Jesus Glorified - the Spirit Given

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - Entering Into the Values of Pentecost

"Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his inner man shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:37-39).

(1) The Expectation of the Spirit

Reading: Psalm 24; Acts. 2:32-36; 10:36-44.

That statement, "The Spirit was not yet given..." surely carries with it some great implication in the light of all that has gone before connected with the Holy Spirit. There are eighty-eight references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament; there are twenty-two out of the thirty-nine books which speak of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was given to the Lord Jesus, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit". In the Old Testament we read, "the Spirit came upon..." and then we are told, "...the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified". It evidently means that something much greater, much more definite than had ever been known in relation to the Holy Spirit was yet to be.

Think of Samson, king Saul, Gideon, the workers for the tabernacle, and see the result of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon them. We might covet their experience, but when all are put together into one great story, with Ezekiel and all the rest, you have still to read, "...the Spirit was not yet given...". God made a promise to Abraham, and in Galatians we are told that promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, "that we might receive the Spirit". So we are brought by this statement to a tremendous expectation. That which was to come when John wrote this history, when Jesus lifted up His voice on that last great day of the Feast, was to transcend all that had been known of the Spirit and make it almost as nothing.

Surely the Lord would have us face the tremendous possibilities in the light of His Word and place ourselves right into this expectation - not of another Pentecost, but of entering into the values of Pentecost, and in faith to believe that God means in this dispensation for His church something more than was ever known at most in the old dispensation.

(2) Jesus Glorified: the Ground in Which the Spirit is Given

"The Spirit was not yet... because Jesus was not yet glorified". It is all bound up with and related to Jesus being glorified. This is the key to everything; this explains the whole doctrine of the Holy Spirit and of the work of the Spirit.

It was on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus spoke about the rivers flowing from within as expressive of the Holy Spirit's fulness. At the celebration of that Feast, for seven days water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and poured out on the temple pavement. It was done in remembrance that over a perfect period God had maintained them in life throughout the wilderness journey. On the eighth day the water was not drawn, because that day represented the day of entering into the land in which there were the springs of living water, the fulness of life. In type Israel was now in the land, though historically they were far from that in spiritual experience.

The Lord Jesus steps right into the midst, gathers up the eighth day into His own person and takes the place of the land, the fulness, and says, "He that believeth on Me" shall, in effect, find springs, rivers within, flowing out, and "this spake He of the Spirit...".

The glorifying of the Lord Jesus is, all-inclusively, God filling Him with all fulness. When the Lord Jesus returned, those heavenly messengers, waiting at the portals, commenced to chant:

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors;
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle."

He is returning from the fray, and when He comes in Paul tells us God fills Him with all fulness. He had gone down and emptied Himself of that fulness to accomplish this great work, and then He returns and as the King of glory enters in, the fulness is poured into Him. "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell". That is the glorifying of the Lord Jesus. Because God did that, Peter says: "He hath poured forth this which ye see and hear". The Holy Spirit is the fulness of Christ. Because He is at God's right hand exalted, because He has filled Him and thus glorified Him, the Spirit can be given. So the land comes into view with Jesus glorified. It is all God's fulness for His people.

(a) Redemption Accomplished

Jesus glorified means redemption is accomplished. That means that everything has been taken back to where God's purpose was interrupted, and at that point a securing of everything against a further interruption. The Lord Jesus, emptying Himself, went right back to the point at which God's purpose was broken in upon, took things up there, and from that point redeemed unto God all that which had been taken from God.

Redemption is not that we get something back; it is God who gets something back. "Redeemed unto God...". There are sinister factors behind man's separation from God. For anyone not to see to God's claims is to mean nothing less than robbing God. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost". It was the great universal "that" of which God was robbed. That is redemption and what is so much more is the second half of the statement: that there was a securing against a further interruption. The Redeemer is glorified at God's right hand. If you can tear down God's throne you can undo redemption. There is not one who has ever laid a hand upon that throne with any success. The work of redemption is settled in heaven. "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors (it is superlative) through Him that loved us".

(b) A Man Perfected

We notice again when and where the interruption took place, and what was bound up with it. Adam was made not perfect, but capable of being made perfect; innocent, but not holy; capable of holiness (holiness always being positive not negative) by the exercise of volition Godward. He was put on probation, tested, failed. He never was perfected, and because he came short of the glory, God could never give to that man the Spirit of Life, eternal life. Jesus goes back to that point just before man failed, and there was let loose upon Him, also in probation, all those forces in the universe inimical to God's intention for man. He met them through such years of suffering as we know nothing about. A little of it was seen in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that was going on through His life. He met it all, overcame it, and broke it. It exhausted itself upon Him, and by His own blood He overcame.

He was made perfect through sufferings as a man - albeit Son of God - and as perfected Man He is glorified. God has given Him the Spirit, and He has poured forth this Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the great divine expression of the fact that God has got His end in a Man. So, Man perfected, Man triumphant, received the Spirit of Life. The Holy Spirit is given on the ground of Jesus perfected as man and now in the presence of God.

(c) Headship Vested in the Son of Man

Jesus glorified means that He, by God, is set as Lord and Head of the new creation, and upon the basis of Jesus Christ being Lord and Head, the Holy Spirit is given. That has some practical outworkings. That was the testimony at Pentecost and in its counterpart at Caesarea. At Pentecost Peter said, "God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, being at the right hand of God exalted". At Caesarea Peter said, "He is Lord of all". On both occasions - two halves of one thing, the Jewish and the Gentile - the Holy Spirit fell. Jesus is Lord, and that spreads itself over everything. Inclusively it means that Jesus has got to be Head in our wills, our reason has to bow to His Headship.

The Holy Spirit is given when God has His end. The Holy Spirit is given when we enter into God's end. God's end is Christ. Redemption is accomplished. There is nothing that God has yet to do. Faith must joyously appropriate and appreciate that!