Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I next refer to the Spirit’s work in connection with Christ’s priestly oblation: “Who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9.14). The expression: “the eternal Spirit,” can only mean the Holy Spirit according to the usual acceptation of the term — not the divine nature of Christ, as too many expositors have understood it. The meaning is, that the Son of God, moved and animated by the Holy Ghost, offered Himself without spot as an atoning sacrifice.
The Spirit rendered Him an unspotted sacrifice. The Spirit discovered to Him the inflexible claims of God as well as inflamed Him with such love to man and zeal for God as prompted Him to go forward in spite of every hindrance, pain, and difficulty, to effect the world’s redemption, and thus fitted Him as man for His work The Holy Spirit, in a word, filled His mind with the unflagging ardour, zeal, and love which led Him to complete the sacrifice.
To explain the text as if it described the divine nature as priest and the human nature as the sacrifice, is inadmissible. The WHOLE PERSON is priest and victim; for all done by either nature belongs to the Person: HE offered HIMSELF, says the apostle. ...
For more, see George Smeaton on Christ offering himself through the eternal Spirit.
The Spirit rendered Him an unspotted sacrifice. The Spirit discovered to Him the inflexible claims of God as well as inflamed Him with such love to man and zeal for God as prompted Him to go forward in spite of every hindrance, pain, and difficulty, to effect the world’s redemption, and thus fitted Him as man for His work The Holy Spirit, in a word, filled His mind with the unflagging ardour, zeal, and love which led Him to complete the sacrifice.
To explain the text as if it described the divine nature as priest and the human nature as the sacrifice, is inadmissible. The WHOLE PERSON is priest and victim; for all done by either nature belongs to the Person: HE offered HIMSELF, says the apostle. ...
For more, see George Smeaton on Christ offering himself through the eternal Spirit.
