Spirit of Holiness as Christ’s Power

The first time we see real holiness in humanity is the holy thing that was in Mary's womb, Christ. And he was holy because he was the tabernacle of God by the Spirit. The Father dwelt in the Son, and the Son dwelt in the Father, and then he was incarnated to be a man that was, on the one hand, fully man, but on the other hand, indwelt with the trying God as the Spirit. The Spirit was his content, and this was the Spirit of holiness. And in resurrection, his flesh was declared to be the Son of God, designated, blossomed into the Son of God with power. How? According to the Spirit of holiness. The Holy Spirit, that is what is God as holiness, saturated his flesh and constituted it with God himself in his resurrection. So it's not that he was not holy before, but somehow through resurrection, there was something more. Hebrews 9.14 is a verse that Andrew Murray made a big deal about, the eternal Spirit. It says, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who offered himself without spot through the eternal Spirit, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God, or purge your conscience? He offered himself without spot through the Spirit, through the eternal Spirit. And what you see develop in the epistles is that Christ offered himself through the Spirit, and Christ today, with the reality of his death and the power of his resurrection, is available as the Spirit. And it's not that the Spirit didn't exist before the incarnation of Christ, but through the incarnation of Christ, and in his resurrection especially, we see the Spirit taking on all these new titles, related to the resurrection of Christ. Everything new was produced in the triune God. What was it? Humanity of Jesus was uplifted and incorporated in, brought in, as the firstborn of many brothers who would follow. So get your mind around that, that this is related to our destiny. And God does want us to be holy and without blemish before him in love. And that's not just a position. We were offered in the body of Christ's flesh through death to be holy, to be without spot and beyond reproach in God's sight. And that's not just positional, that's in reality. We also will be transfigured and changed through resurrection by the Spirit of holiness and declared to be the sons of God, just like Jesus went through that process. The only difference was that he was the uncreated God, the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, and was incarnated, and now we, who were created in time, are going to follow him into glory because he's the captain of our salvation, leading many sons into glory. So again, this is the Spirit of holiness related to the resurrection of Christ and the uplifting of his humanity and the glorification of his humanity. And that is, we'll see at the end of chapter 8, where we already know that God's intention was that he would be the firstborn of many brethren who are conformed to his image and glorified by the same Spirit, by the working of the same Spirit in us, who raised him from the dead, now dwells in us.

It was declaring him to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of Holiness." Now, there's that title, the Spirit, here. First of all, we see it's related to Sonship and Resurrection. And I think we'll see that that theme pretty much is all the way through the first half of Romans up to chapter 8, is that the Spirit in Romans is related to Sonship and Resurrection. And, like I said, the reason we're doing this is because in the different epistles, there are different aspects of the Spirit revealed and what he's doing in us. And what we'll see is that all of the work of the Spirit is to work Christ into us. This one who's the Son of God is to be worked into my being so that I become his duplication not as an imitation, but as a flowering of his life, as an offshoot of his very life in me. So the Spirit of Holiness, first we see that it's associated with the Son of God. Now, if you remember when God created man, he said it was good and blessed them, but he didn't say they were holy. It's kind of interesting. But Jesus, when he came, he was called the holy thing in Mary's womb. And you can look up the word holy thing and I think you'll find it. This holy thing in her womb. This was the first time you see the reality of holiness associated with humanity. Before, there was holiness in the Old Testament through the offerings, right? God can declare something holiness, but it's always related to the blood. It's always related to Christ. But when man was created, he wasn't called holy. Why is that? Didn't God create everything good? Yeah, but good is not the same thing as holy. Holy is God himself. When you see the cherubim around the throne, what are they saying? They're saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. That means he is absolutely unique. I don't even know 100% if I understand what holiness means other than it's God. He is holy. He's life, he's light, he is love, he is righteous, and he is holy. And what we understand that to mean is that it's related somehow to purity, right? But it's a purity that belongs only to God. It is the absolute separateness of his nature from everything that has been created, and everything that is common. And to be holy means to be separated unto him, right? And we understand that the altar was sprinkled seven times with the blood of the burnt offering in the tabernacle, and then whatever was put on that altar was considered to be most holy. And that shows us that it is a matter of union with what that altar represents. Well, Christ is the altar, and we are only holy because of our union with him.

