The Spirit Of Christ

by G. Jarvie, Glasgow | Category: General | Jul 1974

"If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9).

The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit. He it is who testified beforehand through the prophets the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow (1 Pet. 1:11). When Isaiah wrote chapter 53 it was by the Spirit of Christ. Among the last words of David were these, "The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue" (2Sam.23:2).

The Spirit of Christ sets apart the believer for Christ, and if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, then he is none of His. The Spirit's presence is the seal of the believer in Christ.

"Because ye are sons" Paul wrote. "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6). By the Spirit of Christ we say Father". "I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world", the Lord Jesus said in prayer to the Father (John 17:6). How wonderful I He has taught us to call His Father, our Father (John 20:17). This we do by His Spirit, who is the Holy Spirit of God.

"So nigh so very nigh to God,

I cannot nearer be;

For in the person of His Son

I am as near as He."

This is ours by the Spirit of Christ.

Paul was in prison when he wrote his letter to the Philippian saints. What a lonely, friendless place a prison must be! But he was strengthened by the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). Christ was sharing the suffering with His suffering servant, as He had with others when Paul was the persecutor. Paul was now ready that Christ should be magnified in his body whether by life or by death.

A great ministry is fulfilled by the divine Spirit in all the members of Christ. In His strength and comfort the martyrs went to the stake, and those in prison were sustained by Him. We must pray earnestly for those who are imprisoned today for Christ's sake, that His Spirit will abundantly sustain them until their release comes - in death, or in the opening of the prison doors.

Very many of Christ's members, too, suffer in weakness and infirmity, and we may not know His purpose in this. But we do know that the Spirit of Christ can sustain them. How much we owe to the faith of Job in his suffering, and the gems in his words! "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (19:25); "He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (23:10). And Paul wrote, "I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). The Spirit of Christ strengthened him, and he bore branded on his body (as a bondservant) the marks of Jesus (Gal. 6:17).

In the 17th century, while she was in the Bastille Prison in Paris, Madame Guyon wrote,

"Strong are the walls around me

That hold me all the day;

But they who thus have bound me

Cannot keep, God away.

My very dungeon walls are dear,

Because the God I love is near.

We thank God for the divine Spirit in all the members of Christ. He sets us apart for Christ and strengthens us. Not only so, but by Him we are joined in love with all the members, so that when one member suffers all the members suffer. "We love, because He first loved us". How gracious is this ministry of the Spirit of Christ!

G. Jarvie, Glasgow | Jul 1974
General