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
Podcast: Is there Any Kind of Indicator or Sign that I’ve Received the Holy Spirit?
Greg talks about his background in the Pentecostal Church, and offers his own thoughts on what it looks like when we are full of the Holy Spirit. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0351.mp3
What Kind of God Did Jesus Reveal?
The ReKnew Manifesto exists to encourage believers and skeptics alike to re-think things they thought they already knew – hence our name, Re-Knew. I am currently working through the theology of the Manifesto in a series of posts that began a couple of months ago. Over the last few posts, we have been looking at the…
Is God All-Powerful?
I want to answer yes and no. God is all-powerful in the sense that God originally possessed all power. Before Creation, God was the only being who existed, and thus had all the power there was. He could do anything, and nothing opposed Him. But with the creation of free creatures, I maintain, God necessarily…
Does the Doctrine of the Trinity Matter?
Jesus reveals the greatest, most beautiful, and mysterious aspect of God when he, despite being himself God Incarnate, relates to God as his “Father” and refers to God as “the Holy Spirit.” There is, of course, only one God (1 Cor 8:6). Yet Jesus reveals that God somehow exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.…
Participating in the Divine Nature (Love)
When God created the world, it obviously wasn’t to finally have someone to love, for God already had this, within himself. Rather God created the world to express the love he is and invite others in on this love. This purpose is most beautifully expressed in Jesus’ prayer in John 17. Jesus prays to his…
Sermon Clip: Escaping the Twilight Zone God
In this sermon clip from Woodland Hills Church, Greg Boyd discusses how in an episode of the Twilight Zone, a young boy gained omnipotent powers, and people were forced to accept his every decision as good—or else. In the full sermon, Greg shows how many people view God this way, and he opens up another…