The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 134

THE MEDIATOR

94

rendered one mighty act of obedience by humbling Himself unto death and out of that humbling He ascended not by powers developed from His human nature, but by a mighty and extraordinary act of the power of God. Any one who successfully under;

no more than draw the For the divine nature has no history, does not run through a process of time, but remains the same fortook to write the

picture of His

life

of Christ could do

human nature.

evermore.

However,

this does not prevent us

the need of our limitations, in what

from inquiring, according to

manner

the

human

nature of

was developed. And then the Scripture teaches us that there was indeed growth in His human nature. St. Luke relates that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Hence there was in His human nature a growth and development from the less unto the greater. This would have been impossible if in the Messiah the divine nature had taken the place of the human ego; for then the majesty of the Godhead would always and completely have filled the human nature. But this was not the case. The human nature in the Mediator was real, i.e., in body and soul it existed as it exists in us, and all inworking of divine life, light, and power could manifest itself only by adapting itself to the peculiarities and limitations of the human nature. When maintaining the mistaken view that the development of sinless Adam would have been accomplished without the aid of the Holy Spirit, it is natural to suppose that the sinless nature of Christ Christ

did equally develop itself without the assistance of the Spirit, of

God.

But knowing from the Scripture that not only man's

gifts,

powers, and faculties, but also their working and exercise are a result of the work of the Holy Spirit, we see the development of

human nature of Jesus in a different light and understand the meaning of the words that He received the Holy Spirit 7vithout ffieasure. For this indicates that His human nature also received the Holy Ghost; and not this only after He had lived for years without Him, but every moment of His existence according to the measure of His capacities. Even in His conception and birth the Holy Spirit effected not only a separation from sin, but He also endowed His human nature with the glorious gifts, powers, and faculties of which that nature is susceptible. Hence His human nature received these gifts, powers, and faculties not from the So;? by communication from the divine nature, but from the Jloly Ghost the

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