Part 1, Chapter 03

CHAPTER III. THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN THE CREEDS OF THE CHURCH. THE truth implied in the various representations of Scripture about the Spirit has generally been expressed by theologians in the statement, that the Spirit of God is not merely a power or influence from God, but God Himself as working in the minds and hearts of men, or in other words, a divine person, though not separate or separable from the Father and the Son, but one with them in being, in perfections, and in acting. When we assert the personality of the Holy Spirit, we use the word person, not in the sense it has when applied to men, but in a modified and quite special sense. We employ it to denote a mysterious distinction in the divine Being, that Scripture makes known to us, the nature of which we cannot positively conceive; but in virtue of which we believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are truly distinct, and each is truly God; while yet there are not three Gods, but one God only. We do not profess to be able to explain wherein the distinction lies; we can only say negatively, that it is more than a distinction of different modes of viewing the same being, as when we think of God as almighty, wise, and good; but less than that of different beings, as when we distinguish God, angels, and men. The word person is really only a distant and imperfect analogy, — a term thrown out at an object which we cannot grasp in thought. It has a certain justification from the fact that Scripture uses personal pronouns, /, Thou, He, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and represents them as using these of and to one another; but our use of it does not mean that there are three persons in the same sense in which we speak of three men as three human persons. Indeed it is only in modern times that this meaning of the word person has become common: at the time when it was first applied to the Godhead, it was quite correct to say, that one man might unite in himself three persons, that is, parts or characters; and the difficulty then felt about the word was, that it seemed to make the distinctions in the Godhead too slight; though in modern times, if understood in its ordinary sense, it makes them too great. The fact is, that it was adopted to denote something intermediate between the ancient and the modern meaning. Though we cannot positively explain what that is, it cannot be proved to involve a contradiction that there should be such a distinction in the incomprehensible being of God. This distinction is most clearly revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He spoke of Himself as the Son of God in a peculiar sense, so as to make Himself equal with God (John 5:17-23); as one with the Father (John 10:30-39); as the only one who knows the Father and is known by Him alone (Matthew 11:27), as deserving supreme and exclusive love from all (Matthew 10:27; Luke 14:26); and by His immediate and inspired disciples He is called God and worshipped (John 1:1; John 12:41; John 20:28; Acts 7:59; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 12:8; 1 Peter 3:15; Revelation 1:17; Revelation 5:8-14). Yet it is equally clear that He is distinct from the Father since He habitually prayed to Him, spoke of Him as sending, commanding, sustaining Him. What this relation of oneness and yet distinction is in itself, we cannot understand; but that there is such a relation, that the Father and the Son are both God and are distinct from one another, and yet are not two but one only, is proved by facts and testimonies too many and too clear to permit us to doubt it. Now in like manner, the Holy Spirit which is given and sent by the Father and the Son, just as the Son is given and sent by the Father is described as having divine attributes, and doing divine works, and is associated with the Father and the Son in the institution of baptism (Matthew 28:19), and in the benediction (1Co. 13:14). Therefore the great body of Christians have believed that the Holy Spirit, like the Son of God, is truly God, yet distinct from the Father and the Son; and have expressed what they conceive God’s revelation to teach on this subject, by saying, first in the Apostolic Creed, “ I believe in the Holy Ghost,” that is, not merely, “ I believe that there is a Holy Ghost,” as I believe the Holy Catholic Church, but “ I trust in the Holy Ghost,” as I trust in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord. 1 Afterwards, when the true deity of the Holy Spirit was denied by some, the faith of the Church was asserted in this form: “ We believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.” 2 The Church of Scotland in all her branches expresses her adherence to these ancient confessions of faith, by teaching her children to say, “ There are three Persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” We call the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, persons, because though they are not so called in the Bible, they are represented as using personal pronouns, /, Tkou t He, of themselves and each other, e.g. John 15:26, “ When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto

1 The distinction between believing in an object of faith and simply believing is carefully observed in the Creed; and the former phrase is used in the first three articles, the latter in all the rest. Following many of the Fathers, the Reformers laid great stress upon this, as showing that the relation of believers to the Church is entirely different irom their relation to God and Christ. We believe the Church, as we believe the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting; i.e. we regard these blessed privileges as true and real; but we do not believe in them, i.e trust in them, as we do in God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

2 Creed of the First Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381, commonly called the Nicene Creed. you from the Father, even the Spirit cf truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of me John 17:6, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self with the glory which / had with Thee before the world was; “ Acts 13:2, “ The Holy Ghost said. Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto / have called them.” We say that they are “ in the Godhead,” and by that we mean, the being or essence of God; and the word “ substance “ here means the same as “ Godhead.” What is the essence of God we cannot comprehend; but the Bible says, when it comes nearest to telling us, “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), “God is Light” (1 John 1:5), “ God is Love “ (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16). Now the Comforter, whom Jesus associates with the Father and Himself, is Spirit, unseen, yet living and powerful; He is light, as holy; and He is the Spirit of love. When we say that the Holy Spirit is “ the same in substance “ with the Father, we mean that He has all divine perfections, and is as truly to be worshipped and trusted as the Father and the Son.

