Looking for His appearing


5. Basic principles to consider

The theme of the Bible.

The theme of the Old Testament is “Someone is coming!” Every prophet of the ancient times looked forward through the ages to the Coming One. Moses began the theme,
3:15 NRSV) Iwill put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Malachi told of one coming

(Mal 4:2 NRSV)But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

The New Testament also speaks of someone coming. Philip sought out Nathaniel with the startling greeting, “Come and see!

(John 1:45 NRSV) Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

The whole Bible centres in the Person of One who was to come, who did come, and who continues to come.

Israel had looked for the coming of the Messiah none had any idea of how that coming would be accomplished. They did not expect a lowly virgin birth or a teacher at variance with their organized religion and their established doctrines. The supernatural ministry of healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead was a surprise. They had no acceptance of an ignominious death by crucifixion followed by a startling resurrection and ascension into heaven.

All these things were contrary to their expectations and their established interpretations of the prophets. The glory of the coming of Christ was so different from cherished beliefs and too fantastic to be true. It is possible that modern Christians are viewing the Bible completely “out of focus” in the same way.

The Lord well be revealing many things that concern the return of our Lord Jesus Christ Such unveiling will reveal what has been kept concealed and it may also be outside our preconceived ideas..Theprinciple of God’s ways are not our ways still applies.

The threefold principle

22:19-21. “That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to you this day, even to you. Have not I written to youexcellentthings in counsels and knowledge, that I might make you know the certainty of the words of truth; that youanswer the words of truth to them that send to you?”

The word “excellent, as used here, is the Hebrew word SHALISH meaning three-fold, or weighty. Young’s Literal translation renders it, “Have I not written to you three times with counsels and knowledge?” A free translation would run, “Have I not written to you three-fold things?” These are the excellent things of God. These are weighty things, things which have depth upon depth upon depth in their meaning. This three-fold principle is brought out again and again as the Spirit unfolds the truth appointed for His overcoming company.

Hidden in the old and revealed in the new

First the physical then the spiritual

“Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual” (ICor.)

Israel: first came the law and then came grace. First the temple inbuilt of stone, and then theofcomposed of living stones built up as a habitation of God through the Spirit.
The end of the old is the beginning of the new: and out of that which is destined to pass away there comes that which is destined to remain.

The principle of transformation

(Jer’m Bible II Cor. 3:15-18) “Yes, even today, whenever Moses is read, the veil is over their minds. It will not be removed until they turn to the Lord. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, with our unveiled faces, reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is the Spirit.”

The principle of transformation means we reflect the brightness of the Lord like mirrors, and we will continue to do so until we are transformed into that bright image we now reflect.
(Rom 8:29 NRSV)For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
We are predestined to be as the image of His Son.” We are to become as the Son who is that Spirit

(2Cor NIV) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Moffatt’s translation: “‘The Lord’ means the Spirit.”
The Weymouth Translation, “Now by ‘the Lord’ is meant the Spirit.”
Young’s Literal Translation:: “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
The Amplified Bible: “Now the Lord is the Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit was “Not Yet”

(John 7:38 -39 NRSV) and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” {39}Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; foras yet there was no Spirit,because Jesus was not yet glorified.
(John 7:38-39 KJV) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. {39} (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive:for the Holy Ghost was not yetgiven; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

The promise was future until its fulfilment at Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out. There were two reasons for the delay: The Holy Spirit was not yet and Jesus was not yet glorified.

The King James Version reads, “For the Holy Ghost was not yet “given”; because Jesus was not yet glorified.” However the word “given” is in italics, so the word is not in the original, but is inserted to clarify what the translators perceive as the meaning. Omitting the added word the passage reads: “The Spirit was not yet; because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The expression: the Spirit was not yet, had appeared strange, and so the word “given” was inserted. But the expression, if accepted as it stands in the Greek New Testament changes the meaning.

Jesus promise of “another Comforter,” has as a basic truth,” the Spirit was not yet”
“For the Spirit was not yet; because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (Weymouth Translation). The manifestation of God as the comforter did not and could not exist until Jesus had ascended. This is intimated in Psa 68:18 (NIV) When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious– that you, O Lord God, might dwell there.

This does not mean that the Holy Spirit did not exist prior to the glorification of the Son of man, for the term “Holy Spirit” signifies “the Spirit Who is holy”, the everlasting God
(John 4:24 NIV)God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
However the manifestation of God as the abiding comforter was not possible until Jesus was glorified for the scriptures teach that He proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The Counsellor

“When the Counsellorcomes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

(Acts 2:33 NIV) Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

This is combining almighty power with mediatory and intercessory grace.

(Heb. 2:16-18). “For He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to bemade like His brethren,that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted”
(Heb. 4:15 ).” For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”
(Acts).”Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has shed forth this that you both see and hear.
(8:26-27).” And now of the Spirit which we have received of Him it is attested, “Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities”, making “intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered”

The intercession of the Spirit is the intercession of the Christ, for “the Lord is that Spirit.” This is the intercessory aspect of the Spirit peculiarly related to the priestly ministry of Jesus developed in Him in the days of His flesh, and without which there would be no consolation in Christ, comfort of love,fellowship with the Spirit or tender mercy and compassion.
When the Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, He came not only as the Spirit of the eternal God, but also as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. The Spirit of the crucified, resurrected, ascended and exalted Christ, the bearer and communicator to us, not only the life of God but of that life as it had been interwoven into human nature in the person of Jesus. This could not be until Jesus was glorified.

God is a Spirit, and there is only “one Spirit.” The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are the one Spirit. The Lord is that Spirit.

“But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (8:9).
“And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).
“There is one body,and one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4).

Christ came not only to deliver man from sin and the law and its curse, but to bring human nature itself into the fellowship of the celestial life, to make us partakers of the divine nature. In His own person, having become flesh, He was to sanctify the flesh, and make it a worthy and willing receptacle for the indwelling Spirit of the Father God.

Having done this, He had, in accordance with the law that a lower form of life can rise to a higher, only as it is seized upon and transformed by the higher life, prepared Himself by death to give Himself as the seed to bring forth fruit in us.

From His nature, as He brought His humanity into subjection to the Spirit, as it was then glorified in the resurrection and ascension, His Spirit came forth as the Spirit of His human life, glorified into the union with the Divine, to make us partakers of all that He had personally wrought out and acquired, of Himself and His glorified life. On our behalf He perfected in Himself a new and holy manhood.

He could now communicate what previously had no existence – a life at once human and divine! Jesus having been glorified there is now the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of God.

This Comforter, “another Comforter”, is the Spirit of God in a dimension that did not and could not exist until Jesus had been glorified. He is indeed the eternal Spirit, the ever living Almighty God, but tempered, (so to speak), by the feeling of our infirmities wrought out in the days of His flesh; that the very flesh and blood of Jesus, with all His life of suffering and submission, have been combined with resurrection life and sent to dwell in us, and that this is what Jesus meant when He said,

“Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you … He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me. and I in him. It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing” (Jn).

The Comforter is NOT a being or influence separate from the Father and the Son.

“He that loves me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas (brother of James) said to Him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? Jesus answered,Ifa man loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.”

He promise is that the Father and the Son will come to those who truly love our Lord Jesus. This coming will be a MANIFESTING OF HIMSELF – a revelation and a personal relationship distinct from any they had received or could receive (Judas is asking how He will show himself to them in a way the world is not able to see ) during His earthly ministry hence “another Comforter” but still in one sense the same Jesus.

The manifesting is another of the many ways in which JESUS comes again.