Significance of Gift of Spirit

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Unit II-E

What is the Significance of the Holy Spirit?

© Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.,/Magis Institute July 2011

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Introduction

In Section I of the previous Unit we investigated what differentiated the Christian messianic movement from those of John the Baptist and other proclaimed messiahs between the first century B.C. to the first century A.D. (such as Judas the Galilean, Simon, Athronges, Eleazar ben Deinaus and Alexander, Menahem, Simon bar Giora, and bar-Kochba). We concluded with N.T. Wright and E.P. Sanders that Christianity’s remarkable success and growth (by comparison to the failure of all the other messianic movements) required some sufficient cause. This extraordinary and unprecedented success and growth could not be attributed only to the strength of Jesus’ preaching or even Jesus’ miracles because Jesus had suffered public humiliation and public execution after these events. Not just any cause was required, but a powerful one, and this seemed to be (evidently) Jesus’ resurrection and transmaterial embodiment.

Though this would explain how the Christian messianic movement received its remarkable jumpstart – with its certainty, exuberance, hopefulness, strong proclamation, uniform doctrinal proclivities, and its large number of missionaries (who, as we saw, were very likely recipients of resurrection appearances among the 500+ and the apostles), it does not completely explain how this Christian messianic movement accelerated and received such an open reception among both Jewish and Gentile communities (many of whom had not even heard about Jesus or the Jewish background from which He came). This seems to require another sufficient cause which John P. Meier believes to be the apostles’ power to perform healings and miracles in a similar fashion to Jesus (with the important exception that Jesus performed miracles by His own authority while the apostles performed them in His name):

…[T]here was a notable difference between the long-term impact of the Baptist and that of Jesus. After the Baptist’s death, his followers did not continue to grow into a religious movement that in due time swept the Greco-Roman world. Followers remained, revering the Baptist’s memory and practices. But by the early 2d century A.D. any cohesive group that could have claimed an organic connection with the historical Baptist seems to have passed from the scene. In contrast, the movement that had begun to sprout up around the historical Jesus continued to grow – amid many sea changes – throughout the 1st century and beyond. Not entirely by coincidence, the post-Easter “Jesus movement” claimed the same sort of ability to work miracles that Jesus had claimed for himself during his lifetime. This continued claim to work miracles may help to explain the continued growth, instead of a tapering off, of the group that emerged from Jesus’ ministry.

Though these miracles are performed in the name of Jesus, the power which is used to perform them (in His name) is attributed to the Holy Spirit. As we shall see below, Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His apostles and disciples after His resurrection and the early Church became the instrument of this “power of God” by using the name of Jesus. Hence, Jesus is both the initiator (giver) and activator of the Holy Spirit which the early Church recognized to be the “power of God” (the dynamis tou Theou). This “power of God” was not viewed as a blind force, but rather the personal power of God who knows the heart of God the Father and probes the human heart.

Now, who has the power to give away the “personal power of God”? Who has the power to do what no other prophet did – that is, not only to possess the personal power of God, but to bring that personal power of God to the world and then give it away so that human beings might possess it? Who has the power to activate the personal power of God through mere mention of His name? Who can have such a power? There was nothing like this in the world prior to the coming of Jesus – no baptizing of people in the Holy Spirit, no giving away the personal power of God to be possessed by human beings. This is something totally new which the early Church attributed to the risen Jesus.

The answer, I presume, is obvious. God alone has the power to give away God’s personal power to the world to be possessed by human beings for all eternity. And so it was that the early Church could not help but conclude that the One who was clothed in the power and glory of God through His resurrection and who actualized the world-changing event of giving the personal power of God to the world was Lord and God. As this Unit develops, this inevitable conclusion will become more and more apparent. The early Church did not have to “stretch the evidence” to proclaim Jesus as Lord; it could not help itself. Not to have done so would have been the real falsity—a betrayal of truth and self. This proclamation was apologetically unappealing and it had a high cost (adversely affecting the lives and well-being of many). But the early Church really felt itself compelled by the divine power it experienced and possessed – the very power that was given to it by the risen Jesus. And so the early Church freely bore the high cost of preaching this truth – a truth which Jesus announced about Himself (see Unit II-F&G), a truth borne out and confirmed by His resurrection in glory, and His gift of the Holy Spirit.

Before looking at the impact of the Holy Spirit within the early Church, it might do well to address a question which some students have asked me throughout the last twenty years: “Why isn’t the Holy Spirit as active today as in the time of the Apostles?” In many respects, the Holy Spirit could be seen as more active today than in apostolic times. One does not have to look far to see the millions of testimonies to the charismatic manifestation of the Spirit (with literally hundreds of thousands of websites devoted to charismatic prayer, healings, glossolalia, and prophesy) which resemble those recounted by Luke and Paul almost 2,000 years ago.

It occurred to me that if these hundreds of thousands of websites with multiple testimonies (mostly in the United States) are devoted primarily to charismatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit (e.g., healings, miracles, glossolalia – 1Corinthians 12), how much greater would be the accounts of the interior gifts of the Holy Spirit; and how much greater still when both the charismatic and interior gifts of the Spirit are seen throughout the entire world? It seems evident that the Holy Spirit is truly alive and well in any individual or culture that wants the Spirit’s help, guidance, inspiration, peace, and above all, love. The Holy Spirit is most anxious to help when invited into our lives.

