The Communion of the Spirit

The Ministry of the Spirit, By A.J. Gordon
Chapter 
Women's Bible Study Class

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This month's study, digs into the intimacy with the Spirit, and begins on Page 98.

"In his intimate union with his Son, the Holy Spirit is the unique organ (vessel) by which God wills to communicate to man his own life, the supernatural life, the divine life—that is to say, his holiness, his power, his love, his felicity (happiness). To this end the Son works outwardly, the Holy Spirit inwardly."—Pastor G. F. Tophel.

Our relationship to the trinity is more important and powerful than to one who is betrothed.  There is no room for another.

Romans 8:1-2
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Nothing is hidden from you if you have perfect (complete) faith (with no doubt) and the love of Christ.  These are the beginning and end of life. – Ignatius

Page 99
The word "communion"—choinônia—signifies the having in common. It is used of the fellowship of believers one with another, and also of their mutual fellowship with God.

But this having in common with the first two persons of the Godhead were only possible through the communion of the Holy Ghost, the third person.

As the Son while on earth communicated to men the spiritual riches of the invisible Father, so the Spirit now communicates to us the hidden things of the invisible Son; ……we should say that it is to make true in us that which is already true for us in our glorified Lord.

Pg 100
It will be our (the authors) endeavor in this chapter to count up our hid treasures in Christ, and to consider the Spirit in his various offices of communication.

1. The Spirit of Life: Our Regeneration. (Our salvation-primary)

​But when he rose from the dead and sat down on his Father's throne, he became the life-giver to all his mystical body, which is the church.

Christ on the throne is really the heart of the church, and every regeneration (one saved or renewed) is a pulse-beat of that heart in souls begotten from above through the Holy Spirit. The new birth therefore is not a change of nature as it is sometimes defined; it is rather the communication of the Divine nature, and the Holy Spirit is now the Mediator through whom this life is transmitted.
 
Pg 101
It has been the constant dream and delusion of men that they could rise to heaven by the development and improvement of their natural life (self-help; religion). Jesus by one stroke of revelation destroys this hope, telling his hearer that unless he has been begotten of God (born again) who is above as truly as he has been begotten of his father on earth, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

​Pg 102
In the opening of the Gospel of John we find the Son of God in holy fellowship (communion) with the Father. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God", “pros ton theon”—not merely proceeding from God, but tending toward God by eternal communion. Conversion/salvation restores man to this lost attitude: "Ye turned to God, “pros ton theon,” from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9). Regeneration restores man to his forfeited life, the unfallen life of the Son of God, the life which has never wavered from steadfast fellowship with the Father.
 
Pg 103
By no process of evolution, however prolonged, can the natural man be developed into the spiritual man; by no process of degeneration can the spiritual man deteriorate into the natural man. These two are from a totally different stock and origin; the one is from beneath, the other is from above. There is but one way through which the relation of sonship can be established, and that is by begetting.

That God has created all men does not constitute them his sons in the evangelical sense of that word. The sonship on which the New Testament dwells so constantly is based absolutely and solely on the experience of the new birth, while the doctrine of universal sonship rests either upon a daring denial or a daring assumption—the denial of the universal fall of man through sin, or the assumption of the universal regeneration of man through the Spirit.

Universal sonship – universalism is ‘devoted to evil’ (anathema)
 
Pg 104
Here are the two streams of life contrasted:

1. The corruption in the world through lust.
2. The Divine nature which is in the world through the incarnation.

​Here is the Adam-life into which we are brought by natural birth; and over against it the Christ-life into which we are brought by spiritual birth. From the one we escape (the natural), of the other we partake (the spiritual). The source and issue of the one are briefly summarized: "Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." James 1:15 – NLT - These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
 
Pg 105
He adds: "The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life." John 6:63  - NLT - The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. As God in creation breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul, so the Lord Jesus by the word of his mouth, which is the breath of life, recreates man and makes him alive unto God.

Pg 106
The life of God can alone beget the likeness of God; the divine type is wrapped up in the same germ (seed) which holds the Divine nature. Therefore in regeneration we are said to have "put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col. 3:10), and "which after God hath been created in . . . true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
 
Pg 107

1. The Spirit of Holiness: Our Sanctification. (Process and progress)

"According to the Spirit of holiness" Christ "was declared to be the Son of God in power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4). How striking the antithesis between our Lord's two natures, as revealed in this passage, Son of David as to the flesh, Son of God as to the Spirit. And "as he is so are we in this world."  1 John 4:17 – NLT - And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. We who are regenerate have two natures, the one derived from Adam, the other derived from Christ, and our sanctification consists in the double process of mortification (shame and humbling) and vivification (giving of life), the deadening and subduing of the old and the quickening and developing of the new. In other words, what was wrought in Christ who was "put to death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit" is rewrought in us through the constant operation of the Holy Ghost, and thus the cross and the resurrection extend their sway over the entire life of the Christian.

