The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

by R. A. Torrey

The Holy Spirit is called the “oil of gladness” in Heb. i. 9, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated [pg 063] iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Some one may ask what reason have we for supposing that “the oil of gladness” in this passage is a name of the Holy Spirit. The answer is found in a comparison of Heb. i. 9, with Acts x. 38 and Luke iv. 18. In Acts x. 38 we read “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,” and in Luke iv. 18, Jesus Himself is recorded as saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor,” etc. In both of these passages, we are told it was the Holy Spirit with which Jesus was anointed and as in the passage in Hebrews we are told that it was with the oil of gladness that He was anointed; so, of course, the only possible conclusion is that the oil of gladness means the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful and suggestive name it is for Him whose fruit is, first, “love” then “joy” (Gal. v. 22). The Holy Spirit becomes a source of boundless joy to those who receive Him; He so fills and satisfies the soul, that the soul who receives Him does not thirst forever (John iv. 14). No matter how great the afflictions with which the believer receives the Word, still he will have “the joy of the Holy Ghost” (1 Thess. i. 6). On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit, they were so filled with ecstatic joy that others looking on them thought they were intoxicated. They said, “These men are full of new wine.” And Paul draws a comparison between abnormal intoxication that comes through excess of wine and the wholesome exhilaration from which [pg 064] there is no reaction that comes through being filled with the Spirit (Eph. v. 18-20). When God anoints one with the Holy Spirit, it is as if He broke a precious alabaster box of oil of gladness above their heads until it ran down to the hem of their garments and the whole person was suffused with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

XXI. The Spirit of Grace.

The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace” in Heb. x. 29, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” This name brings out the fact that it is the Holy Spirit's work to administer and apply the grace of God: He Himself is gracious, it is true, but the name means far more than that, it means that He makes ours experimentally the manifold grace of God. It is only by the work of the Spirit of grace in our hearts that we are enabled to appropriate to ourselves that infinite fullness of grace that God has, from the beginning, bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. It is ours from the beginning, as far as belonging to us is concerned, but it is only ours experimentally as we claim it by the power of the Spirit of grace.

XXII. The Spirit of Grace and of Supplication.

The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace and of supplication” in Zech. xii. 10, R. V., “And I will [pg 065] pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for his first-born.” The phrase, “the Spirit of grace and of supplication” in this passage is beyond a doubt a name of the Holy Spirit. The name “the Spirit of grace” we have already had under the preceding head, but here there is a further thought of that operation of grace that leads us to pray intensely. The Holy Spirit is so called because it is He that teaches to pray because all true prayer is in the Spirit (Jude 20). We of ourselves know not how to pray as we ought, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit of intercession to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and to lead us out in prayer according to the will of God (Rom. viii. 26, 27). The secret of all true and effective praying is knowing the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of grace and of supplication.”

XXIII. The Spirit of Glory.

The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of glory” in 1 Pet. iv. 14, “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” This name does not merely teach that the Holy Spirit is infinitely glorious Himself, but it rather teaches that He imparts the glory of God to us, just as the Spirit of truth imparts truth to us, and as the Spirit of life imparts life [pg 066] to us, and as the Spirit of wisdom and understanding and of counsel and might and knowledge and of the fear of the Lord imparts to us wisdom and understanding and counsel and might and knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and as the Spirit of grace applies and administers to us the manifold grace of God, so the Spirit of glory is the administrator to us of God's glory. In the immediately preceding verse we read, “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings: that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” It is in this connection that He is called the Spirit of glory. We find a similar connection between the sufferings which we endure and the glory which the Holy Spirit imparts to us in Rom. viii. 16, 17, “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.” The Holy Spirit is the administrator of glory as well as of grace, or rather of the grace that culminates in glory.

XXIV. The Eternal Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is called “the eternal Spirit” in Heb. ix. 14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” The eternity and the Deity and infinite majesty of the Holy Spirit are brought out by this name.

XXV. The Comforter.