Since the Spirit’s charismatic and interior manifestations so highly resemble those recounted by Luke and Paul, a brief review of their accounts will help us to know what to look and pray for. When prayers are answered and lives are transformed, then we will know in our heart of hearts not only that the Holy Spirit is alive and well, but also that the Spirit of God is revealing that Jesus is Emmanuel.

The early Christians characterized the Holy Spirit as “the power of God” (“dunamis tou Theou”) which was uniquely possessed by Jesus during His ministry, and continued to flow from Him in the life of the Church. As their understanding of the Holy Spirit developed through experience, they became progressively aware of Its personal presence flowing through Jesus. McKenzie succinctly describes this more developed theology as follows:

The spirit is basically the divine and heavenly dynamic force; it is conceived as peculiarly existing in Jesus (and specifically in the risen Jesus), as pervading the body of Jesus which is the Church, and as apportioned to the members of the Church. Jesus is the son of David in the flesh but the son of God in power according to the spirit (Rm 1:3); the unique possession of the spirit by Jesus and the unique power which flows from this possession reveal His true reality, which is the reality of the spiritual sphere, i.e., the divine and heavenly sphere.

We can trace the development of the early Church’s experiential understanding of the Spirit through its early exposition, recorded in Luke-Acts (Section I), and later exposition in Saint Paul (Section II). Let us begin with the earlier exposition.

Charismatic Manifestations of the Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke recounts three kinds of experiences which are so unusual and powerful that the earliest Church community attributes them to God, or more specifically, to “the Spirit of God” or “the power of God”: (1) healings and miracles, (2) prophesy, and (3) ecstatic experiences (such as glossolalia and visions).

Though all three of these areas merit consideration, a cursory overview of the first will be sufficient to manifest two points which ground the proclamation of Jesus’ divinity: (1) that the charisms are seen to be explicit manifestations of God’s power and God’s Spirit, and (2) that the risen Jesus is seen to be the source of this power/Spirit (because the Spirit works through His name).

Luke recounts a large range of healings and miracles effected by Peter, Paul, and others in the Acts of the Apostles:

• the healing of the lame man at the temple (Acts 3:1-10) • healings and exorcisms performed by Philip in Samaria (Acts 8:4-8) • Paul’s healing from blindness (Acts 9:18) • the healing of Aeneas’ paralysis (Acts 9:33f) • the raising of Tabitha from the dead by Peter (Acts 9:36-41) • the healing of a cripple in Lystra (Acts 14:8-10) • Paul’s restoration of Eutychus (Acts 20:9-12) • the healings performed by Paul in Malta (Acts 28:8f)

There are some unconventional healings and miracles (by today’s standards) also recounted in Luke and Acts, for example:

• healings through Peter’s shadow (Acts 5:15) • healings through cloths touched by Paul (Acts 19:11) • Peter’s liberation from prison (Acts 5:19-24, 12:6-11) • Paul’s liberation from prison (Acts 16:26)

There can be little doubt that such healings and miracles occurred in the earliest Church communities, as they are recounted not only by Luke, but also by Paul (who is writing to the actual witnesses of the events) and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. With respect to the first category of healings (those worked through the personal intercession of the apostles), few scholars doubt that Luke either had firsthand experience of these miracles (the “we” passages) or reliable firsthand sources. Dunn notes even with respect to the raising of Tabitha by Peter, “It is quite likely that the tradition goes back to a genuine episode in the ministry of Peter.”

If one accepts that such healings and miracles were quite frequent within the early Church community, and that the members of that community viewed them as extraordinary and powerful (in contemporary terminology, falling outside normal boundaries of natural causation), then it will not be difficult to understand why they thought that the “power of God” / the “Spirit of God” was in their midst. When this is combined with Luke’s contention that the Spirit’s power arises out of the name of Jesus (or the disciples’ ministry on behalf of Jesus), it seems reasonable to conclude that the primitive Church experienced the risen Jesus as the ongoing source of the Holy Spirit (the power of God) in the world. Dunn notes in this regard:

Where Jesus healed in his own right, by the immediate power and authority of God (cf. Acts 2:22; 10:38), his disciples healed in the name of Jesus. It would appear that from the first they recognized that their power to heal was somehow dependent on Jesus and derivative from him (cf. Luke 10:17). Whereas he had been the direct representative of God in his healing ministry, they saw themselves primarily as representatives of Jesus. They healed by the same power, but that power was now linked with the name of Jesus.

The frequent occurrence of the charismatic manifestation of the Spirit arising out of the name of Jesus seems to constitute an experiential ground (within the very early Church) for the association of Jesus with divine power and even the source of divine power, and gives a partial explanation for why the primitive Church proclaimed Jesus’ Lordship despite the sacrifices that had to be made in order to protect this apologetically unappealing doctrine.

Visible and Interior Manifestations of the Spirit in Paul

Now let us turn to Paul’s testimony. Though Paul’s letters were written before the final redaction of Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, Luke saves and recounts traditions and expressions of the Spirit which precede Paul’s theology of the Spirit. A cursory exploration of Paul’s theology of the Spirit reveals his awareness of these earlier traditions and expressions, and his personal experience of the visible and tangible manifestations of the Spirit emphasized by Luke.

