God's Fullness
INTRODUCTION
Part III – The Spirit As God
The Essence of God
The essence of God is a subject inherent in any discussion about the essential nature of God. This holds true whether one is talking about God the Father, God the Son, or God the Spirit. Whether one is speaking of God in totality or God in Personhood, one does not dismiss the fact that the one God is the subject.
There are difficulties. First, the concept of the essence of God seems illusive. One's five senses (touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing) tend to associate reality with merely material substance. Therefore, the very mention of spirit raises ambiguities. However, if "God talk" is to occur, one must think and speak objectively of spirit, because "God is spirit" (John 4:25a). This remains true whether one is speaking of God the Father, God the Son, or God the Spirit. (The humanity of Jesus is no exception – He was very human and very God.)
Second, one tends to discuss or explain things in terms of analogy. In analogy, there is drawn a resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike. For example: "The end of the world will be like a raging inferno." However, one is on a razor-thin edge when analogic language is used to discuss God. Analogies tend to break down at best; they are often defective or misleading at worst. One should proceed very cautiously. Specifically, there is no dissimilarity in the essence of God. God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). He is absolutely one in essence – that is, spirit (pneuma).
However, much to the chagrin, astonishment, and disbelief of many people in the world, biblical Christianity affirms a God Who is one in essence and three in Persons. If one thinks about God in terms of essence (spirit), one finds analogies may be awkward and unfitting because there is nothing dissimilar about the essence of God in the Persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
However, one may speak cautiously in analogic language when discussing the Persons of God. Why? Unlike the essence of God, which has no dissimilarity within the Persons of the Trinity, the Persons of God do have dissimilarities because of their relationships within the Godhead. For example: God the Father has always been Father; God the Son has always been Son; God the Spirit has always been Spirit. There never was, even in eternity, a "time" when the Father was without the Son or became the Son. Neither has the Son ever been without the Father or become the Father. Likewise, the Person of the eternal Holy Spirit has never been without the Father and the Son. Neither has the Person of the Holy Spirit ever been the Father or the Son.
Within the Trinity there is an absolute oneness of essence (spirit). Within the Trinity there are three distinct Persons. One may speak of God as one in spirit and three in the Persons of the Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Distinctiveness of Persons within the Godhead
Analogies are fragile tools when used in a discussion about God. This is true for more than one reason. When one uses an analogy correctly; one draws a resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike. However, with reference to God, figures of speech should serve to draw a distinction in some particulars between things otherwise alike. God, "in His particulars," is overwhelmingly "alike." This is to say that the "oneness" of God shapes the nature of His activity in the cosmos. Thus there is beauty and symmetry displayed in the universe. However, this activity of "oneness" (harmony, unity, etc.) flows from the distinct Persons in the Godhead as They work together in full synchronization.
There is another reason why analogies applied to God fall short. Analogies are ordinarily drawn from personal experience for the purpose of clarifying or describing to others what is already known. For example: One may say to a friend who was not able to attend the opera, "She sang the arias like a nightingale." Or often the old adage is heard: "Like father, like son." These statements are clear because the metaphors involved are understood. The aria and the nightingale are familiar. One knows the father and the son. One also knows the nightingale is separate from the singer and the son is separate from the father. And that is precisely where the analogy cracks when applied to God.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are distinct as Persons, but They are never separate. This is that for which there is no human analogy. In human terms, analogies demand separation. In the phrase like father, like son, there is a male who is a father. A male must be a son. Father and son must stand separate. However, the Trinity consists of three distinct but inseparable Persons.
What is meant by this? How can one be so sure of what lies beyond human data? The premise was stated in God the Father and God the Son – the first two parts of this book. It is this: One can only know about God to the extent He has revealed Himself. He has revealed Himself in creation (nature) and history (mighty acts). He is revealed in His Living Word (Jesus) and written Word (Scripture). These sources unfold all one needs to know about God, although He has never completely revealed His total Being. So how is the conclusion that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead reached? This logical conclusion is deducted from the Scriptures (Bible).
One needs to keep in mind that knowledge gained through the process of legitimate deduction is neither inferior nor inadequate. For example: many jury verdicts are reached on the basis of deduction from circumstantial evidence so powerful and convincing that it leaves no reasonable doubt.
