August 1980. — Copyright © 1980 G.W.North.

THE ANOINTING


CONTENTS
I — BACKGROUND AND FOUNDATION
1. Social and Cultural Significance An Anointing of Love  *  Foot-washing and the Laver  *  Bethel's  Anointed Pillar
2. An Important Distinction The Real Baptism: Death — the Means of Regeneration  *  The Holy Ghost — the Unction  * The Anointing for Service
II — IN THE OLD COVENANT
3. Priesthood — 
the Supreme Anointing
Even Life for Evermore  *  The Crown of the Anointing  *  Of the House of Aaron  *  A Precious Ointment  *  The Shekel of the Sanctuary  * The Tabernacle of the Congregation  *  An Holy Anointing Oil  *  Myrrh  * Cinnamon and Calamus  *  Cassia
4. Prophets, Judges and Kings Qualifications for Office
5. Two Anointed Shepherds Cyrus  *  David
III — IN THE NEW COVENANT
6. The Eternally Anointed One Born Anointed  *  The Anointing of the Anointed  *  In the Fulness of Power  *  The Servant of Jehovah  *  Lesser Anointings of the Anointed
7. With the King in His Kingdom on Earth Servants under His Authority  *  A Kingdom not of this World  *  Authority over all the Power of the Enemy  *  Function and Service
8. Head Over All Things to the Church The Gift of the Holy Ghost  *  A Man Approved of God  *  The Multitude of them that Believed  *  Chosen to be with Him  *  The Body is One  * Boldness to Preach  *  These Signs shall Follow
9. The Anointed in the Midst The Power of Authority  *  Great Plainness of Speech  *  The Measureless Spirit  *  The Emergence of the Churches  * One Mediator
IV — IN THE EVERLASTING COVENANT
10. The Order of Melchizedek The Oil of Gladness

I — BACKGROUND AND FOUNDATION

Chapter 1 — Social and Cultural Significance

Throughout the centuries the subject of the Anointing has never failed to engage the minds and intrigue the hearts of all serious people of God. Children of God in any age who wish to live to His glory and win His approval know this to be a most important matter. The Anointing is one of the most precious of all God-given experiences, and is absolutely vital to life and service. All Christians ought faithfully to appropriate the fulness of the blessings of the gospel and receive the Anointing to do God's will in the earth. Inspired writers of both Old and New Testaments speak of it with clarity and authority; their combined statements must be received as the only true foundation for all thinking and speaking on the subject.

The primary purpose of this book is to encourage personal investigation of the scriptures with a view to discovering the New Testament position on the subject; in course of doing so it will be necessary to take a fairly long look at what Old Testament writers say about it — this is unavoidable. If we would rightly assess the relative meanings and purposes associated with anointing in the mind of God we can do no other.

Of the two testaments, the old has far more to say about the Anointing than the new. A glance at a good concordance reveals that the New Testament has hardly anything to say about it at all; there are seven or eight times as many references to anointing in the Old Testament as there are in the New. The reasons for this lie far beyond the comparative lengths of the two books, and are of vital importance to every member of the Church of Jesus Christ. These reasons must be sought out, that correct conclusions may be reached and carefully weighed, and the results fearlessly accepted and applied to our own lives. It is critically important that the mind of the Lord should be clearly known among us. Understanding of truth and honest convictions will lead to pure doctrine from which alone will emerge powerful ministry which cannot be gainsaid.

From time immemorial anointing has been a common custom in the Middle East. Long before Moses' day it was practised among people of all nations for both profane and sacred reasons. Whether for personal, social, medical or religious purposes, from cradle to grave anointing has held a recognised and often a prominent place in the cultures of these lands. For various reasons, oil has been widely used for pouring or smearing on persons and things, sometimes for perfume, sometimes for healing, sometimes for embalming, sometimes for sanctification. It has other uses too, such as for cooking, garnishing, minimising friction, lighting and many other things too numerous and not important enough to be mentioned. Most of these were in no sense connected with anointing, and were not thought of in that way. Some, however, were most definitely referred to as anointings, even though they had no reference to things religious. Perfumes, for instance, were concocted from fragrant spices, mixed in oil and smeared upon the person for cosmetic purposes; these were referred to as anointings.

An Anointing of Love

Jesus once reproved a Pharisee named Simon for not anointing Him, 'My head with oil thou didst not anoint', He said, and drew attention to a woman who had washed and anointed and kissed His feet ceaselessly. Neither Simon's anointing, which was denied Him, nor the anointing so lavishly bestowed upon Him by the woman, held any spiritual significance or bestowed any particular authority — they were not intended to do so. They held no innate ability to elevate Him to a great height or position or ministry in the household. Had it been bestowed by Simon it would have been but a common courtesy, a gesture of acceptance, showing Jesus to be an honoured guest, that is all. That kind of anointing was a national custom in Israel, it was part of social practice, a cultural nicety to which all decent people subscribed; there was nothing special about it. The particularly significant thing about the incident is that the friendly gesture was purposely withheld from the Lord by Simon.

Anointing oil itself upon the head was probably fragrant and comforting to a certain degree, but the innate properties of the mixture, though pleasurable when administered, were not the chief reason for its bestowal. The beauty and blessing of this kind of anointing lay in the fact that it was an expression of the host's loving welcome to his guest, not in the anointing itself. Although the various ministrations — the cleansing, the anointing, the kiss — meant acceptance, welcome, honour, comfort, love; all was a token. The fresh, comfortable feeling of being made clean from the defilement of the way in order to walk in the purity of the house; the perfume of acceptance into and unification with the fragrance of the home; the memory of the imprint of the kiss of friendship and love welcoming the guest into the family, were intended to show the warm friendship of the host. By withholding these, the Pharisee publicly insulted the Lord, openly snubbing Him before the assembled guests; it was scandalous treatment for Cod.

But the woman, 'woman of the city' though she was, shed tears over it all, weeping upon His feet, her inward waters supplying what Simon's well could not. Cleansing away the defilement of the treacherous household from Him, she laid her head at His feet in worship, and wiped them dry with her hair, proclaiming Him to be the Lord of all there. None of the others received such astonishing treatment; their reception was not to be compared with His. In the act she confessed all her glory to be His. He was her Lord and King, and she His willing slave; more, He was her head and she His body. Lifting her head, she laid her lips against His feet for a moment., and with a kiss bestowed all her grateful love upon Him, then she crowned the occasion with glory and honour by anointing Him with the oil she had brought.

Compared with this, anything Simon could have bestowed upon Him would have been worthless. What a marvellous display of devotion it was: at once an open declaration of preference, an attestation of love, an act of defiance, an indignant protest and an avowal of purpose. It meant utter commitment full of pointed meaning. He was the only one Simon would not anoint, and the only one she did anoint. Many profitable lessons could be gained from meditation upon the incident, but wonderful though they may be, that kind of anointing was nothing more than a social practice. It was a time-honoured custom among the people, practised without any deep spiritual intent; it was not ordained of God.

Social customs originate from recognised need, sometimes due to climatic or geographic conditions. Not surprisingly, by repetition these later become customary, developing into gestures of human politeness, expected courtesies bearing social significance deeply rooted in everyday habits. Expectation, duty, pride, all play their part in building a nation's culture into the expression of a people's will until, as well as being the aggregate of people's accomplishments, it becomes their heredity.

Foot-washing and the Laver

We see then that in men's cultures, means applied to necessity, and allied to desire become national custom. In somewhat similar manner also, many of the practices found in Israel with spiritual connotations were rooted in the necessities in which the patriarchs found themselves. These things and customs were later made obligatory, first in Israel and then in the Church. Although in some cases these were somewhat similar to the traditions of men, they have been adapted to spiritual usages and given a completely different and higher meaning. As an instance of this we may cite the habit of foot-washing: the Lord took up this common practice, lifted it out of the cultural pattern, slightly changed it and incorporated it into the law of His house, where it took on a new and more exalted meaning altogether.

Basically it was the same as that which was commonly done in every home in Israel. There it meant cleansing from outer defilement, that by the good offices of the host all may walk in sweet accord with the cleanliness of the house; every guest gladly submitted to the ministration. Without any special spiritual emphasis it stood for sanctification; it may not have been thought of in those terms, but nevertheless that is what it plainly implied. It bore the twin ideas of cleanliness and separation; cleanliness from the world outside, and separation unto the state of the house. However, when the Lord took up foot-washing it became something far more than this. In the Lord's house it still retained its common meaning, but this was given a higher meaning and more rigidly applied, that by its constancy a far deeper lesson may be learned.

At the base of the altar the priests of the Lord attended the ground was always saturated in blood. In the course of their duties the bare-footed priests had perforce to tread upon this blood- stained earth. This unavoidably meant that the blood of past sacrifices continuously stained their feet. This is why the Lord insisted that His servants wash their feet before entering the holy place. The blood they handled must be fresh from an immediate sacrifice, their experience must be always 'now'; new. Every past sacrifice paved the way for the present; it must be regarded only as doing that, though.

Past and present mingled on the altar, constituting the abiding and continuous sacrifice; the way into the holy place commenced from the place of that one offering and one blood. But no man must appear in the presence of the Lord having trampled on the blood wherewith he was sanctified as though it were an unholy thing. Therefore, upon his constant journeyings through the Lord's courts into His house, the priest must wash his feet again and again in the layer of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost. This same kind of dissimilarity could be demonstrated in connection with nearly everything in the Lord's house adapted from common usage, and particularly so of the Anointing; here the difference is most marked. However, it is not our plan to pursue an investigation into social anointings, but to look into the place, purpose and meaning of anointing in spiritual life.

Bethel's Anointed Pillar

Perhaps it is of some importance that the first occasion of anointing recorded in scripture is connected with a religious, if not a spiritual experience. It occurred during the course of Jacob's flight from his brother's wrath into Chaldea. The first night out from home, alone in the wilderness, he lay down to sleep, his body on the hard ground and his head upon a harder stone for a pillow; it is not surprising that as he slept he dreamed. His dream was very remarkable though: he saw a ladder set up from earth to heaven, with the Lord standing above it and angels ascending and descending upon it; he was terrified. Identifying Himself to the frightened man as the God of his father, the Lord promised to be with him, to keep him in all places whither soever he went, and finally to bring him back again to his native land. To Jacob the experience was awe-inspiring, 'how dreadful. is this place' he said. Nevertheless he was full of gratitude and in turn responded to God's promises by making certain vows to Him. Having done so and before continuing his journey, Jacob stooped to raise up his pillow on the spot where he had lain. Then for some reason not explained he anointed the pillar with oil and said 'this is none other than the house of God', and named it 'Bethel'.

All Jacob's motives and meaning by the action are not revealed, but we do know that the pillar standing there was the pillow upon which his head had lain. So in this strange way the initial anointing mentioned in scripture in connection with spiritual and religious phenomena was associated with the head. The patriarch did not pour oil on the place where his body lay, but on the headstone, which fact cannot be without significance. There can be no doubt that the act of anointing resulted from his encounter with God; it may have been done in lieu of making a blood sacrifice and directly as a token of the same, for he had none to offer. Almost certainly he was filled with relief that he had met God and was still alive.

Jacob's alarm at the meeting was most real; he was terrified of God. Guilt flooded him; he was a cheat, a liar, a deceiver and a thief. To have travelled all this way into the land of forgetfulness, only to find himself in God's house, was frightening in the extreme. Was he not fleeing as a result of his sins? And then to meet God! His conscience stabbed him wide awake to his guilt in the presence of God and His angels. Without any means of atonement or propitiation his soul stood bare in God's house, at the gateway and ladder to heaven, too frightened to attempt the ascent. He could not even put his foot upon the first rung; he lay there in dread, uninvited and overwhelmingly convicted. O what wonder to learn at that moment from the mouth of the Lord that all his roguery and subtleties and lies had been overruled; he was not going to be punished for conspiring to deceive his blind father, but would be undeservedly blessed instead. Despite all his fears, and contrary to his deserts, Jacob was loved of the Lord.

With what real joy he must have reared up his pillow and anointed it that morning of discovery. If it was to be as an altar bearing up to God all he had and all he had been promised, then the oil upon the stone was indeed as an offering to the Lord. If in his absence it was to remain there as representing him for ever before the Lord, it showed that he knew he could not abide nor stand unanointed, in God's house. If it was the token of his response to God, and if his word was to mean anything to God, then it must be his anointed word. If it was to be as himself, all he was and ever should be and have; if it was to be Jacob for ever steadfast, immovable, unchangeable, given wholly to God, then the pillar must be anointed.

What it actually said to God, who can tell? We do not know; but from this beginning we trace the seeds of eventual meanings, roots of later plants, buds of future flowers, foreshadowings of spiritual realities. All these are later worked out to greatest measure in scripture, and finally presented in fullest meaning in the person of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 2 — An Important Distinction

In order to understand the purpose of the Anointing it is necessary to distinguish between it and the Baptism of the Spirit. The child of God has need of both these blessings, and must know the very distinct difference between them. Great misunderstanding abounds everywhere on this matter. This is at once discovered when it is insisted that it is quite impossible to have been made a child of God and not at the same time to have been anointed also. Despite the fact that the scripture plainly states this fact, to many this is an unacceptable doctrine. This may be because it is not generally known and taught that the regenerating process includes the act of anointing. Apart from the anointing the state of regeneration cannot exist, nor the life it brings be maintained.

New birth is accomplished for God the Father when, in His name, God the Son baptises a person in God the Holy Ghost for the gift of eternal life. At that moment the person being born is completely immersed in the Spirit, that the full power and virtues of the redemption and Being of Christ should be applied to him or her. This Baptism: (1) destroys the seed of satan within and changes the paternity of the believer, utterly separating the life from his fatherhood; (2) breaks the authority and power of Satan over the being; (3) crucifies the old man; (4) cleanses away the spirit and nature of sin. At the same time the indispensable Anointing of the Spirit is bestowed; it is all done as one operation. John makes absolutely clear that not only do 'fathers' and 'young men' have this Anointing, but the new born 'babes' in Christ have it too.

For the sake of clarity it will be best to distinguish this Anointing from all the others mentioned in scripture by using the distinctive name given to it by the translators of the 'King James' version of the Bible — namely 'The Unction'. This distinction is as deserved as it is necessary, for it is superior to all; there is none other like it. Maybe those godly men used this word for the Anointing quite deliberately because they knew that what John speaks of here as 'an unction from the Holy One' is the most essential of all the many anointings referred to in either testament. Be that as it may, let all be assured that no-one must consider himself born of God unless he has received this Unction, for none of God's children are born without it. It is not something to be acquired subsequent to new birth, as being extra to it; it is absolutely essential to it, and is indeed part of that experience.

This was well known to many of our spiritual forbears, who spoke of it with reverence and gratitude as 'Christing with Christ'. In those days the term was used of the true Baptism as opposed to the rite called 'Christening', which in turn gave rise to the distasteful term 'Christendom'. The concept of Christening is based upon the supposed 'baptism' of infants at a font, which for the purpose is symbolically regarded as the fount of eternal life. This idea is totally foreign to the whole tenor of the New Testament and the practice of the early Church, and therefore cannot be correct.

Rightly understood, however, baptism in water primarily sets forth the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was not so when it was first introduced in Israel by John Baptist. At that time Jesus Christ had not died and risen again, so that was impossible. It did, however, signify the washing away of sins as the result of repentance. At that time, in common with every rite of Old Testament practice, baptism looked forward to the death and resurrection of Christ. It was prophetic and parabolic; it enfolded the mystery of redemption yet to be unfolded at Calvary. Because it did so, it could also symbolise forgiveness and cleansing; this was its first use to men at Jordan. We may understand this more clearly if, when regarding the symbolism of water baptism, we in thought replace water with Spirit. When we do this, it at once becomes obvious that immersion in the Spirit is into the reality and power of Christ crucified, dead and buried, and all that means. The soul, passing through all this accumulated virtue and meaning, rises as from the dead in newness of life.

The ordinance implies: (1) the act of death by crucifixion;. (2) the point of death as a result of it; (3) resurrection from death; (4) the state of death in which resurrection life subsists and continues. These four are of an entirely spiritual nature and are vital to our life. Water baptism must certainly accentuate the eternal effectiveness of the age-abiding death and burial of our death in the grave of Christ.

The Real Baptism: Death — the Means of Regeneration

The real death into which Jesus baptised Himself on the cross is nothing other than man himself. Apart from Christ men exist altogether in an eternal state of death. They are completely insensitive in that death, and therefore unable to recognise and know their state. We could not feel or understand that we were dead, so we were unable to do anything about it; but He did know. He also knew He was the only one who could do anything about it. He knew exactly what was necessary and what it would mean for Him to expire into death, for He was alive, and except He knew He could go through with it He would not have endured it, nor entertained the thought of it. Knowing all this, He broke His heart for us — we who were too insensitive to know how it felt to Him that He should be as the sinner to His Father.

His heart did not break because of our lack of love to Him who loved us so much. He felt it of course; it counted and it was of great grief to Him, but the real cause of His heartbreak was what He had to become to the Father whom He loved. He was made and treated as the embodiment of all who did not know or love God, and what was worse, the representation of all who hated and blasphemed and rebelled against and undeified Him. So great was His love to His Father and us, that on behalf of each of us who did not even know enough to care, He completely submitted His whole being to God for eternity, and for a time submitted His body to the wishes of devils and men.

Surely we shall never fully understand all that was involved in Jesus' terrible time on the cross. Right from His birth the grim foreshadowlngs of the deadly tree progressively cast ever-deepening horrors over Him, threatening to engulf Him in unspeakable terrors. As eternity's most awful moment drew on He said, 'I have a baptism to be baptised with', and ever moved on toward the time when He must take the plunge. After all other considerations are taken into account, there is only one baptism worth experiencing and knowing and talking about — it is His. Apart from Him we are in death — dead; but He was and is Life — alive.

The Lord's Baptism was not physical but spiritual. True it took place during the time He suffered physically at the hands of men, but the bodily suffering, important though it was in the whole redemptive plan, was not the Baptism wherewith He was baptised. His soul suffered agonies beyond words also, but unavoidable and necessary as that was, it was not the Baptism — such suffering was no new thing to Him — He had endured much mental torture over the years. In whomsoever it takes place, true baptism can only be spiritual; it is the spirit, the essential immaterial being of a person, that is baptised. This cannot be effected in water for man any more than it could be for Jesus. That it may coincide with water baptism is very possible, but it must not be confused with it. The Lord's Baptism took place as He, the life-giving Spirit, was plunged into the state of the dead spirit — Man. To achieve this position so foreign to Him required an experience entirely new to Him; He called that experience baptism.

In Adam Man(kind) died; when born of flesh and blood, every man is born an already dead-Adam spirit. When the Lord Jesus was born, He was born the new living, or live-Adam spirit; life-giving. At the point of His physical death He was baptised into the composite dead-Adam state. This was accomplished in order to render it for ever powerless and unable to hold and motivate any who afterwards should be baptised by Him in (the) Spirit. By doing so He created a new death into which every believing man has need to be baptised. Jesus created this for man on behalf of God. At His Baptism, on behalf of man He destroyed the state of death in sin, negated physical death (renaming it sleep), and obviated the second death — spiritual Gehennah. Every person so baptised is born of God, and enters immediately into this newness of life. Being brought thereby into all possible benefit of Christ's greatest miracle, he commences an earthly pilgrimage, with prospects of enjoyment with fuller understanding in the next world.

This Baptism is entirely spiritual; it is the baptism of man's believing spirit by Jesus in the Holy Spirit into Jesus' death and through that into Himself. By this, man is brought immediately out of his death state into the life of Christ. It totally instates into Christ's body, which is resurrection and life.

Unto this baptism-birth of the Lord Jesus we all must be baptised, for it was precisely for this reason He underwent it. Upon His physical death He was baptised into our spiritual death, and through it into physical resurrection to complete the cycle. By it He created and inaugurated for us entire spiritual regeneration unto a complete, continuous and progressive mental and emotional experience of renewal here, and ultimate physical redemption. Having voluntarily consented to be made sin and to take the sinner's place, He died as though He were the unregenerate sinner and rose from the dead as though He were the regenerate saint. That remains the greatest miracle and act of love for mankind God has ever manifested. On that day of resurrection God said to Him, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee'; at the same time He triumphantly visualised and prophetically spoke also to a whole host of sons, each of whom is a member of His great family begotten unto Him from the dead with Jesus.

Jesus created this baptismal regeneration in the Spirit for us upon completion of His life on earth; it was the great objective towards which He had always moved from all eternity. To achieve this required, what were in the eyes of men, two outstanding miracles, one of which occurred at the commencement and the other at the fulfilment of the plan. The first of these was His conception, the second was His resurrection; both were inaugural for us, as well as necessary for Him. Contrary to popular thought, Jesus' birth was not miraculous; it was entirely natural and normal. The real miracle about His birth was that it happened, not how it took place; apart from the unusual birthplace, the actual birth was quite ordinary. It was His physical conception which was miraculous — the birth just logically followed as with every other baby. This being so, to complete the miraculous cycle He had to undergo a miraculous birth also, for the two must go together. Although separated from His conception by a period of over thirty years, the miraculous birth took place when He rose from the dead. He accomplished all for us, and it is marvellous in our eyes. We cannot, as He, be sons of God by natural birth, but we can and must enter into His life as a son of God by spiritual birth. We can only do this through that miracle which took place in course of His crucifixion and resurrection, for there is no other way.

By the miraculous conception and death and resurrection of Jesus, God disclosed to the world His chosen method of regeneration In order to become sons of God — all human beings must be spiritually born by the same means as those by which the greatest Human Being was naturally born. A kind of spiritual transaction of the same order as that which took place between God and Mary before Jesus was conceived by her must also take place between God and everyone desiring to be born of God. So real was the agreement between God and Mary, and so great was the miracle wrought in her as the result of it, that she became the mother of Jesus' humanity. The dialogue between the angel and Mary preceding the miracle is a perfect specimen of the kind of exchanges which must take place between God and every individual before regeneration; total agreement with God is indispensable to any spiritual birth. In addition to this we must understand that God only begets His children by means of death and resurrection. The two outstanding miracles that embrace the earthly life-span of the Lord Jesus must combine in the Spirit for our regeneration.

It is not planned, nor is it possible for us to undergo all that happened to Jesus on the cross. We have nothing to do with sin-bearing and punishment; the work of redemption and reconciliation was entirely the Lord's, but some of the main things that happened to Him at Calvary must take place in us too. We must: (1) be begotten of the Word and power of God as in Jesus' conception; (2) be born through His cross and death and resurrection. The first is how God achieves this objectively in us; the second is how God accomplished it subjectively in Himself for us. The first is how we by faith may experience it subjectively in ourselves; the second is how we enter into it eternally in God. We should think of His birth, life, death and resurrection in relation to ourselves as follows: (1) miraculous conception, naturally resulting in birth and supernatural life; (2) miraculous death, naturally resulting in resurrection; we must see the two miraculous events as one.

Viewing these things on human levels, it is easy to arrive at wrong conclusions, for Jesus' death was really the greatest of all miracles. For Him the resurrection was a foregone conclusion, a logical process and quite natural to Him; for as He said, He was and is the Resurrection and the Life. He was never death; death had to happen to Him as a miracle. It was the greatest miracle of all. His birth at Bethlehem logically and naturally followed that miraculous conception at Nazareth; so also did His resurrection naturally and logically follow that miraculous death at Calvary. Resurrection is therefore rightly seen to be birth and was rightly called so by His Father when, on Easter day He said to His Son 'this day have I begotten thee'. So by placing the two miraculous events together we see the two basic elements of the one true New Birth for Man. Thereby alone can we receive His supernatural life.

When He was born on earth, or as we may speak of it, in His 'first birth', Jesus' conception was exemplary to us — a pattern which God invariably follows; so also is His 'second birth' from death. In much the same way as Jesus was conceived for birth, the Holy Ghost is continuously using the word and the power from on high to bring forth children of God. God instituted something new and eternal at Nazareth; at that point in history He inaugurated among men a method of eternal birth. He has never departed from it; He is always repeating the miracle of specific conception for the birth by His word.

At Calvary also God moved constitutionally, validating Nazareth. Nazareth made Calvary possible, Calvary made Nazareth reasonable and necessary. On the cross, once for all, the God-Man was made sin; He remains the unrepeatable sacrifice; God is marked with it for ever. His eternity of Being is founded upon irrevocable truth. He adapted and applied this to men's salvation and regeneration.

However, the terrible marks of crucifixion upon His body are not the greatest of the wounds inflicted upon our precious Saviour then. The spear-thrust into His side after death revealed the greater anguish; whilst still hanging on the cross His blood and water gushed out, disclosing the power and agony of the unbearable torture which broke His heart. What unnameable terror did this? His God and Father who loved Him, actually made Him to be sin for us. He bore all our sin, but He bore up under it and bore it away. His breaking had to do with that, but it never broke Him; it was not sin that broke Him. All the principalities and powers of the unredeemable spirits under the leadership of satan concentrated all their hatred and fury upon Him and attacked Him on the cross, but they couldn't break Him either. Then why did He die broken-hearted? Who or what had such power over Him to cause this? The secret of His breaking is of a threefold nature: (1) although He would have rather died than become old Adam yet He had to be made the personification of that Old Man His Father so hated; (2) He had to represent all those who hated and rebelled against His Father; (3) He knew that to expiate Adam's crime against God and mankind He must be forsaken by God as God had been forsaken by Adam in the beginning.

