The Anointed One, Who Anoints

 

Continuing from our last post:

 

After His resurrection, and prior to His ascension, Jesus commanded His disciples not to leave Jerusalem “but to wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now…but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:4 – 5, 8).

 

Jesus Christ is the Anointed One who anoints. He anoints and baptizes those who trust in Him with the Holy Spirit, and this anointing becomes our way of life – that is, we live in the power and koinonia of the Holy Spirit.

 

Our baptism in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ is particularly called “the Promise of the Father.” Why? Yes, we can answer that it is because this is something the Father promised, and hence it is the “Promise of the Father,” but might there be more to it?

 

When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit we share in the Anointing of Jesus Christ, His Anointing becomes our Anointing. This pleases the Father and is in fulfillment of His desire that Jesus Christ “would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). From eternity the heart’s desire of our Father is to “bring many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:9 – 13). The very nature of our sonship, the very nature of our standing with the Father, the very nature of our organic union with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is the indwelling Trinity – it is the Life of God, the Anointing of God the Holy Spirit – we have become “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Hence “The Spirit Himself testifies with our sprit that we are children of God…” (Rom. 8:16).

 

We are vessels that are filled and immersed and sealed.

 

Israel was once a man who was first called Jacob. Then Jacob’s name was divinely changed to Israel, a prince who rules with God. Still later, the name Israel came to mean a people who were descended from Jacob – Israel. When I use the name “Israel” I may be referring to either the individual known as Jacob, or I may be referring to the people Israel who came from the loins of Jacob, who were generated from Jacob – Israel. (Yes, I may also be referring to the current political entity known as “Israel” in the Middle East).

 

The same is true when I use the name “Christ,” for Jesus says that “except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). This is the reality behind Paul’s words, “For even as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12). That is, Christ may speak particularly of Jesus Christ (much like Israel may speak of Jacob – Israel), or it may speak of the Body of Christ, with Jesus Christ as its Head (much like Israel may refer to the people descended from Jacob – Israel, with Jacob – Israel as its genealogical head or source).

 

1 Corinthians 12:12 is not a simile, it is not a metaphor, it is a present reality for those who are in Jesus Christ – Christ is a Body with Jesus Christ as its Head. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

 

The Anointed One who anoints baptizes us into an Anointing which makes us organically One Body – “so also is Christ.”

 

This is in fulfillment (at least in some sense) of Jesus’ prayer that we “may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:21 – 23).

 

The Promise of the Father is a promise to His Firstborn that He, the Firstborn, will have many brethren. The Promise of the Father is a promise to us that He will bring us to glory, in and with His Firstborn Son.

 

O dear, dear friend; the enemy would blind us to our sonship and anointing. The enemy would have us root our identity in Egypt, would blind us to the glory that our Lord Jesus has bestowed upon us. We have been called into the fellowship, the koinonia, of the Trinity. We have been invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb – and where shall we sit at this marriage supper?

 

We will sit at the head table, for we are the Bride.