The Ministry of the SpiritGordon, A. J. (Adoniram Judson)
Religion
The Ministry of the Spirit
Gordon, A. J. (Adoniram Judson)
Holy Spirit
In a word, the lost image of God is not restamped upon us, but renewed
within us. Christ our life was "begotten of the Holy Ghost," and he
became {107} the fount and origin of life henceforth for all his
church. This communication of the divine life from Christ to the soul
through the Holy Spirit is a hidden transaction, but so great in its
significance and issues that one has well called it "the greatest of
all miracles." As in the origin of our natural life we are made in
secret and curiously wrought, much more in our spiritual. But the
issue has to do with the farthest eternity. "As when the Lord was born
the world still went on its old way, little conscious that one had come
who should one day change and rule all things, so when the new man is
framed within, the old life for a while goes on much as before; the
daily calling, and the earthly cares, and too often old lusts and
habits also, still engross us; a worldly eye sees little new, while yet
the life which shall live forever has been quickened within and a new
man been formed who shall inherit all."[2]
2. _The Spirit of Holiness: Our Sanctification_. "According to the
Spirit of holiness" Christ "was declared to be the Son of God in power
by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1: 4). How striking the
antithesis between our Lord's two natures, as revealed in this passage,
Son of David as to the flesh, Son of God as to the Spirit. And "as he
is so are we in this world." We who are regenerate have two natures,
the one derived from Adam, the other {108} derived from Christ, and our
sanctification consists in the double process of mortification and
vivification, the deadening and subduing of the old and the quickening
and developing of the new. In other words, what was wrought in Christ
who was "put to death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit" is
rewrought in us through the constant operation of the Holy Ghost, and
thus the cross and the resurrection extend their sway over the entire
life of the Christian. Consider these two experiences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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