it is the compound spirit that has accumulated everything that Christ has accomplished in his flesh and now that work is a present reality in the spirit and it includes his divinity, his divine attributes, his human virtues, but also the effectiveness of his death with its killing power. Remember we saw in Romans 6 that Christ died to sin once for all, meaning he died for me. He died my death to sin and the death that he died to sin, he died to sin once for all. We can't die to sin, but Christ did and his death is now compounded into the spirit. That's how Paul can say in Romans 8, if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live, and in Galatians later in chapter 6 he says if you live according to the spirit you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Why? Because the killing power of the cross with Christ's death to sin and the effectiveness of that death is now a present reality in the spirit. Just as the blood is in the spirit and speaks on our behalf and can purge our conscience from dead works, like it says in Hebrews 9, how much more shall the blood of Christ who offered himself without spot through the eternal spirit purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The blood is witnessed to by the spirit as a fresh present reality in the spirit. It's all in the fellowship and then the resurrection of Christ. His life is also in the spirit. So when we are filled with the spirit we are spontaneously, simultaneously putting to death the deeds of our body and being enlivened in our spirit and being renewed in our mind and our body then swings into harmony with righteousness and we express Christ. All that's going on. Not by conscious effort but by the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwelling in your mortal body. He also will give life to your mortal body through his spirit that dwells in you. It's resurrection power and it's initiated from God. It's all in the spirit.

And what he's talking about in Ephesians 2 is a continuation of that power. He's still talking about the power which made, raised Christ from the dead, which God operated in Christ. When he raised him from the dead and seated him in his own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principality and power, it says in Colossians that he stripped off the principalities and made an open show of them, triumphing over them in his death and his resurrection. He stripped their hold off of us and he blasted to the heavens like a rocket by the power of God. And he's seated at the right hand of God and he's upheld in the power of God at the right hand of God. He sits on a throne of resurrection. That throne is full of the power that was operating in Christ when God raised him from the dead, which is God's own life. It's his might. It's his glorious might. Paul talks about in Colossians that we would be strengthened with all power according to his, I think, glorious might. That's what we're talking about. It's the glorious might of the almighty God that he exercised when he raised Christ from the dead, seated him at his right hand, and everything is, he's waiting for his enemies to put a, made a footstool for him, right? And he has had over all things to the church, which is his body. And now that power has reached us when we believed we were sealed with the Holy Spirit. That life, that power came into our spirit. And also the authority that surrounds that life entered into our sphere. I mean, everything in your life has been arranged by God and is subjected to his authority. You may not believe it because there's all kinds of negative things, but remember, his power is manifested in our weakness. This is the age where we're still in the body of humiliation. We have a treasure in an earthen vessel. He says, my, you know, I will boast in my weakness so that Christ's power may tabernacle over me. Paul became more and more conscious of the power of God in the resurrected Christ in him, to the point where he wasn't worried by his troubles.

And it's the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And it's for the manifestation of Christ. And He calls that salvation. See, we think salvation is, well, I go to heaven when I die. But salvation, when the apostles preached the gospel, they said, you will receive the promise of the Spirit. And the Spirit is revealed to be ultimately the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And He's for the manifestation of Christ in you. See, Christ in you is your hope of glory. Christ in you is your salvation. Christ in you is your reward. Christ in you is your sanctification. Christ in you is what you discover that causes you to grow. And growing is just to grow in the knowledge of Christ in you. Everything that He is in you, you grow to know and believe. And then as you believe, He becomes more and more manifested in you. Now don't measure what that's going to look like. Just enjoy it. If you try to measure what it'll look like, you'll look at yourself and see if you're doing it. Now you're back under the letter of the law. No. Just enjoy the truth and believe it. Christ is in me. He is the living water. He is the life-giving Spirit. He is the Lord who is the Spirit. He's the Lord Spirit. And He's the Spirit of the, He's the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That Christ may be magnified in my body. And this is my salvation. Ultimately salvation, the redemption of our body, will be Christ being glorified in our body. You know, a lot of people think that the rapture is all these angels coming down and picking us up. No, that's for the elect Jews that aren't regenerated. The rapture is the clothing of our body with the resurrected, glorified Christ and His life where death is swallowed up in life. It is the Spirit in us who dwells in us as a seed, blossoming in us and exploding out of us. That's what the rapture is going to be. It's going to be the transfiguration of our body like unto the body of His glory by the exceedingly great power that operates in us by which He's able to subject all things to Himself. It is an exercise of resurrection power that will bring us into the heavens. And actually that resurrection power has already been exercised. But it's streaming towards us and it's in us. Okay, so Romans 8 is the other one. