The Interrelationship Of The Holy Spirit And Jesus Christ

Ignorance is the worst form of knowledge and assumption is never a fact. If I was to give you a map to a secret treasure, a treasure

that was so valuable that it would completely change the

way you live at present, you would be willing to

learn some

things about the geography of the place where it was

hidden and about the various modes of transportation by

which a person could get there, and about other skills that

might be needed to actually get the treasure into your

hands. Well, there is a secret treasure, more valuable than

any money or jewels or possessions. And it will completely

change the way we live. But there’s some learning we have

to do first, learning that will give you access to something

that makes all the difference in the world.

We’ve been studying the Holy Spirit. In this article we will

examine the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus

Christ. It is quite striking how intertwined their ministries

are. And it is amazing how much there is in the Bible about

this.

There are three great episodes in the relationship between

the Holy Spirit and the ministry of Jesus. And each one of

the three episodes signals a great transition.

In fact, the life of Jesus can be divided by three great

developments in this relationship with the Holy Spirit. First,

Jesus is conceived by the Spirit in Mary's womb (Luke

1:35). Then, He is anointed by the Spirit at the Jordan

River. Finally, He receives the Spirit at His exaltation in

order to pour out the Spirit upon His church. Let’s look at

each one of these three...

Incarnation

In Luke 1:35 Gabriel says to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will

come upon you, and the power of the Most High will

overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring

shall be called the Son of God." In Matthew 1:18, 20 we

learn that "Mary ... was found to be with child by the Holy

Spirit." and that "... that which has been conceived in her is

of the Holy Spirit."

What does this mean? It means that a human nature was

miraculously wrought by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the

virgin Mary, formed in perfect holiness. In prior studies we

have seen that the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity

whose role it is to deal directly with men. And so it

shouldn’t surprise us that the Spirit is the One who comes

and does this miraculous deed. This was the transition of

the incarnation: the Son of God becoming the Son of Man.

Baptism

But another transition occurred when Jesus was thirty

years old. Up until that point Jesus had done no preaching,

he had performed no miracles. Except for the fact that He

was morally perfect, he had lived a rather normal life. But

now He is ready to transition into His public ministry, and

we come to the next great Holy Spirit event in the life of

Jesus. Luke 3:21-22 tells the story: "Now it came about

when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was

baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like

a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, "Thou art My

beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased."" After this

something has changed. From this point on Jesus is

spoken of as being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Luke 4:1 picks up the story, "And Jesus, full of the Holy

Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the

Spirit in the wilderness." Luke 4:14 says, "And Jesus

returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news

about Him spread through all the surrounding district." And

in Luke 4:18 Jesus Himself says, "The Spirit of the Lord is

upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to

the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the

captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free

those who are downtrodden." From this point on we see

that the whole life of Jesus is lived in the power of the

Holy Spirit.

It is interesting that as soon as He received the Spirit, He

began to do miracles: healing, casting out demons, etc.

(Luke 4:33-41). Even the strength to face death came

through the Holy Spirit, for in Hebrews 9:14 we read,

"...how much more will the blood of Christ, who through

the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,

cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the

living God?" Jesus was also raised from the dead by the

power of the Spirit (see 1 Peter 3:18, Rom. 1:4 and 8:11).

After the resurrection, He continued to minister by the

power of the Holy Spirit. For example, Acts 1:2 refers to

"the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy

Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen."

It is also interesting to note that God had told John the

Baptist how to recognize the coming "anointed one": it was

the One who was anointed by the Spirit:

John 1:32-33 "And John bore witness saying, ‘I have

beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and

He [the Spirit] remained upon Him [Jesus]. And I did not

recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water

said to me, "He upon whom you see the Spirit descending

and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in

the Holy Spirit."’" "Remaining upon Him" in this verse is very

significant. Up until now the Spirit had come in whatever

measure was necessary for whatever time was needed for

a certain task to be done. But now He comes and remains.

And now He comes without measure: John 3:34 says "For

He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He

gives the Spirit [to Him] without measure."

What’s going on here? What does it mean that Jesus was

filled with the Spirit? Why did Jesus need the Holy Spirit? It

wasn’t in terms of personal righteousness. Jesus was

perfect. It was in terms of power. It was to equip Him with

supernatural powers for His great work.