Paul’s experience and view of the Spirit, as Fitzmyer notes, is “God’s gift of his creative, prophetic, or renovative presence to human beings or the world…[italics mine].” This “presence of God” is more than merely “the power of God” viewed as a blind supernatural force; it has a subjective (indeed, intersubjective) quality. The Spirit not only searches the hearts of human beings, but also searches the depths of God the Father, having a comprehensive knowledge of Him: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1Cor 2:10b).

When Paul refers to either the visible, tangible gifts, or the interior gifts of the Spirit, he generally uses the term “charismata” (a specific instance of “charis” – a gratuitous gift for the well-being of another – which, in this case, is God’s gratuitous gift of salvation). When he looks at the charismata from the vantage point of agency, he refers to them either as “phanerōsis tou pneumatos” (manifestation of the Spirit – e.g., 1 Cor 12:7), or as “dunamis tou Theou” (the power of God – e.g., 1 Cor 1:24), or as “onomati tou kuriou” (what is given in the name of the Lord/Christ – e.g., 1 Cor 6:11). As Dunn, referring to Gunkel’s longstanding work, notes:

…[S]o far as Paul was concerned charismata are the manifestation of supernatural power. Charisma is always God acting, always the Spirit manifesting himself. …[F]or Paul, every charisma was supernatural. The character of transcendent otherness lies at the heart of the Pauline concept of charisma. … The “infinite qualitative distinction” (Kierkegaard) between divine and human means that every expression of grace is always something more than human.

We may now explore the vast array of Paul’s and others’ experience of the supernatural power of the Spirit, beginning with the public charismatic gifts (Section II.A) and concluding with the interior gifts (Section II.B).

Paul’s Account of the Visible, Tangible, Powerful Gifts of the Spirit

It is noteworthy that Paul is writing (and even correcting) communities and individuals who have witnessed the visible, tangible, powerful manifestations of the Spirit multiple times. It is therefore reasonable to assume that these gifts were virtually commonplace in the early community as Luke indicates in the Acts of the Apostles. Dunn mentions further:

…[I]t is worth pointing out that in 1 Cor. 12.9, 28, 30 we have first hand testimony to the fact that there were cures and healings experienced in the Pauline communities for which no natural or rational explanation would suffice – they could only be put down to the action of God.

So what do the visible, tangible gifts consist in? From the list given in 1 Cor 12:8f, three may be easily identified:

1) healings (charismata iamatōn – gifts of cures), 2) miracles (energēmata dunameōn – workings of power), and 3) the gift of tongues (genē glōssōn – kinds of tongues).

There are two other gifts which the community thought to be supernatural and public (as distinct from interior), namely, prophesy and revelation. As Paul recognizes, there are false prophets who can lead the Church astray, and so there is need to discern the quality of prophesy within the early community. I will give a brief description of the first three gifts as an illustration of why the community believed that the Holy Spirit was the power of God, that Jesus was the ongoing source of that Spirit, and therefore, that “Jesus is Lord.”

Healing. Paul uses the plural “charismata” (in contrast to using the singular in referring to the other gifts) because he probably believed that there was a special charisma for every kind of illness. From this, we may infer that Paul witnessed different kinds of healings, and that those healings probably resembled those recounted by Luke in Acts, and in the Gospels with respect to Jesus’ ministry. There can be little doubt that Paul views these as arising solely out of the power of God (that is, not occurring in nature, but only through supernatural power).

Miracles. Paul’s distinct listing of miracles next to healings would seem to indicate that they included supernatural acts other than cures. Exegetes suspect that these would be of two sorts: exorcisms and nature miracles. Clearly, Paul was familiar with Jesus’ exorcisms, and even though they do not figure as prominently in Paul’s ministry as in Jesus’, Paul certainly was involved in exorcisms. Paul may also have in mind nature miracles, such as cures taking place through his handkerchief (Acts 19:18) or other “signs and wonders” (en dunamei sēmeiōn kai teratōn – by power of signs and wonders – Rom 18:19) which he evidently worked from Jerusalem to Illyricum.

The working of miracles (energōn dunameis) factored prominently into Paul’s ministry in new communities, and in encouraging converts among people who had not yet heard the Word. In Galatians 3:4f, Paul uses the history of miracles worked in the community through the Holy Spirit as a proof of why the Galatians should remain faithful to him:

Did you experience so many things in vain? If it really is in vain. Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Given that Paul is writing to those who have directly experienced “dunameis,” it can hardly be doubted that the experience of these persuasive outward signs is not only common to Paul’s ministry, but continues after Paul has left (presumably through people with that charism), and is sufficiently powerful within the community to persuade it of the veracity of Paul’s words years after his departure.

The power to heal and to work miracles does not belong to the human agent working them. The power is distinctly that of God (the Spirit of God) done through the name of “the Lord Jesus Christ” (e.g., 1Cor 6:11). That power is meant not for the benefit of the healer or miracle-worker, but for the benefit of one in need, or for the good of the community. The healer/miracle-worker is purely the instrument of God.

Despite the incredible persuasiveness of healing and miracles in the early community, Paul believes that they must be put in perspective to allow for the prominence of gifts which produce deep conversion of the heart. In this respect, Paul is distinct from Luke, who gives clear prominence to visible, tangible, powerful gifts of the Spirit.

