Mullins ReligionCh08

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Chapter 8. The Holy Spirit And The Trinity

1. The Holy Spirit

THE biblical doctrine of the Spirit of God exhibits many marks of progress inthe revelation from the earliest to the latest stages. The Hebrew word for spiritoriginally meant breath. From this it came to mean wind, and gradually itpassed into the meaning spirit. Originally the Spirit of God meant his energyor power in contrast with the weakness of the flesh. (Isa. 31: 3.)

1. In the Old Testament the following are the leading points in the teaching as

to the Spirit of God:

(1) The Spirit of God was God in action accomplishing an end. TheSpirit was sometimes distinguished from God in the Old Testament, butnot in the later Trinitarian sense. (Gen. 1: 2; 6: 3; Psa. 51:11.)

(2) The Spirit was the energizing power in the primeval chaos, bringingout beauty and order. (Gen. 1: 2;Psa. 104:28-30;Job. 26: 3.)

(3) Life is imparted to man through Gods Spirit. (Gen. 2: 7.)

(4) Many powers were conferred on men through the Spirit, as onSamson and others. (Jud. 14: 6; 11:29.)

(5) Wisdom and skill were conferred by the Spirit, as in the case ofBezaleel. (Exo. 31: 2-5; 35:31; 28: 3.)

(6) The Spirit endowed the prophets with wisdom and revealed divine

truth to them. (Eze. 2: 2; 8: 3; 11: 1, 24.) In the earlier stages theprophetic gift took the form of enthusiasm or ecstasy. (1 Samuel 10.)Later the prophets were especially chosen as messengers to conveytruth from Jehovah.

(7) Moral and spiritual character is traced to the Holy Spirit also. Theethical quality of the Spirits work becomes quite manifest. (Psa. 51:11;Isa. 63:10.) The expression Holy came to be applied as the special

designation of the Spirit.

(8) The Messiah is to be anointed by the Holy Spirit for his work, andpredictions of a future outpouring of the Spirit appear in the later OldTestament teachings. (Isa. 11: 1-5; 42: 1 ff.; 61: 1; so also, Isa. 44: 3;59:21; Joe. 2:28-32.)
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2. In the New Testament the work of the Spirit of God appears in great fulness.

(1) Observe his work in relation to Jesus. He is present at the birth of Jesus. Heanoints him at his baptism. (Mar. 1:10;Luk. 3:22.) Through the Spirit Jesusendured temptation (Mat. 4: 1); Jesus taught, and healed, and cast out demons

through the Holy Spirit. (Luk. 4:14-21; Mat. 12:18, 31; Mar. 3:28, 29.) Jesusoffers himself upon the cross by the eternal Spirit. (Heb. 9:14.) He wasraised from the dead according to the Spirit of Holiness. (Rom. 1: 4.) It is hewho baptizes with the Holy Spirit. (Mat. 3:11;Mar. 1: 8; Luk. 3:16;Joh. 20:22; Act. 1: 5.)

(2) Pentecost is the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning the outpouring ofthe Spirit, and marks the turning-point in the activities of the first generation of

Christians. This is the baptism of the Spirit referred to above. (Acts ch. 2.)(3) As the result of the pentecostal outpouring there were many charismaticgifts or enduements of power bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon earlyChristians, such as speaking with tongues, power to work miracles, and others.

(4) The Spirit of God convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.This was to be a special feature of his mission to the world. (Joh. 16: 9ff.)

(5) Chiefly, however, the work of the Spirit in regenerating sinners and inimparting power for holy living receives increasing emphasis. In the later NewTestament writings especially the ethical results of the Spirits action are madeprominent. Pauls entire conception of the Christian life involves at every pointthe presence and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Believers walk in the Spirit.They are commanded to grieve not the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit.Pauls own preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit.

(6) In the New Testament the attributes of personality are ascribed to the HolySpirit, and the teachings on which the doctrine of the Trinity is founded comeinto clear expression. Jesus describes the Spirit as another Comforter, whomhe will send from the Father. Masculine pronouns are applied to the Spirit: Heshall teach you, He shall bring to your remembrance, He shall testify ofme. The Spirit comes, is sent, teaches, may be grieved, or resisted.All these expressions indicate the growing sense of the special and distinctivework of the Spirit and the personal qualities manifest in his action. Another

group of passages especially emphasize the Trinitarian aspect of the teachingas to the Spirit of God. The commission commands baptism in the name of theFather, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Mat. 28:19.) In2Co. 13:14Paul clearlydistinguishes Father, Son, and Spirit. So also in1Co. 12: 4-6 Paul mentions thethree as sources of spiritual blessings for believers. (SeeEph. 2:18; 3: 2-5, 14,17; 4: 4-6; 5:18-20.)
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In the realm of experience, therefore, we find the solution of several pressingspeculative problems.

