Why Was Jesus Filled With The Spirit? -- Part I

For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.  John 3:34

The doctrine of “God manifest in the flesh” is a profound mystery, and will no doubt be such to human and angelic minds to eternity.  There are certain facts connected with this subject, however-facts clearly ascertainable by us, because we know them on the authority of inspiration.  When Christ, for example, voluntarily “took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,” least, to human conditions of growth and development.  Hunger and thirst oppressed, and labor and travel wearied Him as they do us; and he had the same need for sleep and rest that we have.

If we will push our inquiries still farther, and that without attempting to be “wise above what is written,” we shall find, we judge, that mental and spiritual development and manifestation in Hi8m were subject to similar conditions as in us.  Of one fact we are absolutely assured, “He was in all points tempted like as we are.”  He must have been tempted, therefore, within Himself, from physical and mental propensities, and from without, through worldly and satanic influences.  The difference between us and Him lies here:  “He was tempted in all points like us we are, yet without sin”; we have sinned through temptation.

If Christ was “tempted like as we are,” He had to war against and overcome temptations as we do when we maintain our integrity; and as He himself informs us, His victory in the hour to trial was obtained upon the same conditions on which ours must be obtained.  “He lived by the Father,” spiritual life was conditioned upon the indwelling of the Father in Him, just as our spiritual life is conditioned upon Christ’s living in us.  He overcame temptation through absolute respect for “what is written,” just as we must overcome “through the blood of the lamb and the word of his testimony.”  Were this not the case, His example would be of no avail to us in the matter of “life and godliness.”  Christ, by His example has taught us not only what kind of lives we must live, but how to “walk even as he walked.”

In Christ were two forms of manifestation equally conspicuous, to wit; Deity “in the brightness of his glory” and “the express image of his substance”; and humanity in absolute beauty and perfection.  In the former relation, He is “the Lord our righteousness.”  In the latter, He is our divine-human example, teaching us not only what we shall do and become, but how to do and become all that is required of us.

--Asa Mahan