Speaking in Tongues. Paul views this ecstatic charism as a proof of the Spirit (power of God), an aspect of his ministry of initial conversion, a spiritual benefit to individual believers, and an occasional benefit to the community (when there is an authentic interpreter of the tongues). However, Paul views speaking in tongues as the lowest of the “deeds of power,” because it does not directly serve either to deepen conversion, or to build up the community’s understanding of God, Jesus, or even itself. Hence, in 1Cor 14:6, Paul warns the community not to seek speaking in tongues as an end in itself, and to prefer prophesy (which builds up the community and leads to its deeper conversion) over glossolalia:

Now brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how shall I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? … So with yourselves; since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the Church. … I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all; nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others [prophesy or revelation] than ten thousand words in a tongue [1Cor 14:6-7, 12, 18-19].

It will not be necessary here to delve into prophecy and revelation to establish my central point, namely, that there were frequent “deeds of healing and power” in the early Church (as there apparently are today) which are very difficult to explain in any natural causative sense, and that these extraordinary occurrences were not unreasonably or irresponsibly interpreted by the early Church to be the power (Spirit) of God, and that the ongoing source of this power was thought to be the risen Jesus, for it arises out of His name. This threefold interrelated conclusion enabled the early Church to corroborate (along with the resurrection appearances) the divinity of Jesus.

Paul’s Account of Interior Gifts of the Spirit

Though Paul saw the importance of the visible, tangible, powerful manifestations of the Spirit in initial conversion and in initiating and sustaining communities, he prefers to address the interior gifts of the Spirit which include the ability to cry out “Abba,” deeply inspired prayer, the capacity for extraordinary love, and the overcoming of fear. The reason for his preference for the interior over the exterior gifts arises out of his belief that the interior gifts have a more profound and lasting effect on the believer and the community. The interior gifts not only lead to initial conversion (as do the tangible, visible, powerful gifts) but also to a deeper conversion of the heart in imitation of Christ.

It was noted above that Paul did not believe the Holy Spirit to be a blind force, but rather, a conscious and sensitive power capable of knowing the heart of the Father. This conclusion was grounded in Paul’s (and others’) experience of these interior gifts, which include prayer, hope, trust, love, zeal, peace, and joy. Though these gifts may not be immediately recognized as supernatural power or be manifest in a group or public setting (as visible, tangible, powerful gifts), they do lead to the build-up of the Church through the deepening conversion arising out of them. Since these gifts are more subtle and difficult to recognize as divine, Paul takes pains not only to exhort his communities to them, but also to point to their origin in the Holy Spirit and the risen Christ. Four of these gifts (prayer, hope, faith, and love) need to be examined more closely.

Prayer. Though Paul does not mention prayer as a specific charisma, he does speak in many contexts about prayer inspired by the Spirit (e.g, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words…” (Rom 8:26. See also Eph. 5:18 and 6:18). The most important manifestation of inspired prayer is the Abba prayer, which Paul believes is inspired by the Spirit who is shared by both the Father and Son. This prayer is vital to Paul’s spiritual life (as well as that of the early Church). It is also central to Paul’s notion of adopted sonship which constitutes one of the grounds for the connection between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, special attention should be given to the two central passages concerning this prayer.

But when the time had fully come God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent His Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir (Gal 4:4-7). For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him (Rom 8:15-17).

Evidently, these passages closely parallel each other, and even though there was probably a four year separation between their writing, Paul maintains his interrelated views of inspired prayer, adopted sonship, and freedom from slavery almost identically over this period. Three points merit consideration:

1) the meaning of “Abba,”

2) the need for the Spirit’s inspiration to cry out “Abba!”, and

3) how this inspiration of the Holy Spirit overcomes slavery (inferior status, not belonging to the family), fear, and even hopelessness.

With respect to the first point, “Abba” (the emphatic form of “Ab” – Father) in Aramaic is generally a familiar address used by children toward their fathers. It therefore can have a tone of affection and trust, as well as an expression of respect. This endearing, trust-filled address for God is recounted in the Gospel of Mark (14:36). This single use in the synoptic gospels is complemented by “Abba” substitutes which Joachim Jeremias first identified, and has subsequently been confirmed by other studies. As noted in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: In Greek there are three ways in which Jesus addresses God as “Father” in prayer contexts: (1) pater (“father”), the Greek vocative (Mt. 11:25 par. Lk 10:21a; Lk. 11:2; 22:42; 23:34, 46; Jn. 11:41; 12:27f.; 17:1, 5, 11, 21, 24f.); (2) ho pater (“the father”), the articular nominative used as a vocative (Mk. 14:36 [abba ho pater; cf. Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6]—correct Greek form, since the second member of a compound address is always in the nominative [Robertson. p. 461]; Mt. 11:26 par. Lk. 10:21b—incorrect Greek usage, and therefore in all probability a Semitism, since the articular nominative constitutes the vocative in both Hebrew and Aramaic [Turner, p.34]); (3) pater mou (“my father”), Greek vocative with first person singular possessive pronoun (Mt. 26:39, 42). This variation in expression makes it probable that the Aram. ‘abba’ was the original form of address used in each of these prayers, since the term could legitimately be translated in all of these ways (Black, p. 283).

If we considered the three above Greek expressions to be translations of “Abba,” then “Abba” appears 16 times in the New Testament (21 times including parallels). This address for God (in common usage) has its origins in Jesus, because its use (as applied to God) is exceedingly rare in second-temple Judaism. As Joachim Jeremias notes:

…in the literature of Palestinian Judaism no evidence has yet been found of ‘my Father” being used by an individual as an address to God. It first appears [in Judaism] in the Middle Ages, in Southern Italy.

