5
In connection with the momentous event of the resurrection of Christ, which is the basis of Christianity, we
find the whole Godhead engaged. In John 10:17, 18 we have the astounding assertion by the Lord Jesus that He
could and would not only lay down His life when He chose to do so, but also take it again:
`No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again ...'.
He likewise said `destroy this temple (His body), and in three days I will raise it up' (John 2:19). Obviously,
these words could never have been made by mortal man or by any created being. They are another proof that He
combined (mysteriously and seemingly impossibly to us) humanity and deity. No wonder Paul says `great is the
mystery (secret) of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh' (1 Tim. 3:16), God took upon Himself a human body.
Then in Galatians 1:1 we have the statement that Christ was raised by the Father, and in 1 Peter 3:18:
`For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened (made alive) by the Spirit ...'.
So we can say with truth that Father, Son and Holy Spirit combine to conquer death in the resurrection of our
Lord and Saviour, and we hear His thrilling words in Revelation 1:18 :
`I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore',
and as He said to His disciples, `Because I live, ye shall live also' (John 14:19).
In 1 Corinthians 2:9-11 we read:
`... Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God ... even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God'.
The Holy Spirit, being God, can plumb the depths of God, and He is the only One Who can. What created being
can search and discover God to perfection in all His fulness? What a mighty aid then we have in the person of the
Holy Spirit the great Revealer of truth, so that `we might know the things that are freely given to us of God' (1 Cor.
2:12). All this has been conveyed to us through the holy Scriptures which are `words ... which the Holy Ghost
teacheth' (verse 13). The apostle asserts that `the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they
are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned' (verse 14). Unaided
man cannot get to know the things of God.
In other words we, as believers, are shut up to the revealing power of the Holy Spirit working upon the holy
Scriptures, and it is by this alone that we receive a knowledge of the truth lying behind the words contained in the
Word of God, as we humbly read and seek divine illumination and understanding. Like the Psalmist of old we must
continually pray:
`Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law' (Psa. 119:18).
Let us get this quite clear. Divine enlightenment cannot come from theological courses or by any special
methods of study by themselves. It can only come from the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:13-19) the
great Revealer of the truth He Himself has caused to be written.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
The creative work of Genesis 1.
While creation is always linked with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Scriptures (John 1:3; Col. 1:13-17), yet His
work was combined with that of the Holy Spirit:
`And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters' (Gen. 1:2).
Just as we have this in connection with the material creation, so it is with reference to the spiritual creation, as
we shall see later on in this study.