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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadQuiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Power: 52. A Transition Stage
TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Power (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 52. A Transition Stage
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A Transition Stage
Such seems to be the teaching of the old Book. Let us look into it a little more particularly. One needs to be discriminating in quoting the Book of Acts on this subject. That book marks a transition stage historically in the experience possible to men. Some of the older persons in the Acts lived in three distinct periods. There was the Old Testament period when a salvation was foretold and promised. Then came the period when Jesus was on the earth and did a wholly new thing in the world's history in actually working out a salvation. And then followed the period of the Holy Spirit applying to men the salvation worked out by Jesus. All these persons named in the Book of Acts lived both before and after the day of Pentecost, which marked the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts marks the clear establishing of the transition from the second to the third of these three periods. Ever since then men have lived after Pentecost. The transitional period of the Book of Acts is behind us.
Men in Old Testament times both in the Hebrew nation and outside of it were born of the Spirit, and under His sway. But there was a limit to what He could do, because there was a limit to what had been done. The Holy Spirit is the executive member of the Godhead. He applies to men what has been worked out, or achieved for them, and only that. Jesus came and did a new thing which stands wholly alone in history. He lived a sinless life, and then He died sacrificially for men, and then further, arose up to a new life after death. The next step necessary was the sending down of the divine executive to work out in men this new achievement. He does in men what Jesus did for them. He can do much more for us than for the Old Testament people because much more has been done for us by God through Jesus. The standing of a saved man before Pentecost was like that of a young child in a rich family who cannot, under the provisions of the family, come into his inheritance until the majority age is reached. After the Son of God came, men are through Him reckoned as being as He is, namely in full possession of all rights conferred by being a born son of full age. Now note carefully that this Book of Acts marks the transition from the one period to the other. And so one needs to be discriminating in applying the experiences of men passing through a transition period to those who live wholly afterwards.