2. Is the Trinity immanent or economic? The most fundamental questionregarding the Trinity is whether the distinctions are to be thought of as inside

the Godhead itself or as manifested simply in the outward activities of God.Some are content to adopt an agnostic attitude and deny the possibility ofsolving the problem. This is an untenable position. The Christian teacher mustnot expose himself to the charge of evasion. The human mind refuses to ignoreultimate questions. The agnostic attitude on this point is no more justifiablethan or, others. At the same time we may and should admit that knowledgehere is partial. All the questions of ultimate being remain and wily remainpartly in shadow until our capacities are enlarged. But do have real knowledge.

Gods revelations do not conceal. Our discoveries all imply growing capacityfor knowledge and an expanding realm of truth. The infinite is implicit in thefinite.

Both Scripture and experience warrant the view that the distinctions in theTrinity are not merely economic. They are immanent. They are distinctions inthe Godhead. The grounds for this statement are manifold.

1. All the evidence for the deity and preexistence of Christ confirms theTrinitarian doctrine. By this it is not meant that the Trinitarian doctrine is anecessity for thought to those who accept the preexistence doctrine. It is onlymeant that by the teaching of preexistence we ascribe immanent distinctions tothe Godhead. If God is eternally Father and Son, then provision is made for afurther distinction of Father and Son and Spirit.

2. The evidence for the personal action of the Spirit confirms the Trinitarian

view. Beyond all question, the Spirit of God is revealed as distinct in somesense from God, both in the Old and in the New Testament. In the New he isclearly revealed as personal. Indeed, a mere principle could not mediate theinner life of the religious man. Personality and personal relations are essentialto the very idea of religion. The Spirit of God, regarded as a mere principle orimpersonal force in mans religious life, is a self-contradictory conception.Only a pantheistic view of the world, in which personality loses its meaning, isin harmony with it.

3. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity aids man in his speculative endeavors.A standing problem of thought is the difficulty of relating the abstract andinfinite being to the finite as conditioned. This is not the place to enter fullyinto the controversy, But a brief statement is in order. As soon as we attempt toabolish all distinctions in the Godhead, we come upon insoluble difficulties. A


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God without such distinctions has no relations either within or without. He isunlike and apart from everything we know. We cannot conceive of him asactive in relation to any finite existence without compromise, in some form, ofhis absoluteness. The result is that gradually men come to view him as asimple monad, an indefinable and intangible bare unity lifted far above all

finite forms. He is like the dot above the i, and unrelated to it. Or else he isconceived of in a pantheistic way which cancels the meaning and validity of allfinite beings, including human personality. Thus God is absorbed in the worldlike water in a sponge. The philosophic thought which takes either of thesedirections is fatal to all our higher interests. We are plunged in hopelessagnosticism, or else we are swallowed up in the All which devours ruthlesslyevery form of finite life.

Now the Christian Trinity recognizes that finite being is not the negation, butin part the expression of God; that the universe is a clue to the meaning of thedivine Being, not a veil to hide him from view; that human personality is areflection of his image, not a passing phase of being. It shows that Gods ownlife may find expression in a finite human life through the incarnation of hisSon; that the infinitude of his being as Father does not prevent his gift to us ofhis Spirit, who teaches us to say, Abba, Father.

We may sum up the matter by saying that we must find in God himself theground for all that we discover in his works. God sustains relations to man andnature. Hence we are not surprised to find him revealed as having relationswithin the divine nature itself.

3. There are several forms of statement which men have employed to show thenecessity for distinctions in the Godhead. It is said, for example, that asthinking subject God needs and requires an object. If the universe is created

and finite, God can only find an eternal object in himself, that is, in one of thepersons of the Trinity.

Again, it is urged that as infinite will God must have a corresponding objectfor the action of his will. This he finds in the Son and the Spirit.

More attractive than either of these is a third statement viz.,that as eternal loveGod must have an object which is also eternal. His Son and his Spirit are suchobjects. Thus it appears that the eternal Fatherhood of God and the eternalSonship of Christ supply us an infinite ground for love as it is manifest in theworld.

Whatever may be said of the first two suppositions, the last must appealpowerfully to every thoughtful mind. We place righteous love at the apex ofthe divine attributes. It is the crown of all. And yet apart from immanent


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distinctions in the Godhead it is a finite quality. In a sense it is a derived anddependent quality rather than inherent and essential, since it arises only afterGod has created finite beings.

A fourth statement is that God as a moral being generally is dependent on

immanent distinctions in the Trinity. We can think of God as enacting a morallaw, objective to himself, and establishing a moral system for the benefit of hiscreatures, but it lowers the ethical values very greatly if they be conceived as amere positive ordinance of God based on expediency and not grounded in hiseternal nature. If we eliminate the ethical ideal from the divine nature, it isdifficult to see how we can ever give such a system the necessary motive andsanction. It would reduce God to a merely intellectual being without anywealth of moral content. On the other hand, to conceive God as eternally

ethical involves relations in the Godhead. At the same time it gives an infinitesanction to the moral ideal among men, and greatly exalts its meaning.

