Luke 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized and as Jesus was baptized and was praying, heaven was opened, (22) And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him. And a voice came out of heaven: You are My Son, the Beloved; in You I have found My delight. (23) And He, Jesus, when He began to minister, was about thirty years old...
After John the Baptist had baptized the Lord Jesus, God the Father sent His Holy Spirit upon this baptized Man. Hence, the Spirit of God descended upon a terminated and buried Man to inaugurate Him into His living ministry for God. The Holy Spirit's conceiving of Jesus in [Luke] 1:35 is essential, related to the divine Being, the divine Person, of Jesus. The essence of the Holy Spirit's divine element in the conception of Jesus is unchangeable and cannot be removed. However, the Holy Spirit's descending upon Jesus here is economical, related to the ministry, the work, of Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit for the ministry of Jesus is removable according to the condition of need for it. It was in this economical way that God forsook Jesus and left Him when He was carrying the sinners' sin in dying for them on the cross (Matt. 27:46). Therefore, with the Lord Jesus there is the matter of His Person and the matter of His ministry. For His Person He had the Holy Spirit as His intrinsic essence from the time of His conception. For thirty years the Lord Jesus lived on earth by the Holy Spirit as the intrinsic essence of His Person. Then at the age of thirty He came forth to work, to minister, to fulfill His office. For His ministry He needed the Holy Spirit in a further way, not essentially but economically. After He was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form as a dove. This was the Holy Spirit coming upon the Lord economically for the carrying out of God's economy through the Lord's ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Luke, pp. 68-69. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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