The Working of the Holy Spirit

The next thing to look into, as briefly as I can, is the Holy Spirit. Everyone who perceives in any way at all that there is a providence at work confesses that God, who created and arranged all things, is unbegotten, and recognizes him as the parent of the universe. [a]

Now the claim that a Son belongs to him is not made by us alone — though it may look astonishing and hard to believe to men who have a reputation as philosophers among Greeks and barbarians. Even so, some of them do seem to have had an idea of his existence, since they acknowledge that all things were created by the word, or reason, of God. But we, holding to the teaching we are certain was given by God’s own inspiration, believe there is no other way to explain this higher and more divine reason as the Son of God, and to bring it within reach of human knowledge, than by the Scriptures alone that the Holy Spirit inspired — the Gospels and the letters, and the law and the prophets — as Christ himself declared.

As for the Holy Spirit, no one could even have suspected that he exists except those who were familiar with the law and the prophets, or those who profess faith in Christ. For although no one can speak with certainty about God the Father, some knowledge of him can still be gained from the visible creation and from the natural feelings of the human mind, and that knowledge can be confirmed from the sacred Scriptures. But when it comes to the Son of God, although no one knows the Son except the Father, it is again from sacred Scripture that the human mind is taught how to think about the Son — and not only from the New Testament but from the Old as well, through things that were done by holy people and yet refer figuratively to Christ, things from which both his divine nature and the human nature he took on can be discovered.

What the Holy Spirit is, Scripture teaches us in many places. David says in the fifty-first Psalm, “And do not take your Holy Spirit away from me;” and in Daniel it is said, “The Holy Spirit that is in you.” In the New Testament the evidence is abundant. The Holy Spirit is described as coming down on Christ. The Lord breathed on his apostles after his resurrection and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit;” the angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you;” and Paul declares that no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit. In the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Spirit was given at baptism by the laying on of the apostles’ hands. [d]

From all of this we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit is of such authority and dignity that saving baptism is not complete except by the authority of the Trinity, the most excellent of all — that is, by naming Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and joining to the unbegotten God the Father, and to his only Son, the name of the Holy Spirit as well. Who, then, is not amazed at the surpassing majesty of the Holy Spirit, when he hears that a man who speaks a word against the Son of Man may hope for forgiveness, but that a man guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness, either in this present age or in the age to come?

That all things were created by God, and that there is no creature in existence that has not received its being from him, is established by many statements of Scripture. This refutes and rejects the false claims some people make about matter existing eternally alongside God, or about unbegotten souls in which, they would have it, God planted not so much the power of existence as equality and order. For even in that little book called The Shepherd, or The Angel of Repentance, which Hermas composed, we read this: “First of all, believe that there is one God who created and arranged all things; who, when nothing existed before, caused all things to be; who himself contains all things, but is himself contained by none.” The book of Enoch has descriptions like it. [j]

But so far we have not been able to find a single statement in holy Scripture in which the Holy Spirit could be said to be a thing made or a created thing — not even in the way we showed above that Solomon speaks of the divine wisdom, or in which the other expressions we discussed are to be understood of the life, or the word, or the remaining titles of the Son of God. So the Spirit of God that was borne over the waters, as is written at the beginning of the creation of the world, is in my opinion none other than the Holy Spirit, so far as I can understand it — as indeed we showed in our exposition of those passages themselves, taking them not in the historical but in the spiritual sense.

Some of our predecessors have observed that in the New Testament, whenever “the Spirit” is named without the word that marks what kind of spirit is meant, the Holy Spirit is to be understood — as in the expression, “Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace;” and, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being brought to completion in the flesh?” We think this distinction can be observed in the Old Testament as well, as where it says, “He who gives his Spirit to the people who are on the earth, and Spirit to those who walk on it.” For without doubt everyone who walks on the earth — that is, earthly and bodily beings — also shares in the Holy Spirit, receiving it from God. [n]

My Hebrew teacher used to say that the two seraphim in Isaiah, described as each having six wings and calling to one another and saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts,” were to be understood of the only Son of God and of the Holy Spirit. And we think the words in Habakkuk’s hymn, “In the midst either of the two living things, or of the two lives, you will be known,” ought to be understood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit as well.

For all knowledge of the Father comes by the Son’s revealing him through the Holy Spirit, so that both of these beings, which the prophet calls either “living things” or “lives,” are the ground on which God the Father is known. For as it is said of the Son, “No one knows the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,” so the apostle says the same of the Holy Spirit when he declares, “God has revealed them to us through his Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God;” and again in the Gospel, when the Savior speaks of the divine and deeper parts of his teaching, which his disciples were not yet able to take in, he addresses them like this: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, comes, he will teach you all things and will bring to your remembrance everything I have said to you.” We must understand, then, that just as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals him to whom he will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God to whom he will: “For the Spirit blows where he wills.”

We are not, however, to suppose that the Spirit gets his knowledge through the Son’s revealing it. For if the Holy Spirit knows the Father by the Son’s revelation, then he passes from not knowing into knowing; and it is both irreverent and foolish to confess the Holy Spirit and then charge him with ignorance. Even granting that something else existed before the Holy Spirit, it was not by advancing step by step that he came to be the Holy Spirit — as if anyone would dare say that at the time when he was not yet the Holy Spirit he did not know the Father, and that after receiving knowledge he was made the Holy Spirit. If that were so, the Holy Spirit would never be counted in the unity of the Trinity — that is, along with the unchangeable Father and his Son — unless he had always been the Holy Spirit. When we use words like “always” or “was,” or any other word that marks time, they are not to be taken absolutely but with allowance made. For while such words have meanings that refer to time, and while the subjects we are speaking of are spoken of, by a stretch of language, as existing in time, they nevertheless surpass in their real nature everything a limited understanding can conceive.

