Sunday: Jesus and the Holy Spirit
As a Gentile convert and a missionary companion of the apostle Paul, Luke viewed the entire Christological entrance into history-from Jesus’ incarnation to His ascension and to the spread of the church-as a divine wonder brought about and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
In Jesus’ life we see the whole Godhead at work in our redemption (Luke 3:21-22); and, through his constant references to the Holy Spirit, Luke emphasizes this point.read_para
What do the following verses tell us about the role of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s coming here in human flesh? Luke 1:35, Luke Luke 1:41; Luke 2:25-32.
Jesus’ mission began with several references to the Holy Spirit. According to Luke, John the Baptist predicted that although he baptized with water, the One who would follow him would baptize with the Spirit (Luke 3:16). At Jesus’ baptism, both the Father and the Holy Spirit affirmed the authenticity of His redemptive mission. God the Father declared from above that Christ is His beloved Son sent to redeem humankind, while the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove (Luke 3:21-22). From then on Jesus wasfilled with the Holy Spirit
(Luke 4:1, NKJV) and ready to take on the foe in the desert, as well as to begin His ministry (Luke 4:14).
The opening words of His Nazareth sermon were an application of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy to Himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me
(Luke 4:18, NKJV). The Spirit was His constant companion, His affirming strength, and His abiding presence among His followers when Jesus would no longer be in their midst (John 16:5-7). Not only that, Jesus promised that God would give the gift of the Spirit to those who ask for it (Luke 11:13). The Spirit that ever linked Christ to His Father and the redemptive mission is the same Spirit that would strengthen the disciples in their journey of faith. Hence, the crucial importance of the Spirit in Christian life: indeed, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the gravest of all sins (Luke 12:10).
What are concrete, practical ways we can open ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit? That is, how can we be careful that our choices are not in any way hardening us to His voice?
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In some Christian circles one may easily get an impression of the Godhead (trinity) as the Son is the beloved figure (good cop), the Father is the harsh judge (bad cop), and the Holy Spirit is an impersonal divine force to be used by Christians when convenient. The Holy Spirit ends up being the least appreciated member of the Godhead.
Nevertheless the Holy Spirit is the closest and most active agent in the human sphere. None is saved without the Holy Spirit, who must first move the sinner to see his/her wretchedness, awake a desire for Christ, interpret prayers, and fill the believer with power to live above sin. The ‘hands-on’ Spirit works in the trenches much like a mother (as nurturer) might work with children to perform a most sacred work.
As the third member of the Godhead the Holy Spirit is under the authority of and receives instruction from the Son, who in turn is under the authority of and receives instruction from the Father (Matthew 28:19). The Father sent the Son (John 20:21), and the Son sent the Spirit (John 15:26), and they happily work together without any desire to be in charge or assert rights.
Yet the only one against whom the unpardonable sin may be committed is the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus (Luke 12:10). Disregarding a mother may often carry with it more far reaching consequences than disrespecting a father. Whereas one might get away with disrespecting Jesus for a time the role of the Holy Spirit is of such import that salvation might be lost by one’s attitude to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-11).
As made plain in scripture the faithful pray to the Father in the name of the Son and ask for the Spirit. Never forget to acknowledge the indispensable work of the Spirit in the plan of salvation and cooperate with Him to save others while He works to save us. Allow the Spirit to be a constant companion.
How wonderful is the way of the Spirit! He is gentle enough to be ignored if we want to ignore Him, but powerful enough to recreate our hearts if we are willing. He is central to our success as Christians, but always stands in the background. He has all the authority of God, but exalts Jesus rather than Himself, serving as the Representative of the Father and the Son.
If we were all filled with this Spirit, reflecting the same ways, I wonder how different our churches would be.
The HOLY SPIRIT comes to everyone with the fullness of the Godhead. We are blessed and saved when we accept heaven sent GIFT.
We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a daily basis exactly as Jesus constantly sought through prayer and meditation. It is an urgent necessity for all the tasks we are comissioned to do for Jesus' sake!
Sports lovers know that we are now in the nba playoffs. It is helpful to consider that each team has 5 players with different roles on the team for the purpose of winning. The Godhead is a team consisting of three, all with different functions that come into play at different times for the salvation of man. The Father,Son, and the Holy Spirit, all are on the same team that seeks to win the salvation of man. They all are equal, or one in this plan of salvation for mankind....This is the real dream team.
The Holy Spirit. The locomotive of all Ministry.
