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John 16:5-12
Suggested further reading: Isaiah 44:1-5
If Christ had not died, risen again and ascended up into heaven,
it is plain that the Holy Ghost could not have come down with
special power on the Day of Pentecost and bestowed his manifold gifts
on the church. Mysterious as it may be, there was a connection in
the eternal counsels of God between the ascension of Christ and
the outpouring of the Spirit.
If Christ had remained bodily with the disciples, he could
not have been in more places than one at the same time. The
presence of the Spirit whom he sent down would fill every place
where believers were assembled in his name, in every part of the world.
If Christ had remained upon earth and not gone up into
heaven, he could not have become a high priest for his people in the
same full and perfect manner that he became after his ascension. He
went away to sit down at the right hand of God and to appear for us
in our human nature glorified, as our Advocate with the Father.
Finally, if Christ had always remained bodily with his
disciples, there would have been far less room for the exercise of their
faith and hope and trust than there was when he went away. Their
graces would not have been called into such active exercise and they
would have had less opportunity of glorifying God and exhibiting his
power in the world.
After all there remains the broad fact that after the Lord
Jesus went away and the Comforter came down on the Day of
Pentecost, the religion of the disciples became a new thing altogether.
The growth of their knowledge and faith and hope and zeal and
courage was so remarkable that they were twice the men they were
before. They did far more for Christ when he was absent than they
had ever done when he was present. What stronger proof can we
require that it was expedient for them that their Master should go away?
For meditation: A world without a Calvary and a world without
a Pentecost are now equally inconceivable.
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