THE SPIRIT,”

On the day of Pentecost Peter expounded and applied the prophecy of Joel as to the pouring out of the Spirit in the last days, pointing to the stupendous display of supernatural phenomena and of spiritual gifts, and declaring: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts ii. 16). On another occasion he represented Jesus as anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power (x. 38). And as to the giving of the Spirit to the Gentiles, irrespective of all national distinctions, he answered expressly that God gave them the Holy Ghost, and put no difference between the Jews and them (xv. 8).

But let us more narrowly examine the Petrine Epistles. When we examine what titles Peter applies to the Spirit, we find the following: “the Spirit of Christ” (1 Pet. i. 11);the Spirit of God, intimating God and the Spirit who proceeds from God (iv. 14); “the Spirit of glory,” resting like the Shechinah on the persecuted Christian (iv. 14). As to the ancient prophets, he says THAT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST which was in them testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow (i. 11); in a word, announced the cross and crown of the Redeemer. That passage furnished a convincing proof that Christ had a divine pre-existence, and that His Spirit, prior to the incarnation, guided the inspired writers in all their predictions. Attempts have been made, indeed, to explain this away; and modern divines, such as Weiss, who deny Christ’s pre-existence, put this construction on the statement: that the Messiah-Spirit, before He came, was working in the prophets. For such an evacuating comment there exists no ground; it is but a foregone Sabellian conclusion.

Nor are we to explain the expression which is applied to Christ: “Put to death in the flesh, but quickened by THE SPIRIT,” in any other way than as an allusion to the Holy Ghost. It is neither Christ’s human spirit simply, nor the divine nature of our Lord, though both interpretations have found almost equal favour with recent commentators. It appears from the following verse that we must rather think of the Holy Spirit in which, it is said, Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison—that is, by Noah as a preacher of righteousness. And we have only to compare this text with the passage previously expounded (1 Pet. i. 11), to be fully convinced that the reference is to the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets. That the Redeemer was QUICKENED and raised up by the Holy Spirit is here affirmed by Peter, and is not obscurely intimated by the Apostle Paul (Rom. viii. 11). The same Spirit that formed Christ’s human body and gave it life in His mother’s womb, gave to Him the restored life when He rose from the dead. He who raised up Christ from the dead, indeed, is frequently mentioned as one of the Father’s most memorable titles or designations; and to prove that it was the Spirit who performed this work, we have only to recall the fact that the Holy Ghost is the executive in every divine operation (Rom. iv. 24, vi. 4).

To the Spirit also is ascribed the Christian’s sanctification: Elect, IN (en) sanctification of the Spirit, TO obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. i. 2). The Holy Spirit, by the gospel, separates Christians, or sets them apart, in a peculiar way, from the common mass of men; and the blessings enjoyed are the fruit of the Spirit’s sanctifying power. As the prophets had the Spirit, so, Peter adds, the apostles, in like manner, preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven (i. 12). In the second Epistle it must be noticed that the only allusion to the Spirit is in connection with the inspiration of the prophets, who are said to have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. i. 21).