The greatest gift conferred by God upon the believer is that of the Holy Spirit. But the Love that gave the Son for us has found no difficulty in giving the Holy Spirit to us. Before ever the arena was entered on our behalf, it was well known to infinite Love all that would be required to effect our deliverance. But nothing has been more than Love could give, and nothing has been more than Love could do. All that God could do was needful, and all that He could do He has done.
“Love that no suffering stayed,
We’ll praise, true love divine;
Love that for us atonement made,
Love that has made us Thine.”
The Holy Spirit is that seal of God upon us, marking us off as His own. And this gift we receive on believing the gospel of our salvation. It is by this means that God takes possession of us for Himself. Whatever, therefore, we may have to pass through on our heavenward journey, we may boastfully say, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Tribulation may seem to darken our pathway, but the love of God is ever the light and warmth and comfort of our hearts, and therefore shall we fear no evil. It is not a question of our ability to keep ourselves; this we could not do, no—not for a moment: We “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1).
The Holy Spirit is also the “Anointing,” or “Unction,” on account of which we can be said to “know all things” (1 John 2). By Him the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5). By Him we know that we are children of God, and by Him we can cry, Abba, Father (Rom. 8). By Him we know that the Son is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us (John 14:20). By Him we are able to apprehend the things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard—the things that God prepared before the world for the glory of them that love Him (1 Cor. 2). By Him we have access to the Father, and in His power worship, pray, and serve (Eph. 2:18; Jude 20; Luke 24:49). By Him we are able to mortify the deeds of the body, and live to God, and the fact that He dwells in our bodies gives us the assurance of their quickening at the coming of our Lord (Rom. 8). By Him also we have been baptised into one body, of which Christ is the glorious head (1 Cor. 12). He is also the earnest of the inheritance, the pledge that we shall one day come into possession of all that is ours in Christ (Eph. 1). He inspires us with the utmost confidence in the God in whom we have put our trust, that He has not only purposed to bring us home to glory, but that He is well able to accomplish all that He undertakes. We can tread the desert sands with the boast rising continually from our rejoicing hearts, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established” (Ex. 15:17).
We cannot rightly touch the things of God in this dispensation except by the Spirit of God. The tabernacle set up by Moses in the wilderness was sprinkled with blood and anointed with oil. And this was but a figure of the tabernacle pitched by the Lord. Everything is set up on the ground of redemption. This is set forth in the blood. And everything in connection with the service of God is in the power of the Spirit. This is set forth in the anointing of everything with oil. The service of God cannot be engaged in except in the energy of God’s Spirit. The day of carnal ordinances has passed forever. The preaching of the gospel is in the Spirit’s power (1 Peter 1:12), as is every other service in connection with the true tabernacle.