The Holy Spirit and the Sons of God H .......... ileges, service and rewards, suffering and glories, to which the gift of the Holy Spirit is related in this present dispensa tion. 69 Accordingly when the disciples were baptized with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost they were not only endued with ministering power, but they also then entered into the experience of sonship. Then they knew as they could not have known before, though the Book of the Acts records but little of their inner life, that through the heaven-descended Spirit the sons of God are forever united with the heaven- ascended, glorified Son of God. Whether they at first fully realized this fact or not, it is seen as in the Gospel of John, they were in Him and He in them. Was Jesus begotten of the Spirit, so were they; was He not of the world as to origin and nature, neither were they; was He loved of the Father, so were they, and with the same love ; was He sanctified and sent into the world to bear witness to the truth, so likewise He sent them; did He receive the Spirit as the seal of God to His Sonship, so were they sealed ; was He anointed with power and light to serve, so they received the unction from Him; did He begin to serve when there came the attesting Spirit and confirming word of the Father, so they began to serve when the Spirit of the Son, the Witness, was sent forth into their hearts, saying Abba, Father; was He, after service and suffering, received up in glory, so shall they obtain His glory when He comes again to receive them unto Himself. Verily, “we are as He is in this world.” (1 John 4 :17 ; John 10: 36 ; 17:1-26 ; Rom. 5 : 5. j In view of these truths of Divine revelation how foolish the wisdom of the natural man and how sadly misleading the doctrine which makes the “fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man,” which are by nature and creation, identical and co-extensive with that which is by grace and redemption; for not only does the imperative word, “Ye must be born again,” sweep away all the merit and glory of man
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