By pre-arrangement, all the wrong that man had wrought against God, undeserved, must be concentrated into the unprecedented and unrepeatable hours of agony He endured in the garden and on the cross. Beyond physical death, He must feel and know the unspeakable agony and anger of both God and righteous Man. He must be forsaken and utterly abandoned by everyone, even Himself. He had to bear His own righteous indignation against the Man He had to become; but this did not deter Him. With redemptive purpose He steadily moved toward and finally entered the state of God-forsakenness, that most dreadful of all conditions fundamental to the state of eternal death from which He must rescue Man.

That was the sentence He faced; He knew that for Man He must bear all the sin brought in by satan through Adam, and all the righteous exactions of God against the results and consequences of it. All had to be included at the cross in order to be excluded from us. But, O the wonder of it, praise Him, He did it, breaking His heart in the process. The heart-rending 'Why?' which broke from His innermost being at the point of death was not for Himself alone, or for just one other individual, but for Man. It was rent from Him as though rising from the hearts of the whole company of the as yet unborn sons of God. It was as a cry of shocked realisation from a vast multitude of men, who, though sons of Adam, could not, should not, and therefore would not, must not know or suffer for Adam's crime against God and them.

Satan hated Him — O how he hated Him — but that could not hurt Him; He was dead to him. Men hated Him, joining with satan to hurt Him, hurt Him and hurt Him again, but He was dead to them and that too. Sin lay upon Him and hurt Him; from the moment He took it, its loathsome newness pained and hurt Him through His hours of anguish to the latest point of shuddering release, but He died to it; it did not harm Him. He bore God's righteous judgement and suffered the capital punishment against all that should be punished, and accepted that without demur; that did not break Him either. He overcame all of that whilst still alive, groaning upon the shameful cross of His chosen death for the sake of God and man. But finally God left Him. God forsook Him in the darkness; there, for man, He suffered Father's rejection of man — because He loved man so — and it broke Him in heart. What terrible love is this? Wonderful! Fearful in praises; who is like unto Thee O God, who is like unto Thee?

This then is the sacred Baptism wherewith He was baptised, and beside this there is no other baptism worthy of mention. This is that one all-powerful Baptism by which Father begets every one of His sons; all who are born of Him have to come to birth through this one baptism; now as then it is accomplished on His behalf only by Jesus who created it. In that one all-inclusive Baptism He accomplished the baptism of every son. He effects it today by immersing each one in Holy Spirit, that each in his own order may be joined with Him. It is Christ's personal baptism, and privileged indeed are all who are included in it. Though sinners, being so favoured, we enter into our own death by His virtues as He entered into, it, and passing through it, enter into life eternal. As He said, He is the way, and the truth, and the life, and through Him we come to the Father. Jesus put away sin, destroyed the old man, bore our curse and took all our punishment in order to make available to us a new birth into His own state of life.

The Lord underwent this at and as the end of His earthly life, and no different from Him, we can only undergo it at and as the end of our life of sin, otherwise we cannot enter into His Life. He was born sinless, He did not need the Baptism in the Spirit to enable Him to live and work in the Spirit; but by satan's and Adam's predestinating act in the garden we were born sinners, therefore we need it. Baptism in the Spirit was designed by God to be the vital counter-predestinating factor which should negate and offset the predestinating factor of sin in us; we certainly need it. He came into the world in order to prepare and institute Baptism in the Spirit for the regeneration of men, that by it He should deal with man's most basic need.

It is absolutely important that we understand how, when, where and for what purpose regeneration is granted to mankind; this would be a project altogether too great to undertake here. The importance of it to us now lies in the fact that, apart from the experience, no-one can receive the essential life-anointing called Unction. Except a man has this, it is absolutely impossible to have or live the spiritual life.

The Holy Ghost — the Unction

The Unction is one of the functional forms of the Holy Ghost. It is a way and work by which both naturally and officially He expresses His presence within the believer. It is the Holy Ghost being Himself and applying Himself in His most gracious form to us. The Spirit should be thought of in connection with the Unction in the same way as we think of the Lord Jesus when we read 1 Corinthians 1:50, 'Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption'. As in salvation Jesus is made these things to us, so also in regeneration the Holy Ghost is of God made unto us Unction.

Now we know that Jesus is not abstract or neuter; He is the person of God through Whom we receive the gift of eternal life. Being analysed, this eternal life consists of the nature and manifold virtues of Jesus Christ, and we may quite properly speak of these in abstract terms without demeaning Him at all. We would not ordinarily think of describing Jesus in abstract terms, but because we need righteousness in order to be saved, God gives it to us; He gives us Original Righteousness, and He does so by a Person, God the Son, through whom all righteousness proceeds to us from God the Father. David saw this in measure and said, 'God is become my salvation'; he is drawing attention to Someone — God Himself, not something God does.

We normally think of salvation as something God does for men, but primarily salvation is God applied to man. He is all man needs for salvation; He applied Himself to be man's Saviour. In God's overall plan of salvation there is that which the Father is to us, that which Christ is made to us and that which the Holy Ghost is made to us. Between them, Father, Son and Holy Spirit become everything to us. The man who says 'Christ (is) my Righteousness', must also be able to say 'the Holy Ghost (is) my Unction'. The children of God have the Righteousness of Christ and the Unction of the Spirit; both are of God.

Paul speaks of this Unction in a different way from John, saying 'He that is spiritual judgeth (discerneth) all things'. He is speaking of both Unction and function; the Unction makes us 'spiritual'. The 'knowing' we have is by the Spirit. By that Unctional 'knowing' we discern all things. To read the sixth chapter of I Corinthians is to discover how great in scope is the informative power of this 'knowledge', and how it works and should affect our conduct. The child of God, growing in Christ and learning from scripture, discovers that, according to their particular role and function, each of the persons of the blessed trinity is of God made to us all we shall ever need.

The Holy Ghost is not merely an unction, nor does He give us an unction, He is the Unction; He is a person. The Holy One, that is God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, decided that in the overall plan of total redemption, the Holy Ghost should be given unto men in order to be their inward means of knowledge. This was done in order to ensure their continued safety and growth. The Unction we have is the perceptive faculty of omniscient God the Holy Ghost within man. When creating man originally, God adapted His personal abilities to Adam's need, giving him five sensory powers — sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Had He not done so, it would have been quite pointless to have given him a brain. Without these five, humanity would be nothing but a useless hulk of flesh and blood and bone and tissue, and could scarcely be thought to be alive. When, by grace, man becomes a new creature, to these natural five is added the divine Unction. It is superior to them and is as vitally necessary to full spiritual life as are the five senses to full human life. The Unction is the new faculty of perception. Its function is to divinely detect, distinguish, evaluate and assess everything. So comprehensive is its power that by it a person will know all things; it can almost be described as the 'brain' of the spiritual man.

Care must be taken at this point to distinguish between the five normal sensory powers, the Unction and the extra-sensory powers which some people have. Extra-sensory powers in man are inexplicable; they appear to be developments of or from the five basic senses common to normal humans. In spiritual circles extra-sensory powers have caused great confusion, for they are the human counterpart of the extraordinary powers of the Holy Ghost called the gifts of the Spirit, which are the miraculous powers of the body of Christ. Extra-sensory powers are for, the most part being used by satan to counterfeit spiritual gifts, and are carnal, sensual and devilish.

The gifts of the Spirit are bestowed according to God's will freely within the body of Christ, which is formed exclusively by Him, and comprises Spirit-baptised men and women only. The gifts of the Spirit must not be mistaken for the Unction. Each of these functions differently from the Unction; though working in conjunction with it, they are extra to it. Not one of them is necessary to life; they are vital to fully developed function though, and in all realms of God's kingdom proper worship and effective service cannot be achieved without them.

According to scripture numerology, five is the number of grace. By being the Unction in man, the Holy Spirit in a particular way is fulfilling His calling as the Spirit of Grace. How gracious is God that He should become the basic power of the new life He gives us. What a perfect plan He has devised; how necessary it is, and bow safe are His children who learn to live by this Unction. Beyond reasons of grace and security, if God wished us to be His children, and not just a company of forgiven sinners, it was absolutely vital that He should do this thing — that is why He did it. The Unction is no lie, it is infallible. This does not mean that everything a regenerate person does or says or thinks is infallibly right; the new sensory power within must be used aright. We have only been born again in order to learn to live to God's glory; to do this we must live by the Unction daily.

The Unction must be believed, completely trusted and fully obeyed, or else our lives will be no different from others who do not have it. This necessitates at least two other basic requirements, each of them equally of God: (1) faith, (2) fulness. The power which brings the Unction into complete operational benefit and utmost effect in the life of Man is faith; without this the Unction will soon lose its leading role and cease to influence the life. Fulness of the Spirit is also absolutely necessary, for it is the only condition in which faith can operate properly in any man. Unless a child of God continues in the fulness of the Spirit who indwells him, he cannot attain to the fulness of life for which he has been equipped by the Unction. We must all live by the faith of the Son of God, the Christ (who) 'liveth in me'. The Unction is the 'Christ-ing'; by it we cry 'Abba, Father,' as did Jesus. By it we know (that is we perceive) that we are the sons of God, and by trusting and obeying it we all can develop unto full maturity as did Jesus of Nazareth, becoming men of God in His image, after His likeness.

The Anointing for Service

In order to attain unto this fully developed state, an Anointing other than, and in addition to, the Unction must be bestowed upon the child of God. This further Anointing is fundamentally of the same nature as the Unction, but is secondary to it; it must not be confused with the primary one; it is distinct from it and is not bestowed for the same purposes. This Anointing is linked with the Unction, and as naturally functions with it as does speech with voice, and seeing with sight, and hearing with the auditory sense, and all of these with being and personality. But as the five perceptive and acquisitive senses are necessary to the life and development of the soul and personality of a human being, so also to the child of God is this additional or further Anointing absolutely necessary. Without it no person can reach fullest manhood, or grow to greatest stature after Christ. The child of God cannot develop the latent powers of the new man and attain to greatest usefulness in the service and ministry of the gospel without it.

As previously stated, the Unction is there at birth; every child of God has it by virtue of his Baptism in the Spirit, and the further Anointing mentioned above is incipient in it. Thus the Unction may be regarded as the promise of this Anointing and the preparation for it. Anointing is properly included in, and must be regarded as part of, the inheritance to which we are born of God. It is not fundamentally part of the birth experience, but is generally bestowed at a later time. It is a grace in its own right, distinct from the Unction, and should always be thought of and spoken of as such.

Nevertheless, we need not infer that there must be a gap or delay between the experience of the Baptism of the Spirit and the anointing of the life for ministry. There appears to be no reason (except any which may be found in the specific will of God or the particular condition of a man), why both may not take place together in the experience of anyone. God's will is sovereign in these matters, and although He never works contrary to eternal principles of life and order of truth, He does at times fuse into one many things normally separated in experience by time.

II — IN THE OLD COVENANT

Chapter 3 — Priesthood — The Supreme Anointing

The knowledge so far gained enables us to clarify the difference between Unction and Anointing, and to understand the order of truth. As distinct from the Unction, the Anointing is the mark of an election, the sign of an elevation, and often a token of God's evaluation of a man. Without exception therefore, under the Old Covenant, everyone so anointed either immediately entered an altogether new public functional life, or became known as one marked out f or some work requiring special power or grace. Miraculous new abilities to serve were in some cases bestowed upon those anointed, as in the case of Elisha, but this was not so in all cases.

Among the latter, upon whom no such miraculous power came, was the whole company of priests. These men did not thereby receive power to perform miracles, but following their anointing were granted privileges, authority and enlargement above all their fellows. They became house servants of the Lord, working in His courts to do His will, waiting daily upon Him and His family of people, their 'brethren'. The priests were not called to do occasional miraculous things as did prophets and kings. Instead they became altogether miraculous persons — a far greater thing.

Even Life for Evermore

At his ordination every priest expected to be anointed; all Israel knew what a prominent part anointing played in the priests' installation ceremony. No man became a priest solely because of it, but he could not be a priest without it. Poured upon him as the final ministration from God, it crowned the ceremony, preparing and permitting him to function for and before the Lord. It denoted total acceptance and entire sanctification; by it the priest was wholly set apart. No priest would have dared enter the holy courts of the Lord without it. But far deeper and more important to the priests than these outward honours, the anointing was the symbolic seal of their personal purity in the Lord's eyes.

They attained to this by a series of simple ministrations full of symbolic meaning, each of which imputed spiritual purification to them, and led up to the crown of the anointing. Without this crown no man was fit to be a priest; he could not handle the sacrifices of God or in any way serve Him in the office. The anointing was his coronation, his accession to royal priesthood; by it the commoner became a king. In the same sense in which we understand the phrase, 'Gentleman's gentleman', we must also understand that they were the 'King's kings'; God was the great King, they were anointed kings among their fellows.

When the Lord spoke to Moses at Sinai about the Children of Israel, He said they were to be unto Him a kingdom of priests. This was to be their privilege and function. Peter puts it this way, 'a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people to show forth the virtues (things deserving of our praises) of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light'. The priests were a family specially selected to manifest royalty in a peculiar way for the whole nation. Crowned with the anointing, they each, as though a king, could serve the King of heaven in the heavenlies upon His earthly throne. Jehovah was thus shown to be the King of kings. David reveals that this anointing was both a crown and a saturation. It flowed down over each priest's mitre and off his beard on to his robes and down to the ground; he was encased in the anointing, 'clothed with power from on high'. When the crowning was completed upon Aaron, the High Priest, 'the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore'.

This was life for the nation; the people were alive from the death of Egypt and the death of the Red Sea — both these were ways of escape from death. But the anointing was an appointment into everlasting life. Because of it life was constantly commanded by God for the whole nation. For them this lay in the personal accession to God granted to every man by means of the priesthood. This was immediately and specifically demonstrated to them upon the occasion of the first great anointing, for as soon as Aaron was anointed, his own sons were made priests too. With Aaron they were granted access to God also. Before the eyes of the whole nation another four men were symbolically born again and installed into office, and this was for all the people. The royal priesthood meant that the chosen generation was a holy nation also.

This priestly anointing was superior to all other anointings; it was: (1) a special 'creation' of God; (2) created for use in His house alone. It was created for the few — the hidden priestly office had far less functional members in it than the more spectacular public prophetic office. God's instructions were that this anointing may only be poured upon priests when fully dressed in their clothes; it had to be their final layer of clothing, their habit — they lived in it. These men became partakers of the common anointing of God's house; for the Tabernacle itself, with all its pieces of furniture, its instruments and soft furnishings, had also been anointed with the identical oil. Theirs was an inclusive anointing, they shared it in common with the house; but it was as exclusive as it was inclusive, for nothing and no-one else was included within its scope and use.

It is salutary to reflect on the fact that neither prophet nor king was in view at that time. The latter office did not then exist in Israel, and when it was later introduced the sacred anointing oil was not used for it. The reason for this is that both these offices were inferior to the priesthood. The proof of this is the very fact that they were not allowed to share in the glory of the sacred anointing. God prohibited its use for anything and anyone not directly connected with His Tabernacle; the priesthood was the higher service. Only death awaited the person who presumed to use the sacred anointing for anything else, for by God's decision everything else was classed as profane. Although later God commanded others than priests to be anointed, it was understood by all that theirs was a different anointing. The significance of this realisation may best be expressed in this way: the anointing bestowed upon priests was the anointing; the anointing bestowed upon others was an anointing.

In the New Testament the superiority of the priestly anointing over that of kings and prophets is most distinctly revealed. The writer of the Hebrews letter exhorts his readers to 'consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus', telling us also that He is 'as a Son over His own house', and that we are that house if we hold fast 'the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end'. Further to that, being members of His house, we are graciously included among the holy brethren who are partakers of the heavenly calling.

The priestly Anointing was in itself most holy unto the Lord, and was of an entirely different nature from that which was used when men were anointed unto any other office. God dictated its contents and composition to Moses and gave him careful directions for its blending. He had it made precious and holy for Himself, to be kept in His house and handled exclusively by priests. It was unique in Israel; it was preserved in the holy place out of reach of the ordinary man. Moses never received, nor did he give any directions about anointing for any office other than that of priest. It appears that what was used for anointing prophets and kings could be just plain olive oil, taken up as it came to hand and used as the need arose.

The Crown of the Anointing

By the Lord's command the apothecary created the holy Anointing for the priesthood by adding to the olive oil five 'principal spices'; these he compounded together and suspended in olive oil, entirely changing its nature. When used ceremoniously, olive oil used alone stood for the person of the Holy Ghost; but when it was united with the spices in this manner it represented Christ after the Spirit, or, in other words, the Spirit of Christ. The phrase, 'Spirit of Christ' refers to the entire inner, eternal life of the person known on earth as Jesus of Nazareth. It implies the concentrated essence of His nature, His disposition, temperament, attitude and whole self. It was the secret determinative spring from which His outward life derived and was displayed in His humanity; it is specially connected with the will. This will be considered in greater detail later in the chapter.

Poured upon a man, the Anointing was the highest honour he could possibly have; so great was the meaning of this ministration that it is spoken of as 'the crown of the Anointing'. Bestowed upon the man as the final act of the rite of ordination, it was intended to be his divine coronation. Compared with it, earthly crowns and crownings have no worth; it was so holy that to act in any way contrary to it meant certain death. Before this coronation, the man was only a priest-presumptive, but being crowned he was entirely sanctified into office as a royal priest unto God and the people. Thereafter he was fully consecrated to the work and his hands were filled with the sacrifices of God immediately. This priestly Anointing is the Old Testament counterpart of the Unction spoken of by John, and is bestowed by God upon all those who are baptised into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ; it is shared alike by Jesus the High priestly Head and the entire membership of His priestly body.

We see then that before God elected and installed the priests, He had already prepared for them this special Anointing which incorporated in it something extra from Himself. That extra something was a compound of five things; five is the number of grace, so on whomsoever it was poured it represented an impartation of the personal grace of the Lord Jesus to that person. This grace must be carefully distinguished from the grace of forgiveness, or any act in which He engages, or any work or gift He bestows — charismatic or otherwise. It has to do with the character of the Lord, His deportment — His spirit as delineated above [on the previous page] — rather than His words and deeds; they are a result, this is their cause.

Whenever in scripture the act of pouring on or anointing with oil is involved, it always symbolises some kind of spiritual enduement by God. This is basic in every God-ordained anointing for any office, but by super-adding those powdered ingredients to the oil of priestly Unction, God was meaning far more. For the priesthood He deliberately changed the character of the oil. So greatly was it changed, that in Psalm 133 it is called an ointment; the additives had given it 'body'.

Of the House of Aaron

There was neither human advantage nor spiritual virtue in being born of the Aaronic line. The baby Levite had no inherent spiritual qualities imparted to him by natural birth; he was not a better man because of it. This is clearly shown in the story of the terrible presumption and dreadful end of Nadab and Abihu. Both these were natural Sons of Aaron, and therefore by all normal expectations were greatly privileged beyond others. In common with their father and brothers, the right of priesthood was theirs, and at their ordination the Anointing was poured upon them. Nadab, being Aaron's firstborn, was next in line for the high-priesthood upon his father's decease; but these two brothers' hearts were defiled and evil with pride and jealousy.

Envious of their father, one fatal day they deliberately trespassed into the forbidden inner sanctuary of God to offer strange fire before the Lord, and for their sin and folly they died right there before the Lord. They died because they broke the repeatedly stated rules governing their priesthood, and presumed beyond their calling; it was entirely their own fault. The Anointing brought them into God's service and as far as the veil, but not beyond it. Self-will drove them to sin and folly, and for it they forfeited both their life and their ministry. However, despite failure, the priests, as no other company in the Old Testament, displayed with some degree of precision the greater fulness of blessing there is in the gospel of Jesus Christ for us.

There are several fairly lengthy portions of the Bible devoted to setting forth the details of the elevation of the Aaronic family to the priesthood. In these, and especially in the chapter dealing with the original inaugural ceremony, we find that what took place with these men anointed to a kind of new birth. This is exactly what it was meant to symbolise. Four easily discernible stages should be noted; they were: (1) stripped of their former clothes; (2) bathed entirely in or at the Laver; (3) clothed in priestly robes; (4) anointed. All these things were done to them that they may minister unto the Lord. The ordination was administered entirely by Moses, the Mediator of the Covenant, at one time and place as one transaction, complete in four simple parts. The symbolism is as follows — these men were: (1) completely stripped of their old habit of life (in order to enter a new); (2) washed entirely clean (not a stitch or a stain or even a smell of the former manner of life must remain); (3) dressed in their new clothes, (with them they put on the new life); (4) anointed (at once crowned, clad, called and commissioned in the Spirit).

This is a marvellous prefiguration of the glories of New Covenant regeneration. By God's grace we all may experience the reality of death to the old man, and resurrection into meaningful life by personal identification with Christ on the cross and in the tomb. Each priest of the New Testament must, under the instructions and personal ministrations of Christ, altogether put off the old man with his former manner of life; this must be done so completely that as a consequence he may enter into an entirely new ministerial life. God does not anoint the old man and his manner of life; He told Moses expressly that the anointing was not to be poured on man's flesh. The new vestments of the priests were made and worn expressly to exhibit their new spirits and receive the anointing; figuratively their garments displayed their regenerate soul life; symbolically by the ceremony they were turned inside out.

For the purposes of God and our instruction the whole episode, though enacted in the flesh, was intended to be understood and interpreted as being entirely spiritual. The Anointing flowed over their bonnets and ran down on to their clothes as though it was being poured upon their spirits. Their outer clothing became soaked and impregnated with it, indicating God's intention and ability to saturate the spirits of men with the Spirit of Christ. Other things also took place at that time, but these four were fundamental to them all and vital to their initiation into the ministry.

Aaron and his sons were washed, clothed with heavenly (in the sense that they were designed by God) garments, anointed with the Anointing and installed in office all on the same day. Their initiation ceremony was integrated with and incorporated into the greater ceremony with which the Tabernacle was erected and the system of national worship was inaugurated; it was a great day in Israel. Beside being the logical thing to do, it was a vitally important thing to do, for this shows all was one. It was done this way that the importance of the Anointing may be put into true perspective and assume its true proportions in our eyes. It is absolutely vital we see this, for the sacrifices which granted Israel continued existence and standing and favour with God could not be made without the priests. In the Pentecost of the New Testament, when God established His Tabernacle / Temple / Church on earth, the hundred and twenty were simultaneously baptised in the Spirit, clothed with power and anointed with the Anointing from on high.

God, as always when fulfilling a type, does everything meticulously, having regard to all details. The Unction has to do with the gift and function of eternal life; it is implanted at regeneration and abides with every child of God for ever. It is the proof of his election by God, the seal of his elevation to priesthood, and the authorisation and directive of his energies for the service this entails.

Anointing has to do with other offices and lesser functions than this also; it may be given for a temporary operation or unto partial or limited objectives according to the mind of God. In the Old Testament too it could be repeated and often needed to be, but there is no need for anointing to be less than permanent in the New Covenant. Once imparted by God, only disobedience to Him will forfeit it. God never withdraws it because He has no further use for His anointed. He may elect to lay aside a vessel for a while, but He does not thereby withdraw the anointing. Paul knew the combined truth and abiding power of both these classes of anointing. He rejoiced that he was a son, unctionised by his Father and endued with power, and he also knew he was an apostle, endowed with gifts and ministries, and anointed for that office and function.

A Precious Ointment

It is a remarkable fact that nowhere in the New Testament are we exhorted to obtain or experience the anointing of the Spirit. Such a thing is never mentioned. The only direct references to the Unction and the children of God are in 1 John 2:20-27 and 2 Corinthians 1:21, where it is asserted by both apostles that we all have it. Similarly Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles that the only persons who referred to anointing are Peter, who once uses it in 10:38, and the whole company that prayed with him in one accord in 4:27; on both occasions it was used concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ only. Beside these and a verse in Hebrews 1, the New Testament scriptures are devoid of reference to the subject, and there is a very good reason for this.

The New Testament plainly sets forth the Person who in the Old Testament was but obscurely alluded to in constructions or drapes or concoctions or odours. The oils, lights, shapes, suggestions, positions, feasts, buildings, promises, prophecies, hints, types and shadows of the Old Testament, all combine to point to the Christ who was then completely unknown. Among these things they so devoutly revered and wholeheartedly believed and religiously practised, the Anointing held very great meaning. It was one of those things which, together with all the others, presented to the senses the unknown Christ. It is doubtful whether either the apothecary who compounded the ointment or the priest who was anointed with it, or perhaps even Moses who received from God the prescription for it and first used it, knew all that it represented of the nature and character and ministry of Christ. But even though it may not have meant all this to them, it certainly did to God, and that is why He so carefully gave instructions for its composition and insisted on its controlled use.

So we see that in this matter of the Anointing one of the major differences between the Old and New Testaments is clearly pointed out and illustrated for us. The Old Testament dealt in things, bits, pieces; it was evanescent and transient, at best it was partial; but the New Testament presents the whole, real, eternal person of Christ. Perhaps one of the major differences between the old and new testaments is most vividly highlighted by this very subject of the anointing. The Old Testament occasionally uses such phrases as 'the Lord's Anointed' or 'Thine Anointed'; nevertheless it may be spoken of as generally pointing to the Anointing and occasions of anointing, but not to the Anointed. On the other hand the New Testament almost exclusively points to the Anointed One, seldom to the Anointing, and, Jesus' excepted, never to occasions of anointing. The reason for this should be too obvious for explanation.

Of old it was the Anointing that marked out the man upon whom it was poured, for only its bestowal privileged him to be what he was and to do what he did. Without it he was unauthorised, and to attempt special service apart from it could warrant death. However men in spiritual decline may regard it, God did not allow it, only His Son may serve Him, and the Anointing oil itself was one of the most wonderful Old Testament types of the blessed person of Christ. Within the all-embracing Anointing which soaked the robes and enveloped the priest there stood a mere human being, but what covered him was the Son of God. Before God's eyes every man was Christ, had to be Christ; wasn't he living, moving, serving in Christ, the Tabernacle?