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. He says, you are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Christ dwells in you. And if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. But if Christ dwells in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Your Spirit, your human Spirit, has been made alive and has even become life because of righteousness. How? Because Christ, the life-giving Spirit, has joined Himself to your Spirit. He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Your Spirit has been awakened and joined to the Lord and has been grafted into the living vine so that His life is in your Spirit. He is in your Spirit. The Spirit is in your Spirit. Listen to that. You are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But if Christ dwells in you, though the body is dead because of sin, your Spirit is life because of righteousness. So it's the Spirit of God, it's the Spirit of Christ, and it's Christ Himself. Do you see that? It's the compound Spirit. It's the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It's the anointing. It's the olive oil with the cashew, the cinnamon, the calamus, and the myrrh. It is the divine Spirit with the humanity of Jesus, with the effectiveness of His death, and the power of His resurrection, with its authority. And that's how God wants to deal with everything in you. The way He deals with Satan is through the Spirit, which is Christ. The way He deals with purification in you, and holiness, is by the Spirit of Christ. The way He renews your mind and transforms you is by the Spirit of Christ. That's why it says, be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. And the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace. Mindset on the things of the Spirit is life and peace. And this is the Spirit of Sonship. There's another one. We have not received the Spirit of bondage to bring us into fear, but the Spirit of Sonship, in which we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. We've been given the Spirit of Sonship, and that corresponds with Galatians 4.6 that says, If you are sons, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. The Spirit of Sonship is what we're partaking of. The Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of Christ, who is Christ Himself in you, which has made your spirit life, is the Spirit of Sonship. And in the Spirit of Sonship is actually Christ Himself taking over your relationship with God and crying, Abba, Father, on your behalf. And when He does, you cry in Him, Abba, Father. And what He means by crying, Abba, Father, is He said in John 17, He would declare the name of the Father to us. He said the same thing in Hebrews 2. I will declare your name among the brethren. What does that mean? I will reveal who you are and what they are, and I'll reveal your love for me in them. I will relate to you from within them, and they will participate in my relationship with you. That's why I make such a big deal about how the love of God has been shed and brought in our heart. And it's the agape love from God that's focused on Jesus Christ. And it's the love of Jesus Christ for the Father as He declares the Father to us. Because that's so much higher and richer than, oh, I need to be loving and I really need to love God. No, it's so much more profound than that. And the Spirit is what makes it real. And that's called the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And there's another one. The love of God and the grace of Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. What is that? It is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit to be the fellowship in you. What fellowship? Well, John says, we write these things to you that you may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the fellowship of the Father and the Son. The eternal fellowship. Our Spirit has been joined to the Spirit, who is the reality of the fellowship. It is God in Christ as the Spirit. And we've been brought into it. We've been brought into Him. Okay, now, what does it mean when He says, if by the Spirit, He says, okay, if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. And He says, if, and one point He says in there, or if you live according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit, you mortify or put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. What does that mean? You know, the monks used to beat themselves to subdue their desires to try to deal with their flesh because they thought that's what mortification was. No, it's by the Spirit. How can the Spirit mortify my body? How can my Spirit, how can the Spirit put to death my body, the deeds of my body? Ah, it's the myrrh. It is the effectiveness of the death of Christ. And it comes through a realization of weakness, okay? Just like the girl, you know, in Song of Songs, my beloved is skipping on the hills, and He said, come follow me. And I tried to put my hand on the door, and I found my hands were dripping with myrrh. I've got no ability to do anything. That is called the death to the law. Through the law, I died to the law that I might live to God. Christ brings you into weakness. Christ orders your situation to bring you into defeat. And while He's doing that, He brings you into a consciousness of your weakness. It's called groaning. And while He's doing that, He's interceding by His Spirit. And He's touched with the feeling of your weakness, and He responds with life. And this is actually how the Christian life and the spiritual warfare is waged. And this corresponds with the spirituality that's described in 2 Corinthians, which is, we who live are always being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. And He says, we