A fifth statement is that the ideal of personality itself involves; relationships toothers. We remain mere individuals so long as our lives are apart from otherlives. We realize our true personality only in our connections with other lives.Love is necessary for us to attain the goal of our being. No truth has becomeclearer than this is in modern times. Yet a non-Trinitarian view of God leaves

the most essential element in our self-realization as personal beings without anadequate basis in the divine nature,

Finally, the Trinitarian view helps us to understand the end of God in thecreation of nature and man. A moral kingdom of persons redeemed throughChrist is the end set before us in Scripture. The Trinity shows how thiskingdom is grounded in God himself. It shows how the universe is theexpression of Gods nature which is righteous love. The very type and ideal of

all that is highest in our individual and social development are found thus inthe Godhead itself. Physical nature is a means to this personal, moral, andsocial end. The image of God in man thus appears in its final and perfectedform in a holy society of men who have been recreated in Jesus Christ.

3. The Practical Religious Value Of The Doctrine Of The Trinity

It was previously stated that the Christian teaching as to the Trinity is not the

result of an effort to solve a speculative problem. It is a revealed truth, and itsgrows out of religious experience. Observe some of the elements of valuecontained in its meaning as to God and man.

Through it God becomes for men forever a personal being. Jesus, who revealshim in the incarnate life, writes this truth across the face of history. God is a


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person. He is also paternal. God is our Father. This conception exalts religionto the highest possible level. It is fellowship between the Father and the Son.

As to Jesus Christ, the Trinitarian teaching connects his Saviourhood with thediving nature itself. His incarnation becomes for us the token of Gods

capacity for sacrifice. Sacrifice on our part becomes the imitation of God. AsSaviour Jesus is armed with infinite resources for his redeeming work. He ismighty to save. This was the experiential conviction of the early Christiansin their definitions of Christs person. His deity and Saviourhood wereindissolubly bound together.

As to the Holy Spirit, the Trinitarian, doctrine defines him first in relation tothe Godhead and, then in relation to the work of Christ in and for believers.

The material with which the Spirit works is the truth as it is in Jesus. Hissphere of action is the consciousness of men. He makes the historicmanifestation, the life of Christ, a continuous factor in mans religious life andin history. The outward historic revelation of God in Christ becomes thus theinward revelation of God through the Spirit.

As to believers themselves, the Trinitarian doctrine saves them from unfruitfulviews of God as above the world on he one hand and as identical with the

world on the other. The Holy Spirit creates the spiritual union between thebeliever and Christ by his regenerating act. He forms the Christianconsciousness in terms of fellowship with God, of sonship, of growing morallikeness to God in Christ. He sustains the inner life of Christians in all stagesof its development from beginning to end. In a word, the Holy Spirit makes thehistorical revelation in and through Christ morally and spiritually effective inthe life of believers. His work is absolutely essential to the success of thegospel. In view of this, it is easy to understand the saying of John the Baptist to

the effect that the work of Jesus which was to distinguish him in a peculiarmanner was that he was to baptize men in the Holy Spirit. The saying is givenin all four of the Gospels. It is repeated by the Master himself. The gift of theHoly Spirit at Pentecost is the fulfilment of this promise of Christ. (SeeMat. 3:11;Mar. 1: 8;Luk. 3:16;Joh. 1:33;Act. 1: 5.) In the light of thesepassages, then, we may say:

(a) that the relation of Christ to men after his ascension was a relation

created and maintained by the Holy Spirit;(b) that the outpouring at Pentecost was the permanent baptism of theHoly Spirit;

(c) that the Spirit remains as the guide of Christs people through all thegospel age;
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reality and in which all persons are conceived as having an eternal basis in theinfinite life of God.

Another objection is that the Trinity is a metaphysical doctrine and is to berejected on this account. The answer is that the doctrine of God is

metaphysical in the same sense.There is no way to avoid some metaphysics in religion. The modal andeconomic trinities are all metaphysical doctrines. In fact all world-views aremetaphysical. Yet there is a great variety of them claiming the field, even bythose who in some instances object to the Christian Trinity on metaphysicalgrounds. Indeed, agnosticism itself is a metaphysical world-view. It holds avery definite conception of the make of the universe.

We must have some metaphysics. But metaphysics should be well based infacts. Objections to the Christian Trinity on metaphysical grounds rest on anarrowly rationalistic criterion of truth. There are several forms of rationality:logical, emotional, esthetic, moral, religious. A universe emotionally rationalimplies a supreme object worthy of our love. A universe esthetically rationalimplies a supreme satisfaction of our faculty for the beautiful. A universemorally rational implies a being who gives supreme sanction and meaning to

the moral law. A universe spiritually and religiously rational implies a supremeobject of worship who cares for us, reveals himself to us, and creates in uscapacity for holy living and fellowship with himself. Metaphysics goes astraywhen it assumes that the logical faculty of man alone finds satisfaction in theuniverse. It becomes thus abstract and misleading. The doctrine of the Trinityin Christianity is Gods response to the total religious and moral need of man.It also arises out of the facts of the religious life itself. It is thus the bestpossible answer to our craving for a completely rational universe. Rationality

in all its forms, emotional, esthetic, ethical, logical, and religious, is satisfied init as nearly as this is possible under present conditions.

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