Sect. 94The Doctrine of the New Testament on the Holy GhostThe Doctrine of the New Testament on the Holy Ghost

The impersonal character and the vagueness of the name “Spirit,” “Ghost,” “Spirit of the Father,” etc., by which Holy Scripture designates the Third Person of the Trinity, make it necessary to prove that this name really designates a distinct Person—that is, (1) that the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God is not a mere attribute, accident, or quality going out from God to creatures, but a spiritual substance, distinct from the beings to whom the Holy Ghost is given; and (2) that the Holy Ghost is not merely the substantial vital force or energy of the Father and the Son, but a possessor of the Divine Substance, distinct from the other two Persons. To this must be added the definition of the mode of origin of the Holy Ghost, upon which depends His distinct Personality and His Divinity.

I. The first of the two points mentioned is evident from the fact that the Holy Ghost is represented as the free-acting cause of all the gifts of God to man. “All these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as He will” (1 Cor. 12:11). Again, the Holy Ghost is often described as a subject distinct from creatures, knowing, searching, willing, teaching, sending, approving, consoling, indwelling, and generally acting as an intellectual Being.

II. The second point, viz. that the Holy Ghost is a Person really distinct from the Father and the Son, is evident from the fact that the Holy Ghost is represented as acting side by side with, and as distinct from the other two Persons, and is proposed with Them as an object of worship; from the relations to the other Persons which are attributed to Him, and which are such as can exist only between distinct Persons—for instance, receiving and giving and being sent; and from the manner in which He is mentioned together with the Father and the Son as being another Person (see texts in § 92, I. 3). The proper personality of the Holy Ghost is especially characterized in the texts which represent Him as not only being in God like the spirit of man is in man, but being from God (Spiritus qui ex Deo est, ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, 1 Cor. 2:12); and proceeding from the Father (John 15:26) as the breath proceeds from man, and consequently as having His origin in the Father like the Son.

III. The Substantiality and Personality of the Holy Ghost being proved, His Divinity results clearly from Scripture, which states that the Spirit of God is as much in God and as much the holder of the Divine Life as the spirit of man is in man. But the spirit of man is but the innermost part of his whole substance, whereas the Spirit of God, in Whom there are no parts, must be the same whole Substance as the Divine Persons from Whom He proceeds. Thus, if the name Son implies a likeness of Essence to the Father, the name Spirit is still more significant, as it implies unity or identity of Essence with the Persons from Whom the Spirit proceeds. The classical text is 1 Cor. 2:10 sqq.: “To us God hath revealed [those things] by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God, no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God.”

The Divinity of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, is further confirmed by the following considerations.

1. Although the Holy Ghost is never called “God” purely and simply in Scripture, He is often represented as the same subject which, in the context or in some other text, is undoubtedly the one true God. The identity of the “Spirit” with the “Lord” is formally asserted in 2 Cor. 3:17; for this reason He is characterized in the symbol of Constantinople as “Lord.”

Instances of texts identifying the Holy Ghost with God: 1 Cor. 3:16; cf. 1 Cor. 6:19; Acts 5:3, 4; 28:25, etc.

2. The Divine Nature of the Holy Ghost is set forth in the Divine properties, operations, and relations predicated of Him, especially in relation to rational creatures.

(a) The attributes in question principally refer to the vivifying influence of the Holy Ghost on created spirits: He dwells in the inmost part of the soul and fills it with the fulness of God; He is the principle of life, and especially of the supernatural and eternal life of man which is founded upon a participation in the Divine Nature; He dwells in man as in His temple, and receives Divine worship. But such relations to creatures are proper to God alone, Who alone can make His creatures participators of His nature, and Who alone, in virtue of His simplicity and immensity, penetrates the secret recesses of created spirits. Moreover, Holy Scripture, in order to characterize the supernatural gifts of God, particularly the supernatural life of grace, as a participation of the Divine Life and coming immediately from God, represents them as the gifts and operations of the Holy Ghost. For this reason the Fathers who opposed the Macedonians appealed to these attributes of the Holy Ghost more than to others, and the Council of Constantinople added the title of Life-giver (vivificans, ζωοποιός) immediately after the name of Lord.

Passages from Scripture corroborating our argument are very numerous; John 6:64, with 2 Cor. 3:6; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 5:5; John 14:26; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:14 sqq.; Matt. 10:20, etc.

