We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
The Holy Spirit Behind the Scenes
In John 17 we read Jesus’ prayer to be one with each another in Christ. Jesus prayed that his disciples
… may be one. As you, Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us. … I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. … I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:21, 23, 26)
Our union with the Father reflects and participates in the union of the Father, Son, and Spirit. The same glory that the Father ascribes to the Son is now given to all who are in the Son, which is to say, we participate in the glory of God. However, this passage only mentions the Father and Son, leaving out the Holy Spirit. Why is this the case?
I argue that the Holy Spirit is very much included in our participation in the Father and Son’s love for one another, but he is so as a “silent partner.” The particular way that the Spirit lovingly and submissively participates in our dance with the triune God is by working behind the scenes, as it were, to make it all happen. The Spirit is not the explicit object of the dance but the one working on the inside to open the dance up for us to participate.
Here are some of the ways that the Spirit does this. The Holy Spirit:
- works in our hearts to open us up to trust in Christ Jesus (John 3:5; 1 Cor 12:3).
- reconciles us to the Father through Christ (Eph 2:18).
- abides in us (1 John 3:24).
- teaches us (John 14:26; 16:13).
- transforms us (2 Cor 3:17-18).
- empowers us (Acts 1:8; Rom 8:13).
- leads us (Rom 8:14; Gal 5:18).
- sets us free from the law (Rom 7:6; 8:2-4).
- mediates the abundant life of the Trinity to us (John 7:38-39; Rom 8:14; 16; 26-27).
The Holy Spirit causes the love the Father has for us to abide within us and flow through us (Rom 5:5; Col 1:8). Thus the unity of the church—our being one as the Father and the Spirit are one—is the unity in the Holy Spirit.
Our participation in the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father is a participation in the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son (Rom 8:9-11). The Holy Spirit works and abides within us, pointing us to Christ, placing us in Christ, all the while causing us to participate in and be transformed by the love the Father has for the Son and the love the Son has for the Father.
Adapted from Repenting of Religion, pages 39-41
Photo credit: Sint-Katelijne-Waver on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND
Category: General
Tags: Love, The Holy Spirit, Trinity
Related Reading
God is Love: Full Stop
Not many Christians would disagree that God is love, but many would quickly qualify that with some other kind of attribute such as justice. But love is not just one of the attributes of God alongside all others. Love is the essence of all the attributes of God. If you’d like to hear the entire sermon, you…
Knowing the Eternal God
If all our knowledge about God is to be oriented around the cross, as I argue in many places (see this post for instance), what does this mean for how we reflect on God’s transcendence? In other words, how can we speak of God’s eternal being since there obviously was no cross within God prior…
The “Heresy” of Failing to Love
In what is hands-down the most amazing prayer ever recorded, Jesus prayed to his Father that his disciples “may be one…just as you are in me and I am in you” so that “the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn.17:21). In other words, Jesus was praying that we who profess Christ as Lord…
Sanctuary
. SantiMB . via Compfight Jamie Wright wrote this penetrating essay of encountering a woman in a moment of extremity and need. It’s a reminder of our great need for a sanctuary, a safe place to come when the world has gone mad and we have nowhere else to go. From her essay: Because,…
How Judging Blocks Love
What keeps us from fulfilling the law of love that is exemplified by Jesus and laid out in the Scriptures (Matt. 22:39-40; Rom 13:8,10 Gal 5:14)? In a word, we like to pass verdicts. To some extent, we get our sense of worth from attaching worth or detracting worth from others, based on what we…
Finger-Pointing and the Impulse to Judge
To no one’s surprise, yet to the sadness of many of us, several Christian spokespeople, including James Dobson, Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer, are blaming the shootings in Newtown, Conn, on abortion and gay marriage. This is sadly reminiscent of Jerry Falwell’s hurtful response to 9/11 when he divined that “the pagans,” “abortionists,” “feminists,” “gays,” “lesbians,”…