The Revealed Christ

"When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).

Jesus may have concealed Himself from the crowds during the early days of His ministry, but He revealed Himself to His disciples. In Luke 5:1–3, we find Jesus teaching the crowds. He had appropriated a boat belonging to Simon Peter as a place from which to address the crowds. After the sermon was finished, and the crowds had departed, Jesus encouraged Simon to put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

Simon answered that they had been laboring all night and had not caught anything, “but because you say so, I will let down the nets.” They caught “such a large number of fish that their nets began to break,” and they had to call partners in another boat to help them (Luke 5:4–7).

Suddenly Simon realized that he was face to face with the holiness and power of God. He asked Jesus to depart, pleading “I am a sinful man.” Notice the parallel between Simon’s reaction and that of the demons, as we saw it a few days ago. What was the first thing the demons recognized about Jesus? They saw His holiness: “What do you have to do with us?” they asked. “You are the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:33). Like the demons, Simon was terrified in the presence of the Holy One.

Sinful men could not abide the presence of this Holy Man in their midst. They wanted Him to leave, and if He would not leave, then they would get rid of Him in any way they could, even if it meant they must kill Him.

But there is a big difference between how Jesus treated the demons and how He treated Simon the sinner. What did Jesus say to the demons? “Be quiet! Come out of him!” (Luke 4:35). “He rebuked them” (Luke 4:41). But to Simon He said, “Don’t be afraid” (Luke 5:10). This Holy One had come to destroy demons, but to save men. Jesus encouraged them, “and they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11).

It is interesting that the call to discipleship was in the midst of a manifestation of holiness. A disciple is to be holy as God is holy. If unbelievers are uncomfortable around us, that is not a bad thing; but we must be as quick as Jesus to assure them that God is gracious and that the kingdom is open for them as well.

The Hidden Christ

"Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ" (Luke 4:41).

During the past few days, we have studied the King and the kingdom Jesus was announcing. Even though Jesus was concealing His glory during the days of His humanity on earth, His holiness and righteousness were manifest. Because of this, a crisis was provoked in society. No one could be neutral about this King and His kingdom. Today we return to our studies in Luke, and to a consideration of the ways in which Jesus announced His new creation.

The demons knew who Jesus was, and tried to shout to the people that He was the Son of God, but Jesus would not permit it. This introduces us to an important aspect of the gospels, which in New Testament scholarship is sometimes called the “Messianic secret.” There is a sense in which Jesus kept his Messiahship a secret, and only unveiled His identity gradually and in select company.

One of the reasons Jesus kept a low profile at first may have been because He needed to educate the people about the true nature of the Messiah. Many distorted views were circulating in Israel, such as that the Messiah would lead a Jewish army against Rome. Jesus wanted to correct these views before revealing Himself publicly. Another reason probably was to prevent a premature explosion over His presence, because when He did reveal Himself publicly, the people rushed to crucify Him. He needed to postpone the crisis until the stage was fully set.

We see yet another aspect of this in Luke 4:42–43, “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.’ ”

Celebrities know that the price of fame means they cannot go anywhere without being swamped by people, and this would have interfered with Jesus’ work. Jesus prized a time of privacy with His Father. Do you prize such privacy? Are you reading God's word “on the run,” or have you managed to find a private time and place? It took Jesus some effort to secure times for private communion with God. It may take you some effort also.

Could Jesus Have Sinned?

When considering the temptations of Jesus one can hardly resist asking the hypothetical question, Could Jesus have sinned? The fact that Jesus is fully God would seem to preclude this, for God cannot sin. But the fact that Jesus is fully human, and that He undeniably was tempted, might seem to demand the possibility that He could have sinned; for if He could not have sinned, how could He have been tempted. How could He have been fully human?

Charles Hodge, the great Reformed theologian of the nineteenth century, seems to be among those who affirm that Jesus could possibly have sinned. He says, “The sinlessness of our Lord, however, does not amount to absolute impeccability.… If He was a true man He must have been capable of sinning … Temptation implies the possibility of sin. If from the constitution of His person it was impossible for Christ to sin, then His temptation was unreal and without effect, and He cannot sympathize with His people” (Systematic Theology, Vol. II, p. 457).

