Sower to men, it is the very token and •■eality of [is presence with them. But it is interpreted
more precisely— and this is the point of Jesus' argument as it i> brought out in the parallel pas- sage in Ml. and 1.1;.— by the works wliich it does. 'If 1 in lie- >|.iiit of God am casting out the demons, then tie! kingdom of God has come upon you' (Mt I'i-", cf. Lk IV, where for iv iri/ei/jiuTi ffcoO we have ev oaKriXi^ 0(oO, the Divine power being the essential idea ; cf. Ex 8'° (''*'). When the super- human power which dis|ilays itself with such intensity is nmnifesteil in wdrks (jf this sort, it is clear that it i> nol nn-rely snj.ei linnnin, but specifi- cally Divine. To withsianil wli.al i> so unambigu- ously the redeeming power of GikI, and to do so deliberately and malignantly, in the spirit which will kill Jesus rather than acknowledge Him as what He is, is the unpardonable sin.
Tip. fnni, .,1 11,1- >.,M,i-,vhicli appears in Mt 1231f- and Lk 1210
ill-- :ili I .ifiiDiI, in ■ II lieflected in tradition. Mt. really has
'I IN I'^^'i 1..IIM-, \. i. ii^ilt corresponding; to what we
1 the (
'Mk.,
Lulse. That is, Mt 123if. is ; ^ is found, first as it appeared it appeared I
it appei e collec
of discourses frenerall,y allowed to have been used by Mt. and Luke. What is meant in the second form, where a word spoken apainst the Son of Man is contrasted with blasphemy against Holy Spirit, is not very clear. Mk., who puts the odious unclean spirit,' into connexion with the beside himself,' might be regarded
word of Jesus' friends, as giving
the 1
: anxiety or irritation -J bottom loved Him, wa a.ve been more capable
momentary petulance hideous expression in power reveals its utter Here the r word blasph actually he] it is sin absoKitel character, of finalit;y — sin past which oni forgivenesi
tted Oil- Mil. "1 be ri-pnili
Id be forgiv
Son of Mar
the part of
for the fact 1 at all. An im- ing in a moment rom hearts that friends ought to But it was not ndly and finally en it was, then, Lild be the word
itrast with such a
friends stands the
of God's present saving
unclean spirit.'
e is finally committed against God; such a
i His Spirit — that is, it blasphemes God as He is
'Orking in Christ for man's salvation ; as such
' r-^fca, i.e. sin which has the
er be anything but what it is
10 as to infer the possibility of
ther in this world or in the next.
6. The expulsion of evil spirits from the possessed is regarded in the Gosjiel as a chief manifestation of the possession by Jesn< of the Holy S|iiiit. But all His miracles are to h,- mehi .loo.l in iliis con- nexion. Without goiii.u so fai- ,i> lo s.iy that in the Temptation narratives He is repiesented as tempted to put to selfish uses the power just con- ferred through the Spirit in Ijaptism for the ends of God's kingdom, it is a mark of historicity in the canonical Gospels that until He is baptized with the Spirit, Jesus works no miracle. It is the Spirit in which the power is given for all His mighty works {dvvdfids). It is not likely, however, that when we read of |io\ver a-- h.n inu uoni' forth from
Him (which in .Mk .".■"anil l.k li'" niav 1 ily the
Hxanu'eli.tV rea.linu of lli,' f:irN. Iml in l,kS-"'is di.-tin.-tlvaseril,,.,! to .lesns Himself), any reference to the Spirit is intended. The wisdom and the mighty works wlneli astonished the Nazarenes (Mk tj-) would no doubt be referred to this source by the Evangelist ; .ind when in 6' Jesus sends out the Twelve, gi\ine I hem .lutbority over the un- clean spirits, it can only have been conceived as due to the transferemo' lo them of a part in that Divine power wliieh liail been so wonderfully operative in Him (<f. Xu 1 1"). The idea, however, that it was tlie Ilisen Sa\ iour by whom the Spirit was given to the Apostles so dominated the Evan- gelists, that none of them refers to the Spirit in connexion with this mission of the Twelve during Jesus' lifetime. The Spirit of Jesus in Jlk _8'= is no doubt, as in 2"*, His human sjiirit ; l>ut if w;e admit that it is to this that the Spirit of God is most akin, or most immediately attached, it is perhaps not fanciful to suppose that the sigh (di/aorei'iifai, cf. in a similar situation 7**) represents
734
HOLY SPIRIT
HOLY SPIRIT
the grieving of the Spirit of God by tlie unbelief and hard-heartedness of man (ef. Eph 4™, Is 63="). It is more liazardoiis to argue that only in ' pneumatic ' and abnormal conditions— only in a psychological state extraordinarily and violently ele\ate<l above the level of common experience — did Jesus identify Himself with the Son of Man, who after a tragic career on earth was to rise again on the third day, or to come on the clouds of heaven (Mk 8^' gsi iQscir. 1402). Abnormal conditions such as are here supjiosed do not persist in sane minds, and to call Jesus an 'ecstatic' or a 'pneumatic' in this sense is only to avoid calling Him a fanatic by using a natural instead of a moral term to describe Him. Certainly the Gospel suggests in this period of His life accesses of intense emotion (Mk 8^^) and