The composition of the Anointing was unique by God's commandment. Its actual creation was an art. God gave to Moses an exact list of the ingredients He required, together with the correct amounts to be used and a divine apothecary to create it. The end product was a revelation of His heart; it was to be most precious. We need only gather together some of the words He used when giving His instructions to Moses to realise this. The very first words on the subject were 'take unto thee principal spices'.

That was the note He started on; this Anointing was to be of major importance. Nothing of a secondary nature was to be considered; the principal spices only were to be used; the finest quality and the first order. He was going to create something of highest worth because it was to represent an indispensable principle and a principality of supreme rank. Secondly, scattered throughout the text we discover the words 'pure' and 'sweet', both of which are used to describe either the quality or nature or flavour or odour of the particular spices to be used. Thirdly, the Lord carefully insisted that the standard by which the spices were to be weighed or valued was the standard of God. Secular and commercial standards must not be introduced; the standard of evaluation and weight was to be the shekel of the sanctuary.

The Shekel of the Sanctuary

By its very name the shekel of the sanctuary was not of this world but of God; it was a special shekel which had to do with redemption money. It was related to the lamb and sacrifice and blood and deliverance; it was the holy price set by God indicating the value of the souls of men. Being mere money, it bore no real relationship to their eternal worth, it was simply the nominal sum set by Him within the system of atonements then because of necessity according to His gracious purposes. Redemption money had strictly to do with ongoing redemption; it speaks of the Redeemer and the quality of life in His blood.

On leaving Egypt and before reaching Canaan, upon God's orders, Moses conducted a census of all the men of Israel. Following His instructions carefully, he first separated the tribe of Levi from the twelve. Of them he numbered every living male from birth upwards; of the rest of the tribes he only numbered those of twenty years of age and upward. As may be expected there was a great disparity between the two totals, for the ratio was eleven to one; the number of grown males of the eleven tribes greatly exceeded the number of males of Levi. Following this, Moses counted the firstborn males of the eleven tribes and then, by a complicated manoeuvre of subtraction, balanced out the firstborn against the sum of the Levites. Again there were many more men of the eleven tribes than there were Levites; they could not be equated man for man. God therefore ordered the difference to be adjusted by down-payments of money. For every man above the number of Levites a sum of five shekels of silver had to be given into the treasury. By this the Lord was showing that all Israel had been redeemed by grace, for silver stands for redemption and five is the number of grace.

He was also keeping clear among them the memory of the Passover — the Levites represented the firstborn. The fact that all firstborn males above the total number of Levites had to pay this sum reveals that God had set the value of every man at five shekels. Not that this is a man's true worth; but by setting a figure which represented redeeming grace, God showed all Israel that the Levites were valued no more by Him than they all — every man was equally valued at five shekels apiece. The Levites understood quite clearly from the beginning that they were selected by grace alone and were worth no more to God than any of their brethren.

Thus it came about that the Lord spoke of the shekel of the sanctuary as distinct from the shekel of the market place. This specification ensured exactitude. Silver is a soft metal, and by constant use in course of time it wears away. Therefore, should a shekel other than the redemption money have been used, the weights of the spices would have varied, with the result that the precision of the Anointing would have been lost. In that case it would have been valueless to God for His purposes.

The weight and volume of the Anointing when complete were as important to the Lord as was the principality of the spices; precision as well as principality was necessary to the end product. The reasons for this were: (1) the compound had to represent to a degree of perfection the unchanging grace of the Lord Jesus, which is utterly consistent, constant and invariable; (2) it represents therefore the unvarying nature of the life-anointing or Unction of all the children of God. This is further underlined by the fact that it had to be made in exact quantities too. It could not be made in smaller or greater quantities as occasion may be thought to demand. Multiplicities of the exact quality and quantity could be produced, but not parts of it. Every individual anointing must be applied from the one Anointing.

The Tabernacle of the Congregation

When the Lord gave commandment about the use of the Anointing, He was most definite concerning the order of application; it was to be twofold. Its prime use was to 'anoint the tabernacle of the congregation', and its second use was to anoint the priests. Now when the Lord referred to the Tabernacle, He spoke of it by several names. Each of these held special significance in relationship to its purpose and use; it emphasised the particular matters of which He was speaking, or the circumstances and context of His remarks. However, by whatever name He called it at any particular time, the Tabernacle was at all times the aggregate of the meaning of all the names. It never varied; if the Lord called it His tabernacle, or 'the tabernacle', or referred to it as 'the tabernacle of witness', it was still 'the tabernacle of the congregation' as well. The change in form of speech only referred to a particular function or purpose of the Tabernacle to which the Lord wished to draw attention at that time. In the scripture under consideration the Lord specifically calls it 'the tabernacle of the congregation', that is, it was the tent of the people.

The Tabernacle was constructed purposely to be the largest and most distinctive tent in the camp; it was to be God's dwelling-place among men. In other words it represented Jesus of Bethlehem and Nazareth and Galilee and Israel and Golgotha, the Son of God manifest in the flesh, The Mystery of God and godliness. As John puts it, 'the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth'.

In many ways, far too numerous to mention now, the Tabernacle was absolutely different from all other tents. Not the least of these differences lay in the fact that it was the anointed tent. Not only so, it was also the tent in which the Anointing was kept; it was always retained there. Now it is just conceivable that some or even all the children of Israel anointed their tents too, but (and here is the whole point) upon pain of death they were forbidden to make any anointing oil like the Anointing of the Lord. The Tabernacle, like Jesus in His day, was indeed the tabernacle of the congregation, and like Him also it was the Tabernacle of God. Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed of the Lord, unique among men.

The Lord named a number of things He wished to be placed within His courts and anointed — it is a unique catalogue; there were seven; seven is the number of mystical perfection. These all were to stand within the outer fabric of the Tabernacle, some within the actual tent itself, and with it partake of the same sacred ministration. The Anointing itself, added to these seven, brings the aggregate to eight, the number of newness of life; this perfectly accords with Jesus' words, 'I am the resurrection and the life'.

The Tabernacle, standing at the centre of the camp in the midst of the people was the testimony that while living among men, yet uncrucified, Jesus was the resurrection and the life, anointed within and without, entirely sanctified by and unto the Father to do His will. What a wonderful testimony this is to the person and life of Jesus Christ; He was perfect and peerless among men, Emmanuel. Tabernacling among men, He was the sum of the virtues of God, compounded into pure, sweet manhood. The 'Apothecary' who compounded His Godhead and Manhood in the Oil of the Spirit was the Father; His art made Jesus by the Holy Ghost.

The second use of the Anointing was its application to the priests upon the day of their ordination. These men had to live and function in the anointed Tabernacle, or to put it another way, they had to minister and serve within the Anointed. it is most natural then, as well as most necessary, that God should say of the anointed articles, 'whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy'. Those priests were the servants of the Lord God of the whole earth in a peculiar way. In order to minister to Him, they had to handle the various pieces of equipment within His house, and those things were as the holies of holies.

An Holy Anointing Oil

God can only accept and be satisfied with that which is of the very holiest quality of all. Somehow then He had to find a way to make His servants holy, for unless He did so they could not touch and handle the holiest things. Therefore to finalise their ordination, the Lord commanded that the priests also should be anointed with the identical oil of Christ, thus becoming one with the Tabernacle. With this they were entirely sanctified unto the Lord and officially consecrated unto Him for the ministry.

It was the Lord who had the oil created. He chose the spices for it and treasured it. He said, 'this shall be an holy anointing oil unto me'. The Lord was as emphatic about this latter as He was about the composition of it. Earlier He had referred to it as 'an oil of holy ointment' and 'an ointment compound'; finally with divine emphasis He gives it its official name — HOLY ANOINTING OIL.

Hereby the Lord is drawing attention to the third person of the Trinity, the blessed Holy Ghost; oil always refers distinctively to Him. When the apothecary made the Anointing, he first compounded and blended the spices together, then he took ordinary olive oil and mixed them in it; from that moment it became holy unto the Lord, something much more than oil. In a unique way it represented the compound virtues of the soul of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. It typified Jesus Christ after the Spirit; that is, what He was by virtue of His virgin birth through being generated into humanity by the Father through the Holy Spirit. He was 'the tabernacle the Lord pitched and not men', 'the holy thing' that was born of Mary, the 'Saviour which is Christ the Lord'.

When the Lord used the three adjectives — pure, sweet and holy — to describe the priestly Anointing, He was surely describing the incomparable beauty of Jesus' essential manhood. Truly He was pure and sweet and holy among men, a king by nature, disposition and character. Perhaps nothing affords us a surer insight into His perfect righteousness and innate fitness than these spices in combination. The first adjective, 'pure', by which Myrrh is described is derived from a root meaning 'free-flowing'. It is of utmost significance that when choosing a word to best describe His Son, God first thought of 'pure'. First and basically the Anointing must be pure. The Myrrh must be fresh, as new, and in its original state, free from hardness or staleness; warm, melted, free-flowing. Jesus must be seen to be unimpeded within Himself — available.

The word also means wild, and in this connection indicates that the Myrrh had to be gathered from the tree in its natural state, uncultivated. Jesus was not a product of His age or of civilization. He was naturally and purely Son of God and Son of Man, free, open, flowing, unprocessed. Who among men flowed so naturally and freely toward His fellows as He? Bowels of compassion and sympathetic tears constantly flowed out to the people and their needs; He was always available and so easily moved by the sufferings of others. Jesus is purest love.

Free-flowing as He was, He was always sweet and holy too. Sweetness of soul bestowed abundantly upon others does not always achieve its sweetening ends though. Inevitably it meets rebuffs also, but under such conditions Jesus never grew bitter, nor allowed His open-heartedness and bowels of compassion to be affected. Even to Judas, who betrayed Him, He remained sweet. To Peter also, who denied Him, and to Pilate who condemned Him to death, the Lord remained sweetly pure. He could not be soured by others, but has sweetened the lives of so many.

His holiness was recognised by all. Even devils proclaimed it, so also did the thief on the cross. Peter felt it in his boat, and begged the Lord to depart from him; His presence was unbearable to the man then — He was so holy. And on the cross itself, hanging in abandonment and shame in the dark with all sin upon Him, His holiness overcame the iniquity of us all. All this and so much more was in the Anointing itself, for these things are only suggested by the adjectives which do but precede the nouns, describing its substance.

Myrrh

If order of priority is indicated in God's choice of ingredients, it is easy to see why Myrrh is given first place among the four chief spices. Firstly it is a natural exudation from a shrub-like tree; while all the others come from plants of lesser strength and stature. Secondly, throughout the East, it had a far wider range of uses than any of the other spices. Thirdly, it is one of the most, if not the most, aromatic of substances; certainly it was the most pungent of the four. Fourthly, it was used as a purifying agent. Fifthly, it has beautifying properties. Sixthly, it has pain-killing, and therefore comforting and restorative power. Seventhly, it is a preservative.

None of the others have quite the same number of uses, so it may be for this reason they do not occupy the first place. Perhaps another reason may lie in the fact that Myrrh was gathered from a living source, whereas in order to obtain each of the other ingredients, the plant from which it was taken must die. Myrrh drops down naturally from the growing tree, hardening into gum upon the outer bark or the ground. Therefore, to be used, the gum either needed to be heated and caused to flow again, or else caught as it flowed freshly from the tree; it had to be moving, flowing, living in this sense.

It cannot be by accident that Myrrh was one of the three gifts presented so early in life by the Magi to Him who was born King. Throughout the whole of His earthly life from birth to death we may trace many reasons why it was included in the Anointing — the pungent aroma of His humanity permeates the Gospels, the power of His presence brings Him into notice everywhere. He just could not be hid. His beauty of character and inner purity earned Him the right to call Himself the good shepherd, and enabled Him to move in every stratum of society untouched by sin, purifying those who joined themselves to Him. Pilate, who sentenced Him to death, declared that he found no fault in Him; He was perfect.

On the cross He was offered the opportunity to take advantage of the well known pain-killing properties of Myrrh. It would have allayed the suffering, restoring false comforts to His soul, so He refused it. If He could drink to the dregs the cup His Father gave Him to drink, He would be able to pay to the full the price demanded for redemption, and He wished to do it in absolute command of His senses, fully conscious of what He was doing. He brought all His undimmed and undiminished powers to bear upon the task of removing sin. For Him Myrrh was for outward use only; it was not to be taken for peace of mind or comfort of soul, or to allay pain; He did not receive it; He provided it entirely for the Anointing.

The Lord, by Myrrh, is shown to be the 'man of sorrows and acquainted with grief', who fixed His heart, set His marred visage, and stayed clearheaded to the end. He approached death as a conqueror and banished it, suffusing its bitterness with the sweetness of His Life. Hallelujah! Following His death, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, determined to preserve His sacred body, brought a hastily mixed preparation of myrrh and aloes, and begged His remains from Pilate that they might inter Him in some sort of dignity. Wrapping the spices in the grave clothes round the body, they laid Him in the tomb, intending after the weekend to come and embalm Him properly. Aloes, a more bitter preservative than Myrrh, also played a part in God's plan to preserve the body of Jesus incorruptible until His resurrection. So it was that God chose Myrrh as the first of the principal spices of the Anointing.

Cinnamon and Calamus

The weight of the Myrrh was balanced in the mixture by equal weights of Cinnamon and Calamus. Each of these by nature smelled and tasted sweet. The purpose for their inclusion was that they should together offset the bitterness of Myrrh, and add sweetness to the whole. Cinnamon is a perfume made from the inner bark of the plant from which it is taken; it speaks of that which lies as a protective cushion between the hard, rough outer bark and the inner sap wood. Functionally it both prevents the sweet juices of the inward life from escaping and wasting, and feeds the outer bark with life-giving sap, enabling it to maintain its vital protective role. Obviously then, except the plant die, it is unable to give its tender inner sweetness to the apothecary for his ointment. Cinnamon indicates the gentle, lamb-like nature of Jesus and tells us that greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Calamus is a root; it represents the means of sustenance and life. It also refers to strength and stability, and is directly connected with our Lord Jesus 'as a root out of a dry ground'. Primarily it speaks of His sure unchanging manhood, and points to His virgin birth, proclaiming that His roots are in God. Again, by connecting together His Godhead and manhood, it speaks of royalty, 'I am the root and offspring of David', He said. He is both the root from which David sprang and also the offspring from that root. But chiefly Calamus directs us to Jesus' hidden beginning and the source and means of life. This combination of sweet root and sweet inner bark is intended to show us that His whole life from lowest hidden root to topmost visible branch was sweet. Therefore all the free-flowing sorrows of His life were pure; they were never bitter within Him — nothing embittered Him.

Not the compulsory renunciation of all things in order to be born made Him bitter, neither did the self-denials of His earthly life, nor the contradiction of sinners against Him. He was not made sour by the dreadfulness of being forsaken by His God, or by the bearing of sin or by being made the scapegoat, or by being rejected by men, undeserved as that was. Malice and calumny and brutality and hatred were rained continuously upon Him, but He never drank in any bitterness therefrom; He remained sweet. His root was not a root of bitterness, but a root of sweetness; God was His heavenly Father and sweet Mary was His earthly mother. His sorrow was always godly sorrow, sweetened with utmost love. Sympathy and understanding, with compassionate regard for others, filled His life; it was utterly redemptive, both in daily practice and final achievement.

Cassia

However, a man cannot be all inward; he must be outward as well; the inward life-state developing from such a sweet root must have an outer covering. This is why Cassia is next introduced. It was to be equal in weight to the Myrrh, and equal also to the combined weight of Cinnamon and Calamus. Cassia is an outer bark, the natural covering and discernible appearance of the whole plant; it is also the immediate point of contact that we feel and touch. It reveals that what Jesus was within He also was without; with Him there was no contradiction between the inward and the outward man.

Observing His life and ministry we see that sometimes outwardly He appeared hard, as when He refused to heal Lazarus' sickness; or rough, as in His handling of the Pharisees; or ruthless as when He whipped the money changers in the Temple. He cured Lazarus' sickness in an entirely original way, after letting it run its course in the man. He dealt with the Pharisees harshly in order to shock them into realisation of their sin. He whipped the money changers and cattle handlers out of the Temple because they were making merchandise of souls. Whenever He behaved that way it was because those situations demanded it. Unfortunately to some people such attitudes and actions were at times inexplicable and seemingly uncharacteristic; they therefrom felt resentful or disappointed, but all these should be regarded as the necessary outer bark of the tree of life.

Jesus was very tough as well as very gentle, as all His persecutors and judges were to discover. He never broke, or gave in, or deviated one iota from His purpose. He died as He lived, a green tree. But all these things were but the necessary bark, the outer manifestation of His well-rounded and fully developed life. Dr Young derives Cassia from a word meaning Amber; mixed into the Anointing it added colour to the whole. This is the colour Ezekiel mentions when he had a vision of God's throne with the likeness of a man above upon it. Amber glowed with the living fire of God's glory. The prophet was trying to describe the indescribable; overcome, he fell down upon his face as though dead. Small wonder!

Cassia, like Calamus, alludes to Christ's royalty. He looked a king, He behaved like a king, He is a king. These spices were royal in meaning, and most excellent in combination. Outwardly Jesus appeared among men as the lion of the tribe of Judah, king of beasts, amber in colour, royal in stature. Inwardly He was the Lamb of God, sweet in nature and life, and gentle in disposition. Deeply He was God, root of David's royalty and glory, King of kings, Lord of lords; plainly He was Man, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief of God and man.

Now the beauty of the anointing oil was the way in which all these spices were compounded together by the apothecary's art. The oil was an artistic creation by God through a man. First the spices had to be pounded to dust with pestle and mortar; then, according to a formula not revealed, they were mixed into and blended with pure olive oil. This oil itself was extracted from ripe fruit gathered from the olive tree and crushed until the precious golden oil flowed from its bruised and broken flesh.

Surely there is hardly anything God could have done more plainly to show us by the Spirit the whole life of the Man Christ Jesus, and to reveal Him as the Man of Sorrows. This oil had all — root, life, inward and outward manhood, sweetness and purity, fruit and colour, strength and primacy. The Anointing sets forth Christ Jesus the Lord, in all the excellent glory of His person as the resurrection and the life, Son of God and Son of Man.

Chapter 4 — Prophets, Judges and Kings

It will be of value at this point to note something of singular interest in scripture concerning the order of institution of the various lesser offices mentioned above. In doing so, we shall observe that this order is quite natural, for beside partaking of the very nature of things, it is woven into the fabric of the Book.

Reading the whole, we discover that firstly, in Genesis, God gives us His story of the dynamic beginnings of all things necessary for His purposes. This information is followed by the Exodus, with its account of the provision of a Mediator, the story of the dual Passovers and the nation born in that great 'day of redemption'. Here also we are acquainted with the giving of the Law, and the establishing of the house of God, with its priestly ministry of service and sacrificial-atonement-salvation system.

Together with other related topics essential to the national life, worship, conduct and personal holiness, this same theme continues right through the book of Leviticus. Then Numbers furnishes us with numerous details and incidents in connection with the nation and its journeyings through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein God tried them, to know what was in their hearts and whether or not they would walk in His laws.

After this comes Deuteronomy, which reveals how Moses prepared the people for entrance into the long-promised land, by applying the Law a second time to their hearts. During the whole of this period, extending right from the foundation of the world, anointing had not been mentioned in connection with any individual other than a member of the Aaronic family.

Now there comes a change of national leadership. There is no outward ceremony of anointing involved in it though, only the unseen transition of authority from Moses to Joshua, who is nominated by God to replace Moses in office. In the book of Joshua, we are introduced to another of the great functions of the Lord Jesus in course of His mediatorial office and ministry, namely that of prophet. Working in conjunction with the heavenly man, Joshua led Israel into the land wherein all the promises of God should be fulfilled unto them. His victorious ministry was accompanied by unique miracles, unparalleled in all the Old Testament.

Leaving the book of Joshua, we come immediately upon the record of the Judges, occasionally called saviours. These Judges were raised up of God and fulfilled their ministry to the Children of Israel during the very difficult days when every man was doing 'that which was right in his own eyes'. Throughout this whole time Israel had been and was still a theocracy, like Moses and Joshua before them, the Judges were given a 'power from on high' to judge and lead the people in the name of Jehovah their king. They represented to Israel the important magisterial aspect of God's being and function.

About this period, during a time of judgement upon the land, and because of the prevailing famine, a man named Elimelech left his inheritance and took his family over to the land of Moab. It is about this incident that the idyllic little book of Ruth was written and is included in scripture. Passing through its four chapters, we are introduced to the fourth great mediatorial function of the Messianic office of our Lord Jesus Christ — Kingship.

This commences with the books of Samuel, otherwise called the first and second books of the Kings. In them we see how Samuel, the Prophet / Judge, was instructed of God to anoint Israel's first two kings. Doing so, he inaugurated in Israel this further manifestation of the glories and fulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus in the revelation given in the Bible, the four major offices of the Lord Jesus are introduced to us in this order: Priest, Prophet, Judge, King. By this fourfold ministry, the Lord administers salvation in His kingdom.

In connection with the foregoing, we should note that the real purpose behind the practice of anointing was appointment into an office which could not be held apart from it. The act implied sanctification in both its senses, namely: (1) actual separation from a former manner of life and works into something entirely new, and (2) installation and symbolic conditioning of the person into it. In the New Testament the Greek word 'exousia', meaning 'authority, privilege', might best represent the idea behind the truth of anointing. Whenever it is used of a servant of God, the idea of sanctification is being strongly presented to the mind.

In the Old Testament, when a man functioned in God's earthly kingdom under the anointing, in a shadowy, unsubstantial way he prophetically projected to his generation something which spoke of the Lord Jesus' present heavenly life and work. Of course, service and work were involved, but the anointing was only required for these in so far as they were included and intended in the course of duties involved in the particular office being filled. It is very necessary to bear mmmd that it was precisely for the discharge of these privileged duties that the office was created. Vital and actual though each was, they were carnal and not spiritual, for all of them were only types of the real and eternal things they represented; 'figures of the true', as we are told.

Among the four offices mentioned above is that of Judge. This is an office as onerous as it is necessary; to discharge the duties of a judge involves much hard and conscientious work. Yet, although it is of such an indispensable and invaluable service to God and man, in connection with this appointment there is no word in scripture concerning anointing. The reason for this may lie in the fact that the office of Judge was often combined with another office, as in the case of Samuel, or David, or Solomon. Perhaps the anointing involved in the appointment to the greater included authorisation for the lesser also, but this is neither clearly discernible nor actually stated in the text. However that may be, it is readily seen that by the act of anointing, someone was set aside unto sacred office. To that person it was a sovereign act of God, a mark of approval, a badge of honour, a bestowal of authority. Beside this, it was a prefiguring of a more glorious age to follow, when that which was then foreshadowed should emerge in its true spiritual and eternal substance.

Qualifications for Office

Viewing the truth of the anointing panoramically within the Book, something further of significance is noticeable, namely this: originally, before appointing any persons to office, God required of them one or both of the two following conditions: (1) birth qualification, (2) personal fitness. The first of these is very prominently brought out in the matter of the Priesthood, and to a lesser degree in Kingship also, although in the latter, owing to the confusion caused by usurpation, this is not quite so clear. Nevertheless it is there, and it is emphasised to us in the New Testament through such statements as 'Jesus, Thou Son of David'.

It is still less defined in the office of Prophet; phrases such as 'the sons of the prophets' are used in scripture with a great degree of ambiguity. For instance the intimate phrase 'my father, my father', was upon the lips of Elisha who had no family or blood relationship whatsoever with Elijah. There was also a man who, although he said he was not a prophet or the son of a prophet, was nevertheless a prophet to the nation. Presumably, beside the fact that he had no birth qualification, there had been no formal recognition of him, and no public or private ceremony of anointing either, yet prophet he was.

Other instances could be added to make the point that, although literal sonship was not a qualifying factor for election to the prophetic office, neither was its absence a disqualifying factor. Nevertheless, the father-son relationship was vitally alive and present in the whole concept, ideology and language of the prophets. This is an important discovery, for by it the following truth emerges, namely that guarantee of continuity of office in Israel eventually passed from the natural to the spiritual realm. By this God revealed that spiritual relationship and fitness was far more important than mere natural family connections. This fact powerfully points the greater and more important truth of the superiority of spiritual heredity over natural heredity. Beside this, it also unmistakably emphasises all that underlay God's original intention, and graduates into the whole concept of ministry as it is revealed in the New Testament.

The second qualification for the anointing is personal fitness. This is specially emphasised in connection with the priesthood. In Leviticus 21 a whole section of scripture is devoted to listing the many things which were regarded by God as disqualifications from ministry in the priests' office. Some of these were of a serious nature, others were seemingly trivial; all were of a physical order. Spiritual heredity and life and condition, although typified here, were not then under consideration. At the time of the inauguration of the national priesthood there was no question of spiritual worthiness; priesthood was then by natural birthright, plus personal fitness, plus ordination. Providing the men were: (1) Aaron's sons, (2) of the correct age, (5) perfectly whole and healthy, they were installed into office. This, of course, was over and above moral and social blamelessness as required by the Law, but those things applied to everybody else in the nation, as well as the priests.