Consider these two experiences.

This must be intentional in our lives.  It can only be achieved by daily prayer, time in the word of God, Bible Study, sitting under godly teaching, etc.  Sanctification is a process and will not happen if we are not intentional with it.
 
Pg 108
Mortification (shame and humbling) is not asceticism (self-discipline). It is not a self-inflicted compunction, but a Christ-inflicted crucifixion. Our Lord was done with the cross when on Calvary he cried: "It is finished." John 19:30 – NLT When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit..  But where he ended each disciple must begin: "If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  Mark 8:34 NLT Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

These words, so constantly repeated in one form or another by our Lord, make it clear that the death-principle must be realized within us in order that the life-principle may have final and triumphant sway.

Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT
19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the LORD, you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

We have a choice to make.  Death or life, blessings or curses.  It is our decision.
 
Pg 109
There are three deaths in which we have part:

1. Death in sin, our natural condition. 
2. Death for sin, our judicial (legal) condition.
3. Death to sin, our sanctified (ultimate goal) condition.

1. Death in sin, our natural condition - "And you . . . who were dead in trespasses and sins," "And you being dead in your sins" (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13). This is the condition in which we are by nature, as participants in the fall and ruin into which the transgression of our first parents has plunged the race. It is a condition in which we are under moral insensibility to the claims of God's holiness and love; and under the sentence of eternal punishment from the law which we have broken. In this state of death in sin Christ found the whole world when he came to be our Saviour.

Pg 109-110

1.   Death for sin, our judicial condition.  The sentence we deserve

"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ" (Rom. 7:4). This is the condition into which Christ brought us by his sacrifice upon the cross. He endured the sentence of a violated law on our behalf, and therefore we are counted as having endured it in him. : "Because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died" (2 Cor. 5:14, R. V.). Being one with Christ through faith, we are identified with him on the cross: "I have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20, R. V.). This condition of death for sin having been effected for us by our Saviour.

Old Testament vs New Testament Issue:  Jesus fulfilled the requirements and consequences of that law for us.  However His work didn’t erase the OT requirements of righteousness and holiness, God’s desire for order, or His worship. This causes a lot of misunderstanding today.

1. Death to sin, our sanctified condition.

"Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11, R. V.). This is the condition of making true in ourselves what is already true for us in Christ, of
 
Pg 111
(Powerful statement) It is the Spirit of God overcoming our fleshly nature by his indwelling life, on whom is our sole dependence. Our principal care therefore must be to "walk in the Spirit" and "be filled with the Holy Spirit and rest will come spontaneously and inevitably.

One cannot fail to see that asceticism (severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons) is an absolute inversion (upside down or opposite) of the Divine order, since it seeks life through death instead of finding death through life.

Romans 8:1-2
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
 
Pg 112
The indwelling of the Spirit can alone effect the exclusion of sin. This will appear if we consider what has been called "the expulsive power of a new affection." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," says the Scripture. 1 John 2:15 – NLT - Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  But all experience proves that loving not is only possible through loving, the worldly affection being overcome by the heavenly.

The divine life is the SOURCE of divine love.
 
Pg 114
The author gives an example of the artist Raphael's painting, The Transfiguration.  Someone else could try and paint an identical copy, but the heart behind the work will not be there, as it was with Raphael. 

And this in a mystery is what is true of the disciple filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ, who is "the image of the invisible God," is set before him as his divine pattern, and Christ by the Spirit dwells within him as a divine life, and Christ is able to image forth Christ from the interior life to the outward example.  We are to re-image Christ.

Of course likeness to Christ is but another name for holiness, and when, at the resurrection, we awake satisfied with his likeness (Ps. 17:15), we shall be perfected in holiness. This is simply saying that sanctification is progressive and not, like conversion, instantaneous.
 
Pg 115
The disciple is required to be consciously and intelligently active (intentionality) in his own growth, as a tree is not, "to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure." 2 peter 1:10
 
It is possible that through a neglect and grieving of the Spirit a Christian may be of smaller stature in his age than he was in his spiritual infancy, his progress being a retrogression rather than an advance. Therefore in saying that sanctification is progressive let us beware of concluding that it is inevitable.
We can go backwards in our sanctification if we are not intentional.  We can become spiritually immature after becoming spiritually mature, if we allow the world to come in.  We can literally get to the point where we walk away from God if we aren’t intentional.
WARNING
Moreover, as candid inquirers, we must ask what of truth and of error there may be in the doctrine of "instantaneous sanctification," which many devout persons teach and profess to have proved. If the conception is that of a state of sinless perfection into which the believer has been suddenly lifted and of deliverance from a sinful nature which has been suddenly eradicated, we must consider  - 

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