In denying to Christ an absolute impeccability, Hodge is not representative of all Reformed theologians. Berkhof (Systematic Theology, pp. 318, 338), Boettner (Studies in Theology, p. 211) and Dabney (Lectures in Systematic Theology, pp. 470f.) may serve as contrasts. As is often the case with questions like this, the difficulty lies in the mystery of how the divine and human natures are related within the unity of Christ’s person.

There is, however, a way of approaching and answering this question which bypasses these difficulties. Jonathan Edwards (Freedom of the Will, Part III, Sec. 2) points out that it was impossible for Christ to have sinned and thus failed in His mission to redeem His elect people because “God had promised so effectually to preserve and uphold Him by His Spirit, under all His temptations, that He should not fail of reaching the end for which He came into the world …” Numerous promises are cited by Edwards in proving this point. For our purposes here, we need only illustrate the argument with one such promise: “And you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). 

Clearly, it is God’s promise that Jesus will save His people from their sins, not just His hope that He will save His people from their sins. Many, many such promises are quoted by Edwards, and what God promises He can and will surely bring to pass. Hence we must conclude that it was impossible for Jesus to have sinned, else we must say that it was possible for God’s promises to have failed.

Now the Scriptures emphatically teach and show that Jesus was tempted and that He was human. Hodge and others have assumed that these alone are sufficient to establish the possibility of Christ’s sinning. But what proof is there that the possibility of sinning, of yielding to temptation, must exist for there to be a possibility of being tempted? On the contrary, given the promises of God, the example of Christ decisively refutes this assumption. Moreover, our own hope is that God shall uphold us in heaven so that we shall forever be free of sin and incapable of it; and He will do so without destroying either our freedom or our humanity, but rather so strengthening us by His Spirit that we shall not fall.

If then we still find it difficult to conceive how a person who could not have sinned could nevertheless be tempted, we must rest in the testimony of the Scriptures and believe that it is. For the Bible just as clearly teaches the reality of Christ’s humanity and temptations, indeed the agony of His temptations (Luke 22:44), as it does the impossibility that He might have failed in those temptations. We need not fear, then, that Christ is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. He can and does. He was tempted in all things as we are. But neither must we think that to preserve us in eternity God must destroy our humanity and freedom. He need not and will not.

Our hope, then, is sure and steadfast, and it has been so from all eternity. It is a trustworthy statement and worthy of full acceptance that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and there was no possibility He could have failed to do so.

Lord Sabaoth is His Name

Christians thrill to Luther’s stirring lines based on Psalm 46:7: “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not the right Man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.” But what does His name, “Lord Sabaoth,” mean?

Sabaoth is a transliteration of the Hebrew; that is, it is merely changing the letters of the Hebrew word into the corresponding characters of the English alphabet without translating the word. Most English versions translate it “hosts” so that when combined with Lord (Hebrew YHWH, normalized as Yahweh) and/or God (Hebrew Elohim), the combined expression becomes “Lord of hosts” or “Lord God of hosts” or “God of hosts.” The NIV translators, according to the preface of this English version, thought the phrases “the Lord of hosts” and “God of hosts” had little meaning, and so rendered them “the Lord Almighty” and “God Almighty.”

Who or what are the Lord’s hosts? Sometimes they are the armies on the battlefield. Faithful David taunted the blaspheming Goliath: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Samuel 17:45). Psalm 68:12 says, “Kings of armies (Hebrew sabaoth) flee in haste” (see also Exodus 7:4; Psalm 44:9). Angelic hosts also make up the Lord’s armies. The inspired psalmist enjoins: “Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will” (Psalm 103:21; see also Joshua 5:14; 1 Kings 22:19). These, in turn, are associated with the stellar hosts, the army of stars that fight for Him (see Joshua 10:12–14; Judges 5:20). Isaiah encouraged the distraught Jewish exiles in Babylon to look up: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name” (Isaiah 40:26; see also Genesis 2:1; Deuteronomy 4:19). The hosts of heavenly beings and bodies are associated in Psalm 148:2–3: “Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His heavenly hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars.”

