The Person and History of the Holy Spirit Part 2: Trinitarian Ecstasy
Last time I began discussing the need to understand spirituality, the present activity of the Spirit in our lives, through a Biblical understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit as revealed in his primary roles in history. Through looking at the history of the Holy Spirit we hope to learn about the person of the Holy Spirit. By this route we hope to more clearly understand spirituality via pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit).
Our study of the Holy Spirit’s history must find its initial bearings in the infinite and eternal Fellowship of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit comes to us ever only as one of the distinct but inseparable persons of the triune God. Everything we understand and express about the Holy Spirit must have its foundation on the revelation of the Trinity, the God who has not, does not and will not exist apart from relationship. One of the most fundamental articulations we can make concerning the Spirit is that forever He has and will be a member of the most deeply enjoyable, poignantly loving and profoundly ecstatic communities of persons in existence. This is the chronological starting point for understanding the Spirit’s person and work, since before the world was born the Spirit possessed eternal pre-existence. In this pre-existence, the Spirit’s primary occupation was the enjoyment of the intra-trinitarian relationships.
2 Corinthians 13.14 – “May the grace of the Lord Jesus the Messiah, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
In this verse it is curious as to why fellowship is specially linked with the Spirit, while grace with the Messiah and love with the Father. It seems that the Spirit’s unique role and offering in redemption is fellowship, koinonia. This fellowship is a deep interpersonal sharing, the participation of one person in the life of another. Koinonia is shared life.
What is the fellowship that the Spirit gives? The fellowship of believers with himself? The Spirit’s fellowship in the Trinity? Fellowship between all believers? It is difficult to know with certainty if only one of these is intended. It seems that the Spirit both gives and forges community by his presence and also brings people into fellowship with Himself.
If the Spirit does not only bring people into fellowship, but is himself a participant in the community he creates, and he himself becomes their sharing in each other, then fellowship is not simply something the spirit gives, it is something he himself is. Fellowship is the Spirit’s own elemental nature. The fellowship is truly the fellowship of the Spirit.
The Spirit only exists as part of the Trinitarian relations with the Father and the Son. There the Spirit is fully engaged in an eternal movement of vibrant delight, love and self-giving. It is out of that fellowship that the Spirit is sent forth and it is in correspondence to that fellowship that the Spirit fashions fellowship with and amongst believers. The Spirit proceeds from the triune life of relationality and opens that fellowship for human beings to participate in.
This fellowship is “with you all.” This means that it is a dynamically open fellowship. Despite the many problems and difficulties that existed in the Corinthian community, all were invited to participate in the triune life of God. All were invited to partake of a shared life together with each other and God.
Here we learn that first and foremost, the Holy Spirit operates in and for relationship. Our first consideration in any present interpretation of the Spirit and its activity must take into account its eternal occupation and preoccupation. Ever and always the Spirit is consumed in love, receiving, giving, fashioning and forming relationships of deep and intimate affection.
Related posts
« The Person and History of the Holy Spirit Part 1: The Holy Spirit in Context
Theology of Creation in Isaiah Part 1 »