Considering these things in relationship to the monarchy, a further instructive lesson in the truth of heredity emerges. Samuel, the last great prophet of God in the era of the Judges, was commanded by God to anoint Saul to be captain over His inheritance — that is of God's people. Saul was literally a giant of a man; he towered head and shoulders above the rest of the people; so great was he that his armour was later discovered to be altogether too big for David, his successor. Eventually, however, he proved to be a complete spiritual failure, and was removed from office.

The demotion and death of Saul and the promotion of David in his place reveals that, although in the beginning of kingship the Lord laid emphasis on physical superiority, He only did so in order that He might lead the people's concepts of royalty from the lower to a higher principle of majesty. By this He established the incontestable superiority of spiritual worth over physical stature in this realm, and broke right away from the accepted procedure of natural heredity and royal succession. Removing Saul and replacing the Benjamite with a man of Judah, the Lord wrested kingship from one tribe and family and gave it to another tribe and family. Quite deliberately God placed spiritual heredity before physical fitness and natural birthright. He found David a man after His own heart, who would fulfil all His will, and installed him in the throne, that sovereignty should pass from David to Solomon and thence onward by birthright to succeeding generations.

This action of God was violated in the reign of Rehoboam, causing division in Israel, and the emergence of two nations. But although succession to the throne thereafter continued along the line of natural relationship, it is obvious that the Lord's regard for each succeeding king turned entirely on his spiritual and not his natural heredity. Whoever recorded the books of Kings and Chronicles comments somewhat cryptically at times that so-and-so walked, or did not walk, as did David his 'father'. Little more need be said; David set such a standard of life and behaviour for the monarchy that every succeeding king was judged by it. Therefore, although it seemed that natural birthright had precedence over spiritual heredity, this was not so.

Looking into the prophetic office, we find that in this ministry there was no recognition of natural heredity at all. A man became a prophet by spiritual gift and enduement alone. There is scarcely a more obvious demonstration (amounting to proof) of this than the manner and results of God's choice when the first seventy elders of Israel were elected to office. From whatever background, tribe or family they were selected, they all prophesied. It is obvious that, where prophets are concerned, the idea of personal or physical fitness for office does not exist at all. In them function has been transferred by God from the natural and physical realm to the spiritual realm, and the idea of physical fitness or natural birthright has disappeared altogether. By all this, the Lord has illustrated the immutable truth spoken epigrammatically by Paul, 'First that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual'. However, for truest life in Christ and all the offices of the New Covenant the two should become one, the natural becoming entirely spiritual, as with Jesus Christ.

Chapter 5 — Two Anointed Shepherds

Cyrus

The whole concept of anointing in relationship to regeneration raises points of view which may be new to many, and to some at first unacceptable. It is generally thought that only the regenerate may be anointed of God, but that conclusion is unsupportable from scripture. In fact in many places scripture reveals the exact opposite to be true, the experience of Cyrus the Persian king being a case in point.

In the short section extending from chapter 44 verse 28 to chapter 45 verse 13 of his book, Isaiah says some revealing things about this man, all turning around this very thing. It is a highly prophetic statement, in which the Lord goes to the unusual length of naming an as yet unborn person, and also gives details of the work he would do for Him and His people. This is quite an exceptional procedure, even for God; throughout the entire Bible there is not another instance of it. Even when His own Son was born, He waited until the annunciation of His birth before disclosing His name, but Cyrus was named by God about a hundred and fifty years before he was born.

Peter was a man surnamed by the Lord, but this happened during his lifetime; in his case the change of name indicated God's intention to convert his life. This same kind of thing also happened to Abraham; by inserting the letters 'ha' into Abram, his original name, God declared his exaltation among men, and, greater than that, his incorporation into God's purposes for the world. In some senses these two men earned their fame, for each in his measure had made some kind of prior response to God, but this was not so with Cyrus. He is unique in scripture, and holds a very distinctive position among the men whose names and lives contribute to the overall message of the book. He is an outstanding example of a man anointed of the Lord; second to Jesus, perhaps no better illustration of the power of anointing could be found.

Cyrus was a heathen king. It seems that throughout the whole of his life he had no personal contact with or clear knowledge of God whatsoever, yet despite this he served God in a most remarkable way, unparalleled at any time in this world. God actually called him 'My shepherd', a title which unavoidably switches the mind immediately on to His Son. Amazingly, just as though He was talking to His Son, God promised to hold his hand, go before him, gird him and direct all his ways. He also said that Cyrus would perform all His pleasure, that he would freely let go captive Israel, build Jerusalem and restore the Temple. For this purpose God raised him up, saying He would subdue nations before him, loose the loins of kings, open and keep open the two-leaved gates and give him treasures and riches. Beside all this, in a wealth of detail, the Lord committed Himself so to bless this man, that through him the whole earth from east to west may know the one true God.

All this was being spoken of a heathen man to a nation claiming to be the only people on earth that mattered, those who professed to have the one true God for their own. Whatever the treasures of darkness meant to Cyrus we do not know, but to Israel they meant the wealth of the redeeming blood, the miracle of the Red Sea crossing, the ten commandments. To them the hidden riches of secret places were the most precious and glorious things they had, kept secret even from them in the Holy of Holies.

Until their captivity they had been the custodians of earth's greatest treasures. How then could they be given to idolatrous Cyrus? They belonged to the Israelites, not the Persians, yet here is God promising all these things to a complete heathen. More, as if to crown all these seemingly preposterous notions, the man Isaiah, who on God's behalf said Cyrus was the Lord's anointed, was himself the Lord's anointed. It all seemed so topsy turvy, a complete paradox, yet it was absolutely true, and worked out exactly as the Lord said.

The great benefit of this section of scripture is the insight it affords us into the supreme power and special purpose of anointing. We shall benefit from it more fully though, if we take into consideration two or three further points implicit in the book. Firstly, in chapter 61, Isaiah claims to be a man living and speaking under the Spirit of the Lord because he is anointed. It is a very important passage, for these are the exact words the Lord applied to Himself with remarkable results on the occasion when He stood up to read in the synagogue in Nazareth.

The prophet was speaking with prophetic foresight of no less a person than the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, through the prophetic word, there is a very remarkable link between Cyrus and Jesus. Isaiah was the anointed of the Lord, Cyrus was the anointed of the Lord, Jesus is the Anointed of the Lord. All three were the Lord's anointed; in this, in measure, they were alike, yet the utter world of difference between Jesus and Cyrus is so great that it can hardly be imagined.

There is of course a greater degree of similarity between Jesus and Isaiah. In fact in his relationship to God, in at least one instance, Isaiah was privileged to represent the very Father Himself. In his office and ministry to the nation this man was blessed beyond most to speak for God as though he was God — His very mouth; he was the Lord's anointed indeed. But O how far inferior he was to the Lord Jesus. The prophet was greater than Cyrus, but so much less than the Lord. On the one hand Isaiah was a man of unclean lips, who needed his sin purging from him, on the other he was exalted to receive the needed heavenly vision, and to hear the voice from the throne. But all was natural to Jesus; He was humbled to receive the heavenly vision and to hear the voice. The disparity between these three persons is vast beyond comprehension; the only link was the anointing.

Secondly, throughout the last half of the book, commencing at chapter 40, there is a strong emphasis on service. Again and again the phrases 'My servant' and 'My servants' appear in the text, God going so far as to give a description of 'My servant whom I uphold'. He also protests with passion to Israel, 'ye are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen', so linking witness and service together. By this, two things become outstandingly obvious — only witnesses can serve, and only those who serve can witness. It is impossible to be a true witness to the Lord apart from being His servant; the prime purpose of service is witness. Neither Cyrus nor Isaiah, nor even Jesus Himself, attempted to serve God before they were anointed — they couldn't. It is utterly impossible to render God the service He requires apart from the Anointing.

Thirdly, the whole of this prophecy is addressed to a people in captivity. To their sorrow and shame the people to whom this message was addressed were in bondage in heathendom. The famous passage makes this very clear, 'the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the meek ... the opening of the prison to them that are bound.' The people of Israel were poverty-stricken, brokenhearted captives, bound in prison, mournful of heart, heavy in spirit, mean of soul. They needed healing, release, liberating, comforting, uplifting, beautifying, complete deliverance and restoration to the promised land. Only an anointed servant of the Lord, moved by the Spirit, could do that. This is exactly what the Lord raised up Cyrus to do, 'he shall let go my captives', He said, 'not for price or reward', and He knew that to accomplish this task in face of such insuperable difficulties He would need to endue him with unusual power. It would have to be clearly from above, a heavenly authorisation, in fact the Anointing.

Fourthly, the tragedy of it all lay in Israel's complete inability to understand spiritual truth; they most certainly did not fully comprehend the vital difference between the Baptism in the Spirit and the Anointing of the Spirit. They should have understood it, and possibly did grasp the doctrinal ideas relating to the difference between the two, but of spiritual perception they seemed to have little or none. One of God's complaints against them was their refusal to expect Him to do a new thing.

Among the captives in Babylon the favourite topics of conversation were the redemption from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea. Many spoke of and entertained present hopes of past glories, indulging man's chronic habit of dwelling in the past without any hope for the present. 'Stop talking, thinking, dreaming; desist from it — this endless repetition of stories of past glories is leading nowhere,' said God, 'I will do a new thing'; but they didn't listen — possibly from anguish of heart. But for whatever reason, it is fatal to live in the past; men in bondage ought only to dwell upon the past works of God for the purpose of building up their faith for the present. We must hear God's word for today, and although we may expect Him to repeat His former mercies, we must also believe He can and will work in different ways. But Israel in captivity could not think God would do something new.

Their fathers had been the same in their day when Moses, the man sent of God, came to them in Egypt with the word of deliverance. The Passover, the redemption, the baptism, the deliverance were all new ideas to that generation; but now all the Lord then accomplished was only a former thing, the tradition of the nation. It was all true as true can be, but past history, and they were just talking, talking, talking about it. Israel were in captivity because they failed to see they were a redeemed and baptised people in order to become the anointed people.

Perhaps the root of the trouble lay in the shortcomings of the Old Covenant. In those days all was outward; the baptism they experienced was neither in water, nor in Holy Spirit; all was done symbolically. They were only figuratively born from above; the inward man of the soul never died and rose again within them, nor did each individual receive a personal unction from the Holy One. Instead they had the general cloud to guide them, and the anointing was only given to the few chosen priests. They were surely led in infallible truth, but all was completely exterior; they did not each inwardly know, nor did their children, nor their children's children. Therefore, by many sins, failures, defeats and backslidings, they eventually finished in captivity, back in the same condition from whence they had started. They failed to live by the anointing, so they lost the benefits of their baptism.

Israel needed the Anointing. They needed anointed men like Isaiah; they needed an Elijah, or an Elisha or a Gideon; O for a David — 'I looked for a man', said God. There wasn't one; not an Israelite who could be called 'the anointed of the Lord'. They were roaring like bears, mourning like doves, groping like the blind, recounting traditional beliefs, striving with their Maker, blaming their fathers and mothers, arguing with God, accusing Him of hiding Himself. Their sons lay on street corners like bulls caught in a net; all were unfit and ignorant. God therefore looked for a man among the heathen! He found a complete outsider, a person who didn't even belong to the elect race, and having done so, anointed him to do His will and serve Him! And this Cyrus did without complaint or argument, in humble obedience, and pleased Him.

The Lord did not pour oil on Cyrus, neither did priest or prophet rub ointment on him; if it was done by anyone at all approaching human being it must have been Melchizedek himself. God simply and sovereignly put His Spirit upon the man, that by him He should accomplish His purposes for His people; that is what anointing with oil stands for anyway. It is for things of this nature that authority and power are granted from God to men. Israel had finished up with oil and no Spirit; Cyrus had the Spirit and no oil.

This may at first seem contradictory, or at least paradoxical, but God owns all the earth. Aren't all souls His? Didn't His angels say in Isaiah's hearing, 'the whole earth is full of Thy glory'? Isn't all kingship His? Wasn't it a Babylonish king who learned that God alone rules in the heavens, putting down one and raising up another? God who uses symbols is by no means tied to them; Cyrus was raised up of God to be His shepherd to Israel and to show us all what a man can do by the Anointing, even if he is not a son, and has never been anointed with oil.

It may seem strange that God should anoint a man to be His servant who did not know Him, but He did; He still does so. Realisation of this clarifies many things, some of which are so basic that it is vital we should know them, namely: The Anointing (1) enables a person to do some things and act in some ways similar to the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) is of God, and at all times is bestowed sovereignty by Him; (3) is a dispensing of authority from God for spiritual or profane purposes or ends as the case may be; (4) is given directly from God, although at times He avails Himself of human mediation; (5) does not necessarily mean or in any way imply that God thereby declares the person anointed to be or to have been or in the future shall be a son of God; (6) is ideally granted to God's children as an enabling, an empowering and an authorisation from on high extra to the Unction. N.B. All ceremonial anointing with oil can only ever be symbolic; without the impartation of the Holy Spirit it is valueless, an empty religious or ceremonial rite.

Obviously Cyrus' anointing was not sacred but profane. The word profane comes from a root meaning 'without', or 'outside the temple'; in other words it refers to that which is civil; it is the complete opposite of sacred, although not necessarily anti-religious. When Cyrus gave authority to Israel to return to their land, they had long been captive in Babylon. Former kings of Babylon had raided and plundered Israel. They had captured the people, ransacked the treasure houses, destroyed the cities, pillaged and profaned the city and temple of Jerusalem; only desolate ruins remained.

See then what the anointing of the Lord enabled Cyrus to do. He moved against national and international opinion, did the completely unexpected thing, gave orders and supplies for Jerusalem and the temple to be rebuilt, and became God's shepherd to His people. Israel's sons had fainted; there wasn't a son to anoint, so God anointed a stranger, a foreigner, a heathen. It was galling, but providential and very gratifying.

It also affords an opportunity to understand the power and scope of the Anointing, and to observe that a servant can, by the Anointing, do more than a firstborn son without it. Israel had been called by God 'His firstborn son', but at the time of Isaiah's prophecy and Cyrus' reign they were far from being anointed — why even the specially anointed priesthood no longer existed; death reigned. The only thing that could reach that state was the Anointing, and the only person who could move in the situation was an anointed man. Therefore God anointed him; in other words He personally chose, empowered and authorised an unsaved man to serve Him. It was a specific anointing unto certain ends; how long it remained upon Cyrus we do not know; it certainly was not an eternal anointing, for it had nothing to do with eternal life.

The kind of authorisation given by God to Cyrus is of a variable nature. Bestowed unto specific ends for limited purposes or periods, it is possible of expansion, withdrawal or renewal. Because of these elements, as well as the fact that it is an authorisation for service, it can only be of secondary importance to the life-anointing of sonship. This was most clearly shown during the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. Although the chosen twelve and the favoured seventy were authorised to heal and preach and baptise, none of them at that time knew the Anointing of sonship. During the whole of the ministerial period preceding Calvary the Lord alone knew that.

Comparison of the lives of the apostles before and after Pentecost leaves us in no doubt as to which is the greater. Prior to Pentecost everybody who served the Lord in His kingdom on earth was a servant only. Although mostly they were sons-elect, they were not yet born of God. We need only contrast these men with the Lord Himself to see the enormous difference between the two anointings. For the ministry to which He appointed them, the Lord only shared with them the Anointing He received at His water baptism, for that was all that was necessary. Later, at Pentecost, the 120 received and shared with Him the Unction they never had while labouring in His kingdom of heaven on earth.

David

This whole episode concerning Cyrus and the part he played in the restoration of Israel raises yet another aspect of truth having bearing on anointing. It concerns David, Israel's greatest king, and one of Jesus' most illustrious forbears. This man was probably most loved of all kings and was unique among the nation's monarchs in many ways, not the least in that he was anointed for kingship three times. Each of these occasions was of major importance to him personally, and was undoubtedly of great significance in the life of the nation.

Now this repeated anointing of David is sometimes presented as being of vital importance to the Church also, as though something of a similar nature should be sought after by us all. Indeed it would appear that in the opinion of some we all ought to be newly anointed every time we preach or prophesy or pray. But none of the New Testament writers know anything of this; although so popular, it is entirely foreign to scripture. Neither Samuel, who anointed David to be God's king over Israel, nor any other recorder of Holy Writ said or implied that David's subsequent anointings were to be regarded as a precedent, either for Israel's later kings or the Church. On the contrary it is quite certain that the exact opposite is true, and that for God's part one anointing is sufficient, and unless repudiated, rejected and disobeyed, is all that is necessary.

The well known story of David's selection for kingship commenced with God sending Samuel to pour oil on one of Jesse's sons. The prophet did not know who the Lord wished to anoint king over His people; no-one was more surprised than he that it should be David, the youngest of the family. Samuel was all for anointing the first of Jesse's sons — it was the expected course to take; Eliab was the elder brother, the natural choice, but God rejected Samuel's and Jesse's and Eliab's opinions outright. Therefore, according to custom, the prophet and the father turned to the next in line, only to discover that God had not chosen him either. Undaunted, Samuel continued the procedure with each son in turn, but all to no avail; God had chosen none of them.

As a last resort the astonished father sent for David, the youngest son, who returned home from caring for the flock to find the mystified family gathered in expectation. He had not been there when Samuel had sanctified the family unto God's purposes, but that did not disqualify him, for God told Samuel to anoint him. 'Man looketh on the outward appearance', He said, 'but God looketh on the heart'. Later He added, 'I have found David a man after my own heart'. David was therefore anointed with oil, and right there in the presence of his family the Spirit came on him. From that day forward He remained with him and never departed — David was the anointed of the Lord, and this Anointing was permanent.

Although, following this, David was twice more anointed king, God never anointed him again. The second and third anointings were ceremonially administered by man, not by God. The people thereby signified their choice in recognition of God's original anointing, but theirs was by oil alone; the Lord's was by the Spirit. During Saul's reign the nation had been torn and rent by civil war; some were saying 'I am of Saul', others were chanting 'I am of David'; it was a hideous mockery of God's intention by the Anointing. But by the Anointing upon David the schism was healed; following Saul's death the kingdom was united again. This was one of the prime reasons for the Anointing; in keeping with its own fundamental nature, the Anointing promotes unification of hearts.

David saw this truth quite clearly, and later said, 'O how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, it is like the precious ointment which flowed'. He was speaking specifically then of Aaron's Anointing. As it flowed upon him it united his own family into the priestly brotherhood, and the whole nation as a family to God. In a bond far superior to the natural ties that already bound them all by one blood, the Anointing united them to their God who gave it. But it had to be flowing, running, dripping, distilling; living, moving, not static. David perceived the truth, and by poetic and prophetic inspiration, with spiritual insight he sang of the brotherhood of the Anointing.

At Hebron, by the second public anointing, the whole nation became a family again — 'O how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity' sang his heart. He realised that the Anointing God gave him was not only for personal elevation and power, it was for the whole nation. Men's anointings of oil were simply acknowledgements that he was the anointed of the Lord, and that they wished to submit to that fact. Possibly neither he nor they at the time realised all the spiritual implications of the ceremony, but they all wanted to be one.

Oil twice more applied, though with full ceremony and best intentions and sincerest religious implications, did not mean that God had withdrawn the first. The original Anointing had not lost its power, it did not need renewing; the other two in no degree invalidated or added to it. The truth is that of all three anointings by men, the only one that was really valid and counted spiritually was the one David received at the hands of Samuel. That gave him authority, the others were only sectional acknowledgements of it. That they widened his sphere of authority in a practical manner among men may appear to be true, but it is certain David did not think in that way, and neither did God. David thought and spoke of himself as the Lord's anointed — that is what his heart said.

David was anointed by God to be king over His inheritance because he was fit to be anointed. Long before he was anointed he was chosen to be king, because he had lived as a good shepherd. The Lord's selection of him was fully vindicated, for when he was elected to office he continued to be a good shepherd. When Samuel first performed the ceremony, the young man felt no need to testify to his experience or seek to establish any claims to office. David was no pretender to the throne or contender for office, vainglory was not one of his sins. God anointed him, God would promote him. 'The Lord is my shepherd' he sang, 'I shall not want'.

Often in later life, meditating on the Lord's gracious dealings with him on that unforgettable day, it all came over him afresh: 'Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over'. It was just as though time and events passed away, having no meaning, and the sacred Anointing of the Spirit was all. Whether in the midst of his wondering family at Bethlehem, or dwelling at large among the tribe of Judah at Hebron, or surrounded by all Israel acclaiming his lordship, he lived in the glory of the Lord's Anointing. United first with God for His purposes in the earth, he lived to see the unity spread out to cover and include all God's people; the blessing was commanded from on high.

Years ago there was a story circulating among God's people about George Jeffreys whose praise was in a multitude of churches. This man was a richly endued servant of God who in his day moved with power and authority throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain. It was said that on a certain day when travelling on a train carrying many wounded ex-soldiers, it was involved in a serious accident. Great damage was caused to many of the men, adding terribly to their already grievous injuries. The man of God was shocked by the accident, but being himself unhurt, he arose and with infinite compassion moved among the injured, laying his hands on the broken company, bringing healing and restoration to the ill and dying. Great miracles took place that day by the gift and Anointing of the Spirit, and His servant's fame spread throughout the land.

It is said that news of the miracles came to the ears of the authorities in London, who asked him to go to the capital for an interview. When he arrived he was treated most courteously and offered money as a reward for his services, because not only had the injuries due to the accident been healed, but many long-standing war injuries had been healed also. This would save the nation the outlay of so much pension money that at best an honorarium was thought to be in order. He refused the offer. Upon this he was asked to receive it in another form, or accept a donation toward his work, but he again refused and replied, 'God did not give me this gift to make myself rich, but to bring this nation to repentance'. A man of God knows his gifts are not for self but for all.

A further illustration from the life of David will be invaluable to us at this point. Following his anointing by Samuel, and before his elevation to the monarchy, the young shepherd was summoned by king Saul to become one of his courtiers and ministers. David's particular ministry to the troubled king was one of music and song; his inspired singing and playing often brought respite and comfort to Saul's heart, and his psalms have become famous the world over. He loved his master and served him faithfully; notwithstanding this, jealousy often rose up in Saul's heart against David; he hated the young king-elect. Several times he attempted to kill him, and would have done so but for David's agility and the hand of God upon him. In the end Saul succeeded in driving him finally from his courts. As a result the whole country was divided over the matter of kingship, and civil war ensued.

The particular incident with which we are concerned occurred during one of Saul's many campaigns against David at this time. The young man, ever reluctant to fight against his king, upon this occasion evaded him and took refuge with some of his men in a cave. Imagine his surprise, therefore, when Saul, all unaware of David's' presence, came in to spend the night in the very same cavern in which David and his men were hidden. This must have been a most breathtaking experience for the younger man; it was almost certain he would be discovered and there was nowhere to flee, but God protected him. Instead of being captured, it proved to be a situation engineered by God to test his faithfulness.

Eventually Saul settled down for the night and was soon asleep, and so were his guards; but not so David and his men. Alert to every opportunity, the watchful eyes of David's bodyguard saw what they mistakenly thought to be a God-given chance to deal once and for all with treacherous Saul. Seeing every justification for the act, indeed believing that beyond providence or coincidence God had delivered David's enemy into his hands, they counselled David to kill Saul. But David would none of it. He would neither lift up his voice, nor raise a hand, nor speak a word against the king, and the reason for his refusal was precisely this — Saul was the Lord's anointed. To David that was the end of it. Under no circumstances could he entertain the idea that the Anointing could contend with the Anointing.

Saul had no such scruples, though. Quite contrary to David, Saul was acting completely out of character with the anointing at that very moment; he was actually bent upon destroying another of the Lord's anointed. He was not moving from the Anointing, or the Spirit which came upon him with it, but totally against the will of God. He was completely under the power of an evil spirit seeking to hound the king-elect to death. Arguably he deserved to be cut off; why then did not David destroy him? Would he not have been absolutely justified and acting within his rights had he done so?

Even if his men thought like that, David did not think so. On the contrary, because Saul had been anointed of the Lord, David utterly refused to do anything against him. David had fully grasped the fact that anointing, and election to office thereby, is sacred and permanent. He would not in any degree usurp God's authority, nor would he suffer anyone else to do so. But beyond that, he knew that to destroy the Lord's anointed is to imply intention to destroy God also, beside which he loved his king.

Years later, when Saul was slain at Beth-Shan, David without hesitation slew those who had dared to kill the anointed of the Lord, and uttered his famous lament. In David's eyes, from the day of his elevation to kingship to the day of his death, Saul retained the position to which he had been elevated by the Anointing. The man did many things contrary to it and was utterly wrong in God's sight, and in consequence the kingdom was taken from him, but David knew that although the man lose all, he was still the anointed of the Lord; the Anointing is permanent. This is because the offices to which anointing appoints a man are offices which God holds Himself supreme, whether prophet, priest, king, elder — all are offices God holds. When a man is elected to hold one or more of these, or any other position, in that degree or capacity he is representative of God. Anointing is bestowed with this in mind.

As Paul said, 'the powers that be are ordained of God'; whether within the Church or in the world, all are of Him, and for this reason carry a degree of permanence. The person who fills the office may be benefactor or tyrant, but whoever or whatever he be, the power or authority is of God. Everyone so honoured is answerable to Him, and in the end shall render account for the way he behaves and uses or abuses his power and the office.

Taking the whole matter further and giving it wider application, it may be of benefit to all to relate the truth already stated to the whole sphere of operations of the Spirit of God among us. All too frequently such prayers as 'Lord anoint thy servant', are found upon sincere lips, and are often followed by some further pious requests or statements relating to the particular meeting or service. This is all well-meaning enough, and persons using the expressions may appear to have good scriptural ground for such prayers, but the whole concept is entirely human and the practice totally misguided. Not once does this kind of petition, or anything equivalent to it, occur in the New Testament, although anointings (literal) were more frequent then than now. The whole idea rises from a mistaken belief that the Anointing only lasts for a meeting, or is used up in one spell of service, or has been dissipated by sin, or some such notion as that.