Still, it seems right to ask why the man who is born anew by God for salvation has to do with Father and Son and Holy Spirit alike, and does not obtain salvation unless the whole Trinity works together, and why it is impossible to have a share in the Father or the Son without the Holy Spirit. In discussing this it will certainly be necessary to describe what is proper to the working of the Holy Spirit, and of the Father, and of the Son. [t]

My opinion, then, is this. The working of the Father and of the Son takes place in holy people and in sinners alike, in beings that can reason and in animals that cannot speak — yes, even in things that have no life, and in absolutely everything that exists. But the working of the Holy Spirit does not take place at all in things that have no life, nor in things that are alive but cannot speak; and it is not found even in those who do have reason but are set on evil courses and have not turned at all to a better life. I think the working of the Holy Spirit takes place only in those who are already turning to a better life and walking the road that leads to Jesus Christ — that is, in those who are busy doing good and who remain in God.

That the working of the Father and the Son operates in holy people and in sinners alike is clear from this: everyone who can reason shares in the Word — that is, in reason — and by this means carries certain seeds planted within, seeds of wisdom and righteousness, which is Christ. Everything there is, whatever it is, has a share in him who truly exists, the one who said through Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” That share in God the Father is held by righteous men and sinners, by beings that reason and beings that do not, and by absolutely everything that exists. [v]

The apostle Paul also shows truly that all have a share in Christ when he says, “Do not say in your heart, Who will go up into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, Who will go down into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead.) But what does the Scripture say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” By this he means that Christ is in the heart of everyone, in that he is the Word, or reason, by sharing in which they are able to reason.

That statement in the Gospel too — “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin” — makes it plain and obvious to anyone with a reasoning knowledge of such things how long a man is without sin and from what point he becomes liable to it. Men are said to have sinned by sharing in the Word, or reason, from the time they are made capable of understanding and knowledge, when the reason planted within has shown them the difference between good and evil; and once they have begun to know what evil is, they become liable to sin if they commit it. And this is the meaning of the saying that men “have no excuse for their sin”: that from the time the divine Word, or reason, has begun to show them inwardly the difference between good and evil, they ought to keep away from what is wicked and guard against it. “For to the one who knows how to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Moreover, that no man is without communion with God is taught in the Gospel by the Savior’s words: “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, Look, here! or, Look, there! For the kingdom of God is within you.” But here we must consider whether this does not carry the same meaning as the words in Genesis: “And he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” For if that is understood to apply to all men generally, then all men have a share in God.

But if it is to be understood as spoken of the Spirit of God — since Adam too is found to have prophesied about certain things — then it may be taken not as applying generally, but as limited to those who are holy. And finally, at the time of the flood, when all flesh had corrupted its way before God, it is recorded that God spoke this way about undeserving men and sinners: “My Spirit will not remain in these men forever, because they are flesh.” By this it is plainly shown that the Spirit of God is taken away from everyone who is unworthy. [y]

In the Psalms it is also written: “You will take away their spirit, and they will die and return to their earth. You will send out your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth;” which is plainly meant of the Holy Spirit, who, after sinners and unworthy people have been taken away and destroyed, creates a new people for himself and renews the face of the earth — when, laying aside the old man with his deeds through the grace of the Spirit, they begin to walk in newness of life. And so the words are properly applied to the Holy Spirit, because he will take up his dwelling not in all men, and not in those who are flesh, but in those whose land has been renewed.

Lastly, this is the reason the grace and revelation of the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of the apostles’ hands after baptism. Our Savior too, after the resurrection, when old things had already passed away and everything had become new — he himself a new man and the firstborn from the dead, and his apostles renewed by faith in his resurrection — says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is surely what the Lord and Savior meant to convey in the Gospel when he said that new wine cannot be put into old wineskins, but ordered that the skins be made new: that is, that men should walk in newness of life, so that they might receive the new wine, which is the newness of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

In this way, then, the working of the power of God the Father and of the Son extends without distinction to every creature; but a share in the Holy Spirit we find held only by holy people. And so it is said, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” And on one occasion even the apostles themselves are scarcely counted worthy to hear the words, “You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.”

For this reason too, I think, it follows that the man who has sinned against the Son of Man deserves forgiveness. If someone who shares in the Word, or reason, of God stops living reasonably, he seems to have fallen into a state of ignorance or folly, and so to deserve forgiveness. But the man who has been counted worthy to have a portion of the Holy Spirit and has then fallen back is, by that very act and work, said to be guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Let no one suppose that, because we have said the Holy Spirit is granted to holy people alone while the benefits and workings of the Father and of the Son reach good and bad, righteous and unrighteous, we are therefore giving the Holy Spirit preference over the Father and the Son, or claiming that his dignity is greater. That would certainly be a very illogical conclusion. What we have been describing is simply what is peculiar to his grace and his workings. Nothing in the Trinity can be called greater or less, since the fountain of divinity alone contains all things by his Word and reason, and by the Spirit of his mouth makes holy everything that is worthy of being made holy, as it is written in the Psalm: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made firm, and all their power by the Spirit of his mouth.”

There is also a special working of God the Father, over and above the one by which he gave every existing thing the gift of natural life. There is also a special ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ toward those on whom he confers by nature the gift of reason, by which they are enabled to be rightly what they are. And there is another grace of the Holy Spirit, which is bestowed on the deserving through the ministry of Christ and the working of the Father, in proportion to the merits of those who are made capable of receiving it. The apostle Paul points this out most clearly when he shows that the power of the Trinity is one and the same, in these words: “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of workings, but it is the same God who works all things in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for what is useful.” From this it follows most clearly that there is no difference within the Trinity, but that what is called the gift of the Spirit is made known through the Son and worked by God the Father. “But all these are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one individually as he wills.”