Beginnin with His birth announcement by the angel to mary; to mary's visit to elizabeth; to simeon at the dedication in the temple; to the baptism, where we see a dual manifestation; to the wilderness temptation and to His ministry proper, even the opening words to His ministry was all and is all about the Holy Spirit. To Him, the Holy Spirit was His constant companion, and not only to Him, to the disciples and to us, the Holy Spirit is our counsellor, comforter, teacher and helper.
Hugh, I am not comfortable the ay you have lined up the roles of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's like they have hierarchy.
Inspiration tell us that these three are core equal eternal Persons.
Kindly clarify.
Renford,
Thanks for the invitation to clarify. The short answer is yes, there is hierarchy in the Godhead.
To expand: The hierarchy is functional (role), not a measure of essence (ontology) or quality. There is hierarchy in Heaven, in the Godhead, among the ranks of angels (covering cherubs, cherubims, seraphims, elders, etc.) as it is on earth in government, businesses, schools, church, home etc. This is necessary in an ordered and harmonious community. It does not make us unequal in essence.
The Godhead is beyond our complete comprehension and so may not actually need it. However at a minimum the subjection of one to another is modeled for our benefit. Submission to authority engenders humility, service and accountability. It also guards against an independent selfish spirit where everyone does as he pleases without regard for the concerns of others.
Christ was subject to the Father before He created or came to this earth (Colossians 1:16; John 5:37) and scripture indicates He will be after sin is eradicated for eternity (1 Corinthians 15:27, 28). Since the Fall the Father has not communicated directly with man, but through the Son, including in Old Testament. The obvious subjection of the Son to the Father have led some to question whether He is God, not to mention the Holy Spirit.
Note also the Holy Spirit does not give instruction to the Father or the Son in His capacity as God. Both the Father and the Son are said to instruct the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26). And the Son speaks of the Holy Spirit as His personal envoy. The order of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Baptismal ceremony is not incidental (Matthew 28:19).
EGW actually goes further than the Bible in highlighting the functional authority structure of the Godhead.
Hugh, I have to be careful here because we are treading on sacred ground when discussing the Godhead. I would say there is a hierarchy of function but not authority and even the functions have a lot of overlap. Even so all of that is murky water at best.
As I see it we can easily slip into problems such of coming to the conclusion that Jesus is not actually God, that somehow He was begotten of the Father in the way we think of begetting sons and daughters. All three were co-existent from eternity past (no beginning) which is a concept we can't deal with because that is not the world we live in. To us everything has a beginning and an end and nothing can be brought into existence out of nothing. Such things violate everything we know through science and seem to be completely illogical to us so when discussing the unknown I think we need to be careful. Besides, when we look at Christ's ministry in the New Testament I think we need to keep in mind Philippians 2 and ask ourselves concerning the relationship Jesus had to the Father under that circumstance and if the Father actually demanded in Heaven that the son Lower Himself and do what He did as though He was a general commanding a subordinate officer.
Tyler,
An emotive term like “demand” probably does not capture the spirit of the relationship.
We have nothing to fear if we are only discussing what is revealed in scripture and spirit of prophecy, and do so based on our best understanding, avoiding speculation. As noted previously this is not a discussion about the nature (ontology) of the Godhead. That the Godhead is coexistent, coeternal, coequal, ‘co-omnipotent,’ ‘co-omniscient,’ does not prevent the Son from subjecting himself to the Father’s authority, which He did at least in coming to earth.
The Bible tells us the Son was sent by the Father to the earth which implies authority. EGW actually uses the word authority. The Holy Spirit is also sent. EGW refers to the Spirit as the third person of the Godhead, implying authority position or rank, which is evidenced in scripture, notwithstanding hermeneutics (flavor of the day). The Son requested permission from His Father to send the Holy Spirit, according to EGW.
To say how these things came to be is probably beyond this discussion, but to accept the revealed testimony is the point of the previous comments.
From EGW:
“The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God.
The Holy Spirit is a free, working, independent agency. The God of heaven uses His Spirit as it pleases Him;…The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He [Jesus] could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people.” (The Faith I Live By p. 52)
Hugh, I won't argue over what the texts say or what Ellen White has said even though I believe we need to keep the context in mind but I do think we need to see the big picture. So in trying to grasp the situation I have a little thought exercise for you to try that is designed to take up very little time and yet make a simple point:
You are a scientist, perhaps a neuroscientist working on the communication between animals. Your boss comes to you and says that the facility has been awarded a grant to find a way to have full communication skills with a selected few of the smarter animals. As a leader of one of the teams you have been given the task of finding a way to explain to a chimpanzee all the attributes of one of Beethoven's sonatas.
