THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
(The presence of the Holy Spirit in the words and works of the Son)
Throughout his ministry Jesus Christ, the Son of God, taught and worked in complete union with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus affirmed that his words and his works were the words and works of the Father, and that he did nothing apart from the Father:
‘...the Son can do nothing by himself he can do only what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does’ (John 5:19).
‘The words that I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work’ (John 14:10).
He also affirmed that the Holy Spirit was present and active in his words and his works. It is a trinitarian impossibility for Father, Son and Spirit to speak or to act without the presence each other or in contradiction of each other. Both the Father and the Spirit are present and active in the words and works of the Son. It simply cannot be otherwise.
So we find, in the relationship of the Spirit with the incarnate Son, that:
Just as the Father moved and directed the Son, so also did the Spirit (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1).
Just as the Father worked in and through the Son, so also the Spirit empowered the works of the Son (Matthew 12:28; Luke 4:14).
The anointing of the Spirit that rested on the Son and defined his ministry, was the anointing of God (Isaiah 61:1, 2; Luke 4:18, 19; Acts 10:38).
That the Holy Spirit, like God the Father, works in and through the words of the Son to give life to those who receive his words (John 5:24; 6:63).
That the teaching of Jesus the Son and the teaching of Holy Spirit are identical (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13, 14).
That the Holy Spirit was at work in the death and resurrection of the Son (Romans 1:4; 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 9:14; 1Peter 3:18).
Jesus repeatedly taught that his words and his works were the words and works that he received from God the Father: that what the Father said, he said, that what the Father did, he did, and that he only did and said what the Father did and said. Now from the above verses we learn of a similar intimacy and unity of will and word and work between the Son and the Spirit, and, therefore, between the Father and the Spirit. For we see clearly here, that in all that the Son does, he does with the presence, empowerment and support of the Spirit.
This is not an evidence of inferiority or dependency, but of unity of will, action and purpose. The Spirit of God was not off somewhere in inactive, uninvolved isolation during the incarnation of the Son. The Spirit of God was right there in full measure, working together with the Son to reveal the Father.
It is in this context that we understand Jesus’ teaching about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in Matthew 12:25-32:
When Jesus cast out demons [or did or said anything, for that matter] it was ‘by the Spirit of God’. If we do not see the words and works of Jesus as the words and works of God – if we see them as just human words and works, or worse still as the words and works of Satan – forgiveness is impossible. As long as we deny God here, as long as we blaspheme God here where the Spirit of God is impressing and challenging us with God’s final self-revelation in the words and works of his Son, there can be no salvation. Continuing rejection of God here is our final irrevocable blasphemy.
As John has recorded in John 8:31-47, the Jew’s failure to believe in Jesus as the divine Son stemmed from their fundamental alienation from God and rejection of God, and from their fundamental allegiance to Satan, in which it was impossible for them to hear the words of God.
To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, to speak against the Holy Spirit, to reject him here in his evident presence in and unity with the incarnate Son of God, is to deny the deity of Christ. It is to deny that Jesus is indeed ‘Immanuel’ – God with us. To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit here in the words and works of the Son is to reject God.
© Rosemary Bardsley 2024