It was by the Spirit's power that He performed signs and

wonders (Matt. 12:28; Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38), it was by the

Spirit’s power that He cast out demons (Matthew 12:28),

and it was by the power of the Spirit that He proclaimed

the gospel (Luke 4:18; Matt. 12:18; Acts 1:2). Just as He

was directed not by His own agenda, but by His Father's

(John 5:19-20,30; 8:26-29,42; 14:10,24), so He was driven

not by His own power, but by the Spirit's. Jesus was sent to

earth by the Father with a mission to fulfill. When the time

for the mission arrived, God gave Him the Spirit to

empower Him to fulfill the mission.

But why would the Son of God need the power of the Holy

Spirit? It was not the divinity of Jesus but His humanity

that was being anointed and that needed the power of the

Holy Spirit. In Acts 10:38 Peter says, "You know of Jesus of

Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and

with power, and how He went about doing good, and

healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was

with Him." When it says "God anointed Him" it literally

means, "God made Him Messiah." The Greek word for

anoint is chrio, which is where christos comes from,

meaning "one who has been anointed" or "anointed one."

Christos is the Greek word for the Hebrew messiah, both

words meaning anointed one.

This is the same thing that is happening in Luke 4:18: "The

Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to

preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim

release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set free those who are downtrodden..." (See also Acts

4:27.)

At the moment of His baptism, in one sense, Jesus

became the "anointed one," i.e., the messiah. Now He is

referred to as the Christ before this (e.g. Matt.2:4, Luke

2:11), but even those designations seem to be pointing

primarily ahead to this point when He would be anointed by

the Holy Spirit at the Jordan. Although this may sound

strange to our ears, it would seem that messiahship is a

function or office that Jesus assumed at His baptism. He

was the One promised of old who would receive the Holy

Spirit in a peculiar way. Centuries of human history had

proven that man on his own strength could not be what he

needed to be. But now a Man was sent who was not going

to live by human power but by the power of God’s Spirit.

And in this way He would succeed where all the others had

failed.

Even though

Jesus had been alive for about 30 years, the Kingdom of

God was still something future for John the Baptist. But

once the Spirit had come upon Jesus, all attention turned

to Him and the time was now fulfilled.In the OT, God had

promised David that his son would be king of Israel, and

that his son's kingdom would be an everlasting one. Now,

Jesus, the Son of David (Matt. 1:1, 21:9), is anointed as

King of Israel in fulfillment of this Davidic promise. So, in

one sense when the King was anointed it marked the

coming of the Kingdom. (Probably this anointing was also

for the offices of prophet and priest - see Heb. 5:5-6; it is

very interesting that Jesus did not function in any of these

three roles until after His baptism by John.)

And so Christ's baptism in the Spirit at the Jordan was not

only a change in Jesus Himself in terms of empowering. It

was also a change in salvation history. A new creation had

begun, a new covenant was being established, a new age

was entered into. At His baptism Jesus entered into a new

age, an age into which He would eventually lead His people

at Pentecost.

Pentecost

All through the ministry of John the baptist and Jesus

Himself, there was an expectation that at some point in the

future Jesus would give the Holy Spirit to His followers.

Each gospel includes verses like Luke 3:16 where John the

baptist says, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but One

is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie

the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy

Spirit and fire." And Jesus continued this theme that John

began. Just ten days before Pentecost He said to His

disciples, "John baptized with water, but you will be

baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from

now." (Acts 1:5, Cf. Acts 11:16)

Well, on the day of Pentecost what had been long

anticipated finally happened. The disciples were baptized

with the Holy Spiirt. Speaking of Jesus, Peter declared to

the gathering crowd at the pouring out of the Spirit at

Pentecost, "having been exalted to the right hand of God,

and having received from the Father the promise of the

Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see

and hear." (Acts 2:33)

As one reward for the successful completion of the

mission Christ was given the Holy Spirit to pour out on His

followers to empower them to continue to fulfill the task

that He had begun. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit must

be viewed as part of Christ’s work, just like His teaching

and His miracles and His atoning death and His

resurrection and His ascension. In fact, in many ways it is

the climax of all He came to do. It is what all the rest was

for. Just as the Spirit came down upon Christ's physical

body at the Jordan, now Christ pours the Spirit down upon

His churchly body at Pentecost. What Jordan was to Christ,

Pentecost was to Christ's followers.