In the title “The Lord of hosts,” first used in 1 Samuel 1:3, Sabaoth designates the Lord’s sovereign kingship over all forces, without distinguishing them. Eichrodt in his Theology of the Old Testament (Volume 1, pp. 193–94), wrote that Sabaoth in this title “does not refer to any particular ‘hosts,’ but to all bodies, multitudes, masses in general, the content of all that exists in heaven and in earth … [a] name expressive of the divine sovereignty.” Hartley, writing in the layman’s Theological Word-book of the Old Testament (Volume 2, pp. 750–751), concurs: “It affirms His universal rulership that encompasses every force or army, heavenly, cosmic and earth.… [Psalm 24:10] clearly shows that Yahweh of hosts conveys the concept of glorious king. Yahweh is King of the world (cf. Zechariah 14:16) and over all the kingdoms of the earth (Isaiah 37:16).… Although the title has military overtones, it points directly to Yahweh’s rulership over the entire universe.… Special attention is given to the majestic splendor of Yahweh’s rule in this title.”

The Greek translators commonly render Sabaoth by pantokrator, “the almighty,” “the ruler of all things” (see 2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 4:8; 19:6). In the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Michaelis summarized the meaning of this Greek term: “The reference is not so much to God’s activity in creation as to His supremacy over all things.”

In the Intertestamental period, the Jews providentially ceased using the name YHWH and substituted “Lord” (Greek kurios). This change both prepared the way for God’s new revelation of Himself in the name, the Lord Jesus Christ (see Mark 16:17; John 14:13; 20:31), and facilitated identifying Jesus Christ with Israel’s God. Where the Hebrew Scriptures used YHWH, the Greek translators used “Lord” (kurios), and the New Testament appropriated this name to Jesus Christ. For example, the promise, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [with reference to Jesus Christ] will be saved” (Acts 2:21, 38; Romans 10:13) is based on Joel 2:32, which in the Hebrew text has “Yahweh” instead of “Lord.” Luther with theological acumen hymned: “Christ Jesus it is He, Lord Sabaoth His name”!

May this title of our Lord Jesus Christ, revealing that He musters all the powers of heaven and earth to accomplish His will, in a new way succor us in sorrow, restrain us in temptation, and nerve us to fidelity in testing. 

Uncovering the Secrets of Christ's Kingdom

Spies, espionage, and state secrets seem to be prominent in the news once more. China is so exercised about foreign espionage that this week it launched a website encouraging people to report national security threats. Sometimes we get a glimpse of the extent of the hidden world of intelligence agencies in gathering information about foreign countries. The controversy surrounding Facebook and the covert use of data is another dimension of how far attempts to obtain prized information may go. What do we know of the secrets of Christ’s kingdom? It’s a different matter altogether of course. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world and therefore those who are of this world find it incomprehensible. But are governments and organizations more diligent in gathering their secret information than we are in searching into the mysteries of Christ’s kingdom?

Alexander Henderson says it is our necessary duty to make this our study. If this sounds a little strange, consider that Christ says that the secrets or mysteries of His kingdom are given to His disciples to know (Matthew 13:11). The matters of the kingdom of heaven are mysteries which none can understand until this is given to them from God. There are also those to whom God does not purpose to give an understanding of His mysteries. Henderson opens this up in a sermon which he preached before the House of Lords in 1645 on John 18:36-37.

1. Understanding Christ’s Kingdom

(a) The Greater Secrets of Christ’s Kingdom

Since the kingdom of Christ is not of this world but is a spiritual kingdom, it is a necessary duty to study the nature and search into the mysteries and secrets of this kingdom. The kingdom of Satan and sin have many depths and secrets. The kingdoms of the world have their secrets of politics and government. The kingdom of Christ has greater secrets and more hidden mysteries.

Those who are great in the world know many things about the mystery of iniquity and the secrets of the kingdoms and states of the world. Yet, the truth is that many of them are ignorant of the mysteries of the kingdom of Christ. The princes of this world (whether princes in knowledge or in power and greatness) do not know those mysteries. Had they known them they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). When the apostle Paul says that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man understood the things that God has prepared for them that love Him, he is speaking of the kingdom of grace in this world (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

(b) The Secret Means Used in Christ’s Kingdom

Natural reason requires the right means and well-prepared materials for every work. But the apostles were neither noble nor learned, but poor and simple.  The world altogether unprepared to receive them, it was at that time (as much as at any time before or since) full of learning, power, and politics. Yet they went on, subduing, conquering and bringing everything to the obedience of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(c) The Secret Laws of Christ’s Kingdom

The laws of this kingdom were:

instead of revenge – love your enemies;

instead of lust – do not look on a woman to lust after her;

instead of covetousness – forsake all;

instead of ambition – deny yourselves.

