Systematic Theology - Pneumatology

Pneumatology
To continue to delineate the fullest understanding of God, it is imperative that we turn our attention towards the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). These words foretell the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the people of God. It is the promise that comforts the disciples as Christ ascends and finds its fulfillment in both the historical act of Pentecost and in our baptism into the Church. To delineate God as Triune and not speak directly of the person and works of the Holy Spirit is to miss the fullness of God’s ongoing self-revelation to the world.

The Nature of the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, fully God in nature and all attributes. Thus, the Spirit can only be understood in the Spirit’s indivisible relationship with the Father and the Son because the hypostatic union of the 3 persons of the Trinity is the basis for their common nature or essence and their individual work in the world (Lossky, 159). Less is posited about the Spirit’s nature because the Spirit comes to us as the unmanifested portion of the Trinity. The Father is manifest in the Son and the Son is manifest in the Spirit, but the Spirit remains concealed and hidden in the world. It is through the Spirit’s presence in the world today that God is continuing his self-revelation and by which the Spirit is coming to be more clearly known (Lossky, 161). This ongoing self-revelation is communicated by two different means; the first is through the unity and bonding of the Church and the second is in the bestowing of gifts to the individual human person (Lossky, 167-170). A discussion of the Spirit naturally inclines itself to the work of the Spirit.

The Work of the Holy Spirit:

Through the Holy Spirit “God, Creator of all that exists, gives us power to become new creatures; whose infinite gifts make us one people: the Body of Christ” (Mil Voces, 70). The work of the Spirit must always be said to be the work of God. The Spirit testifies to Christ, and in Christ we have not only seen, but also have known the Father. As such, the Spirit works with Christ to build up the Church and help with the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. But the work of the Spirit does not stop there.
When we embark on our journey of faith, we effectively form a relationship with the Trinity through our faith in Jesus Christ, and in that commitment, we are drawn into a deeper, more authentic life in Christ. This, too, is the working of the Spirit; for it is only by the power of the Spirit that we are able to respond in the ways of holiness and love that Christ calls us to. Thus, the living out of our faith, equipped and empowered by the Spirit, is a “linking up of the life span of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, with our own life span” (Morse, 180). As such, the Spirit is about the ongoing work of God’s grace. We are one by the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit. The Spirit unites us with Christ and enables us to continue our growth in grace.
This work of the Spirit is the love of God in the world and is necessary. St. Augustine confirms this saying, “For man has no means of loving God, unless it comes from God” (Wiles and Santer, 93). Without the presence and working of the Spirit, we would not be able to embrace the truth that is Jesus Christ and that points to the Father. Paul also reminds us, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5).
In the gift of the Spirit, God is giving himself to us, sharing with us the way that He “is said to live, both in self-relation and in relation to creation” (Morse, 182). In this way we can see the healing, teaching, nurturing, and grace filled work of the Spirit as the ongoing self-revelation of God. In encountering the Spirit, we learn a little more about what it is to be in relationship with God and one another and how that encounter always points towards love and wholeness. We see this draw towards love and wholeness on the part of God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—within the pages of Scripture. From the deliverance of God’s people in the Old Testament to the miraculous healings in the New Testament, God always loves and moves towards wholeness. The Spirit, being fully God, always acts in accordance with what we know of God, from within those very same texts. This is why we insist that “what is communicated of God through the Word is thus professed to be communicated in the Spirit” (Morse, 172). The Spirit is nothing less than God’s communicative presence; both the gift and the giver of God’s infinite grace.
Paul said that it is “God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment” (2 Cor. 1:21-22). The final work of the Spirit, then, is to allow “the believing community to live already, at least partially, in the ‘not yet’ of the Reign” (Gonzalez, 162). It is the outpouring of grace, in and by the Spirit that enables us to see now in part, what we will only fully realize in the future. The first installment means there is more to come, but God dwelling within us—that is, the Spirit’s work in and through us—is a foretaste of that glorious future that the Spirit attests to in all of his activity in the world.

The Holy Spirit is often the most neglected person of the Trinity in my readings and studies. What other information would you include? How would you handle the co-eternal aspect of the Spirit in light of the scriptures or information presented here?