3. This leads us to the third distinction, namely, that under the Old Testament Dispensation, the Holy Ghost was not resident upon earth, but visited it from time to time as occasion required. Now the Spirit of God is dwelling upon the earth. This is His abode. He resides in the hearts of men, and in the Church of Christ, just as literally as Jesus resided upon the earth, during the 33 years of His incarnation and life below.
4. Perhaps the principal difference was this, that in the Old Testament age the Holy Ghost came rather as the Spirit of the Father, in the glory and majesty of the Deity; while under the New Testament, He comes rather as the Spirit of the Son, to represent Jesus to us, and make Him real in our experience and life. Indeed, the Person of the Holy Ghost was not fully constituted under the Old Testament. It was necessary that He should reside for three and a half years in the heart of Jesus of Nazareth, and become, as it were, humanized, colored, and brought nearer to us by His personal union with our Incarnate Lord; and now He comes to us as the same Spirit that lived, and loved, and suffered, and wrought, in Jesus Christ.
In a sense our Master left His heart behind Him; and when the Holy Ghost comes to dwell within us, He brings the living Christ and makes His person real to our hearts.
This must be the meaning of that remarkable passage in John 8:37, 38, where Jesus said that the Spirit in the believer should flow out like rivers of living water; and then the evangelist adds, "The Spirit was not yet; because Jesus was not yet glorified." The Holy Spirit in the form which He was to be manifest in the coming age was not yet constituted until after the ascension of Jesus. Now, He comes to us as the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, it is intensely interesting to us to look at the relation of the Holy Ghost to the person of our Lord in His first baptism and earthly ministry.
This is our present theme. May the Holy Ghost Himself illuminate and apply it to all our hearts!
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