Yet these supernatural laws, by the Spirit and power of the great law-giver, were established and written in the tables of men’s hearts. The promises of reward were not worldly pleasures or ease, but let everyone take up their cross and follow me.

(d) The Secret Wisdom of Christ’s Kingdom

Everything in this kingdom is above the reach of natural reason. The spiritual man, however, by a new faculty created by God, knows the deep things of God and judges all things (1 Corinthians 2:14-15).

Some theologians have observed seven things in the sufferings of Christ that are altogether contrary to the reason of the natural man:

the greatest impotence and weakness in Him who was omnipotent;

the greatest suffering in Him that was impassible [incapable of suffering]

the greatest foolishness (according to the judgment of men) in the deepest wisdom;

the greatest poverty in the God of all riches;

the greatest shame in the greatest glory and majesty;

the greatest forsaking in the most perfect union;

the greatest severity of the Father against His Son in the greatest love of the Father to the Son, in the very time of His suffering.

Many more things might be added in the administration of the kingdom of Christ after His ascension into heaven. This might be observed both at the first planting of the gospel in the earliest times and in the time of the Reformation of religion in various kingdoms and nations.

If we will acquaint ourselves with the secrets of the gospel and the way the kingdom of Christ progresses, we seem to be transported and carried to another world.  We are forced to acknowledge and confess to the glory of God, that flesh and blood cannot reveal these things to us.

2. Join Christ’s Kingdom

When the Lord has opened the eyes of our understanding to behold something of the secrets of this spiritual kingdom, we are to join ourselves to it and become the subjects of Jesus Christ.

(a) Acknowledge Your Natural State

We must first know our condition by nature, we are all by nature subjects (slaves indeed) to the kingdom of sin and Satan.

(b) Acknowledge Christ as King

Acknowledge Christ to be king and Lord of His people, putting our confidence in Him because He has all sufficiency for life, liberty, salvation and every good thing. We ought to seek to feel the kingdom of God within us and His scepter set up in our souls which were formerly tyrannized over by strange lords.

(c) Submit to Christ’s Will

We must submit ourselves in all humility and obedience to do His will. His subjects are a willing people or a people of willingness (Psalm 110:3). If every one of us had many wills, we ought to sacrifice them all in a willingness to serve Him. If we would consider what we are without Him, what we may be through Him we would willingly offer ourselves in this day of His power.

3. Advance Christ’s Kingdom

We must all be zealous in using all good means (according to our abilities) to advance and establish the kingdom of Christ. Beware of selfishness, indifference, division, procrastination, discouragements, imprudence, and inconstancy. Give yourselves to sincerity, zeal, unity, diligence, selflessness, prudence, and perseverance. Thus you may be the choice and blessed means used by God to establish the kingdom of His Son, our Saviour in the land.

Jesus' Sinless Humanity

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus was fully God; He was also fully man. He became man in order to save us from our sins. To represent humanity before the Father, He had to be a man. Let us consider an important aspect of this matter, which is that Christ was absolutely sinless.

Some liberal theologians have objected to the doctrine of the sinlessness of Christ. They maintain that in order for Jesus to be like us, and to be truly human, He must have sinned. Against this is the clear statement of the New Testament that Jesus was without sin.

Also against it are a couple of logical considerations. First, if sinfulness is part of the definition of humanity, then Adam and Eve were created sinful by God. God becomes responsible for making Adam and Eve sinful. Second, if sinfulness is part of the definition of humanity, then when we are glorified in the new heavens and new earth, and are sinless, we shall no longer be human!

The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell argued that it was wicked of Jesus to threaten men with hell. He was simply bullying people, said Russell, and it is cruel to browbeat men with a threat of eternal fire. Well, this would be true if there were no such thing as hell. But suppose that there is? Suppose hell is real? In that case, the most loving thing Jesus could do would be to warn men day and night to flee the wrath to come. Since the Bible clearly teaches that there is a hell of eternal torment, certainly Jesus was not being mean in telling people about it!