Question: How would you go about doing that?
Many years ago the Montana camp meeting had a post convocation seminar by a well known man by the name of Winn Arne (spelling may be wrong). The rather short seminar was about outreach and soul winning. Toward the end of the session which was only about two hours or so he showed us a very short film that won numerous awards and after it said something to the effect, "Would I, Winn Arne, waste 15 minutes of a very short session by showing you this movie?" So I likewise say to you would I waste your time over a worthless, trivial thing like this exercise? This has everything to do with your comment but maybe not as you see it.
I agree that the members of the Trinity exercise different roles. However, I believe it is a mistake to infer from this fact a hierarchy within the Godhead.
Dennis above mentioned the metaphor of a basketball team. All five players have different roles. But there is no hierarchy inherent in those roles. You acknowledged that the Trinity "may not actually need" hierarchy, and I believe they don't.
I also agree that "the subjection of one to another is modeled for our benefit." But again, hierarchy is not needed to practice subjection. The Bible calls all Christians to submit to each other (Eph 5:21).
I don't believe the concept of "hierarchy" itself is necessarily bad. I just believe that there is a tendency often to read "hierarchy" into the Scriptures, where it doesn't actually exist.
Fernando,
Thanks for your feedback.
Do you accept the testimony of 1 Corinthians 11:3 and in context was Christ in His divine or human capacity?
SDAs might be uncomfortable with the use of the word hierarchy in relation to the Godhead because they think it does violence to our core belief about the trinity. It does not. However drawing on the human experience people tend to view hierarchy in terms of domination, and one being better than the other. This only arose because of sin in which man was predisposed to abuse every advantage. Hierarchy is actually needed more in a sinful world than in a sinless one. Imagine for a moment no government anywhere in any community (Confusion).
Authority is important to God. The tower of Babel was an experiment to get away from God’s authority (Genesis 11:4-9). Spiritual Babylon is an outgrowth of the same.
I do accept the testimony of 1 Cor 11:3. But I do not see any evidence in the context to suggest that "the head of Christ is God" means that the Father is in a hierarchical relationship above the Son. The context more strongly suggests that the word "head" in its metaphorical sense means "source."
Whether or not I am "uncomfortable with the use of the word hierarchy in relation to the Godhead" is completely irrelevant. There are all sorts of things in Scripture that make me uncomfortable, and I'm fine with that. I'm just looking at the evidence. I don't see any to support a hierarchical relationship within the Trinity.
And I agree that authority is important to God. The problem is that we are so used to equating authority with hierarchy that it is difficult to imagine authority being exercised apart from hierarchy. We need to allow the witness of Scripture to broaden our imagination!
Hugh, I don't see how any of the texts you cite indicate that the pre-incarnate Christ was subject to the Father before creation. Col 1:16 tells us that Christ was the Creator of all. God (i.e. the triune God) created everything that was created through Christ. And that's not all, everything that we know of the triune God is through Christ. As far as I know, every reference to God/Jehovah in the Old Testament is a reference to the pre-incarnate Christ, because He has always been "the Word" (i.e. the means of communication) to mankind. He formed Adam and Eve, and He spoke with them in the Garden. He appeared to Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and others. Note that Christ (the Messiah) is called "Mighty God" and "everlasting Father," among other things in Isa. 9:6.
When Christ came to this planet, He became fully man, even while He did not give up His divinity. He chose not to use His divinity in His own behalf, so that He might live a human life like any other human being.
I believe we need to to approach all questions of the dual nature of Jesus Christ - and, indeed, all questions regarding the nature of God - with reverence. He was fully God and He was also fully man. As a human man, He was fully dependent on the Father in His earthly life just as we are, and that is reflected in many of His statements, as when He said "my Father is greater than I." (John 14:28)
The only text you cite that might suggest a possible hierarchy in the Godhead is 1 Cor 15:27-28, but one text alone cannot support such a weighty doctrine. It is best understood that, in light of Lucifer's challenge to the position of Christ, Christ took on a pre-eminent role in salvation history and would appear to be the top of the hierarchy, if there were one. But it is Lucifer who created a hierarchy in his mind. The members of the Godhead had always existed in mutual, self-sacrificing love, acting in unison. In this text, Paul is saying that when the controversy is ended, Christ will again submerge Himself in the Godhead and not keep a position of pre-eminence.
