The second word is the one added long afterwards by John, when the
Spirit had enlightened his understanding--"glorified." "For not yet was
the Spirit given, because not yet was Jesus glorified." That word has
two meanings here: the first meaning a historical one, the second a
personal or experimental one. The historical meaning is this: when Jesus
returned home all scarred in face and form from His trip to the earth,
He was received back with great enthusiasm, and was glorified in the
presence of myriads of angel beings by being enthroned at the Father's
right hand. Then the glorified Jesus sent the Holy Spirit down to the
earth as His own personal representative for His new peculiar mission.
The presence of the Spirit in our hearts is evidence that the Jesus whom
earth despised and crucified is now held in highest honor and glory in
that upper world. The Spirit is the gift of a _glorified_ Jesus. Peter
lays particular stress upon this in his Pentecost sermon, telling to
those who had so spitefully murdered Jesus that He "being at the right
hand of God _exalted_ ... hath poured forth this." That is the
historical meaning--the first meaning--of that word "glorified." It
refers to an event in the highest heaven after Jesus' ascension. The
_personal_ meaning is this: when Jesus is enthroned in my life the Holy
Spirit shall fill me. The Father glorified Jesus by enthroning Him. I
must glorify Him by enthroning Him. But the throne of my heart was
occupied by another who did not propose to resign, nor to be deposed
without resistance. So there had to be a dethronement as well as an
enthronement. I must quietly but resolutely place the crown of my life,
my love, my _will_ upon Jesus' brow for Him henceforth to control me as
He will. That act of enthroning Him carries with it the dethronement of
self.
Let me say plainly that here is _the_ searching test of the whole
matter. _Why_ do you want power? For the rare enjoyment of ecstatic
moods? For some hidden selfish purpose, like Simon of Samaria, of which
you are perhaps only half conscious, so subtly does it lurk underneath?
That you may be able to move men? These motives are all selfish. The
streams turn in, and that means a dead sea. Better stop before you
begin. For thy heart is not right before God. But if the uppermost and
undermost desire be to glorify Jesus and let Him do in you, and with you
_what He chooses_, then you shall know the flooding of the channel-ways
of your life with a new stream of power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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