Indeed the Scriptures seem to be harmonious in {211} their teaching that, after the present elective work of the Spirit has been completed, there will come a time of universal blessing, when the Spirit shall literally be "poured out upon all flesh"; when "that which is perfect shall come" and "that which is in part shall be done away."
Thus in the doctrine of the Spirit there is a constant reference to the final consummation. "The Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption," says Paul (Eph. 4: 30). Again: "Ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8: 23).
All which the Comforter has yet brought us, or can now bring us, is only the first sheaf of the great harvest of redemption which awaits us on our Lord's return. "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father" (Rom. 8: 15); but for the adoption itself we wait; sons of God already by birth from above, we with the whole creation yet wait for "the manifestation of the sons of God" (Rom. 8: 19).
To his tender exhortation to be patient until the coming of the Lord, which James writes in the first chapter of his epistle, there is added the suggestive illustration: "Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receive the early and latter rain." {212} As in husbandry the one rain belonged to the time of sowing, and the other to the time of harvest, so in redemption the early rain of the Spirit was at Pentecost, the latter rain will be at the Parousia; the one fell upon the world as the first sowers went forth into the world to sow, the other will accompany "the harvest which is the end of the age," and will fructify the earth for the final blessing of the age to come, bringing repentance to Israel and the remission of sins, "that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, before appointed for you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things" (Acts 3: 19-21).
[1] "Through the Eternal Spirit," by Elder Cumming, D. D., p. 185.
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SCRIPTURE INDEX
PAGE
Genesis 50: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Exodus 30: 30-33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156