Why did Jesus have to be sinless? Our salvation has two aspects to it. First, our sins were put upon Jesus Christ and He took the punishment that we deserve. Second, however, Jesus’ perfect obedience and righteousness were given to us, so that we are made righteous in the eyes of God the Father. Apart from this, we could not be saved.

Attempt to understand today some of the staggering implications of Christ’s sinlessness. He had no sin of commission or omission; no sin in thought, word, deed, or intention. Compare your life and actions to Christ’s and renew your dependence on Him alone.

Begotten Not Created (Against Arius)

"No one has ever seen God, but God the One and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known" (John 1:18).

One of the problems the early church faced was how to interpret Biblical religion, which existed in Hebrew thoughtforms, in a Greek context. The categories of Greek philosophy continually threatened to overwhelm the Biblical doctrines of creation and of the triunity of God. One of the most important controversies of the early church that arose out of this was the Arian controversy, which was settled at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. The Council condemned Arius as a heretic because he taught that only God the Father is eternal, and that God has created all things voluntarily. Beyond this, he taught that only God is unbegotten, and that begetting and creating are the same thing.

Now, the Bible speaks of Christ as begotten of the Father, but never as created by the Father. Thus, what Arius was saying is that the Son of God is a creature. He argued that anything that is begotten must have a beginning. There was a time when the Son did not exist.

This viewpoint has a number of implications. First, it means that if we worship this “Son,” and he is merely the best of creatures, we are worshiping a creature and thus committing idolatry. Second, it means that whatever kind of divinity this “Son” possesses is also possessed in a lesser degree by everything else in creation, which leads straight to pantheism. Third, it puts our salvation in jeopardy, since only God can totally assure us of salvation, and in Arianism it is not God but the creature “Christ the Son” who guarantees our salvation.

How did the church reply? The two theologians who took on Arius were Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and his disciple Athanasius. They stated that begetting is not the same thing as creating, and that the Son was begotten but not created. The Father begets the Son in eternity, so that there is no process of creation involved.

The most prominent Arian group today is the Jehovah’s Witnesses, consider Jesus Christ merely the best of creatures. Today pray that God would impede the work of false teachers.

The Incarnate Word

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

The Greek word for word is logos. In the early church, what we call “Logos Christology” was one of the main subjects of discussion: What did it mean for the Logos, the Word, to become flesh?

The term logos had a long history in Greek philosophy, and among the philosophers, it generally had the meaning of some kind of impersonal principle that held together all the diverse appearances of the world. Throughout church history, this Greek idea of logos has infected theology under the assumption that the apostle John had the Greek idea of logos in mind when he wrote his gospel.

Actually, however, John has to be understood against the background of the Old Testament, not against the background of Greek philosophy. John wrote in Greek, of course, and so he used Greek words; but he used those Greek words to refer to Old Testament ideas, not to the ideas of Greek philosophy.

For instance, in Proverbs 1–9, particularly in chapter 8, we find a presentation of the “wisdom” of God. Some have seen this description of wisdom as pointing to the pre-incarnate Christ. While that may be going too far, it is clear that there is some connection between Christ and Old Testament wisdom, and that John’s use of logos alludes to this.

Most importantly, however, John tells us that the Logos is God Himself, an actual Person of the Godhead. He states that the Word was God, and also that the Word was with God. Notice the order of his presentation. First, he says that the Word existed in the beginning; that this Word was in existence before the universe was created. Next, he tells us that the Word was with God. The Greek term for with here carries the implication “face to face.” The Word was face to face with God. Finally, having told us that the Logos pre-existed the universe and was intimate with God, he climaxes by telling us that the Word is God Himself.

One of the areas of greatest theological controversy within the church continues to surround the person of Christ. Ask God to grant clarity of doctrine and rich worship of Christ.

