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"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went
about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with
Him" (Acts 10: 38).
To the believer, the gifts of grace are given in measure, for our capacity is very
limited, but it could be written of the Son of God,
"For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the
spirit by measure unto Him" (John 3: 34).
When the last great act was accomplished at Calvary, here once again the power and
presence of the Spirit must be recognized, for the Apostle wrote:
"Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. 9: 14).
Both the final `offering' and the lifelong freedom from all `spot' are guaranteed by the
Spirit that was given without measure unto Him. Let it be remembered, that if His
redeemed people have been slow to recognize the complete voluntary self-emptying of
the Son of God, the devil was fully aware of its significance and importance, for His first
temptation was that of accomplishing something in the strength of His own inherent
Godhead, an attack upon the very purpose of the Incarnation. However much we may
wish to know the inner secrets of this `mystery of Godliness' they are Divinely hid from
our eyes. When He emptied Himself, the wisdom, knowledge and power that were His
by right were held at His disposal by the Holy Ghost, and given to Him at those crises in
His ministry that demanded them. Even after He had been raised from the dead, `until
the day in which He was taken up', He had through the Holy Ghost given commandments
unto the apostles whom He had chosen (Acts 1: 2). His miraculous birth, with its
accompanying freedom from all taint of Adam's transgression, is attributed to the power
and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. His opening ministry, commission and
proclamation, were directly associated with the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Him. His
subsequent miracles were definitely attributed to the power of the Holy Ghost, even as
His final act of complete self-surrender on the cross of Calvary, was offered `through the
eternal Spirit'. "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11: 27), and all
speculation is unwarranted and approaches blasphemy.
What we are assured of is that from Birth to Death, in Resurrection and Ascension,
every step of the way of the Saviour along the path of His voluntary self-emptying was
safeguarded by the Spirit that was not given by measure unto Him. Most of us have been
given `posers' by objectors, who in their ignorance or their arrogance demand to know
whether the babe at His mother's breast, was at the same time conscious that `by Him all
things were created'. They ask how can it be possible that He Who had made all things
could nevertheless sit weary on a well and ask a woman for a drink. We gladly admit
that we have no need to probe into these sacred things. The persistence with which the
Scriptures introduce the ministry of the Holy Ghost at every turn and crisis has been
written to satisfy the believer once and for ever on all such matters and we rejoice in such
a Saviour, Who acted throughout the whole course of His ministry as One Who `though
He was rich, YET FOR OUR SAKES He became poor' and instead of using this most