Chapter 5
The Glorified Jesus

"He that believes on Me, as the Scripture has said,
'Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'
But this spoke He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him
were to receive:  for the Spirit was not yet because
Jesus was not yet glorified."   John 7 : 37, 38

Our Lord promises here, that those who come unto Him and drink, who believe in Him, will not only never thirst, but will themselves become fountains, from whence streams of living water of life and blessing will flow forth.  In recording the words, John explains that the promise was a prospective one that would have to wait for its fulfillment till the Spirit should have been poured out.  He also gave the double reason for this delay:  The Holy Spirit was not yet; because Jesus was not yet glorified.  The expression:  'The Spirit was not yet...'  has appeared strange and so the word given has been inserted. But the expression, if accepted as it stands, may guide us into the true understanding of the real significance of the Spirit's not coming until Jesus was glorified.

We have seen that God has given a twofold revelation of Himself.  First, as God in the Old Testament and then as Father in the New.  We know how the Son, who had from eternity been with the Father, entered upon a new stage of existence when He became flesh.  When He returned to Heaven, He was still the same only-begotten Son of God and yet not altogether the same.  For He was now also, as Son of Man, the first-begotten from the dead; clothed with that glorified humanity which He had perfected and sanctified for Himself.  And just so, the Spirit of God as poured out on Pentecost was indeed something new.  Through the Old Testament He was always called the Spirit of God or the Spirit of the Lord; the name of Holy Spirit He did not yet bear as His own proper name.  It is only in connection with the work He has to do in preparing the way for Christ, and a body for Him, that the proper name comes into use (Luke 1: 15, 35).  When poured out at Pentecost, He came as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus; the Spirit of the Incarnate, crucified, and exalted Christ; the bearer and communicator to us, not of the life of God as such, but of that life as it had been interwoven into human nature in the person of Christ Jesus.  It is in this capacity specially that He bears the name of Holy Spirit.  It is as the Indwelling One that God is Holy.  And of this Spirit as He dwelt in Jesus-in-the-flesh and can dwell in us in the flesh too, it is distinctly and literally true; the Holy Spirit was not yet. The Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Son of man become the Son of God He could not be until Jesus was glorified.

This thought opens up to us further the reason why it is not the Spirit of God as such, but the Spirit of Jesus that could be sent to dwell in us.  Sin [i.e. that act of disobedience which brought The Knowledge of Good and Evil into the world] had not only disturbed our relation to God's law but to God Himself.  With [loss of] the Divine favor we had lost the Divine life.  Christ came not only to deliver man from the law and its curse, but to bring human nature itself again into the fellowship of the Divine life; to make us partakers of the Divine nature.  He could do this, not by an exercise of Divine Power on man, but only in the path of a free, moral, and most real human development.  In His own person, having become flesh, He had to sanctify the flesh and make it an [acceptable] and willing receptacle for the indwelling of the Spirit of God.  Having done this, He had, in accordance with the law that the lower form of life rise to a higher only through decay and death; in death both to bear the curse of sin and to give Himself as the seedcorn to bring forth fruit in us.  From His nature, as it was glorified in the resurrection and ascension, His Spirit came forth as the Spirit of His human life, glorified into the union with the Divine, to make us partakers of all that He had personally wrought out and acquired.  In virtue of His atonement, man[kind] now had a right and title to the fullness of the Divine Spirit, and to His indwelling, as never before.  And in virtue of His having perfected in Himself a new holy human nature on our behalf, Jesus could now communicate what previously had no existence -- a life at once human and Divine.  From henceforth the Spirit, just as He was the personal Divine life, could also become the personal life of men.  Even as the Spirit is the personal life-principle in God Himself, so He can be it [the life-principle] in the child of God:  the Spirit of God's Son can now be the Spirit that cries in our heart, "Abba, Father."  Of this Spirit it is most fully true, 'The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

But now, Blessed be God! Jesus has been glorified.  There is now the Spirit of the glorified Jesus; the promise can now be fulfilled:  He that believeth on me, out of him shall flow rivers of living waters.  The great transaction which took place when Jesus was glorified is now an eternal reality.  When Christ had entered with our human nature, in our flesh, into the Holiest of all, there took place that of which Peter speaks, 'Being by the right hand of God exalted, He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost.'  In our place, and on our behalf, as man and the Head of man, He was admitted into the full glory of the Divine and His human nature constituted the receptacle and the dispenser of the Divine Spirit.  And the Holy Spirit could come down as the Spirit of the God-man -- most really the Spirit of God, and yet as truly the spirit of man.  He could come down as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus to be in each one who believes in Jesus; the Spirit of His personal life and His personal presence, and at the same time the spirit of the personal life of the believer.  Just as in Jesus the perfect union of God and man had been effected and finally completed when He sat down upon the throne and He so entered on a new stage of existence; a glory hitherto unknown; so too now a new era has commenced in the life and the work of the Spirit.  He can now come down to witness of the perfect union of the Divine and the human, and in becoming our life, to make us partakers of the Divine.  There is now the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.  Jesus has poured The Spirit forth.  We have received The Spirit to stream into us, to stream through us, and to stream forth from us in rivers of blessing.

