Tf I never read this Scripture in the presence of a Christian congregation without feeling that I have in some way chopped down through every heart with a great broad axe. There is no whitewashing in this passage : " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Not, " He will do tolerably well, but not quite so well as he might do " ; not that he will get on after a fashion, and have quite a respectable entrance into the city of the great King, though he may not push quite so far towards the front as he might have done if he had had the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. Not that at all ; but, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, there is not the remotest shadow of a chance for him : " he is none of his." l
I.
What is the Spirit of Christ?
1. In the earlier part of this verse it is called " the Spirit of
God " — " ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." It is therefore the Holy
Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit is called " the Spirit of God "
because God is the original source, " the Spirit of Christ " because
Christ is the immediate channel and occasion of His gift to men.
1 0. H. Fowler. 407
4o8 THE OWNER'S MARK
Tf When our Lord entered upon His Ministry, He acted as though He were a mere man, needing grace, and received the consecration of the Holy Spirit for our sakes. He became the Christ, or Anointed, that the Spirit might be seen to come from God, and to pass from Him to us. And, therefore, the heavenly Gift is not simply called the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God, but the Spirit of Christ, that we might clearly understand that He comes to us from and instead of Christ.1
2. This Holy Spirit dwells in us as in a temple. He pervades us as light pervades a building, or as a sweet perfume the folds of some honourable robe ; so that, in Scripture language, we are said to be in Him, and He in us. It is plain that such an inhabitation brings the Christian into a state altogether new and marvellous, far above the possession of mere gifts ; exalts him inconceivably in the scale of being and gives him a place and an office which he had not before. In St. Peter's forcible language, he becomes " partaker of the Divine Nature," and has " power " or authority, as St. John says, " to become the son of God." Or, to use the words of St. Paul, " he is a new creation ; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." His rank is new ; his parentage and service are new. He is " of God," and " is not his own," " a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work."
3. Given without measure to Jesus, the Spirit of God, called also the Spirit of Christ, is given in measure to those that belong to Jesus. " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Thus the Holy Spirit, that Life from God which came into the world in Jesus, and so changed and uplifted and refreshed the spirit of man, flows on into other men. Therefore He is called the Spirit of Life. Christians are said to have received this life. It is described as "Life indeed." To lack the Spirit is to be separated from the Life of God.
T[ I think that this thought, great as it is, is simple enough for each of us — that the Holy Spirit is the name of that holy Life which passes from God into us. That this should be so is more than we could have asked or thought, but it is not more or other than what fits with splendid fitness what in our own spirit we know and feel (though we hardly dare own it) that we are meant for some real union and communion with God.2
1 J. H. Newmau. " Bishop E. S. Talbot.
ROMANS viii. 9 409
II.
The Possession of the Spieit of Christ
1. The possession of the Spirit of Christ is the test of belonging to Christ. And how is it known that a man possesses the Spirit of Christ ? A man possesses the Spirit of Christ if he manifests the mind or character of Christ. For just as the anointing of the Spirit enabled Christ to live His life of perfect obedience and true holiness, so in the measure in which the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man will he bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, which are the component parts of the Christian character. Here, then, is the test of Christianity. If a man have not the spirit, the tone, the temper, the character of Christ, he is none of His. Not the words that I recite as a creed, not the service that I render as a church member — these things do not prove my relation to Christ — but what I am in temper, in tone, in spirit, in character. " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."