We say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, as Jesus Himself said (John 16:26); and we understand that to mean the same as when He is called, as He so often is, the Spirit of God, or from God, that is, as it were, the breath of God. The Father is said to send the Spirit, but the Spirit is never said to send the Father; hence we infer that the order in which they act is not a mere variable one, but depends on their mode of being, in which the Father is of none, while the Spirit is of the Father, not created or made in time, but eternally proceeding, or breathed out, as it were, from the Father. It is because of this mysterious relation that we can say that the Father works by the Spirit, and that our recognition and honour of the Holy Spirit do not detract from the worship due to the Father, but are a part of it.

Then, as we find that the Holy Spirit is also sent by Christ, and is called the Spirit of God’s Son; and that Christ is represented as working by the Spirit, we think it proper to say, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father. Though that is not said in so many words in Scripture, yet we think these other expressions show, that the thing that is meant by them is as true in relation to the Son as to the Father. On this point there is a difference between the Eastern or Greek Church and the Western or Roman; for the theologians of the East did not recognise the force of the arguments just indicated; and thought it better to keep to the express words of Jesus, and say only, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; while the Western Church added to the Creed the words, “and from the Son” (Filioque). The Protestant Churches have generally thought that the doctrine thus asserted is true; but that it is not so clearly revealed, or so practically important, as to warrant a separation of Churches on account of different views about it. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit being a divine Person, one with God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, is one that can not only be proved from Scripture as a revealed truth, but also, to some extent, verified in the religious experience of Christians.

Every one who is earnestly seeking to live a life of holiness and communion with God, must feel that he has great difficulty and opposition to contend against. The world, with its business, and cares, and pleasures, tends to draw his mind away from thoughts of God and intercourse with Him who is unseen: the passions, or habits of selfishness, sloth, or pride, make him disinclined to the active disinterested love that is the fulfilling of the moral law: strong and subtle temptations often present themselves to him. He cannot overcome these by any efforts or resolutions of his own will; and the divine law, with all its authority and representations of absolute duty, is unable to raise him above them.

He is conscious of an experience similar to that which Paul describes in Romans 7:14-25. But when he looks to Christ, and trusts in God’s grace and love, is he not conscious of another power in him, lifting him above the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and moving him to love and serve God? It is the power of divine grace or love that has taken possession of his soul. There is something in the Christian’s experience beyond his own conscious efforts of will or purpose, something that influences him, he cannot tell how or why; it does not come at his will, but often seizes hold of him when he has not been wishing or expecting it; a passage of Scripture, or a truth of religion, or an example of Christian character, may be at one time the means of arousing deep feeling and heavenly aspiration, when at other times these very things may be presented to him without making any impression. This influence that is at work upon him is therefore independent of outward circumstances, as well as of his own will: it is a power not himself that is working for righteousness. But if so, can it be different from that power which so works in the world, and which we believe to be not a mere impersonal stream of tendency, nor a power absolutely inscrutable, of which we can know nothing, but the living God?

There is the same reason to believe that the power making for righteousness of which we are conscious in ourselves is personal, as that the power we see in the moral government of the world is so.

Yet this power working in us prompts us to adoration, love, and prayer to God as our Father, and to trust in Christ as our Saviour; hence we are naturally led to conclude, that this power, which the Bible calls the Spirit of God, is a divine Person distinct from God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, though one in character and being with both. So it has been found in the history of the Church that many men, like Thomas Scott x and Robert Hall, 2 have been led by their spiritual experience to the Trinitarian doctrine of the Holy Spirit; and generally those who have accepted this doctrine have done so not only because it has appeared to be taught by revelation, but also because it satisfied some of the deepest wants of their consciences and hearts. 3.

1 See Scott’s Force of Truth, Part ii.

2 See Dr. Gregory’s Memoir of Robert Hall, in Hall’s Works, vol. vi. p. 52.

3 SeeWace, Christianity and Morality, Boyle Lectures, 1875; Lecture vii, “The Doctrine of the Trinity a Moral Revelation.”