Since Jeremias’ day, some examples have been found of a non-Christian use of “Abba” to address God in Palestinian Judaism; however, this usage is exceedingly rare (in stark contrast to Christianity), and so Wright concludes:

… it should not be supposed that Jeremias has been disproved completely: there is a striking phenomenon to be observed in the prayers of Jesus, and, once we relieve it of the strain of being the load bearing wall in a much larger construction, it can relax and make a valuable contribution to a different one.

The use of the expression “Abba, Father” in not only the communities founded by Paul, but also in those not founded by him (e.g., the Roman community) is so well-known and so commonplace, it indicates how important Jesus’ unique address of God was to the early community and therefore, presumably, to Jesus Himself. In view of this, it would be difficult to deny that Jesus taught His disciples to address God as “Abba,” and that He emphasized this as a central part of His doctrine on prayer.

With respect to the second and third points, Paul feels that he needs the power and assurance of the Holy Spirit in order to address God with this expression of filial consciousness and confidence. Though Paul does not specifically say that he can utter “Abba” only by means of the Holy Spirit, his wording in Romans 8:16 (to pneuma summarturei tō pneumati hēmōn – the Spirit witnesses [testifies to the truth] with our spirits) implies that if the Holy Spirit were not testifying to the truth of our adopted sonship in conjunction with our own spirit, we would not be able to believe it, or, at least, we would doubt it sufficiently to lapse back into our lives of fear. This sentiment is expressed more directly eight verses later in the same letter where Paul declares:

The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words…

It seems that Paul, left to his own devices, finds it virtually impossible to use Jesus’ address for the Father (with its childlike affection, trust, and even presumption) without supernatural assistance. His natural state of fear (arising out of his former belief in a God of strict justice) undermines his confidence in the fact that he has truly been redeemed, and is now truly a member of God’s family with Jesus. Left to himself (that is, to his natural feelings of servitude and fear), Paul does not feel that he could ever call upon God confidently and affectionately as “my Father.” The best he can do is to try justifying himself by means of strict obedience to the law. When he discovers the foolishness of this attempt (which is doomed to failure because of natural imperfection), he is relegated not only to fear, but also to the brink of despair. Paul knows well that he cannot raise himself out of the absurdity (and hopelessness) of his “natural” position.

It is at this juncture that Paul is fully cognizant of the grace of the Holy Spirit testifying in transcendent otherness to the truth that God is “Abba.” This testimony of the Spirit is not something to which Paul has reasoned himself, but rather, is a truth that comes through the experience of inspiration, that is:

[an experience] of being addressed by God’s Spirit, of being grasped by divine power, of being convinced beyond doubt of the existential truth…quite apart from any consideration of reason or logic. [An experience] not as a human word from without, but as a divine energy within.

This experience of the Holy Spirit’s assurance allows Paul not only to say, but to “cry out,” “Abba!” This exclamation seems to be an irresistible urge emanating from the deepest parts of his being. Dunn notes:

The assurance of sonship is not a conclusion or inference drawn from the fact that the community says “Abba”. It is rather an inner confidence borne in upon the believer by the consciousness that it was not simply he himself and of himself that had cried “Abba” (kraxomen – Rom. 8.15); the word was something given him, uttered through his lips by the Spirit (kraxon – Gal.4.6).

This assurance, in turn, allows all the other interior gifts of the Spirit to be confidently accepted from Jesus Christ and the Father, and given away in love and peace to the communities Paul serves. This confident acceptance of the unconditional Love and affection of “Abba” grounds Paul’s hope in both his and the world’s salvation, which, in turn, grounds Paul’s trust that the triune God will respond to his pleas and will help him to love beyond his natural ability. This faith, hope, and love are the power behind Paul’s immense apostolic activity which result ultimately in his peace and joy.

Hope. When the Holy Spirit joins with our spirit to cry out “Abba!” the Spirit conveys with conviction that we are co-heirs to the kingdom with Christ Himself. This demonstrates the Father’s heart of limitless generosity. (Making us an heir along with His only begotten Son is nothing less than limitless love.) If we contemplate on what the heart of “limitless love” might be, we begin to sense the forgiveness, mercy, and compassion ingredient to it. We begin to realize that this heart of love desires nothing less than to bring us to the fullness of the gift which He has prepared for us from the beginning of time. The Spirit, then, does not simply negate fear; but introduces us to the heart of limitless love, and therefore, to hope: “For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness (justification – dikaiosunēs ). Paul expresses this hope in the Unconditional Love and salvific will of God in a most passionate way in Rom 8:31-39:

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with Him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul believes that this inspired hope in the Unconditional Love of God is a grace available for the entire Christian community. This hope is capable of not only sustaining the community, but also enabling it to reach undreamt heights of faith and love:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Faith (Trust). Paul intends various meanings for “faith” (pistis). He sometimes means the faith that justifies, a profession of faith, a charismatic gift, or the obedience which gives rise to loving surrender and commitment. Each of the above notions of faith may be traced back to the power of the Holy Spirit, but the last is most interesting in its relationship to hope and deepening of conversion. McKenzie notes in this regard:

For Paul, faith is also an obedience (Rm 1:5; 16:26). The acceptance of Christ, as in the Synoptic Gospels, is not merely an intellectual acceptance of a body of truth, but a surrender and a total commitment to a person. This commitment is not made by a single act; even Christians may show defects of faith (1Th 3:10) or a weakness in faith (Rm 14:1), and they ought to grow in faith (2 Co 10:15). The single act of belief finds its fulfillment in a progressively fuller commitment to Jesus Christ, until it reaches the point where the believer lives with Christ, crucified with Him (Gal 2:20).