are carrying about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. How? By the Spirit, the compound Spirit, who has the reality of the death and the resurrection of Christ as a present, eternal, fresh, powerful reality. So when you partake of Christ and drink of the river and enjoy Him and quench your thirst, He does something. He quickens you. He brings your mind into life and peace. He fills your heart with hope and love. And at the same time, He, by His power, subdues your flesh. That's how you mortify the deeds of the body. It's by enjoying the Spirit. Paul says in Galatians 5, if you walk according to the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Why? Because the killing element of the cross is in the compound Spirit today, who has become the reality of Christ in us, to magnify Christ in our body. Do you see how simple it becomes? It sounds really complex as I'm reading all these verses to you, or I'm just trying to recite them. You need to look them up and meditate on them and sing them and read them and memorize them. These are the overlooked verses in Christianity. You'll never hear this. This is the reality of what's in the Holy of Holies. This is why we need to enter the rest of God. We need to cease from our works and go into the presence within the veil and enjoy Christ as our Sabbath. Because this is what's available, the Spirit of life, the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who is life, the Lord Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound anointing oil. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. How do I put to death the deeds of my body? Well, if you walk according to the Spirit, you'll not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. What does that mean? What does it mean to walk according to the Spirit? Set your mind on the things of the Spirit. What's that? Well, the things of the Spirit are the things of Christ. He takes from Christ and reveals to you. All the things that the Father has given me, and now I say that He will take from me and reveal to you. We'll get to that in John 16, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality, the Spirit who brings the reality of everything that Christ is and has accomplished. To be revealed to us as knowledge, revelation. I'm just, what am I doing? I'm just enjoying this truth. Why did I go for a walk? Because I need a drink. I need a spiritual drink. And how do I get it? Well, I stir up my mind to consider the things of the Spirit. And right now I'm sharing them with you. And you know what? I got a good drink. And do you know what that does? It resets my whole inward being. It washes me. It renews me. This is how you partake of the reality of sanctification. Without this, there is no sanctification. I don't even like to use that word because it's so loaded with religious concepts now. There's no discipleship apart from the Spirit, the risen Christ, who by the way is the Word. And says my Word is Spirit and life. Says if you abide in me and my Word abides in you, you'll be my disciples. You bear much fruit. And he says if you continue in my Word, you'll know the truth and you'll be my disciples. And you'll know the truth and the truth will make you free. You'll know the reality. You could say it is that way. The reality. He's the Spirit of reality. Grace and reality came by Jesus Christ. Moses gave us the law but grace and reality came by Jesus Christ. And then it says of his fullness we have received grace upon grace. Petra did a good message on that. What is grace? Grace is not just something God has done for you apart from you. Grace is God himself as the Spirit as the living water flowing to you. That's why the last words in the Bible are let him who is thirsty come and drink freely of the water of life. And the Spirit and the bride say come. It's an invitation to come and drink freely without price. There is no cost. There's no debt to be paid to get the Spirit. If you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have received the Spirit and he dwells in you and is available to you. You just need to learn to be conscious of him. But he's the Word. You can't know the Spirit apart from the Word. Don't look to experience. Don't look for dopamine and oxytocin releases and the chemicals that the charismatics enjoy stirring up in their body and become addicted to. No. This is beyond that. This is the Spirit who is the Word which is Spirit and life. Which is Christ himself revealing himself to you as life and light. Open up your being when you come to the Word and drink of who Jesus is and acknowledge who he is in you. There's nothing else to do. And it will satisfy you. He will satisfy you. This is the feast. This is the wedding feast. This is the invitation to come. This is the feast that most people will refuse to partake of. It will make the Lord mad. But there's a few who will partake and who will come and eat and drink. Remember what he said to Laodicea? We're in the time of Laodicea, right? He said, I'm knocking at the door if anyone opens to me, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. What is that? That's the feast. That's the fellowship. That's the Spirit manifesting Christ to you to be your food and drink. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Well, what does this mean? Well, the flesh profits nothing. My word is Spirit and it is life. The words that I speak to you are Spirit and life. What words? The words that declare to you who I am and what I've accomplished, the gospel. That is the way you drink the Spirit. But you have to realize that the Spirit brings you the reality of everything Christ did. We think of Christ as up in the heavens and he accomplished everything and I've got to believe that. Yes, but even more, Christ is the Spirit in you and you need to believe that the Spirit is the reality and the realization of the accomplishments of Christ in you as the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to magnify Christ in your body.