When David used the expression, 'I shall be anointed with fresh oil', he did not mean his former anointing had become stale or old. To be properly understood this scripture must be read in conjunction with the word in Ecclesiastes, 'let thy head lack no ointment'. Neither of these statements were written with reference to anointing for sacred office. In the latter scripture the wise man was giving advice to people to pay attention to their appearances before men and to keep themselves smelling sweet. General impressions count a great deal; his words had to do with toiletry. David also was thinking in the same vein, relating spiritual desires to earthly pleasantries connected with habits of personal anointing. Neither of the writers was speaking of a special anointing of an official nature for renewal of authority. David was really saying, 'God habitually keeps me anointed. Anointing is a habitual part of spiritual life, it is continual, I regard it as normal'.

As another example of this, when he said, 'thou anointest my head with oil', he was referring to a shepherd's duties performed daily in course of shepherding his sheep. When need arose, a good shepherd would first remove all offensive and hurtful matter causing disease or discomfort to a sheep, and having cleansed the wound, would finally anoint it with ointment. It was thereby crowned with anointing for healing and complete restoration to health and comfort; consequently 'its cup ran over'. This, David knew, would continue all the days of his life, it was general procedure among shepherds. In Psalm 23 David is speaking of God's faithfulness to the end. A good shepherd does not constantly pour oil upon his charges, and neither does our excellent Lord. If need should arise He will most certainly repeat His anointings, but where there is no need He will not do so.

The whole concept of anointing must be thought of in terms of David's words in Psalm 133 — flowing, running, dripping for evermore. In the earlier psalm God's ministrations are presented as a kind of predestination parabolically taught in terms of sheep and shepherd. It was the prelude to and preparation for dwelling in God's house for ever. In Israel special anointing with oil unto spiritual office was only one of its many uses. The idea of permanence is brought out in the Old Testament by constancy. By constant repetition, the Lord implied the truth of everlastingness, making it permanent.

III — IN THE NEW COVENANT

Chapter 6 — The Eternally Anointed One

The complete truth concerning the anointing has been set out in greatest clarity of all in the life and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beside the two miracles formerly considered, within which His life-span on earth was comprehended, Jesus also underwent another major experience, namely water baptism / spiritual anointing. These three events were widely separated experiences in His life. Thirty years intervened between His birth and His anointing, and three years or so separated His anointing from His Calvary. Being spaced out by these intervals of time, each event permits of proper evaluation, and can be placed in true perspective. It is very necessary to do this, for each must have its place in our own lives and experiences also.

These time-gaps set forth in the life of Jesus are both logical and right; in His case they were necessary, but in our thinking may rightly be 'lept'. In Him the truth is perforce shown us within self-imposed restrictions, worked out in the limitations He set Himself whilst in the physical body. During that restricted period of 33 years, God revealed in Him: (1) the perfect life; (2) the means of that life. Having accomplished this in the flesh for us, He returned to heaven and poured out the Spirit that the same life quality may be placed in any man born of Him. The passage of time observable in Jesus' life now gives way to the purpose and grace of God, and the exercise of faith in a man.

Born Anointed

When Jesus was born, the angelic herald announced His birth to the shepherds in very specific terms: 'Unto you is born this day — a Saviour who is Christ the Lord'. When the Magi came to visit Him many months later, they enquired of Herod, 'Where is He who is born king of the Jews?' Whether spoken by angel or Magi, both these forms of speech were couched in positive terms; the angel said the new-born babe was Christ; the Magi said the young child was King. Neither said He was born to be Christ, or that He was born to be King, as though He was neither Christ nor King yet, but would ultimately attain to those positions or titles; He was Christ and King at birth. The titles were already His; that is why angels and men worshipped Him.

Now the title 'Christ' is really a description meaning 'the Anointed': it carries the idea of election; the foremost thought presented to the mind is that of choice; the Christ is someone's Chosen One — that Someone is God. Obviously, since Jesus was born Christ and King He most certainly was not a man chosen at random by God from among men. He was the elect person of the three members of the Godhead, specially authorized and sanctified to come to earth; it was a privilege and an honour. Father chose Him, the Holy Ghost chose Him, He Himself chose to come. He was the elect of God before He came, and when He came. Consideration of this enables us to see the truth of anointing for what it is, and brings the whole matter into proper perspective.

At first sight anointing may appear to be a bestowal of power, an impartation of something extra to the nature of a person. This is due to an association of ideas, for among men anointing is an outward act involving pouring on of oil, which act obviously implies an impartation. In the more important ceremonies for which anointing is used, such as elevation to priesthood or kingship, it is understood among men to be a token of bestowal of power. It is regarded as a great honour, an authorisation to function fully in the position intended. Beside this, implicit in the act lies the idea of sanctification; from that moment the person is set aside from ordinary people and duties and is expected by them to separate himself unto the office and its works. These aspects of anointing are so commonly accepted among us, that however great a person may be, until anointing takes place he is not considered to be a priest or a king as the case may be; without the anointing he is an impostor or a pretender.

The middle person of the Godhead was not anointed with oil in order to be Christ though — neither in heaven nor on earth. By this we see that all spiritual anointing was originally derived from, and in principle modelled upon the will of God in choosing Jesus to be the elect person of the Godhead to come to earth. Anointing, as a practice authorised by God among men, was developed from what originally happened without outward ceremony in God in eternity. We see then how it was that Jesus was already the Christ when He was born. He was not outwardly anointed at that time, the spiritual Unction was already within Him; the Son was born anointed — the Anointed. Before, at, and after His birth Jesus was always the Anointed One.

The reason for this was partly that, precisely as He, other sons may be born anointed of God also. This is that anointing earlier distinguished as the Unction, which is as much part of our new nature and being as it is part of God's nature and being. The well known word in John 1:11,12 puts it clearly — 'to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power (authority) to become sons of God'. When born of God, a man' s spiritual being is fundamentally reconstructed, re-orientated and renewed in the act to be as His — God being God in man, and man being man in God. This can only take place as and when a man is immersed in the Spirit. This is why God devised Baptism in Spirit, for only by Baptism in (the) Spirit can man enter into (the) Spirit, be in (the) Spirit and live in (the) Spirit. Only by becoming one Spirit with God can the spirit of man be made alive and continue to live.

Although it is stating the obvious, it needs to be emphasised that the birth of Jesus Christ was for life, not for works and service. With the exception of one remarkable event, the early thirty-year period of His life and works receives no attention from the Gospel writers at all, although this period comprised the greater part of His earthly life. Undoubtedly His life at that time was filled with doing good works for necessary uses, maintained with unflagging zeal, and quite natural to God incarnate, but in doing them, Jesus was doing no more than being a good Jew, so they are not even mentioned. As may be expected, He would have performed everything with a natural grace and perfection above all His contemporaries or forbears, but faultless as they were, we are not told anything about them. To do them He had to be born, but needed not to be specially anointed.

The purpose of this class of works is to display the fact that righteousness and love and self-sacrifice are the basic qualities of spiritual life; they do not indicate the amount of power for miraculous service a man has. There is no record in scripture that Jesus did anything of a miraculous or outstanding nature before the public anointing by which He was proclaimed Messiah to Israel. But from that time onward He moved ever-increasingly into a new ministerial life of service, full of miraculous works. These all blossomed forth following the experience at Jordan, which consummated the hidden life He had lived before God and a few men at Nazareth.

The reason why birth and anointing are set out for us as two widely separated experiences in the life of our Lord Jesus is that we may see them as two distinct events. Everything was being worked out by Him in an orderly manner. By the things that happened to Him God wanted us to know what He has prepared for us. How we ought to thank our all-wise God for being so simple to us. We are so finite, and ignorant and complicated; we need much loving, and many powerful demonstrations and simple illustrations before we distinguish the things that differ, or can understand what God is showing us.

The Anointing of the Anointed

At thirty years of age Jesus underwent water baptism in order to fulfil all righteousness. He also did it purposely to conform to a basic plan formerly agreed in heaven as a necessity for man. It was expected of Him to accord with the symbolic pattern of spiritual life unfolded in the Hebrew scriptures, but water baptism was something extra to that and was nowhere spoken of in their scriptures. It was administered to the obedient Jesus to mark an epoch in His life; for Him it signified the end of obscurity and carpentry and the beginning of a public ministerial life. This was the chosen moment for His anointing unto the nation and into His real life-work. It was publicly done so that no-one should miss the emphasis; God has shown us the absolute necessity of the Anointing for service. So pointed is it that we all should ask 'if this was so necessary for Jesus, is it not also very necessary for us?'

To gain fullest benefit from the event, we must take careful note of the two quite distinct things which took place at Jordan: (1) His water baptism; (2) His spiritual anointing. The first was physical, the second was spiritual; each part contained an element of symbolism. The former was almost entirely a symbolic exercise for all to behold. The spiritual element lay in the obedience wherewith Jesus fulfilled all righteousness in the act. The latter was almost entirely a spiritual experience. The symbolic element lay in the appearance of the dove, which apparently only John and Jesus saw descending upon the Christ. Water baptism imparted nothing to Jesus, but His anointing was very necessary to Him; by it the Spirit was imparted to Him in a new way.

We see then that the Anointed was anointed; Jesus was the doubly Anointed. The Jordan anointing added nothing to His Godhead, it was conferred upon His manhood. No-one but God saw the first or eternal anointing, but everybody gathered at Jordan was made aware of the second. Because this is so, it logically follows that, since the Lord Jesus needed this anointing in addition to His own sinless birth and inherent Unction, so also do we need it following our New Birth. The reason for this is that although our New Birth brings us into a state of life similar to that which He enjoyed from His natural birth onward, it seldom if ever confers full ministerial power upon us immediately.

When Jesus was conceived by Mary for His birth she was told that He should be called the Son of God, but it is significant that He was not publicly called that by anyone until His Father did so at His anointing. Before His birth both Mary and Joseph were separately and privately instructed by His Father to call Him Jesus, and Mary was informed also that 'the holy thing ... should be called the Son of God', but that was private also. It is as though at Jordan God was saying, 'This is My Son, this is the kind of man I send unto you'.

Of course He was no more God's Son following or because of the anointing at Jordan than He was before or without it — He always had been His Son; He was and is and ever will be the eternally only-begotten Son, but in order to manifest the facts and implications of Sonship fully and move with power and authority, among men He had to undergo the experience. Before He came to the earth this was the way planned for Him to take, therefore it was necessary for Him as the Son of God. Although the Anointing did not confer sonship upon Him, it did confirm it to Him and to John Baptist, and later to others. Viewed properly, it was the Father's clearest indication that this was the Son He wished people to see; Jesus of Nazareth was now to be revealed as Christ Jesus.

The Jesus babe and man was as dear to Jehovah His Father before this event as ever He was after it, but Jehovah did not wish the world to see His Son before His Anointing. It was as though everything before was but preparatory and leading up to this — as indeed it was. Even the next three years of His life were but introductory; they too led on to the mighty Baptism prefigured at Jordan for which He was being prepared by the Anointing. By this we see that in every person's life, the birth Baptism is greater than the Anointing. All these things which took place in the life of the Lord Jesus were as absolutely necessary to Him personally as they are to us.

In the Fulness of Power

The above is made quite clear as we read of the difference the Anointing made to Him. Following the Messianic presentation to the nation at Jordan, Luke informs us that 'Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, was led of the Spirit ... and returned in the power of the Spirit'. He 'went' and 'came' in the Spirit. This is not to imply that formerly this was not the case; with Him we may assume that, to some degree at any rate, it was so, but now our attention is being drawn to it that the true emphasis may be laid by God where it is needed.

It was in this fulness of power that Jesus stood up in the synagogue that day in Nazareth to read, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me'. He had never said that before. Now He was conscious, not only that He was the Son of God, but also that He was going as the Sent One of God to the nation, their Christ-King. The authority this Anointing added to Him and the sphere of service which opened up to Him following it was above and beyond what He moved in by reason of His original birth Anointing. It enabled Him to minister to men and to God His Father in a new way.

So we see that it was the Jordan Anointing, not the birth Anointing, which was the Anointing for service. He that was born the Anointed, so that He knew that He was the Son of God, had also to be anointed so that men should know that He was the Sent One authorised of God. It was by this that all those glorious powers which were constitutionally in Him as the Anointed, were released unto the world in which He lived. The public anointing no more conferred those powers upon Him, nor placed that ability within Him, than it conferred Sonship upon Him. To the degree He was born a Son, He was also born a Servant. The anointing released and manifested all the ministry which was there from birth. The incident which occurred in the Temple when He was but twelve years of age plainly showed this, but despite His eagerness, He had to wait for authorisation to use His latent powers; He did not have this until He gained it at His Anointing.

It was not that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God manifest in flesh, was in any way inferior in Godhead to the Father and the Holy Spirit; He was as much their fellow and equal all the time He was on earth as when He had been with them in heaven. Therefore, in the eyes of men and angels, the glory and genius of the Lord Jesus will for ever lie in the voluntary self-humbling and continuous humility with which He came and lived His life in this world. 'He humbled Himself ... Made Himself of no reputation' is an endearing commendation in our eyes. But in giving Him the well-deserved worship and adoration of our hearts, we must beware of doing it in a comparative manner.

The Lord Jesus is not any more humble than the Father or the Holy Ghost. Jesus did not volunteer to do what His Father and the Holy Ghost refused to do, neither did He become a man as an emergency measure. The elective and predestinating aspect of Redemption is very real. Being wise after the event, we see that it was inevitable that Jesus should become the sacrifice. The logical order of the persons of the Godhead practically precluded the possibility of either of the other persons becoming man and dying for us.

The Servant of Jehovah

We who cannot probe into all — indeed very few — of the secrets of God, look upon the Lord's humility with awe and wonder. His glory lay in His self-abasement unto becoming the Servant of Jehovah for the purposes of God in redemption. He became a slave so that He should be totally dependent upon the Father and the Holy Ghost, and in no degree sufficient as of Himself. In the whole realm of the works His Father gave Him to do, Jesus determined to be nothing, know nothing and do nothing, as, by, for, or unto Himself. It was this self-abasement as much as anything else that caused His Father's heart to overflow to Him at Jordan with the commendation, 'Thou art My Beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased. How well He deserved the tribute.

By being a Nazarene nobody for thirty years He proved that He sought nothing but His Father's good pleasure. The preaching, ministry, miracles — in short all the works which followed — were done for that same reason; they arose and flowed from selfless motives unto God's glory alone. Not the least part of the glory of Jesus' service to His Father lay in the absolutely perfect humanity and manhood He maintained for God in this world. Because of this the vital pattern-life, so necessary for us, could be displayed in this world and the Anointing fully exhibited.

By His own confession, while on earth Jesus was a straitened soul; His flesh was a veil, we are told; He said at one point that He longed for the glory He had with His Father before the world was. His humble spirit, obedient mind and disciplined flesh were the perfect media for the display of absolute truth though; without contradiction He could say 'I AM THE TRUTH'. There is nothing higher, and we ourselves could wish for nothing better; He is the ultimate. Yet although thirty years separated His birth and His Anointing, what He worked out in stages in His flesh then is now available to us in the Spirit at once. Because it is in this realm the time-factor can be eliminated if both God's will ordains it and man's state justifies it.

It is unto this position and privilege that we are baptised with His Baptism. Born into His life, we may, in our proper order and measure be partakers of this ministry also, for by His Baptism we are baptised into His life, and by His Anointing we are anointed unto His ministry. In our new birth we, as He, are born anointed ones. Wherever or in whomsoever the Christ Spirit is, it is the Anointed spirit, and can be no other. Paul very emphatically says that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His, whilst John tells us unequivocally that we have within us an Unction from the Holy One, and that this Unction has come to abide there. As has already been pointed out, this is the life-Anointing, a very vital and indispensable element of our new nature. It is spoken of as an Anointing in order that we may keep the whole truth in proper perspective; He is the Anointed One; each of us is an anointed one. As the scripture does not say there is one Anointing, but does say there is one baptism, the two things are set in proper perspective.

Lesser Anointings of the Anointed

Like His royal ancestor, David, following His one official anointing, the Lord Jesus was twice anointed with oil in the course of His life; the first time was by 'a woman of the city', and the second by Mary of Bethany. Both these ministrations were precious to Him, but by neither was He elevated to some new office, or renewed in the original one. Although the oil was very costly, and the occasions fragrant with devotion, they conferred nothing upon Him from God. They were sacred times of holy love, but they did not specifically confirm to Him God's election or selection; they were a confession of human appreciation and a recognition of His person. By them He was made to smell sweet and feel comfortable and special above all the company, the elect among the elect, that is all.

Reference has already been made to the first of these occasions in chapter 1. Each anointing was a symbol of spiritual love, poured out as from a slave's heart upon her compassionate Lord of glory. The latter incident had reference to His oncoming death and burial, and bore meaning in that context; but except for their typical meanings by the niceties of interpretation, neither occasion bestowed any special authoritative power or virtue upon Jesus.

There is true spiritual affinity between these two subsequent anointings of Jesus and the two further anointings bestowed upon David though. Each was officially and spiritually anointed of the Lord on the first occasion. As with His 'father' David, Jesus' first and official anointing was accomplished through the ministry of a prophet of the Lord. But unlike Samuel with David, John Baptist did not personally anoint Jesus; that was beyond his power, for as the scripture says 'the lesser is blessed of the greater', not the greater of the lesser.

John at first declined and openly confessed his need to be baptised of Jesus. Only at Jesus' insistent request did he proceed with the ceremony. Beside this, public anointing was not then God's purpose for His Son. He had not come to set up the Kingdom of God on earth yet. Nevertheless it was under the outward ministry of the prophet that the Lord was anointed with the Spirit to take up His spiritual office in Israel. Similarly, although Samuel anointed David with oil unto kingship, it was the Lord who gave him the Spirit. In both cases it was God who did it, not the prophet.

As a general procedure, when God wished to pour the Spirit upon anyone during the Old Covenant dispensation, He commanded His action to be accompanied by anointing with oil. These were historic and sometimes dynastic occasions when God wished the initial and initiating experience to be visibly manifested: by this God made His will known, certifying His election and ratifying the office. Having once been done, the outward action was never repeated. Even though at times, following their original anointing, the Spirit came afresh upon men in various ways for different purposes, the initial act was unique in every man's life. Repetitions of outward symbolic on-pouring of oil were totally irrelevant to that which took place inwardly when God ordered the occasion. This is quite easily demonstrated by what happened when the original seventy elders were elected of God. Not one of them was anointed with oil, but they were truly anointed of God; no-one doubted that, and following the occasion there were no subsequent anointings.

It is of importance that we take notice of a scriptural fact having bearing upon this whole truth. In the case of Jesus, the two subsequent anointings were applied by women. Recognition of the great difference which lay between masculine and feminine participation in spiritual things in those days will help us to understand the significance of these women's actions. During His lifetime on earth the Lord was a minister of the circumcision (that is of the Old Covenant) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. Although He is the New Covenant Man, He was born into and lived under Old Covenant conditions. In that dispensation the masculine always represented or implied the major factor and the feminine the lesser or diminutive meaning.

It follows then that the anointings which were ministered to Him in the homes of the two Simons by the two women were of lesser meaning, and, although rendered in true sincerity, were of inferior significance. There can be little doubt that the women who anointed the Lord displayed heartfelt recognition of Him and His love, quite equal, if not superior, to any man. In that no difference is implied, but in view of the order of creation and the original choice of God, the lead then was always taken by the male; he represents the purpose of God in election.

In Jewry the feminine always indicated the weaker position, but that in no way implies that the female is inferior to the male. God's choices are not to be construed into a commentary on any imaginary parity or relative merits of the sexes; they are simply fixed symbolic indications of eternal truth, bearing spiritual meaning according to His own will. Female, as well as male, has a part to fulfil in the revelation of God's person, and contributes equally with the male to God's plan for redemption on the earth. In this particular matter of anointing she fulfilled a noble ministry indeed.

John tells us in his Gospel that before Jesus was anointed in the Bethany home, Martha, Mary's sister, had confessed her belief that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God which should come into the world. That they both believed this is indicated by Mary's later gesture; it was a well calculated, precisely timed testimony to their love for Jesus, and it confirmed their joint total faith in Him and His testimony. Between them the Bethany family said and showed that He was the Anointed. Lazarus, the male, had the most important part; alive from the dead, he sat and ate with Him. Martha, who declared the most important thing, served them both, and Mary publicly anointed Him into His most important work. This was His anointing unto the One Baptism into and through death into resurrection. But in this last anointing, as in the second, there was no bestowal of the Spirit involved in the act; nothing was added to Him personally. Both these were acknowledgements of the first.

Altogether too much has been made of the practice of Old Testament anointing with oil. We must recognise and value the importance of the ministration, but we must also correctly evaluate its symbolism in the larger context of the New Covenant or we shall fail rightly to understand its worth.

Chapter 7 — With the King in His Kingdom on Earth

The fact that the Baptism is indeed far more important than the Anointing is most unmistakably shown in the lives of the Apostles of the Lamb. These men, chosen by Jesus to be with Him whilst He was on earth, were authorised and sent out to function under Him with power. By that authority they did many wonderful things, but at that time not one of them was baptised in the Spirit, nor could they be until Jesus had left the earth. At first glance that may seem a very improbable thing, but it was quite unavoidable, beside which it was most gracious of the Lord to do this. Those disciples who were so privileged to be with Him on the earth were given no advantage over us in this matter. At that time in history Baptism in Spirit had not been prepared and provided for men. Christ could not baptise them in Spirit until He Himself had undergone His own spiritual baptism at Calvary. He could not give them the permanent inborn Unction, for that depended upon New Birth, which none of them could know until He had risen from the dead.

Servants under His Authority

Jesus did not, however, allow the unavoidable absence of the latter to impede Him in regard to the imperative need for the former. He therefore sent them out to do His works under the authority of His own Anointing. This was perfectly correct, for at that time the Lord Himself had as yet to be baptised with His Baptism, therefore it was neither inconsistent with truth, nor irregular of procedure, that in this respect they should function as He. His intention at that time was to substantiate scripture and His own statement that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. They were with the King in His kingdom on earth, and worked with and for Him, but they were not yet with the King in His Kingdom in Spirit. Plainly put, they were servants but not yet sons; but no man, whether son or servant, can serve in the Kingdom without the Anointing.

Jesus was born King among men, a sovereign over a kingdom which is not of this world, and He was truly desirous of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth for men. It was His stated purpose, and He had come partly for that reason. Everything He did was in context of God's overall plan for the ages, perfectly consistent with eternal truth and grace, and within His office and commission He could do as He wished. Nevertheless, it should be noted that He did not attempt to call and appoint men to office until He had spent the preceding night in prayer with God.

From His anointing onwards He moved as a king in his kingdom. In keeping with this, He called whom He would to Him and elected from them an exclusive band, and later vested power and authority in them that He might send them to do His bidding and perform His works until the new order should be established. This, in practical terms of service, is what Anointing bestows; it is Christ's authorisation to work Kingdom of Heaven works among men. The Baptism with which He was to be baptised was secret to Him then, and it was unto this He was 'straitened' all His life; it was His earthly goal. But prior to this being accomplished, and in anticipation of it, by virtue of His own Anointing, He authorised whom He would to work in His kingdom as servants. For this they needed neither a dove nor a voice, nor did they require oil, only His word and will and direction; these men were being trained for greater things in a higher kingdom still. They were born into the Kingdom of God at Pentecost.

A Kingdom not of this World

This Anointing has chiefly to do with Jesus — Christ the King. As already mentioned, in the Gospel accounts it was the Magi who first introduced the note of royalty into the story of Christ's birth. The annunciation of it to the shepherds at Bethlehem had included a reference to His Davidic lineage. Indeed He was born at Bethlehem for this very reason, but the angel did not refer to Him directly as King. The Jews were looking for their Messiah, the Magi were not; to them the child was born King; they had no scriptures, no traditional beliefs in a coming Messiah, they just knew He was King. His kingship however did not develop and materialise as they might have expected had they been informed.

It was known unto Him that He would not be accepted by His people though, the terms of His Messianic kingdom were too stringent. He knew when He came He would be rejected by men and that His earthly reign was to be deferred to a later date. Yet He did not cease to be King, nor did He renounce His claims to sovereignty. His kingdom was of another order primarily, it was spiritual before being terrestrial, so at His first advent He refrained from pressing earthly claims or contending for territorial gain. He did not seek to overthrow Herod or Caesar. Instead the Lord moved in sovereign spiritual power in the kingdom of God, creating a kingdom of heaven for men on earth. This was quite beyond the powers of a Herod or a Caesar, and in no way interfered with either of their kingdoms nor challenged their positions; neither of them made any pretence to rule in that realm.

It was concerning his lord Caesar's kingdom that Pilate finally asked Jesus under examination in Jerusalem — 'art thou a king?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world', and so saying revealed its heavenly and spiritual nature. His plain statement put Pilate's heart at rest about matters causing him great concern. He had no doubt as to Jesus' royalty though, and had his beliefs nailed to the cross, perhaps with mockery and contempt, but nevertheless in truth, 'This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews'. It was a sealing of the pact newly forged with Herod, a gesture of friendship to him; he had exterminated the threat to Herod's kingdom and throne, so they thought. Poor Pilate, poor Herod, they need not have worried, Jesus was not seeking Herod's domain any more than Caesar's; to Him they meant nothing. He is King, neither of them was. No man on this earth has ever been King but Jesus. At best earthly monarchs can only be a king or a queen, they are not King; Jesus is; He is Lord and King. Hallelujah!

