Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Dec 1959

In our search after the knowledge of God, we find that as we approach nearer to New Testament times the fact of the Trinity of Persons, as implied in the name Elohim (God, plural), becomes more evident. This is especially so in Isaiah, who writes much about Jehovah's Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. The well known passage in Isaiah 61. 1, which was quoted by the Lord in the synagogue in Nazareth, says, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me." Lord GOD here is Adonai Jehovah. The Jewish people now would read this as Adonai Adonai, as they never repeat the name of Jehovah, superstitiously regarding that name to be too holy, and lest they be guilty of taking the name of Jehovah in vain. "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD (Jehovah) thy God (Elohim) in vain; for the LORD (Jehovah) will not hold him guiltless that taken His name in vain" (Exodus

20.7).

In this passage in Isaiah 61.1 the Trinity is clearly seen. There we have the Spirit, the Lord GOD, and Me, the Lord Jesus. Nothing could be clearer than that we have here a Trinity of Persons, unless we should be so blinded by heresy as to say that the Spirit is only an influence and not a Person at all then we have only two Persons, the Lord GOD and the Lord Jesus We do not wish to enter upon the subject of the personality of the Holy Spirit and we would just say in passing that in personality we must have three things, mind, will, and emotion We read in Romans 8.27, "the mind of the Spirit In 1 Corinthians 12 11 we have the will of the Spirit, and in Romans 15. 30 the love of the Spirit and in Ephesians 4.30 we have the grief of the Spirit Thus the Holy Spirit has the qualities and characteristics of personality and we would declare our faith that we emphatically believe that the blessed Holy Spirit is a Person, and that He is co equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Son.

In Isaiah 48.10 we have the Lord Jesus again speaking this time of His being the sent One of God; He says Come ye near unto Me hear ye this from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time that it was there am I and now the Lord (Adonai) GOD (Elohim) hath sent Me and His Spirit The A.V. translates this, "Now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit hath sent Me This rendering leaves us in no doubt as to the part that the Holy Spirit had in the sending of the Lord into this world as Jehovah 5 Servant Indeed we are glad to see that the translators of the A V believed in the personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit, as in this verse, by printing Spirit with a capital S. He who is the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God (John 1.1), is shown by the words of Isaiah to have spoken from the beginning, but not to have spoken in secret. Amos, speaking of the Lord's ways says, "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets " (Amos 3.7). Here in the sending of Christ into the world we see the Trinity in action.

The same fact, as seen in Isaiah 61.1, is seen again, in Isaiah 11.2. Here Jehovah's Servant is the Shoot and Branch from the roots and stock of Jesse, emphasizing the Lord's humanity. It says that "the Spirit of the LORD (Jehovah) shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD (Jehovah)." Thus we see again the Trinity, in the Spirit, Jehovah, and the Lord Jesus the Shoot out of the stock of Jesse. It perhaps need hardly be said that this Shoot, the Seed of David, is also the Son of God (Romans 1.3, 4).

These facts are further emphasized in the words of Jehovah, in Isaiah 42.1, Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen, in whom My soul delighteth:

I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles." This putting the Spirit upon the Lord took place at His baptism in the Jordan, as we have it in all four Gospels, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form as a dove and abode upon Him. In the power of the Holy Spirit He went forth to accomplish the work which God had given Him to do, and this He did perfectly to the glory of God. Never was there, nor could there be, such a servant. He delighted to do God's will, His scent, as Isaiah 11.3, R.V.M. says, was in the fear of Jehovah, ever seeking out what would please His God, and never deviating from the path of obedience. Let us follow Him !

In the happy employment of seeking the knowledge of God by means of His names we come to the New Testament. Here we enter as into a beautiful and fruitful sunlit valley, where we may move around at will, enjoying, through the sight which God has given to us in our once blinded eyes, the delectable things which are spread out before us. Was there ever such a book as this? Never, and nowhere within the knowledge of man is there such a volume containing twenty seven books by different writers. Here is the fullest revelation of the Divine Being made to man in the present time. No one can doubt that there will be a further revelation of God for man, when for him time shall be no more, and especially so for His saints, but for the present human life we have all here that we need or could desire.

The covenant name of God, in the covenant which He made with Abraham, was God Almighty (El Shaddai) (Genesis 17. 1); His covenant name to Israel was Jehovah (Exodus 6.3, 4); and now today the covenant name of God is Father. It is not that He ceased to be God Almighty when He revealed Himself to Israel as Jehovah, nor is it implied that when He revealed Himself as Father by His Son, who is eternally in His bosom (John 1.18), He ceased to be either God Almighty or Jehovah. Father is the name in which God's children are taught by the Lord Jesus, the Son, to call God; "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name" (Matthew 6.9), and also we are taught by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God's Son, to cry, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8.15 ; Galatians 4.6). We approach to the Father through the Son and in the Spirit (Ephesians 2.18). In my opinion any approach to the Divine Being, any speaking to one of the Persons of the Trinity, which implies one and not the Holy Three is fundamentally wrong. I say this after long meditation on the subject of approach to God. I do not further enter here on this subject.

Nothing could be clearer in regard to the coming of the Lord from heaven to earth than that this was the result of the action of the Trinity. Let those who toy with the idea, or are deeply steeped in it, that our blessed Lord only became the Son of God by His birth of Mary in Bethlehem consider well Galatians 4.4:

When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, horn of a woman, born under the law. Where did He send Him forth from? and where did He send Him forth to? When these questions are answered, then the further question may be asked as to the Holy Spirit, where was He sent forth from? We know that He was sent into the hearts of believers. But where was He sent forth from ? The answers must be that both the Son and the Spirit were sent forth from the presence of God in heaven. In the one case the Son was sent forth and was born of a woman, and the Spirit was sent forth into our hearts. Neither the Son nor the Spirit became the Son and the Spirit through or consequent upon being sent forth. Such facts should be clear enough to such as take, in the simplicity of faith, the Scriptures as written.

The New Testament Scriptures are replete with references to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the baptism formula disciples at the Lord's command were to be baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28.19). In the saintation of Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13.14, he says,

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." In John's salutation to the seven churches in Asia, he says, " Grace to you and peace, from Him which is and which was and which is to come ; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne ; and from Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1.4, 5). It will be seen that the order in which the Persons of the Trinity arc placed is different in these three instances. When men speak or write of the first, the second and the third Person of the Trinity, it must not be taken that there is any inferiority in one being described as the second or the third Person. It simply means that' the Father is first among equals, and as we have seen from the scriptures quoted, the Father is not always first, the Son is not always second and the Holy Spirit is not always third.

In this profound subject of the knowledge of God, the most profound in all revelation, we must ever bear in mind that the Lord Jesus who became Man to be the Servant of God, never ceased to be God. He was still in the form of God though He took the form of a bondservant (Philippians 2. 7).

J. Miller | Dec 1959
Jottings