Paul speaks about this process of gradual conversion in terms of replacing the old self with the new self:

Put off your old self (anthrôpon – “man” in the sense of person or human being) which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

The Spirit nudges and even cajoles us to relinquish more and more of our old selves and to put on more and more of our new selves. The Spirit, of course, cannot do the surrendering of our old selves for us, but can draw us to a trust and love of Jesus Christ and the Father through a burning desire to belong to Them. This desire to belong to the goodness, rightness, and love of Christ enables us to freely (but gradually) give ourselves to the ideal of the beatitudes and even the embracing of the Cross.

Paul is amazed by this “burning desire to belong to Christ” which enables him to freely give “the old man” away in order to become “the new man.” In his former life, the law did not have the power to do this, and so Paul recognizes the power of the Holy Spirit within him – a power which goes beyond the natural motivations of the law and the best intentions of the human spirit:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! …There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

The Spirit’s gift of faith leads to the surrender which allows the new self to emerge. This new self reflects the Love of God which is the primary calling of the Christian life. This leads to our next point.

Love. Though love (particularly philia and eros) is a natural human power (attested to by the pagans prior to Christianity), Paul sees it as a power which is brought to a new perfection by the Spirit – a perfection which is the purpose and destiny of every human being and characterizes the essence of God. He uses the term agapē to refer to this kind of love, as do the Gospel writers. For Paul, love is the highest grace (supernatural virtue):

But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1Cor 12:31-13-3)

This love is poured into our hearts and deepened by the Holy Spirit beyond mere natural human capacity:

…and [Epaphras] has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Col 1:8-10)

The implication here is that the Holy Spirit continues to deepen love within us, and as the Spirit does so, increases the knowledge of God which, in its turn, leads to “a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him.”

In the Letter to the Galatians, Paul specifies further how the Spirit deepens our capacity to love (conversion) by walking with us and guiding us. If we walk with the Spirit, our Christ-given freedom (from slavery to the law and death) will come to its supernatural end – perfect peace, joy, and love in God’s kingdom:

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” … But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh…. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law…. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… (Gal 5:13-23).

When Paul speaks of “walking with the Spirit,” here, one may at first think that he is speaking about the “human spirit,” which is a natural human power cooperating with the Holy Spirit; but this seems unlikely in view of the fact that Paul is implicitly asking the Galatians to walk by a light that is greater than their own. This would seem to indicate that Paul is referring to the “indwelling of the Holy Spirit” as Fitzmyer suggests in his commentary on this passage in the Letter to the Galatians:

Under the influence of the indwelling Spirit, the Christian has an interior principle to counteract the “flesh” and is no longer merely confronted with the extrinsic norm of the law.

At this juncture, one may want to ask, “Isn’t love a natural virtue? Don’t non-Christians love profoundly through their own natural ability?” Undoubtedly, love, particularly affection (storge), friendship (philia), and romantic love (eros) is both a natural ability and a natural virtue, and as such, all humankind can practice it, grow in it, and be fulfilled through it. Paul here is not trying to discount the natural aspects of love, but rather, is speaking to a supernatural power and freedom (agapē) which he experiences as an overcoming of natural fear (particularly the fear of a God of strict justice), a grace to transcend the desires of the flesh, a grace to see others through the compassionate eyes of Christ, and a grace to be transformed in the very heart of Christ. This leads to a capacity not only for friendship, but also for love of enemies, self-sacrifice, unconditional commitment, and purity/authenticity of heart which seems to transcend natural human love (which is limited by fear, flesh, worldly cares, and pride). McKenzie expresses this point quite starkly when he notes:

…Paul does not exclude those who are not Christians from the kindness of Christians; agapē, however, becomes in Paul almost a synonym for the Church, of which one must be a member in order to partake of the fullness of agapē” [italics mine].

As will be seen in Unit II-J, this supernatural manifestation of love gives us a greater freedom to pursue the beatitudes (Jesus’ definition of agapē – Matt 5:3-12): humble-heartedness (poverty of spirit), gentleness of heart (meekness), desire for the salvation of the world (hungering and thirsting for righteousness), mercy and forgiveness, purity of heart, and ability to make peace. It also frees us to be more patient and trusting in times of persecution (in imitation of the heart of Christ Himself).

Paul sees this supernatural love as intrinsic to and revelatory of the love of the Trinity. He effortlessly connects the Persons of the Trinity through the love they give to us in the work of salvation. In Romans 5:5, he shows the unity of the Father and the Spirit through the love poured into our hearts: “[The Father’s] love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” In Romans 5:8, he shows the unity between the Father and the Son in the love given to us in Christ’s sacrificial death: “…[The Father] shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Again, in Romans 8:39, the unity between the Father and the Son is manifest in the love of God which cannot be separated from us in Christ: “…nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of [the Father] in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Galatians 5:22-24, he shows the unity between Christ and the Holy Spirit in the overcoming of the desire of the flesh: “…the fruit of the Spirit is love…. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Finally, in Romans 15:30, he reveals the unity of the Trinity through the Spirit’s love for us: “I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to [the Father].”

