November 12, 2024
Who is the Holy Spirit? Christians believe He is God, but who is He and what does He do? For much of the church,the Holy Spirit is somewhat of an enigma. Like a “ghost,” He can be hard to wrap our minds around. Today, we’re unlocking the mystery of the Holy Spirit by taking a deep dive into who He is as we read about in the Nicene Creed, as the Lord and the Giver of Life.
The Third Article of the Nicene Creed begins like this: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son: who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.”
The Holy Spirit — we know He’s God, but who is He and what does He do? The Holy Spirit, for much of the church, is somewhat an enigma. Like a “ghost,” He can be hard to wrap our minds around.
Unlike God the Father (who we often picture as an older man with a long flowing bead, seated on His heavenly throne), and Jesus (whom we can picture because He was fully human also), the Holy Spirit is a bit of a phantasm in our minds. I mean, He’s been called the “Holy Ghost” for a reason. The question still remains, how is the Holy Spirit different from the Father and the Son? We’re going to explore that as much as we can in this session (keeping in mind, the subject of the Holy Spirit fills volumes and libraries galore).
Let’s start at the beginning… all the way back in Genesis to hear what the Bible says about God’s Spirit. We hear this from the second verse of the bible:
Now, just so you’re aware, our English translations DO NOT do justice to the original Hebrew language, that understood in greater context, can throw a monkey-wrench into our understanding of these first two verses of Genesis. Some theologians believe a gap existed in the creation timeline between verses 1 and 2, and that during said gap,
Satan was thrown down to earth and caused chaos and made our earthly home a wasteland. Then, after some period of time, God recreated our planet (as we would hear about beginning in Genesis 1:3 onward). Dr. Allen Ross said of this:
Further down in his commentary, Allen Ross continued by saying:
Much of this academic, can cause our heads to go into a tailspin of understanding the role and function of the Holy Spirit upon the formation of cosmos. That said, the bible story begins in part by telling us that our world was formless and empty (ṯōhû & ḇōhû) – meaning being in a state of chaos after being left devastated.
how do you see the role of the Holy Spirit “hovering over the earth, over the surfaces of the deep?
Then we hear this packed statement, that this God who is one, He is our Father, and He is the Almighty (one). The Prophet Isaiah wrote this:
When you think of the word, “Father,” – what comes to your mind? Who and what is a father (figure) to you? And… looking at Isaiah’s declaration, what can we say about the character of God, when our earthly father’s fall short? What’s this mean to you?
When you think of the word, “Father,” – what comes to your mind? Who and what is a father (figure) to you? And… looking at Isaiah’s declaration, what can we say about the character of God, when our earthly father’s fall short? What’s this mean to you?
In the Creed, we confess that the Holy Spirit is the LORD, and the creator of life. Let’s consider some of these passages:
Let’s dwell on Genesis 2:7 for a bit. This is beautiful imagery. It’s as though we can see God’s physical presence standing over Adam’s bible, and literally breathing life into him – like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but not in restoration of that which ceased, but the literal genesis of human life. You get the idea; this was God breathing His very essence into Adam and causing a “living soul” to come into being.
So, when we say the Holy Spirit is the creator of life, how do you interpret that to mean — physical life, spiritual life, or both?
At this point in the discussion, we can’t ignore the elephant in the room (one that’s hiding in plain sight and not talked about in Protestantism). Around 1300 years ago, a major rift happened between the Latin and Orthodox Churches over the statement that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father “and the Son” (filioque). This doctrine was an addition to the Creed and not a part of the original formula, and is considered an unacceptable heresy to the Orthodox, since it is deemed unscriptural and inconsistent with the Orthodox vision of God. But, is it, and it is one really worth arguing over?
Let’s consider some scripture to put things into perspective. While sharing in their final, Passover meal together before Jesus was betrayed, our Lord and Savior said these things to his disciples:
Consider also Luke’s Gospel account and Paul’s writings to the churches:
We all know this, everyone on planet earth likes to be right about what we believe, and if we can argue over something, we will. This argument over whether God the Father alone sent the Spirit of God to the church, or that Jesus also sent the Spirit is not worth dividing over, in my humble opinion.
Question: So if you could pass along your wisdom to the future of the church, what would you want them to know about the Holy Spirit being sent to the church as God promised?
We come now to the last statement in the Creedal statement for the day, stating that the Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.”
The church, well at least Lutheranism that is, doesn’t teach or preach much about the Holy Spirit (to my disappointment, in my humble opinion). We recite that we worship and glorify the Holy Spirit, but do we do this enough?
Last Question: In what ways would you like to learn more about the Holy Spirit? Drop a comment down below. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for possible future videos like this.
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