In The Spirit

It is said of the Lord, in Matthew, in connexion with His temptation, that He was" led up of the Spirit into the wilderness " (Matthew 4.1). Another translation reads that He "was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit" (hupo tou pneumatos, which means that He was led under the Spirit's control or direction). In Mark 1. 12 it says, "And straightway the Spirit driveth Him forth into the wilderness." How powerful is the thought here, that the Lord was driven out (ekballo, to cast out or eject by force) into the wilderness by the Spirit! In Luke 4.1, 2 it says that He "was led by (en in) the Spirit in (en in) the wilderness during forty days." The condition or state in which He was led was "in the Spirit," and the place where He was led was" in the wilderness." Luke's words cover the Lord's experience during the whole forty days of the temptation, whereas Matthew and Mark view only the Spirit's power which led Him into the wilderness into the place of the temptation.

Though the Lord had known a unique birth in that through the Spirit's power, as described so modestly in Luke 1.26-38, God had prepared a body for His Son (Hebrews 10.5) as well as a human spirit and soul, the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism in dove-like form (Luke 3.21, 22), and by Him He was anointed (Acts 10.38) for His public ministry.

It is important in regard to ourselves that we should clearly understand the great change that took place at the time when we were born again. Previous to that blessed experience we were in the flesh, and the spirit (the prince of the power of the air) that now worketh in the sons of disobedience wrought in us upon the flesh, that evil corrupt nature in which we were, to bring forth sins of which we can only be ashamed in the memory of them. But, thank God, at the time of the new birth, we were delivered from the flesh as it says in Romans 8.9: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The Lord needed no such experience, for He was holy from conception and birth. He was never in the flesh nor was the flesh ever in Him, that is the flesh viewed as that evil sinful nature inherited by all mankind, save the Son of Man. Romans 8.9 describes that which is continuous and permanent in the experience of the believer, but "in the Spirit" as used in Revelation 1. 10; 4. 2 17. 3; 21. 10, describes a blessed state which is not continuous; though the former is always ours, may we know a little of the latter -to see and hear things in the Spirit which all may not see and hear.

unknown | Oct 1954
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