Christ's
Greatest Gift to Us
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9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? 1Cr
6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 1Cr
12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be]
Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit. Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. Eph 4:4 [There is] one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling; Eph 4:4 [There is] one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling; Ellen
White says the same thing in other words: "The
Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of
the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver
with the attributes of Christ. Only those who are thus taught of God, those
who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the
Christ-life is manifested, are to stand as representative men, to minister in
behalf of the church." Desire of Ages, 805. "Christ
declared that after His ascension, he would send to his church, as his
crowning GIFT, the comforter, who is the Holy Spirit,--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE,
THE EFFICACY OF HIS CHURCH, THE LIGHT AND LIFE OF
THE WORLD. With HIS SPIRIT Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power
that takes away sin. In the gift of the Spirit, [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS
LIFE] Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow." E.G.
White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1904. Book 5, p. 42. Ellen
White not only implies: she says flat out that the Holy Spirit is the Soul of
Christ's life. How many souls; how many lives did Christ have? If Ellen White
had said that the Holy Spirit is the efficacy of His Church,
that is one thing. However, since Ellen White said that the Holy
Spirit is the SOUL OF HIS LIFE, that is the same
thing as the Bible saying that there is ONE, ETERNAL SPIRIT, because the
Bible does indeed say that there is ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT WHICH OBVIOUSLY MUST
BE SHARED BY THE GODHEAD. If the Father and Son had a separate, different
spirit from the ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT, then there would be at least three
ETERNAL SPIRITS. If
the Holy Spirit is other than the ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT, then we have the
following constituency to the Godhead: 1)
The ONE ETERNAL separate (person) soul and SPIRIT 2)
God the Father and His separate (person) soul and Spirit. 3)
God the Son and His separate (person) soul and Spirit. 4)
The Holy Spirit and His separate (person) soul and Spirit If
the ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT is shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we have
one God. If this is not the case, then we have four Gods. We
would then have four separate persons; four different souls, comprising the
Godhead. If the Holy Spirit was Christ's soul and spirit; the same soul and
spirit of the Father, and Christ gave up or laid aside that soul and spirit
as a gift to us, with the laying aside of His Holy Spirit consisting of
retaining His First Estate of Pure, uncombined with humanity Divinity, His
divinity in heaven just prior to His Incarnation, that is a certain death to
that first PURE DIVINE STATE OF BEING. This pure--uncombined with humanity
state of being, was sacrificed FOR US FOREVER. This was like death to that
first estate of being. The Incarnation was a combined form of DIVINE--HUMAN
state of being. And the human part of that being precluded or cumbered the
omnipresence of Christ's HUMAN--DIVINE combined form--a new form of Being if
you will.
It
is the same person, Jesus Christ, throughout this passage. It is Jesus Christ
who was in the FORM of God, who was EQUAL with God, but A NEW FORM OF GOD
COMBINED WITH HUMANITY. This SAME PERSON, Jesus Christ, DIVESTED HIMSELF of
His former FORM and EQUALITY, HIS FIRST ESTATE FORM OF PURE DIVINITY ONLY,
and took upon Himself a NEW FORM COMBINED WITH HUMANITY. Remember, it is the
SAME PERSON with a NEW FORM -- a slave. This same person WAS MADE in the
LIKENESS OF mankind. This SAME PERSON who has a NEW FORM, a NEW LIKENESS,
HUMBLED HIMSELF (He subordinated Himself to His Father). This SAME PERSON who
previously had the FORM of God, and was EQUAL with God, who NOW has the FORM
of a slave, the LIKENESS of mankind, being found IN FASHION as a man, HUMBLED
HIMSELF, and BECAME OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH -- EVEN THE DEATH of the CROSS AND
EVEN THE DEATH TO, NOT OF, HIS FORMER FIRST ESTATE AS PURELY DIVINE AND NOT
COMBINED WITH HUMANITY. Ellen
White consistently describes this as Christ CLOTHING HIMSELF with Humanity,
thereby VEILING His Divinity. His DIVINITY was NOT LOST, but VEILED, CLOTHED,
HIDDEN, etc. Throughout this Kenosis, Christ's DEITY remained HIS OWN; the
GODHEAD remained fully and completely His, but in a NEW FORM, that was
different from His first estate purely divine form by being combined with
humanity FOREVER that He might give us the very life of His first estate.
This is what it means to partake of the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ. This
is the New Covenant--God, Christ's first estate, planted in the heart of
every true Christian. Ron
Beaulieu
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