Jesus and the Ministry of the Holy Spirit

We have talked about the Holy Spirit’s role in the ministry

of Christ, let’s now talk about Christ’s role in the ministry

of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s role is to glorify and confirm

Christ to His people. We see that clearly in the words

Jesus spoke in John 16:12-14 "I have many more things to

say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He,

the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the

truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but

whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to

you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take

of Mine, and shall disclose it to you." (Cf. John 15:26

where Jesus says of the Spirit that "He will bear witness of

Me.")

JI Packer calls this the Holy Spirit’s "floodlight ministry."

Here’s what he says, "When floodlighting is well done, the

floodlights are so placed that you do not see them, you

are not in fact supposed to see where the light is coming

from; what you are meant to see is just the building on

which the floodlights are trained...This perfectly illustrates

the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the

hidden floodlight shining on the Savior...The Spirit’s

message to us is never, ‘Look at me; listen to me; come to

me; get to know me,’ but always, ‘Look at Him, and see

His glory; listen to Him, and hear His word; go to Him, and

have life; get to know Him, and taste of His gift of joy and

peace.’ The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the

celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and

Christ together and ensure that we stay together. As the

second Paraclete, the Spirit leads us continually to the

original Paraclete, who Himself draws near...through the

second Paraclete’s coming to us."

Christ with/in Us Today through the Holy Spirit

In John 14:16-20 Jesus says, "I will ask the Father, and He

will give you another Helper, that He may be with you

forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot

receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but

you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in

you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but

you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In

that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in

Me, and I in you."

Notice the italicized parts. Jesus is talking about the fact

that after His ascension to heaven He will be with His

disciples through the Holy Spirit. In John 14:20 He says to

His disciples, "In that day you shall know that I am in My

Father, and you in Me, and I in you." After the Holy Spirit

comes, they will know three things:

That Jesus is God and now with God again in glory

That through being in Christ they are saved

That Christ is in them through the Holy Spirit

In the familiar words of Matthew 28:20 Jesus says, "...lo, I

am with you always, even to the end of the age." How is

Jesus with us until the end of the age? Once again, it is

through the Spirit. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been

crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but

Christ lives in me." How does Christ live in us? Through the

Holy Spirit! In two places the Holy Spirit is actually referred

to as "the Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8:9 and 1Pet.1:11).

1Corinthians 15:45 says it this way: "So also it is written,

‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam

became a life-giving spirit." Jesus is referred to as a life-

giving spirit. What does this mean? Jesus lived His life and

now comes back to us, not in body but in Spirit, that is, in

the Holy Spirit, who is the giver of spiritual life to us.

Conclusion

If Jesus needed the Spirit, how much more do we! This

helps us to see how much our lives are supposed to

involve the Holy Spirit. Perhaps some readers have

concerns such as this: Does all this talk about the Holy

Spirit diminish our focus on Jesus? Isn’t Jesus the One that

really matters? Aren’t Christians who talk all the time about

the Holy Spirit just asking for more than Jesus? If

focussing on the Holy Spirit distracts a Christian from

Jesus then it is not the Spirit working at all.

When the Spirit works, He points to Jesus. There are not Holy-Spirit-

empowered Christians and Christ-centered Christians.

When the Holy Spirit gets hold of a Christian he makes him

a Christ-centered Christian. The person who thinks most

highly of Jesus, the one who adores Him and exalts Him

and obeys Him the most, is the person who is most filled

with the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is at work in

a person’s life, then He will be drawing their attention to

Christ and exalting Christ in their eyes.

How do you tell which movements and which churches

have more of the Holy Spirit today? It is those which exalt

Christ the most. The vast majority of the Holy Spirit’s

ministry is imperceptible. He doesn’t draw attention to

Himself. He points to Christ.

Jesus is with us. We have real fellowship with Him. As it

says in 1John 1:3, "indeed our fellowship is with the

Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." There is no

difference between the Holy Spirit in you and Jesus in you.

Christ is present in us through the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is

better for us now than when Jesus walked on the earth.

This is what Jesus said in John 16:7: "I tell you the truth, it

is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away,

the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send

Him to you." That’s how significant the coming of the Holy

Spirit is!