside in order to live a life in which the human virtues express the divine attributes. For this, even a good, complete, and perfect God-created man must be set aside. This is the reason that the Lord Jesus as the God-man said in the Gospel of John that He did not do anything by Himself. In John 5:19 He said, “The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing.” In John 5:30 He said again, “I can do nothing from Myself.” In John 8:28 the Lord declared, “I do nothing from Myself.”
In order that He might express God in His human living, at the beginning of His ministry the Lord put Himself aside through baptism. He was a perfect and complete Man, but He would not live by Himself. Instead, He lived by God the Father who was in Him. This matter is crucial, and we all need to see it.
The first aspect of the Lord’s inauguration was for Him to be set aside. This principle applies to all of us in our service to God. If we would enter into a particular service to God, we need to be set aside; that is, we need to be terminated and buried. Both as a God-created man and as a fallen man, we need to be terminated. The first aspect of the Man-Savior’s inauguration into His ministry for God was for Him to be set aside. We also need to be terminated and buried in the waters of death.
Immediately after the Lord Jesus was baptized, He was anointed by God: “The Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him; and a voice came out of heaven, You are My beloved Son, in You I delight” (v. 22). After John the Baptist had baptized the Lord Jesus, God the Father sent His Holy Spirit upon this baptized Man. Hence, the Spirit of God descended upon a terminated and buried Man to inaugurate Him into His living ministry for God.
The Holy Spirit’s conceiving of Jesus in 1:35 is essential, related to the divine Being, the divine Person, of Jesus. The essence of the Holy Spirit’s divine element in the conception of Jesus is unchangeable and cannot be removed. However, the Holy Spirit’s descending upon Jesus here is economical, related to the ministry, the work, of Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit for the ministry of Jesus (4:1, 14, 18; Matt. 12:28) is removable according to the condition of need for it. It was in this economical way that God forsook Jesus and left Him when He was carrying the sinners’ sin in dying for them on the cross (Matt. 27:46). Before the Holy Spirit in power descended upon Him, He already had the Holy Spirit in essence from His birth. Furthermore, while the Holy Spirit in power was descending upon Him, He was existing with the Holy Spirit in essence.