I Believe in the Holy Spirit
From TABLETALK
Modern Bible translations are in the news these days, sometimes for controversial reasons. But one universal benefit of them is that the Holy Spirit is no longer referred to as “it.” Curiously, a chief culprit here is the much-loved King James Version (for example, Rom. 8:26: “the Spirit itself”).
In fact, pneuma (the Greek word for “spirit” or “wind”) is a neuter-gender noun and therefore attracted a neuter pronoun, “it.” Still, John 14:26 and 15:26, which refer to the Spirit by the masculine pronoun “he” (Greek ekeinos), left older Bible readers in no doubt about His personal nature: “He,” not “it.” Humans are created in the image of God, and to be personal is rooted in the very being of their Creator. God is a personal being in a unified, uncreated, eternal, tripersonal manner—we in a created, monopersonal manner. We are the tiny reflection; He is the great and glorious original. But what does Scripture mean when it speaks of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
The Old Testament word for “spirit,” ruach, is onomatopoeic. That is, its meaning is echoed in its sound: wind in motion, sometimes storm-wind.
It lies on the surface of the Bible that the Holy Spirit is both divine and personal, as Acts 5:3–4 indicates. The Spirit can be lied to (a personal characteristic); to do so involves lying to God Himself (He is truly divine).
Yet there is something about this name (Spirit) that suggests the mysterious and elusive. Jesus Himself said that the pneuma blows where it wills, but that we cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes, and so it is with the pneuma of God (John 3:8). Are we not, therefore, treading on dangerous ground if we inquire further about the identity of the Spirit, especially when our Lord stressed that the Spirit does not glorify Himself (John 16:13–14)?
We cannot truly worship One we do not know or experience “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14) if He remains faceless. But how can we know Him when even His name lacks the personal atmosphere of either “Father” or “Son”?
Meditation on two aspects of the Bible’s teaching helps us here. First, the Scriptures use a series of descriptions to identify the Spirit. He is the Spirit of holiness, sonship, glory, truth—and much more (Rom. 1:4; 8:15; 1 Peter 4:14; 1 John 4:6).
Between the Spirit and the Father, between the Spirit and the Son, there is total mutual understanding and knowledge.
We should particularly notice how our Lord Jesus introduces the Spirit in His Farewell Discourse in John 13–17. In essence, Jesus tells His disciples that the Spirit will be to them everything that He Himself has been during the course of His ministry. For while the Son and the Spirit are personally distinct, they are entwined in terms of the redemptive economy. Jesus is teacher, guide, and counselor; Jesus goes to prepare a home for His disciples (John 14:2). The Spirit is another like Jesus (v. 16); He teaches, guides, counsels, and brings orphans into the home and heart of God. Moreover, because He is Spirit, He can do this by a personal indwelling.
This is part of what theologians call the economic ministry of the Spirit in which He effects our salvation. Behind that lies the ontological, eternal fellowship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son. Is this a dark secret that is never to be known? No. For God’s revelation is a true self-exegesis (John 1:18). He is not different from who He reveals Himself to be.
Second, the Scriptures teach us about the in-being and intra-Trinitarian life of the Spirit. Here we can glance only briefly at a few things. The Spirit knows God the Father and God the Son exhaustively, for He searches “the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). Between the Spirit and the Father, between the Spirit and the Son, there is total mutual understanding and knowledge. Nothing is hidden. More than that, all that is in each of the persons of Father and Son is embraced and received by the Spirit, as though He drank eternally and infinitely of the love and glory of the divine attributes expressed in a distinctively paternal (Father) and filial (Son) manner.
Furthermore, everything about the mutual relationship of the Father and the Son is known by the Spirit. Their mutual devotion, the outpouring of all of Their personal attributes toward each other in perfect love, is fully absorbed and enjoyed by the Spirit. So the Spirit experiences who the Father and Son are not only individually, as it were, but also in terms of what each one is to the other.
When Jesus promised that He would ask the Father to send the Spirit (John 14:16; Acts 2:33), He described Him as the One who “proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26). The “sending” (future tense) from the Father is economic and looks forward to and is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). But the “proceeding” (present tense) is continuous, not bound by the past or the future.
Many New Testament scholars today ignore the significance of this change of verb tense, regarding the two statements (sending from the Father, proceeding from the Father) as synonymous. But the change of tense in the verbs expresses an actual difference. The procession is an ongoing, not merely a historical, relationship.
The implication here, as Augustine recognized, is that the Spirit always “goes out from” the Father, radiating from Him all the fullness that is in Him. But as we have seen, the Spirit simultaneously searches and experiences the deep riches that lie in the Father’s relationship with His Son and vice versa. From this glorious fellowship the Spirit “proceeds”—“from the Father and the Son” (Latin filioque), as the church in the West has long confessed. Furthermore, while in the “sending” (economic) the Spirit sweetly yields to the revelatory will of the Father and the Son, in the “proceeding” (ontological) He voluntarily displays the glory of the ineffable relationship in which He shares. It is in terms of an expression of His possession of full deity that He reveals the fullness of the fellowship of the Trinity to us.
We are stretching our intellects to the limit here. But as our minds stand on tiptoe, exploring the horizons of divine revelation, we are not distressed by our limitations. Rather, we are gazing on the endless beauty and wonder of God’s indescribable being. The Spirit shines on the face of Christ; the Son leads us to the Father. Thus we begin to know more fully the One who has brought us to know God. With the Apostle John, we say, “Surely, Blessed Spirit, You have brought us into the fellowship of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ” (see 1 John 1:3). And so we learn to sing with the saints through the ages:
Teach us to know the Father, Son,
And Thee, of both, to be but One,
That through the ages all along
this may be our endless song:
Praise to Thine eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen—and amen!
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2004.
Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow, vice-chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is featured teacher for several Ligonier teaching series, including Union with Christ. He is author of many books, including The Whole Christ, Maturity, and Devoted to God’s Church. Dr. Ferguson is also host of the podcast Things Unseen.
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