It seems rather obvious that distinctiveness of persons is required in those statements of Scripture where people are called by different names. For example: In the letter Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians he said, "I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord" (Philippians 4:2). No one would seriously insist that Euodia and Syntyche were different names for the same person! In the letter of Philemon, Paul addressed Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus (Philemon 1-2). Did Paul greet only one person under the guise of three different names? Hardly!
The same principle obviously holds true when the Persons of the Godhead are referred to by different names in the same context. Notice Paul's statement to the Christians at Corinth: "Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge" (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). Here are three distinct Persons called by distinct names. Each Person is filling a vital role in the great redemption plan, The Person of God establishes, anoints, and seals. He is doing this through the Persons of Christ and the Spirit.
Note the work of the Trinity for humanity's salvation. God the Father chooses, Christ the Son sacrifices, and God the Spirit sanctifies (1 Peter 1:1-2). Although the totality of God is involved in our salvation, each Person in the Godhead fills a vital place. In this context there are three Persons at work – not one Person under the guise of three names.
An objection is raised often in trinitarian discussions. It goes like this: If God is spirit, why is He referred to as a Person? Particularly; how is it possible to speak of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit as Persons?
To begin, we remember that the Scriptures refer to the Father as God (Philippians 2:11), the Son as God (John 20:28), and the Spirit as God (Acts 5:3-4). Therefore, these terms have a direct, biblical, base. They carry correct concepts. It is certainly correct to think and speak of God as Father, Son, and Spirit. We are also correct in referring to the Father, Son, and Spirit as Persons. This is correct because it is the logical deduction derived from a study of the Bible.
Another reason why we may speak of the Father, Son, and Spirit as Persons is because they are found expressing themselves in ways that identify with persons. Examples are manifold. The heavenly Father gives good gifts (James 1:17). He is concerned about our welfare (1 Peter 5:7). The Son is compassionate (Luke 7:13). He may become angry (Luke 3:5). The Spirit may be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). He may be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We identify these kinds of characteristics with ourselves. By analogy, one sees the Father and Son as Persons. However, analogies have very thin edges when drawn between God and humanity: One needs to remember the Bible teaches that we are made in God's image (Genesis 1:27), not vice versa.
We read that God the Father and God the Son exhibit traits that are reflected in human fathers and sons, whom we call persons. We cautiously conclude that as persons made in God's image according to His likeness we testify, at least in part, to His Fatherhood and Sonship. Therefore, by analogy, the conclusion is that the word Person is appropriate when applied to the Father and the Son.
But . . . what of the Spirit? After all, this part of this volume is titled "God the Spirit." We have already stated that the one God is spirit. This is the very essence of Him known as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Since spirit is the essence of one God in three Persons who are inseparable, this means that spirit is the essence of the Trinity of Persons. There are no human analogies here.
Therefore, how may one speak of the Spirit as a Person? Please note that up to this point the word spirit (pneuma) has been designated without capitalization. On the other hand, when reference has been to the Person of God the Spirit, it has been capitalized. This technique is used to clarify all references to God as spirit or as the Spirit, Whose essence is spirit. One of the Persons is the Spirit, and all three Persons are one in essence (spirit; pneuma). This means there is a distinction between spirit and the Spirit. It is the difference between spirit as the essence of the one God and the Spirit as one of the three Persons of the Trinity.
Back to the question: "How may one speak of the Spirit as a Person?" Analogy may be cautiously used when speaking of God the Father and God the Son as Persons. We can conceptualize those Persons with reference to fathers and sons as human beings created in God's image. Also, God the Father and God the Son often express themselves in ways that human fathers and sons express themselves. However, analogical relationships break down when one considers God the Spirit as a Person. Fathers are known as persons. Sons are known as persons. But human analogy is lacking for God the Spirit as Person.
We do not call God the Spirit a Person on the basis of analogy: We do so on the basis of extension. Examples will illustrate. In the New Testament God the Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father are found together in intimate and significant ways. Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians: "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6). In another place Paul wrote: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14). Scripture also says: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit . . ." (Matthew 28:19).
This close proximity in strategic ways of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in these passages sends a strong implication that cannot be logically resisted. In the Trinity the Father and the Son are called Persons by analogy; the Spirit is called Person by extension. That is, the three are pictured on a par. Father and Son are called Persons. The Spirit, being equal in the same divine company, is the same sort of Being, or Person. Therefore, the Holy Trinity is the Person of God the Holy Father, the Person of God the Holy Son, and the Person of God the Holy Spirit, all of the essence of spirit (pneuma).