It should be emphasized that Paul is not simply theologizing abstractly here; he experiences the Holy Spirit as Love, and through this Love experiences the unity of the Persons of the Trinity. This supernatural Love brings with it three additional gifts: zeal, joy, and peace.

Zeal arises naturally out of love, which moves the Christian to share the fruits of that love with others:

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord (Rom 12:9-11 – italics mine).

Love brings a sublime, supernatural joy which is intrinsic to the divine life of the Trinity. If we love in imitation of Christ, then we should let ourselves revel in the happiness that is intrinsic to it. Thus, Paul exhorts his disciples:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:4-7)

Evidently, Paul sees the peace of God (which is the fruit of the Spirit) as connected to supernatural love and joy. This peace (which surpasses all understanding) goes beyond a feeling of well-being. As McKenzie notes:

The cognate verb of the noun [shalom] signifies such things as to finish, to complete, to pay (i.e., to complete a transaction by paying a debt); thus the word may be said to signify in general completeness, perfection – perhaps most precisely, a condition in which nothing is lacking. … The state of perfect well-being which the word designates is identified with the deity; when one possesses peace, one is in perfect and assured communion with Yahweh. … Peace does not consist in mere prosperity and well being; an essential component of peace is righteousness, and where there is no righteousness [justification by God] there is no genuine peace.

For Paul, zeal (“being aglow in the Spirit”), sublime joy, and peace (completeness in God) are all intrinsically related through love. Thus, supernatural zeal-joy-peace are as much the gifts of the Spirit as supernatural love.

We may now briefly summarize Paul’s experience of the interior gifts of the Spirit. The grace of crying out “Abba” (through the Holy Spirit) frees us from fear and darkness, and inspires us toward unconditional hope and trust in Unconditional Love, which brings with it a supernatural zeal, joy, and peace (completeness). Paul sees these graces as being at once intimately interconnected, beyond human nature, and the essence of Christian life. Though the charismatic gifts may seem to be more visible, tangible, and powerful, the interior gifts are truly the more powerful because they lead us to the eternal and unconditional Love of the Trinity. Paul believed these interior gifts to be just as much the gifts of the Spirit as the visible, tangible, powerful charisms, and for this reason, was certain that the Spirit was not merely a blind force, but the fullest expression of the consciousness and love of God the Father in His Son.

The Holy Spirit and the Divinity of Christ

Paul’s theology of Jesus’ divinity is grounded not only in his experience of the risen Jesus, but also in his experience of the Holy Spirit as “the power of God,” and in his conviction that the Spirit of the Father is given through the risen Christ. In 1Cor 6:11, Paul makes explicit the connection between the name of Jesus and the power of the Spirit which Luke recounts multiple times in Acts: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (tou Theou – with the definite article – the Father).” Here, Paul asserts the connection between the name of Jesus and the Spirit of the Father. In a sense, then, the power of God (the Father) manifested by the Spirit is the power of Jesus who continues to give that Spirit to the community.

Paul’s close association between the risen Christ and the Spirit should not be confused with an identification of them, which would imply binitarianism. Though Paul does not give a formal explanation for the distinction between Christ and the Spirit, it is clear that he does distinguish between them. As Fitzmyer notes:

There are…triadic texts in Paul’s letters that line up God (or the Father), Christ (or the Son), and the Spirit in a parallelism that becomes the basis for the later dogma of the three distinct persons in the Trinity (2 Cor 1:21-22; 13:13; 1Cor 2:7-16; 6:11; 12:4-6; Rom 5:1-5; 8:14-17; 15:30). In Gal 4:4-6 there is a double sending of the “Son” and the “Spirit of his Son,” and even though one may at first hesitate about the distinction of the Spirit and the Son here, the text probably echoes the distinct sending of the Messiah and of the Spirit in the OT (e.g., Dan 9:25; Ezek 36:26). Moreover, 1Cor 2:10-11, attributing to the Spirit a comprehensive knowledge of God’s profound thoughts, may even imply its divine [and distinctive] character.

Though Paul distinguishes the risen Jesus from the Holy Spirit throughout his corpus, he also closely associates them, making it clear that the risen Jesus continues to give His Spirit to members of the early Church. Recall that this was also the view of the early Church recounted by Luke in Acts. The association between the risen Jesus and the Spirit is so close in five texts that their distinction seems ambiguous (though Paul distinguishes them in other texts). Fitzmyer notes in this regard:

Related to this ambiguity is the designation of Christ as the “last Adam” since the resurrection, when he became “a life-giving Spirit” (1Cor 15:45), one “set up as the Son of God in power with [lit. “according to”] a spirit of holiness” (Rom 1:4). Indeed, Paul speaks of a sending of the “Spirit of the Son” (Gal 4:6), of “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:19), and of Jesus as “the Lord, the Spirit” (2Cor 3:18). Finally, he even goes so far as to say, “The Lord is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:17).

