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May 27 Daily Devotional

The Miracle of Pentecost

Frans Bakker

I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. —Acts 2:17

Bible Reading

Acts 2:16–21

Devotional

At Pentecost the Spirit of God was poured out upon all flesh. It was a miracle. For what communion does the Spirit have with human flesh? And this is the same flesh of which Paul says that it is not subject to the law of God (Rom. 8:7). If you have experienced something of Pentecost in your own life, then you have also cried out, “Lord, depart from me for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). You will say this, not because you could live without the Spirit, but because it overwhelms you that this holy and pure Spirit is willing to have communion with sinful flesh.

Yet, Pentecost miraculously happened, and it still happens. God’s precious Spirit condescends to man’s sinful, human life. The Spirit of God truly comes down very low. God’s love cannot go any further. No wonder that this becomes too much for a guilty man to believe. The miracle is possible because of a humiliated Christ who humbled Himself and came down to earth in flesh to pay for our sins.

But the miracle of Pentecost is also possible because of an exalted Christ, who being in that flesh, arose and ascended into heaven. If that had never happened, God’s Spirit would never have descended upon flesh. Christ came down in that flesh and He ascended into heaven in that flesh. That is why God’s Spirit descends now upon flesh. That is the reason for the miracle of Pentecost.

At times you may have tasted the blessed love of God’s Spirit, but how necessary it is to understand that God’s Spirit does not come down because of anything good in your flesh. Nothing good can even be expected from your flesh. The Spirit does not come to work in improved or renovated flesh. If His coming were dependent on you and your flesh, then the Spirit would have to depart, because there is nothing good in your flesh. In and of yourself, you cannot improve your flesh. You need the Spirit’s work in your life.

Besides this, God’s Spirit has another reason why He comes to live in the heart of a sinner. Our eyes need to be opened for that as well, for then you shall see more grace in God through Christ. This other reason is, that there is no sinner too sinful for Christ, and therefore there is no flesh too sinful for God’s Spirit to visit upon Pentecost. In deep humility, meditate on this: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.”

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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