Satan knew in what realm Jesus was and is King, and as soon as He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power, the devil sought issue with Him. This was welcomed by Jesus. The wilderness was fixed for the field of battle, and the Spirit led Him into it. There, after forty days of fasting, the contest began. During its course the devil took Jesus up into an exceeding high mountain where he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. 'Fall down and worship me' he said, 'and all shall be thine'. But Jesus had not come into the world to strike bargains with satan; He had come to defeat him and take his kingdom by force. The devil knew very well that Jesus had not come to take Caesar's kingdom and sovereignty, but his.

Deferring all claims to territorial sovereignty, the Lord Christ of God detected satan's temptation and defeated him in it. Proving Himself to be King, He set out with vigour to prosecute His campaign against the devil and all his hosts and to overthrow his kingdom in that country. He went unto the task crying out, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand', and soon sicknesses and crippling diseases disappeared, bondages were broken and hearts were healed. Miracles took place on every hand — deliverances, exorcisms, various social ministrations all followed as of nature. Everywhere He demonstrated His power from on high, and light shone in the darkness of Jewry. Joy and gladness, hope and praise abounded everywhere; the devil and his hosts were being defeated and cast out, and his kingdom destroyed.

So great was His success, that following the feeding of the multitudes, the blessed people tried to take Jesus by force and make Him a king, but He would not permit that. He could not allow people to think they could make Him a king when He is already King, so He first sent His disciples away across the lake lest they should be affected by the idea, and then dismissed the crowd. Having nipped in the bud the brewing insurrection, the Lord repaired to a mountain alone to talk it over with God His Father. At the conclusion of this heavenly conference He descended to the sea and strode across the waves to join His disciples, who were struggling against contrary conditions, still trying to reach the other shore.

The whole series of miracles and conversations which took place at that time marked a turning point in the life of Jesus. He had managed the affair very skilfully; the position had been most delicate. It is one of the highlights of His fame among men. Its importance is so great that each of His biographers mentions the occasion. Matthew sets it in the context of the parables of the kingdom, Herod's murder of John Baptist and the crossing of the sea. Mark precedes it with the account of the commissioning of the twelve and the story of John Baptist's death, following it with the story of the sea crossing. Luke opens in the same way, but omits to record the sea crossing following the miracle; instead he passes on to Peter's declaration of Jesus' Christhood, the first revelation of the cross and the transfiguration. John sets it in perspective of time — the passover. Telling the story of the miracle, he continues with the sea-crossing, but omits the episode of Peter's walk on the sea to Jesus. Instead he proceeds with the exposition Jesus gave of the miracle with a view to establishing truth and destroying false popularity. This drew out Peter's first declaration of His Christhood, which in turn led to the first announcement that there was a devil among the twelve.

All this is of major significance. Briefly condensed it may be stated thus: everything was done with the purpose of revealing the unseen battle between the two spiritual kingdoms, now set in open conflict. The Lord reveals to them the secret workings and aspects of the kingdom of heaven, then follows the strategy and character of the battle and the disposition of His army of ministers. After this He exposes Herod's alliance with satan to destroy John Baptist and his enquiry after Jesus. Then we see that satan, as well as Jesus, is laying plans. But the overall superiority of the Lord's plans and strategy over the devil's becomes apparent again by the reference to the passover.

It was at the original passover and Israel's consequent crossing of that sea that the devil and his puppet, Pharaoh, suffered total defeat. So great was God's victory that day that it became a byword throughout the middle east. Against this background of gathering forces in the spiritual world, thousands sat down to their miraculous meal, all unaware of its portents and the part they played in it. They said Jesus was the prophet that should come into the world, and were partly right. Jesus said, 'except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you' — surely this meant He was to be defeated and slain and the battle lost to the devil! Nevertheless they sought to take Jesus by force and make Him king.

Perhaps they had visions of an immediate uprising against Herod, leading to the overthrow of Caesar and ultimate world dominion. But purging Himself of mere sensation-seekers and those who fed their stomachs on bread and fish and their souls on miracles, He draws from Peter the confession of His kingship — 'Thou art the Christ', and discloses His awareness of the devil's agent and spy in the midst — Judas. Having done so, He dismisses the remaining crowd, and ascends the mountain to be alone with God, while the apostles labour to cross the sea, battling against contrary winds and waves. Finishing His vigil with God, and descending to the sea, the Lord walks unimpeded on the water to His tired disciples, now full of fear at what they think is an apparition of a spirit.

Landed on the other side, Jesus begins a series of references to the cross, for although unimaginable to the disciples, the Lord is preparing them for the final battleground. He had avoided all possibility of appearing to have aspirations for an earthly throne, but He makes no attempt to hide the fact that He was after a spiritual one. Finally He ascends the Mount of Transfiguration with three of His apostles, and in transfiguration discusses His exodus with Moses and Elijah — a radiant, triumphant King. Had they but known it, the apostles had been given a survey of policy, a lesson in strategy and an exercise in tactics.

At a later period the Lord acquainted His disciples with the fact that they were not to be overjoyed because devils were subject to them in His name — they were prosecuting war with spirit powers — but nothing should by any means hurt them. Another time He told critics that by casting out devils He had brought the Kingdom of God upon them. Never did He speak against Caesar; instead He told people to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar's, but He continued His battle against satan to the end. Moreover He did not expect this warfare to cease with His departure from this world, but said this 'gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all he world for a witness, and then the end shall come'.

For this reason He carried the warfare right on to the cross, where He died, having no kingdom in this world — not so much as a stitch of clothing or a sure place in which to be buried. He fought for nothing of this world, for He possessed nothing in it, yet on the cross He waged warfare as never before in His life. Hanging there, seemingly helpless, hated by men and a bait to devils, He set the scene for the final conflict. Attracting the whole host of satanic powers and principalities to Himself, He entered into the last decisive battle for mansoul, and won it. At last, shouting the victory, He gave up His Spirit to God His Father and His body slept triumphant in death. Meanwhile He descended into the place of departed spirits, and from there led out a multitude of captives, in part fulfilling His mission of deliverance to Israel and thereby completing a major part of His grand exodus.

This was only a beginning though — He was the king of Israel. He had told His disciples they would not die until they had seen the kingdom of God come with power, so waiting only for the day of Pentecost to fully come, He poured forth the Holy Spirit. Already some had been prepared by Him for their special ministry in the coming kingdom following His departure. Risen from the dead, He had breathed on them in the upper room, commissioning them, giving them powers, placing upon them responsibilities, charging them with duties in readiness for the future onslaught on the devil's kingdom. So it was that, following in its Lord's tradition, from its natal day the Church of God moved onward into battle with the powers of darkness in the kingdoms of this world.

Authority over all the Power of the Enemy

During His last statements to His apostles before leaving the earth, the Lord said they were to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and that they would receive power from on high to do so. They did not understand all that was implied in the command, and asked if the kingdom would at that time be restored to Israel. They anticipated a victorious campaign of restoration, whereby the nation would be reinstalled in its former glories — but Jesus said the purpose of the Baptism was to make them witnesses unto Him. He had not fought Caesar and Herod, but satan. He had not even tried to make Israel internationally great, but had lived and moved in the Kingdom of God and ministered the Kingdom of Heaven to men, and if they were to witness to Him they had to do the same.

This was the purpose of the Anointing they received. It imparted kingly authority and sovereign power in the spiritual world. Jesus expressed it like this: 'I give you authority over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you'. Happy indeed is the person to whom the Lord grants such privilege, for by it He not only gives authority to work against the kingdom of satan, but also assures us that there is no power or authority greater than His, and that nothing can in any way harm the person moving in that authority.

This is a wonderful promise; it was originally given the twelve special apostles and the seventy others whom the Lord commissioned to serve in His Kingdom on earth, and to no-one else. Nevertheless the invariable elements of truth included in it apply to every member of the Church of Jesus Christ without exception. Even so it seems that to some the Lord gives special authority associated with His own Messianic Anointing and not to others. All whose names are in the book of life have authority to become sons of God, but not all have authority to perform special miracles; this is amply borne out in scripture.

The Old Testament teems with the names and exploits of great men specially chosen for specific tasks and raised up of God above their contemporaries for the purpose. There is little doubt also that in the New Testament the same procedure is followed. First the twelve, above all men; then from among them Peter, James and John, and later Paul. These four can undoubtedly be called the chief among the apostles. There is also the plain teaching of the Lord, who by parable stated clearly that there are those to whom are given more talents than others; all lies in the sovereignty of His will. He chooses, He decides, He distributes according to His will and wisdom; all is done out of love and consideration for the persons with whom He is dealing.

It would be as foolish as it would be unloving to overload persons with talents and gifts which would only be a burden to them if they had not the ability to use them to their best advantage in the kingdom, as well as to their own personal good. God is very practical as well as very loving. Nevertheless, by virtue of the very fact that a person's name is in the book of life, he or she has some degree of authority to serve the Lord, if not to be an apostle or a prophet or any of the chief ministers of the Church. The greater aspect of anointing is theirs already, namely the Unction, which in itself bestows an authority not otherwise obtainable to man, that is 'the authority to become sons of God'. In order to exercise this authority innate in regeneration, all men and women born of God have to do is to grow and develop properly as they should.

As we have seen, this is perfectly illustrated for us in the person of Jesus. When He was only twelve years old He was speaking in the temple with an authority and knowledge far above His seniors, simply because He was born King, the Anointed. In our measure and order this same Anointing is inborn in each of us at new birth, and it is the greatest authority a person can have. In the Church it is intended to be basic to all authority which, according to God's will, may later be bestowed upon some members for special ministries to which they may be called.

Function and Service

On the day of Pentecost all present in the Upper Room were baptised in the Holy Spirit, and thereby became the founder members of the Church; at the same time many, probably most of them were also anointed with the Spirit. There is little reason for supposing that the three thousand who were added to the Church later the same day were brought into anything other than a basic experience similar to that of the first hundred and twenty. Perhaps also the same may be said of Cornelius and his household following their Baptism in Spirit, for they immediately commenced to function in the gifts of the Spirit. The twelve men of Ephesus also began to operate in the gifts of the Spirit as soon as they received the gift of the Holy Ghost, who came upon them through Paul's ministrations. As soon as they were baptised into the body of Jesus Christ, the gifts and ministries of the Spirit became immediately functional among them. By these things the Lord is seeking to show us that the prime reason for the anointing of the Spirit is not powerful service but proper function.

Now although all function must be unto service, and is in some sense a form of service, the difference between the terms is very real —it is one of relationship. When we consider the Church as a body, of which Jesus Christ is the Head and we the members, the relationship of each to the other is clearly seen to be of life and function. We do not normally think of one member of a body serving another, but of all functioning together as a whole. On the other hand, if we think of Jesus as our Lord and Master, our relationship to Him is that of servants; the obvious purpose of this relationship is service. Both these ideas are correct, but it is vital to keep the whole truth in view, and know which is relatively the greater of the two.

Before Calvary and Pentecost none of the disciples enjoyed a Head and Member relationship with the Lord, nor a member to member relationship with each other — they only served Him as servants. The truth of body function was quite unknown to them at that time; it was kept as much a secret from them then as it had been from their fathers. The Church which is His body and the truth concerning it was not revealed in the world until the Holy Ghost had come.

Nevertheless, the idea of function was associated with anointing in Old Testament ordinations and offices. Indeed in all of them the thought of service is quite secondary to that of function — but function as a member of a body is vastly different from function in a government or in an order. In course of their official function all those men of old served God in a special capacity in His kingdom on earth. Before that they had served the Lord in the same way as did their neighbours, but following their anointing, each immediately started to function in an entirely new way. Their anointing was an appointing.

Chapter 8 — Head Over All Things to the Church

Most of the troubles which have arisen over Bible interpretation in relation to spiritual life are the result of men's well-meant efforts to get souls saved with the object of preventing them from being eternally lost and going to hell. But desire to prevent men from going to hell is not the supreme factor in God's move to save souls, or He would have saved everybody unconditionally. Instead, quite deliberately, God has imposed upon men certain conditions for salvation, without which He is not prepared to accept them into His family and heaven. However, any man who fulfils these simple conditions may expect to receive full gospel salvation as a free gift from God without reserve.

This gospel was nowhere more simply and basically presented than in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was the preacher, and in full flow of prophetical ministry he set forth Jesus, focal point of all prophecy, a man, crucified, slain, risen, exalted, glorified, enthroned, Lord and Christ. With Peter, always it was Christ; he could never resist the opportunity to present Him and press home His claims upon his hearers. He had set out to answer the people's question, 'What meaneth this?' 'This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel', he said, and proceeded further to speak of Him from whom 'that' of which they enquired came. His word took immediate hold on his audience, and drew forth the further enquiry, 'What shall we do'? To this he replied, 'Repent, every one of you and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost'.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost

It is distinctly noticeable that when answering the question 'What meaneth this?' referring to the phenomenon of tongues, Peter deliberately inserted a word into his statement which profoundly altered the meaning of Joel's prophecy. He did this in order to distinguish between the operation of a gift of the Spirit and the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit Himself. Through Joel God had said, 'I will pour out my Spirit', Peter changed that to 'I will pour out of my Spirit', a very different thing indeed. Any operation, administration, demonstration or manifestation of one or many gifts, whether in general effusion as at Pentecost, or in a particular or singular instance, is something the Spirit does, not who the Spirit is. Therefore the manifestation is rightly referred to as being of the Spirit; it is not the Spirit Himself. If the demonstration be widespread, it may be spoken of as an outpouring of, that is from, the Spirit, in which case we may expect our sons and daughters to prophesy.

Peter was the apostle of Christ specially raised up to teach the Jews and interpret to them the meaning of their historical and prophetical scriptures, and at Pentecost he inserted the word 'of' when drawing attention to the effusion of a gift, (the glossalalia) as distinct from the Spirit Himself. But later, when instructing them to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost as a person in His own right, the apostle says 'the gift is unto you', because he was not then referring to tongues but to their Author. That people might speak in tongues as a result of receiving the Holy Ghost is quite possible, perhaps even probable — many do so; certainly it is normal, but it is not essential.

Peter was concerned about them receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost Himself, not one of His gifts. They were attracted by the effusion of tongues, but that was only a sign. Peter wanted them to have the Holy Ghost that He may be made to them Unction rather than they should be satisfied with a gift of another order. Who the Holy Ghost is and what He is made to us is of far greater fundamental importance than any of the spiritual gifts He gives us. Peter was speaking under authority from God to make sure that these people became sons; they must enjoy 'Christing' with the Head for sonship before they knew membership in His body for service.

It is also clear from Peter's preaching recorded in Acts 10 that he regarded all true New Testament ministry to be utterly dependent upon the Anointing, saying it began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. He then proceeded to describe how it happened — 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power'; that was the beginning of it all.

A Man Approved of God

Thirty years earlier the Word (Logos) had been made flesh, and following the events surrounding His birth remained in Nazareth, Joseph's and Mary's home, learning and practising carpentry. Then He was sent by God, preaching peace to the Children of Israel. For carpentry the Lord did not need this Anointing, but He did for the ministry to which by the Anointing He was set aside at Jordan. Peter summarised the task as including preaching, doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. For this He needed God to be with Him in a special way, enabling Him to move in power, so He was anointed with the Holy Ghost; from that time God was with Him in the degree He needed for His new calling and ministry.

In chapter 2 verse 22 Peter lays particular emphasis on the manhood of Jesus: 'Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs'. And then, as though purposely to emphasise Jesus' humanity, he continues 'which God did by Him in the midst of you as ye yourselves also know'. There is no mistaking the apostle's insistence on the unmentioned Anointing — it all began from Jordan. Jesus is here presented as a man of whom God approved and by whom He worked. Linking this with Peter's words in chapter 10, we arrive at this composite statement — a man named Jesus of Nazareth was so approved of God that in order to show His approval of Him God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and power. As a result of this, God was with Him doing miracles and wonders and signs and good deeds and healing among the people, in short conducting a planned nationwide programme of deliverance from the devil.

From this emerges the fact that the Anointing is bestowed as a mark of approval as well as a pledge of authority and power. If any person baptised in the Spirit so lives by the Unction that he continues to be filled with the Spirit, he will be approved unto God and God will anoint him in order to show him to the people, saying of him, as of Jesus, 'this is the person I wish men to see'. All extraordinary works done thereafter will be proof of God's approval of a man's life, and are intended partly to draw attention to that fact.

The Anointing is specially connected with Jesus on earth bearing the name Emmanuel — 'God with us'. When the Lord moved out among the people in ministry, God was with Him, working by Him that all should behold God with them in that Man, and call Him Emmanuel. It is a name especially associated with the Kingdom of Heaven — that is God being and working on the earth, turning hellish states of men into heavenly ones. Satan's reign on earth had created conditions of conflict, distress, suffering, disease, pain, misery and death. Jesus brought in a superior kingdom; He went about doing good, opening up for men a new kingdom in which to live free from these things. For conflict He gave peace, for distress joy, for suffering alleviation, for disease health, for pain relief, for misery gladness, for death life — the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The name Emmanuel was given Him to be used specifically in association with this ministry. He attained unto it by obedience — He achieved it by the Anointing.

The Multitude of them that Believed

By the Anointing men are enabled by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to obtain 'part of the ministry from which Judas by transgression fell'. By and large modern churches have also fallen away from their ministry, but God has not therefore withdrawn from the true New Testament position so clearly set forth by Peter. This ministry is made clear in his own life; it is even more clearly shown by those called 'his own company' in Jerusalem (4:23). It is obvious that if ever there has been an anointed company on this earth, it was that company. Proof of this is shown by the spontaneity with which they all prayed together, using the same words with the same purpose for exactly the same amount of time.

The entire Church on earth at that time comprised several companies such as this, and is described as 'the multitude of them that believed' — they shared one heart, had one soul, claimed no possessions as their own, had all things common — what a church! It was the firstborn Church on earth, as we may say, the direct descendant of God. They lived in the midst of hostility and persecution, facing threatened extermination every day of their lives. One great work wrought by God through the Anointing had already resulted in uproar in the temple and imprisonment for Peter and John; the authorities were antagonised, hatching up mischief against them, waiting to pounce.

It may have been considered prudent by some to have refrained from vexing 'the powers that be', but not this company — they had a revelation of the living Christ as God's Servant anointed for ministry. They never prayed that God would anoint Him, or that God would anoint them — they knew that neither was necessary. God's 'holy child Jesus' had been anointed publicly in the presence of some of them over three years before, and they knew no reason why He or they now needed any further anointing: Jesus' one Anointing was for ever. Neither did they reason, 'Jesus needed to be anointed, therefore we need anointing too', but 'Jesus is anointed, therefore we are too'. They knew they needed the Anointing, not an anointing. They also realised they were part of the Anointed One, that being on the Head the Anointing was already on the body.

The context reveals that it happened exactly as they prayed: God heartily approved of them and was very pleased with their understanding prayers. He shook the place and filled them all with the Holy Ghost. Resultantly faith, love and power abounded everywhere. Unity of heart and soul bound them together, and generosity and selflessness graced the whole congregation. Apparently the Anointing needs not to be obtained but retained. A Spirit-filled church is an Anointed church. God's response to their prayer proves that all they needed to do was to keep filled with the Spirit and the Anointing would abide upon every one of them.

Although as yet Paul had not been saved, and the revelation he imparted to the Corinthian church not yet written, (indeed that church was not yet in existence) the church at Jerusalem lived in the experimental knowledge of that which the later apostle was yet to preach and teach. The Spirit inspiring their prayer one day also inspired Paul to write, 'ye are the body of Christ and members in particular', and 'as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ', and also 'the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you'. The Spirit of revelation, understanding and inspiration moved universally through the Church and still does in those who are spiritual.

That Jerusalem company needed no Paul to teach them their position in the heavenlies, or their membership in the body of Christ; they knew these things by experience. They were young Christians, but they knew the Church and Christ are one being, as body and head are one body. Sons as He, they functioned in His likeness, priestlike as He, offering themselves and each other to God as living sacrifices. They also moved on earth as though being the person of Christ ministering in His heavenly kingdom, kingly as He, creating heavenly states into which men and women could enter by faith. Christ was in them. Later it was to be said 'these that have turned the world upside down have come here also' (presumably to turn that place upside down) saying 'there is another king — Jesus', which is perfectly true.

Chosen to be with Him

The method the Lord adopted when selecting the twelve from among the rest of His disciples should be closely observed for it is most instructive. After spending the night in prayer, 'He called whom He would' to be His disciples; following that, He deliberately selected twelve from among them 'to be with Him' and 'that they might have power'. These did not immediately receive power; that was not granted them then, neither were they yet sent forth; the call must be heard and clear response be made first. It may be some while before power and authority for ministry are given. The call is always unto the Lord first, not to a ministry.

He called them to Himself, intending to send them out in ministry, but not until later. He did not immediately tell them they were to be apostles neither did He mention anything about receiving power and authority — that was kept secret from them in His heart. The wisdom of this is beyond dispute. We must respond to the call of Jesus entirely and only in order to be with Him and for no other reason. Too easily we forget that the unregenerate hearts of men seek power and authority for self-glory. Unsaved as well as saved men want to be commissioned and sent on important missions, but the Lord does not feed the carnal urges in man. All too often these masquerade as spiritual desires, and are frequently mistaken for them, for they come from the spirit of man — but the Lord offers nothing but death to carnal wishes; these all must be crucified and slain. He was too wise to attempt to dazzle men with promises of power and great ministries.

Uncrucified spirits of men reach out and grasp for prizes in lust, which is all to often confused with faith; but all in vain. The Lord proceeds step by step to His predetermined ends with man in the Kingdom of God, sometimes withholding from them knowledge which, if released too soon, would destroy instead of edify. So whether a person is called to be an 'ordinary' member of' the Church, or to be an 'extraordinarily gifted' member makes no difference. Each one is basically anointed to serve the Lord to some degree and measure as the Lord shall choose.

The Body is One

The early Church saw this very clearly. On the day of Peter's and John's release from prison the whole church, having received them back into their bosom, unitedly prayed that God would grant each one of them all boldness to preach His word. As we have seen, not one of the company asked to be anointed personally, nor did they pray for a new anointing, either for themselves or for their apostles; they only sought boldness, that is all. This can only mean one thing, namely they fully realised that the Anointing of Jesus Christ for service, once bestowed, was permanent upon Him, and that He would do the same works through His spiritual body, the Church, as He did through His natural body, the Nazarene; all He needed was their boldness.

However, although the whole Church is anointed with Jesus its Head, as far as we know the only one among them who performed miracles was Peter, one of the chief apostles. It seems that none of the rest did the works at that time, even though there must have been other apostles (certainly John) among them. Later Stephen the deacon comes into prominence in Jerusalem as a miracle-worker, but at this early juncture only Peter is nominated as the instrument of power.

Attention is hereby being drawn to the fact that Jesus the Head is anointed to work as He pleases through any member of His body, though perhaps chiefly through those He selects to positions of headship in the body. This in turn emphasises an important point, namely that although one man may do the work, it is not to be thought that it is he who does it but the whole church of which he is a part. The particular worker being used is only one of a membership of many in that body, and as a hand or a foot cannot claim to do anything as of itself, neither can he as apart from or distinct from the whole. Further also, the truth is brought to notice that it is no more the church than the particular member chosen which does it, but the Head, Jesus, whose name and Anointing and power and authority it bears. It was not Peter or the church who did the miracles, but Jesus.

Their form of prayer reveals how sensitive they were to truth: 'grant to thy servants that with all boldness they may preach thy word by stretching forth thy hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus'. Whether they meant they could and would stretch forth God's hand, or were asking Him to do so, they were conscious it was Him and His hand, not theirs. This conforms to nature, for if any person lays claim to doing anything it is never the hand or the foot that makes the claim, but the head. It is the person living in the body who does it, not the particular member he or she uses, and the claim is made from the head, out of the mouth.

There is neither cause nor reason for jealousy among the members of Christ's body functioning properly as a local church, neither is there need for disappointment or despair. It is not the fault of the rest of the members that one or two do the miraculous works. These are associated with his or their callings and commissions, and ultimately the members' full function, power and authority will depend on the state of the whole church. The people who do the works are no greater than others who do not, and cannot be as great as they should be unless and until the whole company moves under the same anointing as its head. When it does it will be able to accomplish all the latent potential in the gift(s) or talent(s) bestowed upon certain members of the church. When Paul states 'if one member be honoured all the members rejoice with it', he has this in mind. Every member is honoured if one be used to perform a miracle, or if God does something wonderful for him or her. Therefore envy or jealousy or despondency need not affect anyone, nor indeed must pride or vainglory or love of power or money fly to the head of anyone being so used.

The authority and power are not bestowed so much upon the person as upon the church, therefore not he only but also the whole church is credited in God's eyes as functioning properly as a body. We must together recognise and acknowledge what we profess, that the body with all its members is one, and in this respect is for use only; it is Christ's body, and He alone indwells and uses it. Let us then, with full understanding of truth, regain the boldness of our forbears, who did great works because they knew the secret of the Anointing, and how to retain its power and effectiveness.

Boldness to Preach

If there is one word above another which fitly describes the general attitude and public manifestation of the early churches in Jerusalem and Judea, it is boldness. The lesson we must learn is at once clear: instead of praying for anointings, churches ought to be praying for boldness. Boldness is part of the power imparted to a person when baptised in the Spirit; this Baptism makes the coward spirit brave, and nerves the feeble arm for fight. According to Paul, whose daring bravery led many a church into glory, the spirit given to a man is the spirit of love and power and of a sound mind. This spirit is imparted at new birth to be for ever his own; a man cannot be a witness to Christ if he is a coward; only the bold can obtain and retain the Anointing. It is written of Peter and John that men perceived their boldness, and anyone reading the record can as easily see it as they who originally thought or said it. And not only the apostles had it; the whole company of believers were as bold as their leaders.

Power from on high is always given to the bold, but it will soon be lost if churches cease to be bold in preaching and witness. Fear is a crippling curse, a debilitating disease, frustrating the purposes of God. But it was not so with the churches in the early days. When Peter was released from prison he was only given conditional discharge, but instead of accepting the strictures laid upon him he acted completely contrary to the commandments of the authorities and continued doing exactly as he had done before. Imprisonment and punishment only made him the bolder, and boldness made him the more powerful. He defied the authorities and, as may be expected, was soon back in prison again, and this time God did an even greater miracle than before. He delivered Peter from prison by an angel who told him 'to go and stand in the temple and declare all the words of this life' — and Peter did so.

For this he and those with him were publicly harangued, and openly beaten and officially commanded to cease from their ministry, so in sheer defiance of 'the powers that be' and in simple obedience to God they went and did it again. They were absolutely unafraid and quite prepared to shed blood, provided it was their own. They kept the Anointing though, because they acted in accordance with it and were bold — as bold as Jesus their Head was to shed His blood, and as anointed as He.

In these days the Anointing is so often associated with works of power, that it is perhaps necessary to restate the fact that the Anointing is as necessary for preaching and teaching as for the operation of more spectacular gifts. In fact it is more important for churches to be concerned to have the 'anointed word' than to perform the anointed miracle. It was only when the church prayed for boldness to preach the word that they asked for signs and wonders; they carefully linked them together, giving precedence to preaching as being the most important. They had it in the same order as the Lord Himself. Mark states it perfectly — they went forth and preached everywhere ... the Lord working with and confirming the word with signs following'. The two may be regarded as head and body — the works giving substance to the words as the body to the head. A man must first speak as one having authority, and then, according to his gifts, authenticate his words by his works.

These Signs shall Follow

In its mission to the world of men the Church's preachers must be the mouthpieces of the whole Church. The preacher must not only wait upon his ministry to speak the word of God; he must also be the 'official' mouth and speak the word of the entire Church. An example of this kind of preaching is to be found in the remarkable happenings first at Samaria and then at Caesarea in Cornelius' household when Peter preached in those places. Having been sent to Samaria, Peter preached as representing the entire church at Jerusalem. He was sent because they knew what he would preach and he preached what he knew they would say.

When he went to Caesarea Peter preached as being sent by God. He knew what Peter would say and Peter knew what God wanted him to say — 'while Peter spoke these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word'. Place the two events together and the truth emerges; Peter spoke both the word of God and the word of the Church — it was one. It should always be exactly the same; if the churches remain anointed it will be so — anointed churches should produce and send out anointed preachers. The gifted preacher depends as much upon the church anointing as personal anointing. We need to recapture the vision of our glorious Head for preaching as for works — the body of Christ is an anointed body.

Anointed churches are probably the greatest phenomena of our age. It is the rarest thing to find a whole company of people constantly moving under the anointing of the Spirit. So few realise the absolute importance of 'church' anointing. This may be the result of the modern sin which exalts men or office far beyond what God intends. Coupled with this, there is often much misunderstanding about the purpose of the anointing. Too often members of churches pray for their leaders to be anointed without realising that they themselves need as much to be anointed as their 'great' men. If a person has the gift of healing or prophecy, or of some other acknowledged ministry, his fellow-members pray and expect him to be anointed for the sake of the gift and its powerful use. Few realise that for fullest benefit of the church and all mankind it is as essential for every member of the church to be anointed as the one who operates the gift.

It is of God's wisdom and goodness that, although the gifts of the Spirit may operate in course of true worship, they are not essential to it; the Anointing is, though. Similarly gifts are not necessary to prayer either, but the Anointing is. It is as vital to praise as to worship and prayer. Praise can no more be given to God apart from the Anointing than can prayer and worship, though gifts may not operate at all during the exercise. Prayer, praise and worship are the most vital of all the exercises of the Spirit-filled life — all other activity must rise and proceed from these as does a river from its source. For this every member of the church must be anointed of the Lord; to be anointed in this realm is greatest of all, for it is the sphere of priesthood to which all are called in one body, and in which everyone must function as of nature.

This wholly consistent anointed life of the church is of far greater value and importance than any amount of anointed works of a desultory nature done by any member. To live daily offering up spiritual sacrifices to God is essential to all. This does not require of a man that he does spectacular miraculous works; these do not gain us acceptance with Him, but except a man be anointed he cannot make these offerings so vital to the Church's life. Although the Church does not exist because of its own spiritual sacrifices, its life does consist in them. The value of the Lord's physical sacrifice was exactly the worth of the spiritual sacrifice He offered unto God at that time. His blood was redemptive to us because His life was satisfying to God; all He ever did was only acceptable upon that same basis. Because He lived making spiritual offerings to His Father, He could also die making one — so also must we live, and if necessary die. The kingdom subsists in this priesthood — for this every man and woman must be anointed of the Lord.

In the same way a church must have the Anointing, that all the gifts of the Spirit essential to their full life may function properly among them. Except they be used under the Anointing, the oral gifts become nothing other than man's word. They may sound good and unctious, be couched in recognisable scriptural terms and spoken in tones appropriate to the matter, but unless the church be moving by the Anointing, neither speaker nor hearers will benefit. Except by the Anointing there is nothing coming through from the Head; there is no message because there is no power, and there is no power because there is no authority and there is no authority because there is no Anointing.

Chapter 9 — The Anointed in the Midst

It is possible to think of power as distinct from authority, and indeed the scriptures very clearly differentiate between them. In the last analysis however power and authority cannot be separated. This is so because in the Spirit of God they are one; however it is possible to think of them separately, and for the purpose of clearer understanding very necessary too.

The Power of Authority

New Testament writers use different words to distinguish between the power of ability and the power of authority, and they direct our attention to Jesus Christ doing the same. Thus in one passage we read of Him giving to His apostles both power and authority, that by these they may be fitted for the ministry to which He was sending them. By the fact that the Lord never gave one without the other, we see that both are necessary for the Spirit-filled servant of the Lord. While niceties of analytical thought demand careful grammatical distinction, in the last analysis this power and authority from on high cannot be separated. Being one in God, they are also one in His Spirit and intention; to us who are His sons and servants He bestows them together.

It is impossible to separate this power and authority in the realm of practical logic, for how shall a man prevail over satan with power alone? Unless he has authority to use the power it is useless. In the field of service it is as impossible and impractical to give power without authority as authority without power, so God does not do so. At whatever stage of spiritual development a man may be, the authority and power of God are working together as one on his behalf. As the prime example of this we will select John's word in his Gospel 1:11 & 12, and Jesus' statement in Acts 1:8. In each case the subject is new birth, the most basic of all experiences related to eternal life. John says, 'to as many as received Him, to them gave He authority to become children of God', and Jesus says, 'ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto Me'. We are given authority and receive power to become a child and be a witness unto Jesus simultaneously.

Another example of this same thing is revealed in Luke 4:32 and Acts 10:38. Both these should be read in conjunction with Luke 4:18, for they have to do with the coming of the Spirit of the Lord upon Jesus for ministry / service, and this time the subject is the Anointing. 'His word was in authority', says Luke; 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power', says Peter. Jesus the Son received authority and power simultaneously to become a minister and be a servant, and His is the pattern life for all God's children.

Following the events of Pentecost, we notice that Peter, one of the chief apostles, becomes a pattern also. Like his Lord, he moves and ministers in the Anointing of the Spirit, with all authority and power, prophesying and preaching and performing miracles in exactly the same manner as Jesus had done. On the day of Pentecost he stood up with the eleven and in full authority interpreted to the Jews their own scriptures; this he did to such purpose and effect that thousands of men hung upon his word, asked him what they must do and then did what he said. The word authority does not occur in the text, but if there was ever an example of spiritual authority that was it.

In chapter 3 authority and power combine to produce the miracle of healing at the temple gate. Questioned about it, Peter claimed that it was done by power and in the name of Jesus; God had glorified His Son and His power. Peter had not done it, he had no power of his own to do such things; he had to do it in Jesus' name — that is one of the basic principles of the function of authority. Peter was granted the privilege of using the power of another; because he was given the right to use His name, he could use His power too. As a young man without much understanding of truth, one of the greatest impressions ever made on me was as a result of reading the account of this miracle. I was amazed at Peter's supreme confidence — he claimed to be speaking in Jesus' name, reached out his hand as though it was Jesus' hand, and without hesitation performed a miracle just as Jesus had done. As he later said, Jesus is anointed. Peter realised his relationship to the Lord, he was as the Head's hand; Jesus did it. Such is the truth and power of the Anointing and the force of authority.

The Anointing carries with it a mysterious power at once apparent to all, but understood by few. It makes no boasts or pretences, seeks no advertisement, conforms to no pattern but the Man of Galilee, yet it cannot be hidden or covered, nor can it be ignored. It may not be immediately recognised, and although it be at last acknowledged, until it be known it may at first be misunderstood. It betokens the presence of God in a special way, distilling like dew, filling the atmosphere, charging it with heaven, clothing words with power, unifying hearts. It is the crown of ministry, the sceptre of the kingdom, the throne of God in the midst of the Church, the cloak of royalty and majesty wherein all God's true children are wrapped and enrapt when in corporate worship.

Since this is so, we ought never to think of power and authority as though they are abstract qualities. They are two of God's personal attributes, best demonstrated to us by the Anointed person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So great was the change wrought in Him by the Anointing, that He seemed to become a different person. Until Jordan He was a Nazarene carpenter, but following His water baptism and spiritual anointing He was a carpenter no longer. The change was amazing and so great that it cannot rightly be assessed or properly described; the unknown woodworker suddenly became famous. He went into the desert, declared war on satan, returned to Nazareth, announced Himself to those who knew Him there, evaded their murderous intentions, and moved off into a life of heavenly ministry among His nation. He had been anointed with authority and power.

There can be no doubt that the baptism Jesus underwent at Jordan has been set in scripture as a parabolic revelation of truth for the entire Church. The significant steps highlighted in the type for the children of God are these: (1) forgiveness and cleansing; (2) death and burial; (3) resurrection and anointing; (4) annunciation of sonship. Jesus did not need, nor did He undergo forgiveness, cleansing, burial and resurrection at Jordan. He only exhibited the steps that lead up to anointing and annunciation of sonship and service. For our sakes He carried out in type the blessed possibilities that lie in the baptism in the Spirit.

For men forgiveness and cleansing, death and burial, resurrection and anointing lie in this glorious baptism. Jesus was not baptised in the Spirit at Jordan or anywhere else in earth or heaven because He did not need to be. He is, was and always will be the Son of God. The baptism in the Spirit makes sons of men sons of God. However He did need to be, and actually was, anointed at Jordan. So if we join the typical with the actual, the truth emerges, namely this: it is in the provisions of God, and therefore possible to us, that baptism in the Spirit and the anointing of the Spirit can take place as near simultaneously, as is shown by the experience of the Lord Jesus at Jordan. Coming up out of the waters, as though raised from the, dead, and standing praying He was instantly anointed and proclaimed by His Father: 'This is my beloved Son'.

It should happen likewise to every born again son — God grant it to be so. It is entirely due to shortcomings on our part, not on God's, that it does not so happen. The apostles chosen by Jesus were an exceptional company. No modern man can hope to have the exact experiences they had. The twelve were privileged above all men to be with Jesus and to work with Him in His kingdom while He was here on earth as a humble man. They were endued with power and given authority from the Lord years before they were baptised in the Spirit, so it is difficult to take them as precise examples to those who came into the kingdom of God following Pentecost.

However, we may perhaps, with more than a little justification, see in the apostles something akin to our own experiences along this line. It seems that although they were empowered and authorised by the Lord to go out at His command in ministry, which took them far from His physical presence, this was only for a period. It also appears that, having accomplished His purposes thereby, the Lord never repeated the missionary enterprise. He did, however, recruit another seventy, and similarly equipped them for service, sending them forth as well. All these, as the twelve before them, fulfilled their mission and returned to receive still greater promises and powers; it was all very wonderful. Yet beyond their initiation and initial sending forth, there is no record that any of them were re-commissioned and sent out again.

If the silence of scripture on the matter is any indication we must conclude that not one of them performed a miracle again while the Lord was with them on earth. Indeed, it would appear almost certain that the apostles' original power had been withdrawn, for they were not able to heal the epileptic boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration. We cannot be too sure about it, but perhaps it may be regarded as true that the power and authority given to them by Jesus was also withdrawn from them by Him. At that point of His programme the king equipped His servants temporarily with limited powers, for His own purposes. It must not be assumed that the powers evaporated, or that the Lord was displeased with His servants. In fact nothing must be read into the facts; the Lord is Lord, and acts according to His good pleasure as well as according to righteousness and truth.

Perhaps the absence of reference to any repeated apostolic ministry following their original labours indicates nothing more than the Lord's desire to emphasise His intentions, and the possibilities as well as the importance of the baptism in the Spirit. Certainly, upon the coming of the Spirit and their entrance into life at Pentecost, the apostles moved into a richness of ministry unequalled by them at any time before that. The Spirit came into them for life and upon them for service, which is exactly the way the Lord had said it should be. In the first of His several references to Pentecost during the last week of His public life with His apostles, Jesus said it would be the occasion when His Father would give them the Holy Ghost. He then went on to speak of the results to be expected from the Spirit indwelling their lives — knowledge, education, fruit, guidance, glory — all the things which would make them true witnesses to Himself.

After His resurrection He told them to tarry in Jerusalem for the clothing of power from on high. Later still He affirmed that they were shortly to be baptised in the Holy Ghost, and being questioned about it said they should receive power as a result of the Holy Ghost coming upon them. In this connection the Lord again said that the object of this Baptism was that they should be worldwide witnesses unto Him. All these statements were made well within the compass of forty-five days which embraced Calvary and His ascension.

The reference to the purpose for the Baptism — namely to make them witnesses — links the last statement to the first, and is basically connected with the Spirit indwelling, or new birth. It has to do with life-power — the Spirit coming within to empower and enable us to live. The clothing with power is for service. To be and bear truest witness to the Lord we must not only represent His life before men, but also His works; for this we all need both the Baptism and the Anointing. It is the Lord's intention we should know both, and as He did not mention anointing for service in connection with the Spirit when speaking of Pentecost, we must presume He meant it should be included in the Baptism.

What we observe from Pentecost onwards in the lives of the apostles is a revival and an increase of the miraculous ministry they had exercised when Jesus had sent them out earlier. If they had indeed lost or been relieved of the authority and power of former years, all was restored to them on the day of Pentecost. There can be little doubt that it was the power of the newborn Church that most impressed everybody who observed its activities. Within the compass of the first four chapters of the Acts of the Apostles the power at first bestowed upon the Church had become great power. In fact it was so great that a man's word could either slay people or his shadow heal them. This is the kind of power that is still available to the Church. In the hands of the wrong person it could be extremely dangerous and the prospect frightening, so the Lord has safeguarded His power by His authority.

God gives or withholds authority according to His own will and wisdom and foreknowledge. Jesus made this very clear to His apostles before Pentecost. In answer to a question about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel He said, 'it is not for you to know the times or seasons God hath put in His own authority, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you'. So saying the Lord put the whole matter in proper perspective. They were to receive power, but only within certain limits. All authority belongs to God alone, and it is His pleasure to grant some of it to those He chooses, but never all of it. To some He grants some authority, but to none does He grant all. When He grants more authority to anyone, with it He also grants further access to power.

All who receive Christ are given authority to become Sons of God, and all Spirit-baptised persons receive power to be witnesses to Jesus. To this degree authority and power are necessary to all. Spiritual life is dependent upon them and cannot be gained or lived without them. However, although both be granted together, authority is the greater. This is clearly shown in the recorded exchange which took place between Jesus and His enemies over casting out devils; the Lord's enemies said 'He casteth out devils by the prince of the devils', and they called Him Beelzebub. They were not so much speaking of the amount or content of His power, but the source of it — who or what was the authorising person or power? The Lord's answer gives great point to this: 'whence do your sons cast them out?' He asked; and again, 'if satan cast out satan, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you'. Satan does not authorise anyone to cast himself out. The superior authority of the Lord was in operation, therefore greater power was at work. That is where the contest lies; the question being answered is whether satan or God is the greater. Jesus demonstrated that God's authority is above satan's.

Upon another occasion, when in open conflict with the religious 'powers that be' over the state of the nation and temple practices, He was again challenged on the point of authority; they said, 'tell us by what authority thou doest these things or who is he that gave thee this authority?' for they saw what He was doing and knew His power was great; He was irresistible. They could not stem the flow of works of power, so they had to try and stop them by stopping Him. If they could provoke Him into disclosing the source of His authority by confessing His sonship, they would have no difficulty in disposing of Him, and thereby (so they thought) stopping His work.

But the Lord was not yet ready to go to the cross. He had to finish the work His Father had given Him to do. He also wished them to know that He could see through their subterfuges, so in return the Lord asked them from whence John Baptist got his authority. Like his Lord, John had the power they envied, the mysterious power of authority. They knew John's power was not of men — either by heredity or by ordination — and they did not want to admit its heavenly origin, so they said they did not know, whereupon Jesus refused to disclose the source of His authority. Both John's and Jesus' power came by authorisation or anointing from heaven — it consisted in a state of unabated fulness of the Holy Ghost.

John was a burning, shining light like Elijah in Israel; he was a great man and a tremendous personality; but dynamic person though he was, that was not the source of his power. His ministry was not of men; he did not get it from self, he received it from God; authority gained by the Anointing is not a development of personality. A man's personality may develop and his personal stature increase because of it, but God's power in men does not operate from thence, neither does it operate by religious ordination, but only from the Anointing. John became a great power in his country because he moved and spoke and acted with complete authority from God alone. This is indeed good news to all God's children, for as Jesus said, 'He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he' by a better covenant than John knew.

Because God is greater than satan, His is absolute authority. His power is almighty and His kingdom is the greatest of all kingdoms. Therefore to some degree according to His will all His children have authority to use power in this kingdom. Every child of God, however recently new-born, is given authority to overcome all evil spirits and administer rebuke to satan himself. Each one can speak to the devil and command him to depart because Jesus has conquered him; he knows he is defeated. He has been defeated upon three outstanding occasions: (1) before the foundation of the world, Jesus overcame and cast satan down from heaven; (2) as a man He overcame and cast satan from Him in the wilderness; (3) while still a man Jesus further defeated him on the cross. Because of this, the Lord gives to every one of His brethren power to overcome satan and cast him away from them. Quite irrespective of sex, age or position in the churches He authorises all God's children to do so. Apart from this, spiritual life could not be maintained.

A simple example, familiar to all, will illustrate this authority clearly: every time a policeman steps into the middle of the road to direct and control traffic a demonstration of power takes place. At the point of duty he holds up his hand and all oncoming traffic stops, he waves his free arm and other traffic moves on, he points his finger and people cross the road or vehicles turn a corner, and all without him saying a word. Everybody obeys his silent gestures and accepts his authority, yet he is no different from any of us. Nobody obeys his commands because he is stronger or bigger or has more personality than others, but simply because of the uniform he wears. His clothing shows him to be a representative of governmental power. He has right to control and direct or warn or restrain or even to arrest a person, but not by his own power or strength; far beyond innate ability, he has a delegated authority which everyone recognises. Of himself he has no power, yet during the course of one day, with a finger, he can hold or move multiplied powers of machines and men almost beyond calculation. He holds an official position; he has an authority not his own, and can do things an ordinary person is not allowed to do. The devil is afraid of The Authority in a man; The Anointing is The Authority against which he is powerless.

Perhaps the difference between the purpose of the Unction and the purpose of the Anointing may be best set forth as the difference between Authenticity and Authority. Unction gives authenticity — no-one is an authentic child of God without it. Anointing gives authority — no-one can serve God with power apart from it. Unction authorises people to become sons of God; the Anointing authorises servants and sons to serve God in some special capacity. Unction is the seal of election and has to do with the kingdom / priest ministry — an office each child of God without exception must hold. Anointing is the sign of selection and has to do with the kingdom / prophet ministry and its offices to which some, but not all, are called.

A person anointed into any office other than priesthood must understand that his office is not superior to priesthood, nor can it be exercised at the expense of it. Each of these offices must be regarded as extra to it; persons can only function properly in these offices if priesthood first be fulfilled. The three great necessities in the Kingdom of God which the Holy Ghost is made to us are Baptism, Unction and Anointing — in that order. The greatest is the Baptism, wherein, by His incoming, we are made children of God; the next greatest is the Unction, whereby inner witness of His indwelling is given us as a seal that we are sons of God. The third is the Anointing accomplished by His oncoming, whereby we are authorised to work and serve or hold office in Jesus' name. It is scripturally true that these three may be bestowed together, as in the case of Paul, which is ideal; it is also true that Anointing may precede both Baptism and Unction as in the case of the disciples; it is also possible that as Cyrus some may be anointed only, but that is unusual.

Jesus Himself underwent His Baptism last of all, years after His anointing in Jordan; but that was unique to Him. He was creating the state into which all believers may be plunged, namely death and resurrection. The general intention of God for the Church is Baptism, Unction, Anointing; this is the logical sequence of experiences whereby He transforms persons into sons and servants in the image and likeness of Jesus. By the Birth / Baptism the nature of Jesus is imparted and the Unction is implanted, that by these sonship may be achieved as from that nature, as likeness to the personality of Jesus progressively develops. Full Christ-likeness may then be attained as we grow into full stature in ministry; only disobedience and unfaithfulness will prevent it.

Great Plainness of Speech

It would be of great benefit to all children of God in this matter if the entire Church moved away from mystical terminology to the true New Testament position. As already pointed out, the word 'anointing' does not appear many times in the Book. Properly viewed the anointing is seen to be fulfilled and its purposes consummated by the appearing of the Anointed. Because the New Testament nowhere tells us what it is, it is very difficult to define exactly what is meant by the term.

Of old it was a simple matter to show what the Anointing was. The word is self-explanatory, and as shown in the case of the priesthood is described very exactly. But because there is precious little talk of anointing in the New Testament, the whole topic is wrapped up in mysticism. Persons speaking of it are hard put to it to give an easily understandable definition of what they mean by anointing. People are supposed to 'know' what is meant, as though there is an elitism among us — those who 'know' as opposed to those who do not.

In his second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul, when dealing with the New Testament ministry of the Holy Ghost, says 'we use great plainness of speech'. By this he implies that the Old Testament, with its foreshadowing types and figures, is couched in much more complicated words than the New. He substantiates this by referring to the necessity for Moses to veil his face when speaking to the children of Israel, and uses the occasion as an illustration of unclear truth. Presumably Moses' veil covered his mouth, somewhat muffling his voice and words, making them indistinct; certainly at least all his facial expressions were hidden.

In the first chapter Paul says clearly that all the Corinthians, as well as he and his co-workers in Christ, were stablished, anointed, sealed and given the earnest of the Spirit by God. That is very plain speaking, there is no deviousness or mysticism about it. It is a straightforward statement of New Testament truth, which being plainly understood means that without exception God anoints everyone in Christ. The apostle is not, by this, inciting the Corinthians to believe that everybody among them was a Paul or a Sylvanus or a Timothy, or in any way 'great' above their contemporaries; he was simply telling them plain truth. It is truth we all need to know.

We should all have been alerted to the spuriousness of the implications of the use of the term anointing in some connotations by the very fact of the unaccountable mysteriousness which shrouds it. This is seen even more clearly when we remember how easily the children of God understand what is meant by other terms to do with our spiritual life: to name a few — conversion, salvation, sanctification, Baptism in the Spirit. There is no mystery shrouding those terms — given twelve months, any normal regenerate person who gives time to God's word can give a simple explanation of them to any who ask.

However, to explain what is meant by the Anointing in the New Testament defies nearly everybody's ingenuity, be they most able with words. This inability is symptomatic of an even worse condition at present afflicting the body spiritual and spreading confusion everywhere. We are all suffering and have suffered as a result of one of the most chronic mental disorders that has ever scourged the churches, namely almost total inability to distinguish between the covenants.

The New Covenant is in Christ. To be in Him we must all compulsorily be baptised by Him into His body. He is the Anointed; therefore being baptised into Him we are baptised into the Anointing. This is the plain simplicity of it all. Paul makes this very clear to the Galatians — 'as many as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ' — and goes on to work out the implications of that in relation to the particular truth he is bringing to the Galatians (and, thank God, to us). But to the Corinthians he expands it in relation to the anointing and the sealing and the earnest of the Spirit.

The fact is that whatever is in Christ, or was and is given to Christ, is also ours; therefore because He is the Anointed and was anointed, so also is everyone in Him. That conclusion is completely unavoidable — it is logical, it is spiritual, it is truth. There is nothing mysterious about it — everybody in Christ is anointed in the fullest sense of the word for all the purposes for which the Holy Spirit is given.

The Measureless Spirit

In the third chapter of his Gospel, John declares a most marvellous truth which has direct bearing on this matter — 'He giveth not the Spirit by measure'. The words 'to Him', included by the translators in the text, are not in the Greek. This addition to God's words slightly alters His meaning, and although well-intended, is only true to a degree. The inclusion of these words obscures the widest scope of the revelation God intended, and sadly limits John's testimony. In relation to Jesus they are absolutely true; God did not give the Spirit unto Him by measure, but they are equally true in relation to every other son of God also. God does not give the Spirit by measure to them either; He cannot, for the Spirit is immeasurable.

When the Holy Spirit comes to a person, He comes to be all He is, to bring all He has, and to do all the work for which He is commissioned and sent. Given to us, He is also made to us all God will ever require of us, fitting each one for service and ministry. He imparts talents and gifts according to God's will, enabling as well as equipping us for the work of the ministry. And since it is true that every Spirit-baptised person is anointed of God, it only remains for us to discover what God has imparted to us, and what it is God wants us to do. For this we need no new or fresh anointing extra to or different from what is already given. That is why the New Testament does not instruct us to seek any such thing.

The fact that authority takes the place of anointing in the New Testament is amply illustrated to us in the persons and activities of the Lord Jesus and His disciples. As the anointed King, at a certain point of His ministry He carefully chose the men He wished to work with Him on earth, but although all were workers in His kingdom, the Lord did not anoint any of them. Not a drop of oil was poured upon them, nor was there any kind of public ceremony performed which by any stretch of the imagination could be associated with ceremonial anointing. As far as we can see, He did not even lay His hands on them, whether for prayer or for impartation of any kind; instead, simply by word of mouth, He gave them power and authority to act in His name. Had they but known it, they were given this power with both God and men, as being part of their inheritance in Jacob.

This direct method is the New Testament reality for which the partial and many anointings of the Old Testament were the substitute or symbol. We are informed by Paul that the law 'came in by the way'. Its many symbols, including that of anointing, were not employed by the Lord either before or after its institution. None of the patriarchs were anointed; neither Abraham, Isaac nor Jacob had oil poured on them, nor did their antediluvian predecessors. Joseph was not spoken of as the anointed of the Lord, although he became as king in Egypt; similarly Moses was unanointed, although he was king in Jeshurun. God did all He did through these without any mention of anointing.

Pre-Law anointing for position and power was unknown, and except for sickness it has no place in this post-Law era. God directly empowered and authorised the patriarchs without any actual anointing, nor did He refer in any way to spiritual anointing. The anointing of the Mosaic era of Law was not a pattern to follow, either in deed or word; in fact it was itself but a symbol of the real. In their day the patriarchs knew the real and now Christ has come, both the symbol and the symbolic language have been removed in favour of the real.

The Lord Himself did away with the old for ever. Direct authorisation from the Lord Himself for service according to His will has taken the place of indirect anointing by a man. Authority — sovereign empowering to act in the name and as the person of Jesus — has displaced the oily concoction and ostentatious ceremony of anointing. Except in the way and with the meaning that the word anointing is used in the New Testament, it ought never to be used among us. Out of its proper context the word is of no more than poetic meaning, and can be misleading; if persisted in it will gender to a bondage we can well do without. We must discontinue its common use, as for instance when a meeting is fraught with the presence and power of God and is spoken of as being an 'anointed' meeting. Jesus Himself taught us to believe that such gatherings are the outcome of His presence in the midst. He did not speak of the Anointing being there — the Anointed is there — 'I AM in the midst'.

For the same reason we ought also to refrain from speaking of 'an anointed message or messenger'. Rather let us say, 'he speaks with authority', or we had a precious meeting and 'God spoke to us'. This is language in keeping with the whole tone of revelation given in the New Testament — such words were used to describe Jesus and His ministry. They have an authenticity about them and if persisted in will help purge us from unrealistic jargon; our feet will be kept well down on the earth and our speech free from dangerous mysticism and our souls be less liable to damage. It could be argued that if Jesus is in the midst and He is the Anointed, then the Anointing must be present also, and therefore the phrases mean the same and we need not quibble about words and terms.

That is exactly the point; if the Anointed One is present we ought, as the early Church, to recognise Him, honour and magnify Him, seeking only His glory and exaltation, and nothing for ourselves. No-one needs a special anointing when the Lord is in the midst — He only comes into the midst of His anointed ones; they are His body. When He uses any one of them to perform a miracle or speak His word, He does not anoint that member to do so; He just extends His hand or raises His voice and uses His tongue. He does it quite naturally, and the person so honoured is no more anointed while in use than he was before or after the exercise. To think and speak about it this way is not to quibble over words, but to see and express the truth properly and scripturally in accordance with New Testament revelation.

The Emergence of the Churches

It is clear that with the development of the Church, the more highly gifted men fade from view, and in their places emerge the churches for whom they gave their lives. The Acts of the Apostles, as its name indicates, is largely taken up with accounts of the exploits of a handful of men called apostles. Following that book come the epistles wherein the churches emerge into full view.

The books of the New Testament could be simply divided into four, displaying: (1) Jesus, (2) the apostles, (3) the churches, (4) the New Creation. Neither of these divisions deals with its subject to the exclusion of the others, but the above most naturally presents the main emphasis of each. Of the three, the second is the one which could most easily be changed. It has sometimes been called 'The further Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ', for it commences with the words 'The former treatise have I written unto thee O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach'. This could be taken to mean that Luke wrote this book as a record of things Jesus continued to do and teach.

If this be conceded, it is equally certain the Lord was doing His works through the apostles. However, with the founding, multiplication and edification of the churches, the first apostles completed their tasks and departed: thereafter the office passes into a less prominent position. In the scripture the names and exploits of apostles pointedly give way to names of churches, and in the opening chapter of the final book of the sacred canon, the Lord directly connects angels — not apostles — with the churches. In the closing section apostles appear again as foundation stones of New Jerusalem, but apart from this are mentioned nowhere else except in chapter two. There the church tries some who claim the position and finds them to be false apostles; other than this the office does not find mention. With their Lord the apostles sought to build the Church; having done so, they depart the scene, leaving that Church, not themselves, on view.

Thereby the truth is again emphasised that the Lord wants anointed churches rather than a few anointed men. In the true Church of Jesus Christ every man is anointed equally as befits a member of the Lord Christ's body. The unity, as well as the singularity and authority, of the Anointing needs to be understood. The Anointing is one and only one, it is His, and of necessity it is shared by all His members. As with every other provision of Christ, some seem to have a larger proportion than others, but this is simply because they are more bold and obedient.

The man who walks daily in communion with His Lord, witnessing for Him and gathering with Him, will always be filled and overflowing with the Spirit. He will have an abundance of authority, and within his calling will have power to serve His Lord according to His will. But for this he receives no increase of anointing above his fellows, nor does he need any. He may have more talents and use more gifts than his contemporaries, and in stature appear greater than his brethren, but he is no more anointed than they. He is more gifted, more talented and more industrious than they perhaps, but although it may be said he is more anointed than they, it is a false assumption and is not so.

In a properly functioning church every member is of equal standing and importance with the others. Apostles and prophets are not above their brethren, neither are pastors and teachers, or evangelists, or elders and deacons. Officers in Christ's Church are called and equipped of God to serve in churches among their equals. No man is to be blamed if Christ does not call him into a position other than church member; it is as great a privilege and as honourable as any, and no position or office in the church is to be regarded as being any higher.

Apostle or prophet or elder or any other officer though he be, a man is not thereby placed above his fellow-members; he is not greater than they; he is only called to fill an office, not to become a great man. Therefore let every regenerate person recognise the Lord's call and walk in it, and in the gatherings let none be regarded as above another. Let none be taught to believe that certain people are greater than others because of greater gifts or talents; that is entirely of Christ's choosing — everyone is equally anointed. Nevertheless, by the same Anointing, leadership is conferred on some, but this will speedily be recognised and followed whenever it is properly exercised.

Every person requires authority and power to function in the Church. The person who speaks in a tongue or interprets or prophesies needs as much authority and power to use these gifts as does the person through whom the gift of miracles or healing operates; there is no difference, none at all. Authority and power are given for ministry, that is, for the use of talent(s) and gift(s) possessed by the member. Ministry is nothing other than the direction and application of power to certain ends. In common with talents(s) or gift(s), it is a means to an end. All these are bestowed on a person or persons by Christ, and are given entirely for His purposes, ministry is Christ working through His people by His own personal powers and gifts. Not the possession of gifts, but the ministry of the Spirit flowing from the Head of the body through them is the important thing.

One Mediator

The Anointed Head is both the Mediator and Minister of the Holy Spirit from the Father to men. The ministry of the Spirit through His members on earth is simply the extension to men of the mediatorial office and ministry of Christ in heaven. Authority and power for this are granted by Him to all His members. All who have been baptised in the Spirit by Him are indwelt by Him by the Spirit and are made one body in Christ for the ministry of the Spirit. This ministry is far greater than the persons and gifts through which it operates, even as water is above the channel through which it flows or fire than the grate in which it burns. As the channel and grate are to the water and the fire, so are gifts to the ministry. There are many names and descriptions given to ministry, such as apostolic or preaching, or prophesying, or healing, or prayer, or tongues, or interpretation, or helps and many others. Because this is so, the tendency is to speak of ministries instead of the ministry. By so doing we draw attention to the human minister and means of the ministry instead of to the ministry itself, and thereby confuse the point.

When men speak of ministries, it is often not so much for the want of a better word as through ignorance. Ministry is of a person, from a person through a person by means of personal abilities granted by Christ. The person ministered is the Holy Ghost, the person who mediates Him is Jesus Christ, the person through whom He is ministered is the member of Christ, and the particular ability through which the ministry flows is one of the gifts of the Spirit. What men call ministries are nothing other than aspects of the one ministry. Everything in the New Testament is one and of one. We have all been called into one. The Anointing is one and the ministry is one; it is Christ's, and if a man be called a minister he is only being called a servant. All service is one, and lies either in ministering to the Lord or ministering from the Lord; in either case a man ministers for the Lord. That men may be served thereby, though essential, is quite beside the point.

When Jesus went to the cross He ministered the sacrifice to God first. His words to the apostles in the upper room make this very clear, 'that the world may know that I love the Father, arise let us go hence'. This was both the prime reason for His sacrifice and His primary urge in making it, and He did so as the High Priest of our profession. His mediatorial office depended entirely upon that. The two offices of High Priest and Mediator are bound up in one with all His other offices, but in order of thought, mediation from God must be seen as secondary to mediation to God. Every servant of the Lord is in the ministry if the ministry is first in him.

When referring in the Galatian letter to his visit to the apostles at Jerusalem, Paul does not speak of Peter's ministry and anointing, nor of his own, but of 'the grace that was given unto me'. He says Christ 'wrought effectually in Peter' and 'was mighty in me'. He does not talk of gifts or talents or authority or anointing, but of a person and grace. This is the true New Testament way of speaking of the ministry. None of those men who knew the authority and power of Christ in them, and who lived so close in time and spirit to the Lord, spoke much of any thing or person other than Him. Necessity for instruction caused them to refer to things in course of writing, but they never confused issues by using dubious terms or indistinct ideas. To speak of anointing instead of ministry, or grace, or authority and power leads directly to wrong conceptions of truth in the mind of the hearer, even if it does not arise from them in the mind of the speaker. Instances of this common mistake are so numerous that they hardly need citing.

Few there be who would use the phrase 'the ministry' in regard to prayer, yet many would unhesitatingly use it for preaching or healing. But in order of importance prayer has precedence over all. The apostles knew it and gave prayer first place in their lives following Pentecost, Acts 3:1, 4:24, 6:4, 9:11, 10:9, 12:5, and 13:2,3 being prime examples of their understanding, preferences and faithfulness. The ministry of the Spirit in and by prayer is probably the greatest of all. It requires no special gift or talent, but is open to all, and the person engaging in it is as anointed as those who minister in more prominent places by more spectacular gifts.

Paul, the one who could perhaps above any other have used the term 'anointing' when speaking of himself, says he was 'called' an apostle. Nowhere does he say he was anointed to be this or do that; always he uses simpler language, avoiding the mystique implied by the Old Testament term. If the Anointed means the Christ and the Christ means the Chosen, then every saint is anointed, for Paul tells us we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Let us abide in truth plainly stated, and avoid mystification, lest confusion rob us of present joy and set us striving for what we already have in Christ. He who is the Lord's is already anointed.

IV —  IN THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

Chapter 10 — The Order of Melchizedek

When the Lord Jesus finally left this earth and returned to heaven, He did so in order to continue in the priesthood over which He eternally presides as High Priest. How He had upheld such an office whilst here on earth is one of the mysteries surrounding the incarnation. But He no more abdicated His priesthood when He came to earth than He abdicated His Godhead. Hebrews 1:1-3 tells us 'He upheld all things by the word of His power' whilst purging our sins; He was and did all at the same time.

In the same way and by the same power by which He was the sacrifice, He was also still Melchizedek, High Priest of the eternal priesthood. Following His ascension, He presented Himself to His Father and God for this service. Whilst on earth with His physical body intact and His blood still flowing in His veins, He was always offering Himself as a spiritual sacrifice without spot to God. His death as the Lamb of expiation and reconciliation crowned a life of living sacrifice and now He is appearing in heaven forever perfected and given to God for us.

When here among men He had come as sent by God particularly to be the Apostle of our profession. In this capacity He preached His gospel, and did all His works, all the while moving toward the time when He could and would found and build His Church. His ministry meanwhile was fully authenticated among men by signs and wonders and divers miracles which God did by Him over a period of three to four years, until the time when all had to be finalised by the sacrifice of Himself. In order to fulfil His role as High Priest 'taken from among men' and to function properly in the presence of God in our behalf, Melchizedek had to provide Himself a Lamb.

It is not easy to utter all that should be said about our heavenly Melchizedek, and here is not the place to attempt to do so. It is important however to recognise that while fulfilling His apostleship on earth He was being prepared for the sacrifice upon which His heavenly priesthood and our salvation depended. He only appeared before men as an apostle for a few months — His priesthood in heaven is unchangeable. Understanding this, we are surely able to grasp the relative importance of the two offices. His apostleship was localised to His own land; His priesthood is universal. His apostleship was to His own flesh and blood; His priesthood, like His gospel, is for all mankind. On earth He was 'veiled in flesh', in heaven He has entered into that which is within the veil. The many differences between the two offices could easily be demonstrated more fully, but refraining from this, we will come directly to one of the more important reasons why the ministry of priesthood is superior to all other.

While on earth, the Lord Jesus could not outpour the Spirit upon all flesh, for the sacrifice and offering that warranted it had not been made. He said He was a straitened man — He felt confined, restricted. His greatest concern was to return to heaven to receive from the Father on man's behalf the long-promised Holy Ghost. It was God's eternal plan that He should give this precious gift of the Spirit to men, but He could only do so through a perfect man, someone who could be a proper mediator between Himself and mankind. So sacrificing Himself in all His perfection for all those who were wrong, the Man Christ Jesus presented Himself in heaven for that purpose.

Combining in Himself the offices of High Priest and Mediator, He ascended to the right hand of the Father. In this He acted as High Priest, offering Himself to God as the ultimate sacrifice and offering for the sin of man. Being the perfect man, at the same time and in the same act He presented Himself to God as the Mediator also. He is Man as God wants him to be; perfect Man with His perfect offering is now permanently represented and accepted in heaven. The Offering is everlastingly ministered to, and is therefore eternally with God, and Man is eternally mediated to the Father and is thereby eternally with Him. Not only in the God / Man Jesus in Himself, but also by that wondrous sacrifice He offered acceptably to God, God and man are one. As the direct result of this, the Holy Ghost was given to Jesus the Man who mediated Him to men to reside in them as He does in the Godhead.

This is the main substance of the reason for the superiority of the ministry of the heavenly priesthood over all other ministries. Under the Aaronic order, the Children of Israel received the Law and the promised land; under the priesthood of Melchizedek we receive the promised God — the Holy Spirit, and the inward law for righteous being. This mediatorial ministry of the Holy Ghost from heaven to men by Jesus is linked in almost identical ways with His present ministry on earth in and through us. Whatever form that ministry takes through a person, in order to be the ministry of the New Covenant it must be ministry of the Spirit. Only by this can we be identified with the ministry of the Lord Jesus. He mediates the Holy Ghost, who applies to men the virtue and value of that offering now received with satisfaction in heaven by God. The object of His ministry is twofold: (1) to reproduce in us the personal eternal life of the perfect Man with the Father; (2) to bring us into His ministry.

The Holy Ghost is the Spirit by whom, through Christ, man has access to the Father; through Him also the Father has access to man. Apart from this mediation, man cannot reach the person and personal things of God, but only has access to and contact with external things of God; in this lies the great contrast between the old and the new. When the High Priest of old went into the Holiest of all, except for the personal experience involved in the act, he came out again exactly as He went in. Also everything about him was as it had been before; the people were the same; no great change had come over them; all things remained the same as they had been and continued the same thereafter. But not so in the new order: the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon men dramatically changed them, and from that time everything else began to change too. This was unavoidably so, for being baptised in the Holy Ghost, they were embraced into the one body of eternal life accepted in heaven — Christ's body, the Church. Doing this, God accomplished His eternal purpose. We see then the utter supremacy of the kingly / priestly ministry over all others.

Into this priestly mediatorial ministry we all have been called. Christ Jesus is before the Father as a Son over His own house of priests, and we are that house. With our Lord Jesus, priesthood is also our profession and heavenly calling. He who called His Son a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, has called us into the same order of priesthood. It is the highest calling to the highest ministry with the highest privileges and is of the greatest importance, for upon it depends the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Our High Priest was faithful to Him that appointed Him, and so we must be faithful to Him who has appointed us. According to Hebrews 2:4, the seal of God's approval upon our faithfulness is 'distributions of the Holy Ghost'. This is the life-giving ministry — the priestly anointing is upon us for this purpose.

As has already been pointed out, the priestly anointing was unique in composition and exclusive in use. God referred to it as 'the crown of the anointing'; bestowed upon men it fulfilled His promise, 'ye shall be a kingdom of priests unto Me'; it was a royal coronet, creating him who wore it a prince of a priest and a servant of God. David speaks of it as running and flowing, dripping from Aaron all sweet and holy in golden glory, from the bells and pomegranates around the hem of the High Priestly robes. It is like brethren dwelling together in unity, he says, and how right he is, for all God's priests are brethren. Of old they were all members of the Aaronic family — they were united by blood-ties, and beyond that by ceremonial and spiritual ties too.

There has been no departure from this principle; it is still in operation today, though not in quite the same way. The birthright has passed entirely from physical to spiritual generation, and the Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us who are born of the Spirit His brethren. Those priests were united by the anointing oil. Though of different ages and with different names and of different sizes and stature, they all bore the identical anointing. The oil never varied. It was the same upon each. It was the unifying factor. This is a singularly astonishing fact when viewed in the context of the whole ceremony of their inauguration. Although each of them went through the same basic experience of stripping, washing, clothing and anointing, only in the latter was the ceremony identical. In all the other parts of the initiation they each had a similar experience, but the anointing was identical as well as similar. We see then how important is this matter of the anointing.

What a privilege is ours that we should share the Anointing of our Melchizedek; this being so, the Lord commands the blessing, even life for ever more; regeneration. Ultimately, therefore, the objective behind God's move in outpouring the Spirit is for this blessing — He wants sons. Each must be born again and brought to glory, entering into that which is within the veil of His flesh now rent for us. This is what the Lord Jesus wants most to happen. Appearing once on earth in flesh, He did so with the purpose of leading us into what was within His flesh, the real God, whom nobody knew. The mystery of godliness is great, says Paul. God was manifest in the flesh. He veiled Himself in order to rend that veil in the sight of men and angels and devils. Now He brings many sons through Himself into the Spirit, which was within that flesh, the real eternal life — Himself; The Anointed.

The Oil of Gladness

The final reference to anointing in the Bible occurs in a wonderful passage quoted in Hebrews 1 from Psalm 45. God is speaking to His Son, 'Thy throne O God is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom; thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows'. The psalmist says he is indicting a good matter and that he is speaking of the thing he has made touching the king.

David was himself the anointed of the Lord unto kingship, and in so many ways he typifies to us the Lord Jesus. The Spirit that came on him at his anointing had taught him so much; like Abraham he saw Jesus' day and was glad and wrote of it in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. He saw that kingship was of God, that He is the King of kings and that the kingship he enjoyed was part of God's sovereignty. God had shown him that Christ would be raised up to sit on His throne, for His throne is the throne of thrones because He is the King of kings. He called his psalm 'A Song of Loves', and he saw the kingdom and throne and King and queen of love. Moreover he saw that all the enemies of the kingdom or state of Love and the heavenly and earthly Lovers living in that state, would be destroyed.

How wonderful it is to be the anointed of the Lord. The man so honoured, who will live according to God's election, and count the honour above all, shall prove it to be his exaltation to Christ-like glories. He shares in similar, though lowlier, blessings with Christ, and on earth finds joys and pleasures parallel to his Lord's. In that which falleth to him he sees the planned experiences of his Lord, and enjoys it as such. In his day he enters into his Lord's day yet future, so that his life is both a parable and a prophecy; he typifies his Lord, setting Him forth, and he foretells and foreshows His coming and eternal Kingdom.

This great privilege was granted David who wrote this psalm in exalted frame and inspired spirit. His heart was bubbling with inward revelation, rising with power in his spirit, and coursing through his soul like a flowing spring until it poured out of his tongue and through his fingers as from a divine source. He saw his own feelings and experiences — loves, hates, majesty, throne, kingdom, battles, marriage — as reflections of Christ's; all were transmuted with glory. He saw and recognised the beauty of earthly life and love as demonstrations and illustrations of the Lord's. When he thought of his own kingdom and kingship and throne he found no difficulty in associating them with Christ's and in seeing his own desires as being the same as the Lord's.

David knew that because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity the Lord did too, and that, because his anointing had made him glad, so had the Lord's anointing made Him glad. It was Samuel who anointed David. God had spoken to David through him. When he anointed David king, the act spoke volumes to the young man; it was one of the sundry times and divers manners in which God in times past 'spake unto the fathers by the prophets'. To the young shepherd, Samuel's vial was the oil of gladness, and he was anointed with it above his fellows. Real as it was to him, it was also pictorial of the Lord's anointing.

In another psalm David had spoken of Christ's assurance as he approached His death and burial. His heart rejoiced, says David, 'my tongue was glad, moreover my flesh shall rest in hope because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance'. Like Abraham, David was a patriarch; as Abraham was the father of the faithful, so he was the father of the joyful.

Part of the joy set before the Lord Jesus in view of Calvary was the anointing to which He was moving, when He should sit once more on the throne He had vacated for the manger, and be anointed once more with the oil of gladness. Throughout His ordeal He foresaw the Lord always before His face; 'He was on His right hand that He should not be moved'. David had experienced it himself during his own trials, and he knew he spoke of his Lord. 'The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool'. In measure in his day, according to his need, David enjoyed these things, but he knew that at the time he spoke prophetically of the Lord Jesus his Messiah. Transcending anything David knew, the Lord experienced it all.

How gladly did God the Father welcome home His Son from the cross and the grave and Hades. 'Sit on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool' He said, and anointed Him with the oil of His gladness. So the Lord Jesus sat down on His throne crowned with glory and honour, His head anointed with glad oil and the sceptre of righteousness in His hand to rule over His kingdom. It was a wonderful moment for God. It cannot be with joy that the Lord contemplates the dissolution of all the things He created; they are the works of His hands. That they must perish brings Him no pleasure. 'In Him we live and move and have our being', and we should seek the Lord; we should all feel after Him and find Him. He is not far from every one of us; so wonderful are all His works, but still He must fold them up and put them from Him. Everything must go and shall be removed till nothing of the former creation remains, only Himself, its creator. He shall remain for ever the same, unchanged, eternal, God the everlasting King, glad Ruler of a new universe that shall never be moved.

His fellows shall be anointed with the same oil, but He shall be enthroned and anointed above them all. Everyone shall be glad with the gladness of God, rejoicing with Him in His everlasting kingdom of righteousness. Each shall be righteous as He is righteous, that is, innately; the new heavens and the new earth shall never pass away, for they shall be the home of righteousness and Christ shall reign over all. And how God's joy shall abound everywhere, that His will shall be done under the sceptre of Melchizedek, king of righteousness and peace. In His kingdom everyone is without father or mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but is made like unto the Son of God and abideth a priest continually.

The holy anointing oil is the oil of gladness too, the priesthood is royal and joyful. In God's kingdom there shall be no more offering for sin. All shall be sinlessly righteous; there shall be no need for sin-offerings — they never did bring God any pleasure and they were powerless to remove sin from people and make them righteous. The Lord's people shall themselves be the offerings, like the Lamb who was slain at the world's founding and rose to lay its foundations. He was slain then in anticipation with full knowledge of what would be the outcome and where it would all end. He was slain also to justify the era of lesser sacrifices for atonement which would follow, to make their acceptance valid and God's action righteous. He was also slain to be the end of the law for righteousness, at the founding of the new creation, that He might again rise, this time to lay the foundations of the new universe and build His Church.

Offerings of pure love, sacrifices of sheer righteousness, givings from holy desire, thank offerings of sanctified self, God's creation given to God continuously, these are the pre-occupations of the priestly ministry. We who shall feed on the righteousness and love of the new creation will offer no animals or birds or fruits of that earth to the Lord, but ourselves. There will be no altar of stones or earth on which to make sacrifice, no tented place of worship. We shall hear the whole universe singing, praising Him who sits on the throne and we shall join with them salted with fire, worshipping God and the Lamb. So it is that the Lord declares the name of God to His brethren, and sings praises to Him in the midst of the Church. Sacrifices of praises shall ever be rendered to the Lord, eternal thanksgiving will always fill our hearts; with Him, our blessed Lord and leader we shall be forever glad and join in the joy of God.

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03-AUGUST-03