Pentecost

Pentecost calls to remembrance the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was for this reason that Jesus had ascended into heaven; glorified and sitting on the right hand of His Father, He would send down His Holy Spirit to live in the heart of His elect. Christ had merited salvation for His own through His bitter suffering and death. He suffered for them the punishment which they deserved for transgressing God’s unimpeachable justice. In fulfilling for them the obedience to the law which had been demanded by God, He has taken away the punishment for God’s people by both His active and His passive obedience and merited for them eternal life. Life had been promised in the fulfilling of the demands of the law. “Do this, and thou shalt live,” but since none of Adam’s descendants could fulfill the demands of the law, the Lord Jesus as the representative Head of His people has placed himself under the law and has obeyed it perfectly.

Through His active obedience He has merited life. Death could not hold Him. He arose, was made alive, and was glorified, sitting at the right hand of God’s majesty. The law has been disarmed of its curse, Satan’s hope has been crushed, world and sin are conquered, and God’s favor and eternal love are kindled. The Lord Jesus lives, and His people are given a place with Him in heaven, but that of which the elect in Christ may partake must be actively applied to them. The doors of their prison must be opened. They must not only be delivered judiciously but also actively by their Lord and Head. They are children of wrath by nature; they travel on the way to destruction; they refuse to come to Christ and have their life in His name; they also are dead in sins and trespasses. A wonder of God must be glorified within them.

The life of Christ, the Lord, must awaken them out of the state of death. The merited salvation must be applied to them, and that application is the work of the Holy Spirit. A triune God is glorified in the salvation of His elect. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom, as we read in Ephesians 1: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself … in whom we have redemption through His blood, according to the riches of His grace.” The Holy Ghost takes from the fullness of Christ to impart unto them the salvation which has been purchased with the blood of Christ. With His departure from earth, the Lord Jesus has pledged and promised the Holy Spirit: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

This promise was fulfilled on Pentecost. This feast is the keystone of our feasts. One day in Jerusalem on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended as the third Person of the holy, godly Essence. We commemorate the inestimable reality that once occurred. That is the wonder of Pentecost— God the Holy Spirit came down to live in the heart of lost sinners. That wonder proclaims that there is room through the blood of Christ. Who shall ever be able to comprehend this?

Oh, that we may be thankful, especially in these moments, that poor sinners have been elected so that the Lord may dwell within them. No sinner is too wicked; no heart is too impure. Cloven tongues of fire were seen upon the disciples. The gospel will be heard by all people and nations in the earth, and the Lord will draw His own from all languages, generations, and people. No white person is too evil; no black person is too dark. It is grace and grace alone. May this Pentecost become for us the day of salvation. May we also learn to bow our knees before the Lord our Judge and beg for grace that God may be glorified within us to our salvation. May the Lord’s Spirit prepare us more and more for that day of complete deliverance when we shall enter a perfect glory where the Lord will be All and in all.

Rev. G.H. Kersten (1882-1948)

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