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“He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
᛭ INI ᛭
Alleluia! ΙΗϹ Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
What does Christ have?
“He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” What does Christ have? He has righteousness, holiness, goodness. He is righteous. He is holy. He is good. He has all these things. These are all things that belong to His Father, and Christ also has them. “I and the Father are One,” (Jn 10) Christ says. “All the fulness of deity dwells in Him.” (Col 2) “All that the Father has is Mine,” Christ says.
This is who Christ is. He has it not only has the eternal Son of God, but as the exalted, risen-from-dead, ascended-to-heaven, sitting-at-God’s-right-hand Son of Man. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” (Mt 28) He is “far above all power and authority, and every name that is named, both in this age and also in the age to come,” (Eph 2), that at the name of ΙΗϹ, every knee should bow.” (Phil 2)
Yes, Christ is almighty, everlasting, eternal, and all the rest, and He has all these things, but we must not lose sight of His righteousness, holiness, goodness, and salvation. “This is the name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer 31) “The LORD is our Light and our Salvation.” (Ps 27) Christ is “wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’” (1-Cor 1)
The Holy Spirit delivers these things.
And this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. Christ says, the Holy Spirit “will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit is called “holy” because that’s what He does: He makes holy; He sanctifies. He sanctifies not only because He delivers His holiness, but because He’s also delivering the holiness Christ has.
In fact, it is as Christ says, the Spirit takes all that is Christ’s and declares it to you. That is the Holy Spirit’s job. He doesn’t do anything on His own. He works together with Christ and the Father, even as He is one with the Father and the Son. You don’t need a spiritual experience separated from Christ. To experience the Holy Spirit is when He comes and declares all that is Christ to you, that is, when He makes holiness, righteousness, goodness, salvation all yours.
In fact, the Spirit doesn’t glorify Himself. If what’s happening glorifies Christ: who He is, and what He does for you, then that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. If that’s not preached, it’s not the Holy Spirit.
We need this to happen!
We need Christ to send the Holy Spirit to do this very important work on us and in us. We need the Holy Spirit to work upon because apart from His working we would not have any of Christ’s holiness, goodness, righteousness, and salvation. We cannot come close to these things on our own. Apart from the Spirit’s work we are unholy, unrighteous, evil, and not saved.
To be without the Spirit is to be part of the World, and under the sway of its spirit—the devil. So we need to the Spirit to work on us to bring us to faith in Christ. “No on can say ΙΗϹ is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.” (1-Cor 12) And without faith in Christ all that we do before God is sin and unrighteousness: “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14), for “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Rom 12)
And once the Spirit has brought us to faith, we “have passed from death to life.” (Jn 8) We have been “transferred out of the domain of darkness into the dominion of [God’s] beloved Son” (Col 1), “our great God and Savior, ΙΗϹ Christ.” (Tit 1) And because of the Spirit’s work alone, we are children of God. “See what kind of love the Father has given unto us: that we should be called children of God.” (1-Jn 3) “He will take what is Mine and declare it to you,” make it yours. Christ is the Son of God, and in Christ you are Son of God, too.
This is not a one and done sort of thing. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.” (1-Jn 3) It has not yet because the Old Adam, the sinful flesh, still hangs around our necks until the grave.
The Spirit still says, “Your flesh is unclean. It sins. It doubts. It lives selfishly first. Your flesh will die. ‘The wages of sin is death,’” says the Spirit. (Rom 5) “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1)
The Holy Spirit delivers it in the things that are Christs’.
And yet you are not without hope. “I will send Him to you,” Christ promises. “He will guide you into all the Truth.” He will guide you to Christ, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (Jn 14) How does the Holy Spirit do this? “…He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
This means not only Christ’s holiness, righteousness, goodness, and salvation. It means Christ’s Gifts: His Holy Sacraments. This means that the Sacraments are not only a Gift of Christ and have His almighty promise attached to them. It means that the Sacraments are also imbued with the almighty power of the Holy Spirit who is at work in and through them.
The Holy Spirit was first poured out upon you in the water and Word of Holy Baptism. Just as He blew over the primordial waters at the beginning of creation, so also He was there when you were made a new creation in Christ by baptism through faith. The Spirit inspired the prophets and apostles, sanctifying their words to be His infallible Word. He is at work in that Word to create and strengthen faith in Christ all the more. The Scriptures are indeed “the implanted Word which is able to save your souls.” (James 1) For “faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word about Christ.” (Rom 10) Even this Word: “My body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” The Spirit whose work it was that the Son of God became incarnate—has flesh and blood—is at work through Christ’s body and blood and His holy Word that we would receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
“He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
On the Last Day the Spirit will finally accomplish one last taking of what is Christ’s and making it yours. Christ has eternal life, resurrection from the dead, and the Spirit will make that yours, too. He’s the downpayment of that resurrected life, already poured into your heart now. But “on the Last Day He will raise you and all the dead and give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ,” (SC II) that you “may live under Him in His kingdom, and service Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.” (SC II)
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