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"This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3: 16, 17).
This baptism of the Spirit is recorded in each of the four Gospels. Following this
baptism and confirmation we read:
"And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness" (Mark 1: 12),
there to be tempted of the devil, there to overcome not by the employment of His innate
Deity, but as the humblest of His followers may do, to overcome by the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God. His threefold `It is written' was all sufficient to defeat
the attacks of the devil. This `test' moreover set the course of all the Saviour's
subsequent ministry. He reiterates that the doctrine He taught was not His own, but that
He spake the words that had been given to Him. Of all the preachers and teachers that
have ever spoken in the name of the Lord, this Beloved One surely could have spoken out
of His own heart. What He could have done we may not know, but what He did, and did
willingly we do know, and rejoice one more in this great condescension. When He took
the `form of a servant' it was no piece of theatricals. From first to last it could be written
of Him `He pleased not Himself', He came to do the will of Him that sent Him. Luke's
Gospel says:
"And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness" (Luke 4: 1).
"And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame
of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being
glorified of all" (Luke 4: 14, 15).
Immediately following this statement, comes the Lord's public acknowledgment that
He was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, thus to preach.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel
to the poor" (Luke 4: 18).
Following this opening proclamation in the synagogue of Nazareth, comes a long
series of miracles and mighty works. These too are attributed to the power and presence
of the Holy Spirit.
"If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you"
(Matt. 12: 28),
and so important is the fact that these miracles were the work of the Holy Ghost, the
Saviour proceeds to make one of the most solemn pronouncements of His ministry.
"Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world, neither in the world to come" (Matt. 12: 32).
Peter summed up this aspect of the Saviour's ministry, saying: