Hey, Pastor John!
I thought of a question yesterday that I wanted to ask you: When the Son of God came down in the form of a dove into Jesus’ body, was that life any different from the holy Ghost power? Was Jesus any different than we who have the Holy Ghost now? I know that the holy Ghost and the Son of God are separate things. The Son of God was created by the Father as another heavenly being and the first of all creation, and the holy Ghost is the kind of life that both the Father and the Son share.
Thank you, and I look forward to your response!
Hope M.
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Hi Hope!
Thank you for the question. It is a good one.
The Spirit that Jesus received at his baptism is the same Spirit that he gives to us (cf. Jn. 5:21). It is the Spirit of eternal life which is in the Father and which the Father gave to the Son (cf. Jn. 5:26). Jesus overcame the world by the wisdom and power of that Spirit, and he suffered so that we could have the same power to overcome the world that he had. When Jesus came up from being baptized by John in the Jordan River and received the Spirit, he was “born again” just as we are when we receive the Spirit. He was, as Paul said, “the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29). He also became a new creature, just as we do when we receive the Spirit. The difference between the pre-baptism Jesus and the post-baptism Jesus was remarkable, especially after his forty days in the wilderness Temptation.
Nobody can be who Jesus is, of course. There is only one mediator between God and man, and that is “the man Jesus Christ” (1Tim. 2:5). He alone is the Savior of the world (Acts 4:12; 10:36). However, Jesus has made the way for us to experience what he experienced (cf. Mt. 20:22), to be holy as he and the Father are holy (Mt. 5:48; 1Pet. 1:15), to share in their life, and to live in peace forever with them. What a precious opportunity! May God help us all take advantage of it!
Thanks again for the question. I hope the answer is clear.
Pastor John