With the possible exception of the last text, one can see Paul’s distinction between Christ and the Spirit amidst the association. The genitives in “the Spirit of the Son” and “the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” should not be read as identifications of Jesus with the Spirit, but rather as the Spirit being possessed by the risen Jesus. Again, the dative in “set up as the Son of God in power with a Spirit of holiness” should not be read as an identification. The two passages in 2Cor 3 (vv. 17 and 18) are the most difficult to explain. The passage in 17, when read in full context, however, clearly manifests a distinction between the Spirit and the Lord: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” The use of the genitive in “Spirit of the Lord” (v.17) indicates a probable distinction between the two in Paul’s mind, and this may provide the context for reading the following verse (18) where Paul notes “the Lord is Spirit” (“Kuriou pneumatos”). Given these close associations (but not identifications), one can sense Paul’s conviction that Jesus not only possesses the Spirit of God (the Spirit of the Father), but also continues to give that Spirit (which is also His Spirit) to the Church community after His resurrection.

The above may shed some light on the progression of Paul’s experience and thought. First, Paul clearly experiences the Spirit as the power of God through visible, tangible, public manifestations of that power. He also experiences this divine power as conscious and loving (from the interior gifts, particularly the gift of crying out, “Abba”). Secondly, he experiences the manifestation of the Spirit in close association with the risen Jesus and with the name of the risen Jesus (similar to Luke’s experience in Acts). This association between the Spirit and Christ is so strong that he speaks of it almost unreflectively several times throughout his corpus. Thus, the Spirit is not only the Spirit of God for Paul, it is also the Spirit of Christ – that is, the same divine Spirit is at once the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Christ. Paul manifests his belief in this in Romans 8:9-11 where he almost unreflectively associates “the Spirit of God” (divine power), “the Spirit of Christ,” and “the Spirit of the Father”:

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God [“Theou” – no definite article – implying “divine Spirit” or “divine power”] really dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead [i.e., the Father] dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit [presumably, the Spirit of the Father] which dwells in you.

This passage not only implies a close association between “divine Spirit,” “the Spirit of Christ,” and “the Spirit of the Father,” but also a coequal sharing of the Spirit by the Father and the Son, which implies a coequality in divinity. Christ is not only the giver of the Spirit (personified divine power), He is also a coequal sharer of the Spirit with the Father.

Paul further manifests this conviction about the “coequal sharing of the Spirit by the Father and the Son” in Galatians 4:6:

And because you are sons, God [the Father] sent forth the Spirit of the Son of Him (exapesteilen ho Theos to pneuma tou huiou autou) into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

No matter how we read “autou” (of Him), both the Father and the Son possess the same Spirit.

Thus, for Paul, Christ is not only the giver of the Spirit, He is also a co-sharer of the Spirit with the Father – an attribute which would seem to be divine (and therefore eternal) by its very nature. This gives rise to Paul’s multiple triadic parallelisms.

As can be seen, the evidence of the Holy Spirit adds considerably to the evidence of the resurrection in the early Church’s theology of the divinity of Jesus. In the previous two Units, we saw that the evidence of the resurrection revealed Jesus to be “clothed” in the power and glory of God, and gave “God’s approbation” to everything Jesus claimed about Himself in His ministry, namely, that He would complete the mission reserved to Yahweh alone, that He was the Messiah in a universalistic, trans-worldly way, that He would bring the kingdom of God to the world in His own person, that He would defeat evil in His own person, and that He was the Son of the Father. The early Church’s experience of the Holy Spirit adds to the evidence for Jesus’ divinity by showing not only that Jesus possesses and continuously gives the Spirit of the Father (the Spirit of God), but also (by implication) shares coequally in the Spirit with the Father. Jesus is not only the Son because the Father confirms this claim in the resurrection; He is the Son because He possesses and continuously gives the Spirit of the Father implying that He shares coequally in that same Spirit. Paul did not miss the significance of this, and integrated it not only into his doctrine of the Trinity, but also into His doctrine of the divinity of Jesus.

Though Paul is responsible for much of the early theology about the Father and Son sharing the same Spirit, the early Church seems to have been implicitly aware of it. Expressions like “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7), “the Spirit of Christ” (1Peter 1:11), and “Spirit of the Lord” (which may refer to the Spirit of the risen Jesus in Acts 5:8-10 and 8:39) reveal primitive, non-Pauline strands of this theology in the early Church. The Pauline and Johannine development of this theology may have been partially responsible for the movement from “Jesus as Lord” (a general acknowledgement of Jesus’ divinity) to a specific acknowledgment of “Jesus as coequal with the Father.” As was noted in Unit II-B, the early Church had already developed this theology in a remarkably sophisticated way in the early Christological hymns (particularly John 1:1ff – “and the Word was God,” and Phil 2:6ff – “He did not deem equality with God something to be held onto…”).

In any case, there is an obvious synergy between the Church’s experience of the risen Jesus in a transformed-corporeal form, and its experience of the Spirit of God as continuously given through the name of Jesus. Jesus not only possesses the power and glory of the Father in His risen state, He possesses the Father’s Spirit (and implicitly shares in that same Spirit). When the early Church saw this synergy, it believed that Jesus was entitled to do everything He claimed: to bring the kingdom of God in His own person, to defeat evil in His own person, and to complete the mission reserved for Yahweh alone in His own person. He was entitled to do these things not because the Spirit, power, and glory of God were extrinsic to Him, but because they were intrinsic to Him; they were not given to a man in order to do the mission of God (which would have been insufficient), they belonged to a Son who was entitled to accomplish the mission of God. This is the reason that the early (pre-Pauline) Christological hymns testify so clearly to Jesus’ co-equality with the Father.

We may now proceed to the manifestation of Jesus’ divinity in His ministry: His miracles (Unit II-F) and His self-revelation (Unit II-G).