MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
July 10, 2024
The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 18
BETTER THAN PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE CREATOR’S INCARNATED NATURE
Jesus said to His first disciples (all emphasis supplied):
“BELIEVE ME that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me FOR THE VERY WORKS SAKE. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that BELIEVETH IN ME, the WORKS that I do shall he do also; and GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL HE DO, because I go unto My Father. . . . And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you ANOTHER COMFORTER, that He may ABIDE WITH YOU FOREVER; even the Spirit of truth.” John 14: 11, 12, 16, 17.
“Go ye therefore, and TEACH all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them observe ALL THINGS I have commanded you: and, lo, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD.” Matt. 18: 19, 20.
- How could the disciples “do greater things than Jesus their Master, verily God in the flesh, did? Surely He who is “the way, the TRUTH, and the life” spoke nothing but the truth. So what did He really mean?
- How could they remember all that He taught in order for them to teach these “to all nations” after He returned to the Father, when on several occasions they could not even understand His parables? He even said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” John 16:12.
- Since He was soon to die at Calvary, resurrect “on the third day” and forty days later (Acts 1: 1-3; 1 Cor. 15: 1-8, etc.), in the presence of the Twelve, visibly ascend to heaven in His glorified incarnated human nature—how could He promise them He would still be “with them alway even unto the end of the world?”
Ah! All these and much more would be enabled and accomplished through the divine power of the Third Person of the Godhead, Christ’s invisible presence in and through His Successor on earth after His ascent, according for the divine plan of redemption. Because “these three [Persons] are one” (1 John 5:7, A.V.) the “fullness of the Godhead” resides both in the Father and the Holy Spirit, but in Christ the only-begotten, “it pleased the Father that “in Him should dwell all the fulness of the Godhead BODILY” (Col. 2: 9; 1:19) both in the work of Creation (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1-3, 10; Col. 1: 13-18; Heb. 1: 1, 2, 8-12; the work of Redemption, beginning in “the mystery of godliness in the incarnation. Furthermore, Christ alone is “the brightness of the glory” and EXPRESS image of the person of the Father” (Heb. 1: 2, 3)!
E. G. White, God’s servant, magnifies these precious truths (all emphasis and bracketed words mine):
“Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim [the Lamb of God], Christ sought for the MOST ESSENTIAL AND COMPLETE GIFT to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of GRACE. [John 14: 16-18 quoted].
“BEFORE THIS the Spirit had been in the world [since beginning of creation]; [and then] from the very beginning of the work of redemption He had been MOVING UPON MEN’S HEARTS. But while Christ [in His adopted human nature from the incarnation] was on earth, the disciples had desired no other Helper. Not until they were DEPRIVED of His [physical, visible] PRESENCE would they FEEL their need of the Spirit, and then He would come.
“The Holy Spirit is Christ’s Representative [Successor; Vicegerent; Vicar], but DIVESTED OF THE PERSONALITY OF HUMANITY, and INDEPENDENT thereof.
“CUMBERED with [the natural limitations of] HUMANITY, Christ COULD NOT BE IN EVERY PLACE PERSONALLY. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His Successor on earth. NO ONE could then have ANY ADVANTAGE because of his LOCATION or his PERSONAL CONTACT with Christ. By the [Holy] Spirit He would be ACCESSIBLE TO ALL. In this sense He would be NEARER TO THEM than if He had not ascended on high.” - Desire of Ages, pp. 668-9, Pacific Press Publishing Asso., New Edition, 1950.To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.