(b) The Divinity of the Holy Ghost results from two other attributes which He receives in Holy Scripture, and which are embodied in the Creed. The first is that He is an object of adoration, “Who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.” This is implied in all the texts which describe man as the “temple” of the Holy Ghost. “Adorability” being the expression of Divine dignity and excellence, Holy Scripture connects with it the manifestation of Divine authority, attributing to the Holy Ghost the inalienable right to forgive sins and to entrust the same power to others; and, further, the power to dispense all supernatural powers, notably the mission and authorization of persons endowed with such powers. “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven” (John 20:22). “The Holy Ghost said to them, Separate me Saul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have taken them” (Acts 13:2). “Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the Church of God” (Ibid. 20:28).

(c) Further, the Divine attribute of knowing all the secrets of creatures and their future free acts is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. This the Creed expresses, by saying that the Holy Ghost “spake through the prophets.” Moreover, the original knowledge and the communication of the mysteries hidden in God and of all Divine truth is likewise ascribed to the Holy Ghost. The reason which the Apostle gives for this is that the Spirit of God is in God. Hence we have a double argument in favour of His Divinity: viz. the Holy Ghost is in man as God alone can be in man, and He is in God as God alone can be in Himself. See 1 Cor. 2:10–12. Compare also, “For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke inspired by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21); 1 Cor. 14:2; Dan. 2:28.

3. Lastly, the Divine Nature of the Holy Ghost is manifested by His relation to the human nature of the Son of God. Whatever is Divine and supernatural in Christ, His attributes as well as His operations, is referred to the Holy Ghost as its principle; the whole of the Divine unction in virtue of which the man Jesus is “the Christ” (the anointed) is attributed to the Holy Ghost, so as to make Him the medium of the Hypostatic Union and of its divinizing effects upon the humanity of Christ. Hence also the resurrection and glorification of Christ are attributed to the Holy Ghost as well as to the Father (Rom. 8:11). Christ is led by the Spirit into the desert (Luke 4:1); He casts out devils in the Spirit (Matt. 12:28). See Luke 4:18; Heb. 9:14; Matt. 12:31, 32.

IV. The origin of the Spirit from Father and Son is also clearly stated in the New Testament. It is implied in the phrase “Spirit of God;” for this, according to 1 Cor. 2:12, is equivalent to “Spirit out of, or from, God” (ex Deo, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ). But as the Son is God as well as the Father, and as both are but one God, the Spirit of God is necessarily “from” the Father and the Son as from His principle. This argument is abundantly confirmed by Holy Scripture, especially in the speech of our Lord after the Last Supper.

1. The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of the Son, as well as the Spirit of the Father. “God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6; cf. Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11; Phil. 1:19). The expressions, “Spirit of Jesus or of Christ,” may, indeed, be taken as referring to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the humanity of Christ; this indwelling, however, is not an accidental one: the Holy Ghost is the own Spirit of Christ.

2. Christ expressly declares that the Holy Ghost, as “Spirit of truth,” takes and receives from the Son what the Son has received from the Father and possesses in common with the Father. “But when the Spirit of truth shall come, He will teach you all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, He shall speak: and the things that are to come He will show you. He shall glorify Me: because He shall receive of Mine, and will declare it to you. All things whatsoever My Father hath are Mine. Therefore I said, He shall receive of Mine, and declare it to you” (John 16:13–15).

3. Christ further declares that the Son, in the same manner as the Father, sends the Holy Ghost, which is only possible if the Holy Ghost has His eternal existence in God, from the Son as well as from the Father. “But when the Paraclete shall come, Whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of Me” (John 15:26; see also 16:7). Note that “sending” cannot be understood as an act of authority, except in the wider sense of causing, in any way whatsoever, another person to act. Applied to the Persons of Holy Trinity, the Father cannot be sent (nor does Holy Scripture ever speak of the Father as being sent); the Son and the Holy Ghost are sent by the Father, and the Holy Ghost is sent by the Son, inasmuch as the Son is begotten by the Father, and the Spirit proceedeth from both: the relations of origin are the only conceivable foundation of missions on the part of the Divine Persons. (See infra, p. 343.)

4. Finally, the constant order in which the Three Persons are named, in the form of Baptism, and in 1 John 5:7, can only be satisfactorily accounted for by saying that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son. St. Basil thus comments on this point: “Let them learn that the Spirit is named (in the form of baptism) with the Son as the Son with the Father. For the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost are given in the same order. Therefore, as the Son stands to the Father, so the Holy Ghost stands to the Son according to the traditional order of the formula of Baptism. If, then, the Spirit is joined to the Son, and the Son to the Father, it is clear that the Spirit also is joined to the Father.… There is one Holy Ghost, enounced, He also, in the singular number, joined through the one Son to the one Father, and completing through Himself the Blessed Trinity, to be glorified for evermore” (De Spiritu S., c. xvii. 18).