The Work Of The Holy Spirit In Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the perfect example of the Holy Spirit’s complete work in a person’s life. He was conceived, empowered, led, taught, and even raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit, accomplishing His ministry through the Spirit's power. This same Spirit is available to believers today for living victoriously, serving God, and overcoming sin.

Jesus Christ Himself is the one perfect manifestation in history of the complete work of the Holy Spirit in man.

1. Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke 1:35. “And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God.” As we have already seen, in regeneration the believer is begotten of God, but Jesus Christ was begotten of God in His original generation. He is the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16). It was entirely by the Spirit's power working in Mary that the Son of God was formed within her. The regenerated man has a physical nature received from his earthly father and a new nature conveyed by God. Jesus Christ had only the one holy nature, that which in man is called the new nature. Nevertheless, He was a real man as He had a human mother.

2. Jesus Christ led a holy and spotless life and offered Himself without spot to God through the working of the Holy Spirit. We read in Hebrews 9:14, “How much more wi ll the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Jesus Christ met and overcame temptations as other men may meet and overcome them, in the power of the Holy Spirit. He was tempted and suffered through temptation (Hebrews 3:18), He was tempted in all points like we are (Hebrews 4:15), but never once in any way did He yield to temptation. He was tempted entirely apart from sin, but He won His victories in a way that is open for all of us to win victory, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. Jesus Christ was anointed and fitted for service by the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” In a prophetic vision of the coming Messiah in the Old Testament we read in Isaiah 61:1 “ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound ” In Luke's record of the earthly life of our Lord in Luke 4:14, we read “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.”

Similarly, Jesus said of Himself when speaking in the synagogue in Nazareth, “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. ” (Luke 4:18 -19.). All these passages contain the one lesson that it was by the special anointing with the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ was qualified for the service to which God had called Him. As He stood in the Jordan after His baptism, “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon H im,” and it was then and there that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, baptized with the Holy Spirit, and equipped for the service that lay before Him. Jesus Christ received His equipment for service in the same way that we receive ours, by a definite baptism with the Holy Spirit.

4. Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit in His movements here upon earth. We read in Luke 4:1, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.” Living as a man here upon earth and setting an example for us, each step of His life was under the Holy Spirit's guidance.

5. Jesus Christ was taught by the Spirit who rested upon Him. The Spirit of God was the source of His wisdom in the days of His flesh. In the Old Testament prophecy of the coming Messiah we read in Isaiah 11:2- 3, “ And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear .” Further on in Isaiah 42:1, we read, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. Etc .” Matthew tells us in Matthew 12:17 -18 that this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

6. The Holy Spirit abode upon Jesus in all His fullness, and the words He spoke as a result were the very words of God. We read in John 3:34, “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure .”

7. After His resurrection, Jesus Christ gave commandments unto His Apostles whom He had chosen through the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 1:2, “ Until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen .” This relates to the time after His resurrection, and so we see Jesus still working in the power of the Holy Spirit even after His resurrection from the dead.

8. Jesus Christ performed His miracles on earth in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 12:28, we read, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons” It is through the Spirit that miracle working power was given to some in the church after our Lord departed from this earth (1 Corinthians 12:9-10), and in the power of the same Spirit, Jesus Christ performed His miracles.

9. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. We read in Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” The same Spirit who is to quicken our mortal bodi es and is to raise us in some future day raised Jesus. Several things are evident from this study of the work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ: First of all, we see the completeness of His humanity. He lived and He thought, He worked, He taught, He conquered sin and won victories for God in the power of that very same Spirit whom it is our privilege also to have.

In the second place, we see our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit. If it was in the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, lived and worked, achieved and triumphed, how much more dependent are we upon Him at every turn of life and in every phase of service and every experience of conflict with Satan and sin?

The third thing that is evident is the amazing world of privilege, blessing, and victory that is open to us.

The same Spirit by which Jesus was originally begotten is at our disposal for us to be begotten again of Him. The same Spirit by which Jesus offered Himself without spot to God is at our disposal that we may also offer ourselves without spot to Him. The same Spirit by which Jesus was anointed for service is at our disposal that we may be anointed for service. The same Spirit who led Jesus Christ in His movements on earth is ready to lead us today. The same Spirit who taught Jesus and imparted to Him wisdom and understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord is here to teach us.

Jesus Christ is our pattern (1 John 2:6), “the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). Whatever He realized through the Holy Spirit is for us to realize today.

THE END