In a sort of belated nod to Pentecost Sunday, here is a Charles Price quote which is quite provocative on first hearing. The context is that according to Price, two things happened on the day of Pentecost. The first and most obvious things is that the disciples received the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised they would. But, as Charles Price goes on to say,
"...a second thing happened on the Day of Pentecost that is equally important and that we must understand. And it is this: Jesus Christ received a new body. God gave the Spirit to those waiting disciples and He gave to His Son a new body."
The key to understanding this is to understand that these aren't two distinct happenings. The Holy Spirit is elsewhere called the Spirit of Christ. This is why Paul could say in Galatians that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me". Paul understood this reality very well, for it was the risen Jesus who asked Saul the persecutor of the church, "Why are you persecuting me?" Not, "why are you persecuting my followers?" but "why are you persecuting me?"
The consequences of this are such that we'd rather not believe any of it to be true. We'd rather separate Christians from Christ, because that makes it easier to treat them in whatever way takes our fancy. We may not articulate it, but in our minds Jesus is up in the clouds somewhere waiting for God to let Him out of the traps and come back to earth again, but in the mean time we just have to get by with some abstract notion of the Holy Spirit -- the lesser person of the Trinity.
This is obviously untrue, but do we really know what the truth is? And not just in words, but in experienced reality? Do we even want to know? Do we want the responsibility of truly being a member of Christ's body? Do we want to be the ones to carry out His purposes? Do we want to look at our brothers and sisters in the church with the knowledge that what we are doing and saying to them is what we are doing and saying to the Messiah?
Cast your mind back to the first verse of the Book of Acts. Luke tells Theophilus that the Gospel he wrote was an account of what Jesus began to do and teach. The implication is that the second volume -- Acts -- is what Jesus continued to do and teach through His new body empowered on the Day of Pentecost.
There are some pitfalls to be avoided of course. I am not the Messiah; I'm a very naughty boy. It's not like the climax of the film Spartacus, where all Christians stand up and say "I'm Jesus". There is a sort of paradox, where we point away from ourselves and towards the risen crucified Lord, and yet we are intimately united with this Lord and thus members of His body and empowered by His Spirit.
ps - I love paradoxes. I think I'm going to write a book on theological paradoxes some day.
"...a second thing happened on the Day of Pentecost that is equally important and that we must understand. And it is this: Jesus Christ received a new body. God gave the Spirit to those waiting disciples and He gave to His Son a new body."
The key to understanding this is to understand that these aren't two distinct happenings. The Holy Spirit is elsewhere called the Spirit of Christ. This is why Paul could say in Galatians that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me". Paul understood this reality very well, for it was the risen Jesus who asked Saul the persecutor of the church, "Why are you persecuting me?" Not, "why are you persecuting my followers?" but "why are you persecuting me?"
The consequences of this are such that we'd rather not believe any of it to be true. We'd rather separate Christians from Christ, because that makes it easier to treat them in whatever way takes our fancy. We may not articulate it, but in our minds Jesus is up in the clouds somewhere waiting for God to let Him out of the traps and come back to earth again, but in the mean time we just have to get by with some abstract notion of the Holy Spirit -- the lesser person of the Trinity.
This is obviously untrue, but do we really know what the truth is? And not just in words, but in experienced reality? Do we even want to know? Do we want the responsibility of truly being a member of Christ's body? Do we want to be the ones to carry out His purposes? Do we want to look at our brothers and sisters in the church with the knowledge that what we are doing and saying to them is what we are doing and saying to the Messiah?
Cast your mind back to the first verse of the Book of Acts. Luke tells Theophilus that the Gospel he wrote was an account of what Jesus began to do and teach. The implication is that the second volume -- Acts -- is what Jesus continued to do and teach through His new body empowered on the Day of Pentecost.
There are some pitfalls to be avoided of course. I am not the Messiah; I'm a very naughty boy. It's not like the climax of the film Spartacus, where all Christians stand up and say "I'm Jesus". There is a sort of paradox, where we point away from ourselves and towards the risen crucified Lord, and yet we are intimately united with this Lord and thus members of His body and empowered by His Spirit.
ps - I love paradoxes. I think I'm going to write a book on theological paradoxes some day.
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