The glorifying of Jesus and the streaming forth of His Spirit are intimately connected; in vital organic union the two are inseparably linked.  If we would have not only the Spirit of God, but [also] this Spirit of Christ which was not yet but now is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, then it is specially with the glorified Jesus we must believingly deal.  We must not simply rest content with the faith that trusts in the cross and its pardon.  We must seek to know the New Life, the Life of Glory and Power Divine in human nature of which the Spirit of the glorified Jesus is meant to be the Witness and the Bearer.  This is the mystery which was hid from ages and generations but is now made known by the Holy Spirit:  Christ in us -- how He really can live His Divine life in us who are in the flesh.  We have the most intense personal interest in knowing and understanding what it means that Jesus is glorified, that human nature shares the life and glory of God and that the Spirit was not yet as long as Jesus was not glorified.  And that not only because we are one day to see Him in His glory and to be with Him in it; no, but even now, day by day, we are to live in the Glory of Christ. The Holy Spirit is able to be to us just as much as we are willing to have of Him and of the life of the glorified Lord.

This spoke Jesus of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified.  God be praised!  Jesus has been glorified:  there is now the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.  We have received Him.  In the Old Testament only the unity of God was revealed.  When the Spirit was mentioned it was always as His Spirit.  The power by which God was working in the New Testament was not known [in the Old Testament] on earth as a Person.  In the New Testament the Trinity is revealed on "The Day of Pentecost."  On that day the Holy Spirit descended as a Person to dwell in us.  This is the fruit of Jesus' work:  that we now have the Personal Presence of the Holy Spirit on earth.  Christ Jesus, the second adam, the Son, came to reveal the Father and the Father dwelt and spoke in Him.  Now the Spirit, the third Person, comes to reveal the Son, and in The Spirit the Son dwells and works in us.  This is the glory wherewith the Father glorified the Son of man because the Son had glorified Him.  In His Name and through Him, the Holy Spirit descends as a Person to dwell in believers and to make the glorified Jesus a Present Reality within them.  Jesus says that whoso believeth in Him shall never thirst but shall have rivers of waters flowing out of him.  This alone satisfies the soul's thirst and makes it a fountain to quicken others:  the Personal Indwelling of the Holy Spirit revealing the Presence of the glorified Jesus.

He that believeth on me, rivers of water shall flow out of him.  This spoke He of the Spirit.  Here we have once again the blessed Key of all God's treasures:  He that believeth on me.  It is the glorified Jesus who baptizes with the Holy Ghost:  let us believe in Him.  Let each one who longs for the full blessing only believe.  Let us believe in Him that He is indeed glorified; that all He is and does and wishes to do is in the power of a Divine glory.

According to the riches of His glory God can now work in us.  Let us believe that God has given His Holy Spirit and that we have the personal presence of the Spirit on earth and within us.  By this faith the Glory of Jesus in heaven and the Power of the Spirit in our hearts become inseparably linked.  Let us believe that in the fellowship with Jesus the stream will flow ever stronger and fuller, into us and out of us.  Yes.  Let us believe on Jesus.  But let us remember:  thinking on these things, understanding them, being very sure of them, rejoicing in a fuller insight into them, all this, though needful, is not itself believing.

Faith is surrender.  Believing is that power of the renewed nature which, forsaking self and dying to self, makes room for the Divine, for God, for the glorified Christ to come and take possession and do His work.  Faith in Jesus bows in lowly stillness and poverty of spirit to realize that self has nothing and that Another, the unseen Spirit, has now come in to be its leader, its strength, and its life.  Faith in Jesus bows in the stillness of a quiet surrender fully assured that as it waits on Him, He will cause the river to flow.

Blessed Lord Jesus!  I do believe.  Help Thou mine unbelief.   As the Author and Perfecter of our faith, perfect the work of faith in me too.  Teach me, I pray You, with a faith that enters the unseen, to realize what Your glory is and what my share in it is even now according to Thy word:  "The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them."  (John 17 : 22)  Teach me that the Holy Ghost and His power is the glory which You give us, and that You wouldst have us show forth Your glory in rejoicing in His holy presence on earth and His indwelling in us.  Teach me above all, my blessed Lord, to take and hold these blessed truths in the mind, but with my spirit that is in my inmost parts, to wait on You to be filled with Your Spirit.

O my glorified Lord I do even now bow before Your glory in humble faith.  Let all the life of self and the flesh be abased and perish as I worship and wait before You.  Let the Spirit of Glory become my life.  Let His Presence break down all trust in self and make room for You.  And let my whole life be one of faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.  Amen.

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