A Digest on the Trinity - Part 8: The Holy Spirit

This article is the eighth in a series called A Digest on the Trinity. 

- Nicene Creed

If the portion of the Nicene Creed on the Father was short because His deity and personhood were undisputed, it would be accurate, I think, to say that the portion on the Holy Spirit was short because people did not know what to say about Him. In fact, the quoted portion above came after the Council of Constantinople expanded the creed from Nicea in 381. Modern day Christianity reflects this: we are comfortable with talking about the Father and the Son, but are relatively less familiar with the person of the Holy Spirit.

This article will examine, like the previous two, the Spirit in relation to Himself, to the other two persons of the Trinity, and to creation.

The name “Holy Spirit”

Strictly speaking, the triune God is spirit (John 4:24) and holy (Isa 6:3). Therefore, both the Father and the Son could be said to be holy spirit. However, the third person of the Trinity is uniquely addressed as the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, or more literally, the Holy Breath, for reasons elucidated below.

The Spirit in relation to Himself

In relation to Himself, the Spirit is God – in Him is the whole simple divine essence and whatever it means to be God. He does not share His essence with the other two persons as though they each have a third of the essence but is wholly and fully the entire divine essence in Himself. Simply put, the Spirit in Himself is fully and truly God. He is whatever the Father and Son are, except being the Father and the Son. Therefore, since the Father is autotheos, the Son is autotheos, the Spirit is also autotheos.

The Spirit in relation to the Father

As noted in the sixth article, the Spirit belongs to the Father (Gen 1:2; Exo 35:31; Isa 61:1; Matt 3:16), but the Spirit does not have a Father. The Spirit is not a “second Son” to the Father. Rather, the Spirit proceeds from the Father by way of eternal spiration, as the Father’s Breath.

The Spirit in relation to the Son

As noted in the seventh article, the Spirit belongs to the Son (Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6; 1 Pet 1:11), but the Spirit does not have a Son. Rather, the Spirit proceeds from the Son by way of eternal spiration, as the Son’s Breath. That said, while the Spirit proceeds from the Father originally, He does not proceed from the Son originally, but mediately. We could say therefore that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. The Father breathes the Spirit through His Son. Therefore, while the Father stands in relation to the Spirit as His Breather in original, the Son stands in relation to the Spirit as His Breather in mediate.

The Spirit in relation to the Trinity

Since the Spirit is from the Father through the Son, He is the third person of the Trinity. In the irreversible order, He occupies third place not in terms of existence or hierarchy, but in terms of relation. He is breathed by the Father and is thus the Father’s Spirit, and is breathed by the Father through the Son and is thus the Son’s Spirit. Although He is coeternal with the Father and Son and is worshipped together with them, He is from the Father and the Son.

The Spirit in relation to His creation

Because the Spirit is from the Father through the Son, He always acts from the Father and the Son. Therefore, as the Breathed, He is the perfecting presence of God, in whom all things come, in whom all things exist. Whatever the Father does is mediated through the Son but brought into its intended effect by the Spirit. This is seen in the act of creation, where the Spirit of God is said to be hovering over the waters (Gen 1:2). When the Father says, “Let there be”, His Word (the Son) goes forth and the Spirit goes forth from them both. In the Father is causing, in the Son is ordering, in the Spirit is effecting. Whatever comes from the Father comes through the Son comes in the Spirit in an undivided way – the Father created through the Son in the Spirit not by choice, but by the fact that they are the one Creator God.

There is a profound mystery of what it means that whatever is originated by the Father is mediated by the Son and perfected by the Spirit, but what we can say is that the Spirit is just as much Creator as the Father and Son are.

By way of appropriation, we have appropriated certain acts to Father and Son specifically, though all three persons are equally but distinctly involved in all of God’s acts. In the same way, we can appropriate certain acts to the Spirit specifically, though all three are equally but distinctly involved in these acts. 

The clearest would be seen in the way He applies redemption to the people of God. The Son accomplishes the redemption architected by the Father, but this one act of redemption, while finding its origin in the Father and mediation in the Son, finds its perfecting application in the Spirit. That is why it is the Spirit who regenerates (John 3:5) though all three regenerate (Ezek 36:26), the Spirit who gives new life (Rom 8:2) even though all three give new life (Eph 2:4), the Spirit who convicts and converts (John 16:8), though all three convict and convert. He perfects the redemption achieved by the Son on the cross, by applying it personally and powerfully to everyone whom the Son died for, uniting them to the Son that all the benefits of redemption might flow to them individually. In this same breath, He also sanctifies God’s people and is therefore called “Holy”.

Through His work as the applier and Sanctifier, the Spirit stands in relation to His people as the Giver of Life, as the Nicene Creed confesses. He brings the people of God into union with the Son and from this union with the Son, they are justified and adopted by the Father. We mentioned in the previous article that because the Son now stands as the people’s Elder Brother, they now have a Father in the Father. Yet the Son is made the people’s Elder Brother precisely by the appropriated work of the Spirit, who perfects that relationship by bringing them into union with Him.

He is also the creator of the Church. The people whom the Father elected, the Son redeemed from bondage to sin, and the Spirit perfects it all by gathering them together to become the Church, the Bride of the Son. As her creator, He also perfects her worship. When the Church worships, she worships the Father through the Son, who is Truth (John 14:6), in the Spirit. This way, the Church worships the Father in Spirit and Truth. He perfects her worship that is made acceptable by the Son’s mediation as an offering brought to the Father. The same is said of prayer.

To the individual believer, He is the Helper promised to be sent by the Son (John 14:16). He is the one who helps the believer be holy and walk in godliness (Gal 5:16), the one who produces the likeness of Christ in the believer as fruit (Gal 5:22-24).

To the world, He is the Testifier. If the inscripturated Word (the Scriptures) is a testimony of the incarnate Word (the Son), then the Spirit is the Testifier of the Son to the world through His work of inspiring the Scriptures through the prophets and apostles.

Finally, in a unique way, He is the Vicar of the Son here on earth. Though the Son said that He would build His Church (Matt 16:18), the Spirit is the one who gathers from the corners of the world the Son’s sheep. He is said to speak not of His own authority, but that of the Son alone (John 16:13-14). Despite His own physical absence, the Son tells His disciples that through His Spirit, He will always be with them (John 14:18). While all of these point to the inseparable unity between the Son and the Spirit, it is this inseparable unity that grounds the Spirit as the true Vicar of Christ, displaying the Son for all to see, just as the Son displayed the Father.

Perfection in the Trinity

The old theologians understood the Holy Spirit to be the perfect third that brings the doctrine of the Trinity to the height of perfection, for in this triunity, we see the Lover (Father), the Beloved (Son) and the Love (Spirit). While there admittedly may be some issues with illustrating the Spirit as the love between the Father and Son, there is truth in that the blessed triad is made complete in the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Father originates, the Son mediates, the Spirit perfects. In every work of God then, the Spirit brings the intended outcome to its perfected effect.

That is why the Syrian Orthodox Church of South India had this to say in its Prayer for Pentecost:

 

The doctrine of the Trinity declares that the one God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit necessarily and existentially. Without any one person, God is not God. Because of simplicity, to be God is to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit – it is the one in the same reality.

Doctrinal development

Though the doctrine of the Trinity reached its present level of sophistication with the labours of the theologians, with the deity of the Son and the Spirit and their absolute unity with the Father now universally affirmed in orthodoxy, it was not always the case. The Church had to deal with multiple heresies and errors that still exist today, the subject of which the next article will turn.