Who is the Word, The Holy Spirit, God, Jesus, The Son?

"Declared the Son of God with power"

Romans 1:4.

How manifold, and how attractive for us are the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, which are set forth in the Holy Scriptures, each shining in its own peculiar lustre, and bringing from God the features of His Beloved One, in which He would have His saints find their pleasure and joy. Among these varied glories there are those which belong to Jesus as the Son of God, spoken of by the Holy Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments. Seven quotations from the Old Testament are given in Hebrews 1, a chapter particularly occupied with presenting the glories of the Son of God, and two of these seven mention the Name "Son." The first is from the Second Psalm, where the Name of the Son is coupled with His title of King of Israel. Nathaniel recognised the Lord Jesus as the One promised in this Psalm, when he said, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel." Martha also discerns the Lord in this way, when she says, "Lord; I believe that Thou are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world" (John 1:49; John 11:27). The second quotation, "I will be to him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son," was spoken by God to David concerning Solomon, but with Christ in view (2 Samuel 7:14). The first Scripture brings out the regal glory of the Son of God as heir to the throne of David; the second the intimacy of the relationship in which the Lord Jesus would be as Man with God. The relationship of Son to a Father was not only an eternal relationship in the unity of the Godhead; it was also the relationship in which He would be with God, as born of the Holy Spirit, and as promised to David regarding His son.

There are many passages in the Gospels which speak of Jesus as Son of God. The glory of His Person as unknown and unknowable to man is found in Matthew 11, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27). Because of Who the Son is, there must of necessity be in His Person a holy mystery that mortal cannot enter into; only the Father can know the Son in this way; Him who, in His own Person, is God and Man. Mark's Gospel records the events of the faithful Servant of God doing His will while passing through this world, and in the opening verse of this divine record we have these words, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." The same blessed Person who, in the mystery of His Person, is unknowable, has come to serve God in the place of obedience to fully accomplish His will. In Luke's Gospel where the spotless and perfect humanity of Jesus is specially emphasised, the Evangelist writes, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Here we have the fulfilment of the Scriptures quoted from the Old Testament; the Lord is Son of God, whether viewed in Godhead or in Manhood; the Person is the same, and the relationship is the same, whether the Son is found in time or in eternity. John's Gospel clearly brings out the truth of this last statement. In John 1:14 Jesus' glory is contemplated as "the glory as of an only-begotten with a Father;" but in John 1:18 He is "the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." The former verse refers to the glory in which the disciples viewed Him as Son on earth; the latter to the glory of the Person in His eternal relationship, as ever dwelling in the Father's bosom.

The Apostle Peter had a special revelation from the Father as to Who Jesus was, for it was not flesh and blood that taught Him that He was "The Christ, the Son of the Living God." Nor did Peter forget the scene, or the voice, of the holy mount, when Jesus received "from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (2 Peter 1:17).

Paul had his own peculiar revelations of the Lord, and his own particular administration of divine grace. The first words concerning his service for the Lord are, "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is Son of God" (Acts 9:20). How deeply the impression of the glory of Jesus was engraved on the heart of the erstwhile persecutor of His church. But with the impression of the glory, there was the deep impression of His love, for he wrote to the Galatians of Him as "The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). When writing to the saints at Colosse, the Apostle by the Spirit reveals Jesus, the Son of the Father's love, in a wonderful array of glories. One of these glories, in which Jesus is so blessedly displayed to us, is what belongs to Him in resurrection; He is "The Firstborn from the dead;" and it is in connection with the truth of resurrection that Paul thinks of Jesus as "The Son of God with power."

Without doubt, the many miracles performed by the Lord Jesus witness to the divine power that belonged to Him. "Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did" (John 2:23); and even Herod "hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him" (Luke 23:8). But the crowning sign of the divine power in the Son of God was the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and this it was that brought from the lips of the chief priests and the Pharisees, gathered in council, the words, "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles" (John 11:47). Jairus's daughter had been brought again to life after being in the power of death for a little while; the widow of Nain's son was raised on the way to the tomb; but Lazarus had been in the grave for four days, and was stinking, before the mighty resurrection power of the Son of God brought him to life again.

