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 Different Than You Think
The revelation of “[a] God humiliated even unto the cross,” as Pascal put it, flies in the face of what most Jews of Jesus’ time, and of what most people throughout history, have expected God to be. In this light, we can discern the thematic centrality of the cross in Jesus’ many teachings that reverse…
Hearing and Responding to God: Part 5
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on hearing and responding to God. In this last video on the topic, Greg discusses the significance of the fact that God IS love, and how our communion with him is the product of God’s eternal loving nature. You can watch the earlier installments here, here, here, and here. ***Bonus: Greg experiences a…
Jesus and His Father
Greg addresses a question from a reader about the nature of the Godhead. If Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, what does this mean about the Trinity, if there are indeed three distinct persons?
On the Language of “Revolution”
Nick Thompson via Compfight Question: The banner of your website and the thrust of much of your teaching focuses on “revolution.” While I can see a radical call in some of the sayings of Jesus, especially if he were addressing upper-middle class North Americans, I wonder if attaching revolutionary language to his teaching seems a…
Henry’s Mom: Did God Author This?
Many of you were touched last month when we featured some reflections on little Henry’s death. Well, Henry’s mother Jess has started a blog to process through some of her thoughts and we wanted to share this amazing piece with all of you. Jess thinks ahead to the time when her two-year-old daughter will start…
3 Traits of a Jesus Kind of Church
A Jesus kind of church (See an introductory post on this here) is called to represent God, just as Christ did. The church is Christ continuing to manifest the true God. Bonhoeffer put it this way, “The Church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ Himself who has taken form…