A Goodly Heritage

We come to the indwelling of the Spirit in primeval man, which may be called the deep ground-thought of all right anthropology, as appears from these words: “ The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ”   (Gen. ii. 7). When God breathed into man the breath of LIFE (or LIVES, for it is plural), we must understand life in the Holy Spirit as well as animal and intellectual life. Calvin, and the mass of commentators since his day, have interpreted the words of the physical life, as if they intimated nothing more than the animation of the clay figure. The Patristic writers, Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, and Cyril, refer the words to the occasion when God communicated the Spirit, the breath of the Almighty, the giver of the HIGHER as well as of the lower form of life. If further proof of the correctness of this interpretation were necessary, it is furnished by the contrast of DEATH threatened in the penalty, which certainly canno...

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 SP...

. The EPISTLE OF JUDE was directed against a body of licentious errorists who had crept into the Church, and were corrupting it by their doctrines and practice. These were evil men, and there was no room to entertain doubts respecting their character. The apostle accordingly appeals, by way of warning, to some terrible instances of judgment recorded in Scripture—to the Israelites who were destroyed in their unbelief after coming out of Egypt (ver. 5); to the angels who kept not their first estate (ver. 6); to Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring cities (ver. 7). Two references are made to the Holy Spirit within the compass of this small Epistle,—the one alluding to the errorists, the other to the Christians whom he exhorts. 1. “These are they who separate themselves, sensual ( yucikoi ), having not the Spirit” (ver. 19). The adjective rendered  sensual  here and in the Epistle of James (iii. 15) is elsewhere rendered  natural ,   or the natural man (1 Cor. i...

We come to the indwelling of the Spirit in primeval man, which may be called the deep ground-thought of all right anthropology, as appears from these words: “ The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ”   (Gen. ii. 7). When God breathed into man the breath of LIFE (or LIVES, for it is plural), we must understand life in the Holy Spirit as well as animal and intellectual life. Calvin, and the mass of commentators since his day, have interpreted the words of the physical life, as if they intimated nothing more than the animation of the clay figure. The Patristic writers, Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, and Cyril, refer the words to the occasion when God communicated the Spirit, the breath of the Almighty, the giver of the HIGHER as well as of the lower form of life. If further proof of the correctness of this interpretation were necessary, it is furnished by the contrast of DEATH threatened in the penalty, which certainly canno...

The EPISTLE OF JUDE was directed against a body of licentious errorists who had crept into the Church, and were corrupting it by their doctrines and practice. These were evil men, and there was no room to entertain doubts respecting their character. The apostle accordingly appeals, by way of warning, to some terrible instances of judgment recorded in Scripture—to the Israelites who were destroyed in their unbelief after coming out of Egypt (ver. 5); to the angels who kept not their first estate (ver. 6); to Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring cities (ver. 7). Two references are made to the Holy Spirit within the compass of this small Epistle,—the one alluding to the errorists, the other to the Christians whom he exhorts. 1. “These are they who separate themselves, sensual ( yucikoi ), having not the Spirit” (ver. 19). The adjective rendered  sensual  here and in the Epistle of James (iii. 15) is elsewhere rendered  natural ,   or the natural man (1 Cor. ii. 1...

The Epistle of James, directed against a nominal Christianity, or dead faith which had begun to prevail in his time, draws a line between nature and grace through all life. James contrasts spiritual religion with that forgetful hearing which, under the empty form, neither keeps itself unspotted from the world, nor exhibits the honour, the love, the benevolence which the law written on the heart prompts. He described that hollow profession by the licence given to the tongue, and by the vain boast of wisdom on which it plumed itself. Though he only once mentions the Spirit, the entire Epistle takes for granted the necessity of the Spirit’s renewing grace. He bids those who lack wisdom ask it of God by believing prayer (Jas. i. 5). He implies the Spirit’s agency when he says that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above (i. 17). He assumes the Spirit’s work of regeneration by the word of truth as the foundation of all (i. 18). The tenor of the Epistle implies that the Holy Sp...

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 ...

THE SAYINGS OF JESUS on the doctrine of the Spirit, and it is worthy of notice that on several points, and especially on the inscrutable relations of the Trinity, we find, as was to be expected, disclosures from His lips more definite and ample than are expressed by any of His servants, whether prophets or apostles. In His last discourses, spoken in the midst of His disciples (John xiv. - xvi.), He set forth for their comfort and for the Church’s instruction the essential as well as economical relations in which the Holy Spirit stood to Him, and also the mission of the Spirit for the guidance of apostles and the application of redemption, in a manner more full and ample than we find in any other part of Scripture. He shows (1) that the Father should send the Holy Spirit IN HIS NAME (xiv. 26), a statement which implies that the Spirit, previously forfeited and withdrawn from mankind in consequence of sin, should, on the ground of His merits and intercession as the Mediator, be sent by...