T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

The Promise of the Father

"Oh, to be like Thee, Lord, I am coming Now to receive the anointing divine!"

That last clause might well be taken to compass and cover what we are going to consider at this time - the "anointing divine". We will look at one or two fragments of Scripture. The gospel by Luke chapter 24, at verse 49: "And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high".

In the book of the Acts, chapter 1, and verse 4: "And, being assembled together with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said He, ye heard from Me; for John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence".

In chapter 2 at verse 33: "Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear".

And in the letter to the Galatians chapter 3, verse 13: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree; that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith".

You will have noted that the coming of the Holy Spirit is so frequently referred to as "the promise of the Father", and if you study the contextual references to that phrase, you will find that the gift of the Holy Spirit was a promise with a very long history - that is, it dates right back to Abraham. Paul has here in this one fragment stated quite plainly and definitely, that the promise made to Abraham would have its fulfilment by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That promise of God was repeated again and again through the Scriptures, and it revived, or had a special emphasis, in the prophets. You will find that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Joel and Zechariah have something quite strong to say about the coming of the Spirit; the Day of the Spirit.

"The promise of the Father..." a long-standing promise, and therefore, a long-standing hope. The point, of course, which is so impressive, is this, that while Christ is the central and the supreme figure and centre in all the Scriptures, all the meaning and value of Christ in every respect was only made effective here by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself said that would be so: If He "did not go away, the Spirit would not come"; it was "expedient that He should go away" for that very reason; surely indicating and implying that all that He had come to do, and did, waited for its practical effectiveness here upon the coming of the Spirit. Christ's life, Christ's work, and Christ's power as Son of Man here, was dependent entirely upon the anointing. He fulfilled all His ministry in dependence upon the anointing, by all that the anointing meant. That was true in His case (and the Word of God bears that out abundantly) the same is true, if it was true in His case it must be, if possible, all the more true (certainly equally true) in the case of the church: the church's life and work, ministry, and power rest solely upon the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And what is true of the whole, is true of every part, every individual. We may have everything that Christ has said and done, we may have it all, and it mean nothing without the anointing. That, of course, is well-known from the fact that He had given His teaching in great fullness; He had done His mighty works, He had lived His wonderful life, He had died His tremendous death, He had risen again in triumph over death. And we might think that's enough to get on with and to go out with, but at that very point, with all that present, He says: "Tarry": "Don't go yet; don't go yet, depart not from Jerusalem yet, wait, yet, that is not enough!" "Till the Spirit comes". That is tremendously impressive.

That is where we begin; it is not fresh light, I am quite sure and aware of that, but we must be impressed, and I feel, more than ever, with the tremendous thing that has happened in the giving of the Holy Spirit. I trust that that is what we are going to be impressed with more than ever in these hours.

The next thing for us to note is that the Holy Spirit was given by the Father to the Son on the completion of the whole cycle of redemption. He left the glory: He came "out of the ivory palaces", "He emptied Himself", He laid aside His garments of glory, He came here, accepted the situation of a bond-slave, the fashion of a man; carried through His great mission and completed redemption, and returned to the Father, carrying with Him that completed and finished work upon which the Father, according to these words, gave Him the Spirit: "Being therefore, at the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit...". The giving to the Son of the Holy Spirit therefore, was God's seal upon a finished work. God's seal upon a finished work. If therefore, you or I or anyone is to come into the good of the Holy Spirit as God's gift to the Son, it will be God's gift to faith in Christ and His perfected and finished work. That is a statement of fact, but it is also a challenge.

So many of our lives are powerless and bring little honour to the Lord. We are weak and deficient, not because He has not provided the Holy Spirit to make it otherwise, but because we are not resting fully and finally upon a perfected work done by the Lord Jesus. Put in another way: while we are in doubt, have a question, or are in any way weak as to this matter of Christ's perfected work of redemption with nothing more to be done for us, while we are in any kind of uncertainty about that, the Holy Spirit stands back. He stands back. And it's a terrible thing for a Christian, who is really an heir of the Holy Spirit, not to be living in the good of the gift of God, the promise of the Father. Settle this whole matter, that there is nothing more to be done, "He has by one offering, perfected (made complete for ever!) them that come unto God by Him" settle that and you have cleared the way for the Spirit. Live in any kind of way that raises a question about that - uncertainty about your redemption, your salvation, your acceptance, which means raising a doubt as to whether Christ has done it all, and the Spirit stands with a veil over His face, grieved. And that's a terrible state to be in.

And so I repeat: the Holy Spirit was given to the Son as the Father's seal upon the accomplishment of the entire circle of redemption, and the Holy Spirit is given to us, abides with us, and makes His presence real with us when we rest upon the ground of God's giving the Spirit to His Son - the work finished!

Then we go on. The next thing we note is the particular significance of the gift of the Spirit.

The Particular Significance of the Gift of the Spirit

"And coming up out of the water, and praying, the heaven was opened, and a voice came out of heaven, saying, 'Thou art My beloved Son'". The particular significance of the gift of the Spirit is that He is given as the Spirit of sonship. "Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." It is true in the case of Christ Himself as Son of Man. In His incarnation the Holy Spirit indicated by coming upon Him that He was God's Son, that this One, this One is marked out in sonship; it is true of Christ Himself. It is true in the same way of the believer. It is by the receiving of the Holy Spirit that we receive sonship; we are born into the family; we are marked out as sons of God. The Spirit of sonship - we have more to say about that later. For the time being, let us note what that indicates. If that is true, it does represent a momentous thing in the history of this creation; it represents and indicates no less a thing than God restarting a Divine family, of which Christ is the first. Think of that! God restarting a Divine family.

The first Adam was created by God, was put on probation by God, but was never adopted. Was never adopted, adoption comes by way of fulfilled probation to the satisfaction of God. The Last Adam was born, probationed, and adopted! The giving of the Spirit to Him was the adoption, that is, the attesting of Him as God's Son. So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption, you see, He is called that in the Word - the Spirit of adoption. What does that mean? That means, in the family, and in this family which God has recommenced with His Son (a tremendously significant thing in the history of this whole creation; God has started over again to build a Divine family of sons of God.

Paul makes a tremendous thing of that, as you know, in his letter to the Romans. He says the whole of this other creation, this old creation, this fallen and cursed creation groaneth and travaileth in pain. Creation is groaning. What is it groaning for? "Waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." "And we, we who groan within ourselves, are waiting for our adoption." That is, when the sons shall be manifested, those who are sons shall be manifested.

So the Holy Spirit is the seal and the sign of sonship, of membership of the family, of being in this new thing that God is doing, of which He is, in a peculiar sense, the Father. It gives a new emphasis, and significance to the very language and words used: "the promise of", not God, but "the Father" - "the promise of the Father" implying sonship in its fulfilment, carrying with it sonship, when the promise is fulfilled. It is all so bound up together as a whole.

The church is Christ in a corporate way. Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians: "We are anointed in Christ... and hath anointed us in Him." The church is in Christ, is Christ corporate, by the Holy Spirit it is made that. And so, the Holy Spirit coming brings us into the Body of Christ, and it is in the Body of Christ that sonship is attested by the Holy Spirit.

Further, all the Divine values and interests are bound up inseparably with sonship. Be very clear about that, be very sure about that, be very strong about that. Let me repeat it: all the Divine values and interests are bound up with sonship. It is the one thing that God has ever had in His heart, in His mind, in the creation and existence of man. And God has vested all His interests in sonship.