“searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”
the Spirit of Christ
There are many titles of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. We find a similar title to the one in this verse in Philippians 1:19,
“For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
We discover another title in Romans 8:9,
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
We find other titles of the Holy Spirit in Matt 10:20; John 14:16,17;15:26; Rom 8:2,11,14,15; 1 Cor 2:12; Gal. 4:6. There are two types of titles for the Holy Spirit:
personal and
functional.
“Spirit of Christ” is a functional title of the Holy Spirit. The central function of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:14).
who was in them was indicating
Note the word “who.” The Holy Spirit is a person.
The Holy Spirit was “in them.” The Holy Spirit wrote the Old Testament enabling the human authors to write God’s Word without error. This was a special endowment of the Spirit for a few for the purpose of writing Scripture. This is not the same as the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit since the church began on the day of Pentecost. During the church economy, the Holy Spirit permanently indwells every Christian from the moment of salvation.
This is a picture of the Old Testament prophets while scratching around in their scrolls, the Holy Spirit gave evidence beforehand of the certainty of Christ’s coming. He gave the prophets success in their inquiry. God did not slight their efforts to ascertain the coming of Christ.
God promised the gospel by the prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures long before the gospel was present in the person of Christ.
Romans 1:2-3, “which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.”
The phrase “was indicating” indicates that the Holy Spirit influenced the personality, vocabulary, and mind of the authors of Scripture to write the Bible. That is how fallible men can write the Bible without error.
PRINCIPLE:
The central function of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
APPLICATION:
Do you view the glory of Jesus Christ as your central function of life?