No thoughtful reader of Scripture can fail to see the special place that the Holy Spirit gives to the raising of Lazarus in the divine record. The first words of the Lord on receiving the message of the devoted sisters telling of the sickness of their brother, are "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Death was not the end God had in view in allowing sickness to invade the loved home at Bethany; He would allow death to enter, but that it might be the means of securing His own glory in relation to it, and to manifest that Jesus was "The Son of God with power;" "the resurrection and the life."

Not only did the Lord Jesus display His power in resurrection, but He spoke, in John 5, of how He would exercise His power as Son of God in the resurrection of the just and the unjust. He said, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. … Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" (vv. 25, 28, 29). The first hour spoken of includes the present day, when those who are spiritually dead are quickened into divine life through hearing the life-giving voice of the Son of God; but the "hour is coming" looks forward to two resurrections, "the resurrection of life," when the saints of God shall be raised and taken to heaven; and "the resurrection of judgment," when the wicked dead shall be raised to appear before Christ at the great white throne. At both of these resurrections, the Lord Jesus will be "declared the Son of God with power."

In Ephesians 1:19-20, the Apostle desires us to know "What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." Resurrection displays the mighty power of God, as also the power of the Son of God. Then Romans 6:4 teaches that "Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father;" while 1 Peter 3:18 attributes the resurrection of Christ to the Holy Spirit. All three Persons of the Godhead are concerned with the resurrection of Christ. We have seen how God the Father intervenes, and how the Holy Spirit acted; but in John 2 the Lord said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up … but He spake of the temple of His body" (vv. 19, 21). Again, in John 10, the Lord says, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father" (vv. 17, 18). Do not these verses in John bring to our notice that, in His own resurrection, the Lord Jesus is demonstrated to be "The Son of God with power?"

Such Scriptures as Ephesians 4:8-10, where the Lord Jesus, in His great power enters into the domain of the enemy, and ascending, leads captivity captive; and Colossians 2:15, where, "Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," bring Christ before us as "The Son of God with power."

We see then that Jesus was manifested as Son of God with power, here on earth, in the resurrection of the dead, especially in the raising of Lazarus. His own resurrection was its supreme demonstration, for it was there He "annulled death" (2 Timothy 1:10), and annulled him that had the power of death. It will shortly be declared in raising His saints, and finally and fully evinced in the resurrection of the unjust. On earth, but few witnessed His raising the dead; above five hundred saw Him after His own resurrection; the resurrection of the just will be a secret thing so far as this world is concerned; but the final resurrection of the wicked dead will display the mighty power of the Son of God before the whole universe.

In the manger Jesus was the Son of God in infant weakness; at Sychar's well the Son of God was weary; in Gethsemane the Son of God is found in deepest grief and anguish; on the cross it is "The Son of God Who loved me, and gave Himself for me;" but in manifesting His might in resurrection He is "The Son of God in power."

If Jesus is "Declared the Son of God with power," it is "according to the Spirit of holiness." The power by which He raised the dead was the same power through which He lived in this world for the glory and pleasure of God. The Spirit of holiness caused Him to weep at the grave of Lazarus, and to groan in spirit, where so soon His power was to be revealed; it made Him shrink from the cup of divine judgment and death, even although He had determined to enter into the domain of death to destroy its power.

As born of the virgin, having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, He was "that holy thing." As passing through this world He was "justified by the Spirit," being "holy, harmless, undefiled." On the cross He, "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God." How the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was marked by the Spirit of holiness; in all that He was, in all that He did, and in every word that He spoke.

How marked is the contrast between "The Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness," and anti-christ, "whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness." The divine power in the Son of God is demonstrated in raising from the dead; the diabolical power of antichrist is used for the destruction of men, body, soul and spirit.

The Obedience of Faith.

Paul's joy and boast were in the Gospel of God. So therefore it addressed itself to the obedience of faith; not by this meaning practice, still less according to the measure of a man's duty, but that which is at the root of all practice — faith — obedience — obedience of heart and will, renewed by divine grace, which accepts the truth of God. To man this is the hardest of all obedience; but when once secured, it leads peacefully into the obedience of every day. If slurred over, as it too often is in souls, it invariably leaves practical obedience lame, halt, and blind.