Strengthened By Grace (Ep 5): Jesus Christ and Divine Works

"Strengthened by Grace," the Reformed teaching ministry of Matthew Dowling, aims to be Christ-centered, with teaching that stresses the importance of having a personal, experiential, Spirit-worked knowledge of Christ, and by extension, all the great truths of Scripture. In episode 5, Matthew considers the proofs of the divine nature of Christ by looking at the divine works that Jesus participated in as revealed in scripture.

Summary of the Christological Councils

	Council of Antioch (267 AD)	Council of Nicea (325 AD)	Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)
Heretical theologian	Sabellius	Arius	Eutyches, Nestorius
Heretical theology	Modalistic monarchianism	Dynamic monarchianism	Monophysite Christology
Council's decision	Jesus is homoi-ousios with the Father	Jesus is homo-ousios with the Father	Jesus is truly man and truly God. His two natures are not mixed, confused, separated or divided.

*I needed to see if I could still write a table in html - success! And bonus - good information!

Divine Duet: Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit

Today I've been reading Fred Sanders' excellent The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything published by Crossway in 2010. In the fourth chapter of his book, titled "The Shape of the Gospel," Sanders reflects on the trinitarian shape of the gospel and the economy of salvation. In that discourse, he makes a beautiful connection (via R.A. Torrey) of the deep involvement of the Son and the Spirit in the economy of salvation. He writes:

Jesus works in company with the Holy Spirit [...] When we look from Jesus to the Father, we see a great depth: the ultimate source, power, and purpose of the mission of Jesus. But when we look from Jesus to the Holy Spirit, we see a great breadth: the magnificent complexity and completeness of the economy [of salvation]. This scope becomes visible because of the way the Holy Spirit surrounds the ministry of Jesus on all sides. The work of the Spirit precedes the ministry of Jesus in that the Spirit is the one who brings about the virgin conception, the incarnation, and the forming and setting apart of Christ’s human nature (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35). 

Lest we overlook the Holy Spirit’s role at the beginning of Christ’s earthly life, the ancient Apostles’ Creed picks it out as one of the few things it mentions prior to the crucifixion: “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Here the creed has good insight into the Gospels, which are silent about the Spirit’s role in Christ’s ministry for chapters on end but set the stage with a cluster of references to the Spirit at the beginning of the story of Jesus. This is obvious in Matthew and Luke with their accounts of the virgin conception, but even Mark’s Gospel, which neither narrates the virgin conception nor mentions the Holy Spirit often, begins with a cluster of Spirit references (1:8, 10, 12).

The story of Jesus starts with the Holy Spirit. His life and ministry also continue in the power of the Holy Spirit. Simply reviewing the biblical statements on this subject is powerful. R. A. Torrey’s summary of Christian doctrine, What the Bible Teaches, gathers up the lines of biblical evidence helpfully:  

1) Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:35) 

2) Jesus Christ led a holy, spotless life, and offered Himself to God, through the working of the Holy Spirit. (Hebrews 9:14) 

3) Jesus Christ was anointed for service by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 10:38; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:14, 18) 

4) Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit in His movements. (Luke 1:4) 

5) Jesus Christ was taught by the Spirit who rested upon Him.The Spirit of God was the source of His wisdom in the days of His flesh. (Isaiah 11:2; compare Matthew 12:17, 18) 

6) The Holy Spirit abode upon Him in fullness and the words He spoke were the words of God. (John 3:34) 

7) Jesus Christ gave commandments to His apostles whom he had chosen, through the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:2) 

8) Jesus Christ wrought His miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 12:28; compare 1 Corinthians 12:9–10) 

9) Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:11). 

Fred Sanders continues:

The Holy Spirit is also involved in the carrying out of Christ’s work after his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. It is through the Holy Spirit that the work of Christ is applied to believers so that they are born again, become temples of God, and are empowered for discipleship. When Christ ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to minister God’s presence among his people. Indeed, when the Holy Spirit is poured out on Pentecost, his personal presence in salvation history after the finished work of Christ inaugurates a new era in God’s ways with the world. Thus the work of the Holy Spirit surrounds the work of Jesus Christ, as he goes before and after the incarnate Son like a set of holy parentheses embracing the story of salvation in Christ (135).  

If you belong to a community which doesn't emphasize enough the work of God's Spirit in all aspects of what we mean when we talk about the gospel, Sanders' work here will open eyes and ears by showing the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit! Be blessed.