Our Fundamental Beliefs include belief in one triune God - "a unity of three co-eternal Persons." We understand that the three members of the God-head are co-equal and co-eternal, existing from eternity in the bonds of perfect love, having no need for hierarchy in order to maintain unity.
As a matter of fact, the necessity of someone being "in charge" was introduced through sin. I think Ellen White explains it well when she writes that "In the creation God had made her [Eve] the equal of Adam. Had they remained obedient to God—in harmony with His great law of love—they would ever have been in harmony with each other; but sin had brought discord, and now their union could be maintained and harmony preserved only by submission on the part of the one or the other." (Patriarchs and Prophets p. 58) Since it is sin that necessitated the submission of one to another, should we not hesitate to suggest that in order for there to be harmony in the Godhead, there has to be a hierarchy?
Inge,
Would you have a difficulty with the description below, a scene before the Creation:
“The Lord has shown me that Satan was once an honored angel in heaven, next to Jesus Christ. His countenance was mild, expressive of happiness like the other angels. His forehead was high and broad, and showed great intelligence. His form was perfect. He had a noble, majestic bearing. And I saw that when God said to his Son, Let us make man in our image, Satan was jealous of Jesus. He wished to be consulted concerning the formation of man. He was filled with envy, jealousy and hatred. He wished to be the highest in heaven, next to God, and receive the highest honors. Until this time all heaven was in order, harmony and perfect subjection to the government of God.”
It was the highest sin to rebel against the order and will of God. All heaven seemed in commotion. The angels were marshaled in companies with a commanding angel at their head. All the angels were astir. Satan was insinuating against the government of God, ambitious to exalt himself, and unwilling to submit to the authority of Jesus. Some of the angels sympathized with Satan in his rebellion, and others strongly contended for the honor and wisdom of God in giving authority to his Son.
And there was contention with the angels. Satan and his affected ones, who were striving to reform the government of God, wished to look into his unsearchable wisdom to ascertain his purpose in exalting Jesus, and endowing him with such unlimited power and command. They rebelled against the authority of the Son of God, and all the angels were summoned to appear before the Father, to have their cases decided.” (Spiritual Gifts Vol. 1 p. 17, 18)
Hugh, to me the quote from Ellen White implies that Christ had related to the angels as the Michael, the Archangel, before the creation of this world. That would make Lucifer's ambition to take the place of Christ plausible. All angels were/are subject to the Creator God, by virtue of being created beings, as are all other created beings. That Christ related to the angels as Michael the Archangel does not demonstrate eternal inherent subjection of the Son to a higher God. The way I understand it, the pre-incarnate Christ represented the Godhead to the angels, just as He later represented the Godhead to humanity. In both cases it was a voluntary role taken in agreement with the Father and the Holy Spirit. (If you will read more of the context of this event, you will find that the Father affirmed the authority the Son already possessed, rather than "giving" Him authority at this time.)
There is a world of difference between voluntary subjection (see Phil. 2:5-11) and being inherently subject to another.
A hierarchy implies three Gods, rather than one - so that each may be subjected to the rule of another.
Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30) Since you are quoting Ellen White, it is interesting to note that she also wrote, "The secret of unity is found in the equality of believers in Christ." (Messages to the Church, p. 289) If equality is the secret to unity among believers, would that not equally apply to the unity in the Godhead? In a hierarchy, the secret of apparent unity would be in implicit obedience, not in equality. (I believe that there is more to the secret of unity than just equality, and that is in the subjection of all to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, since He is the head of the body of Christ.)
Belief in a divine hierarchy denigrates the voluntary sacrifice of Christ who Himself is Almighty God (Isa 9:6) because if there were a divine hierarchy then Almighty God the Father simply sent someone else to die for the human race.
Belief in a divine hierarchy also denigrates the self-renouncing love that is the basis of unity in the Godhead. A hierarchy is based on authority, not love. I hierarchical relationship has the appearance of unity only because of this authority.
And, by the way, quoting Ellen White as an authority on a contentious subject is in violation of her own specific request in the context of another contentious discussion. She wrote: "I request that my writings shall not be used as the leading argument to settle questions over which there is now so much controversy." (1 Selected Messages, p. 164 )
Christ says that I and my Father we are one" meaning that they are working togther for our salvation including the Holy Spirit who is a gift to humanity working in us daily and conviting us of sin. Many are the mystries of this world and many things we can't understand until we meet with Christ. lets accept and accept the light revealed to us in the scripture that Jesus is God and work our way to heaven so that uncleared realities will be made known to us. Jesus Loves Us and that is why he died for us.
May we all be partakers of that kingdom. Amen!