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The Holy Spirit is one of the members of the Trinity, in eternal and indivisible union with the Father and the Son. As such, in all of God’s external acts He works inseparably together with the Father and the Son. He is active throughout the history of the universe, without intermission, in all the ways that He operates. There should be no surprise that this is the case throughout the history of redemption, in the Old Testament as well as the New. At the same time, there are distinct developments that take place in relation to His church and to us after the decisive events of the death, resurrection, and ascension of the incarnate Son.
the spirit of god in the old testament
Creation. It is clear from the Old Testament that creation was the work of the indivisible Trinity, even though its fuller revelation awaited the coming of Christ. In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God is brooding over the waters, which are then pushed back to accommodate life on earth. The implication is that the Spirit gives life to all creatures. Thus, the Spirit was fully engaged in the creation of humanity. The plural in Genesis 1:26–27—“Let us make man in our image”—entails the inseparable involvement of all three persons. In the Psalms, the Spirit is described as the Creator (“by the breath of his mouth”; Ps. 33:6–9), the giver of life, and the preserver and governor of the universe (Ps. 104:27–30). No wonder that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (AD 381) describes the Holy Spirit as “the Lord and Giver of Life.”
Furthermore, the Spirit pervades the created order, maintaining it and granting life to all His creatures (Job 26:13; 27:3; 32:8; 33:4; 34:14–15; Ps. 104:27–30; Isa. 40:7; 42:5; 59:19). He gives life to dead bones (Ezek. 37:5–14). He is omnipresent, inescapable (Ps. 139:7), identified with God rather than created beings (Isa. 40:12–14), the breath of the Almighty that gives humans understanding (Job 32:8) and that sustains or in turn withers contingent entities (Isa. 40:7). The Spirit’s pervasion and direction of the world is continuous, without intermission, operative as much before as after the advent of Christ. It is not constrained or limited by what happens in redemption.
In and with God’s people. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is sometimes equated with the breath of God, indicating action that effects dramatic change. The Spirit rushes upon Saul, on His messengers, and on David, while also departing from Saul (1 Sam. 10:5–12; 16:13–14; 19:18–24) and producing sudden, overwhelming transitory impulses not necessarily related to a person’s condition (Judg. 13:25; 14:19).
The Spirit appoints and endows the capacity for office, such as in the cases of the seventy elders, of Joshua in succeeding Moses, and of David’s anointing as king (Num. 11:16–25; Deut. 34:9; 1 Sam. 10:1; 16:13).
The Spirit is shared among the leaders of Israel. The Lord took the Spirit that was on Moses and placed Him on the seventy elders (Num. 11:25). Moses laid hands on Joshua, with the result that he was filled with the Spirit of wisdom (Deut. 34:9). Elisha received a double portion of the Spirit from Elijah (2 Kings 2:5–14). The Spirit is not a possession of any one individual.
The Spirit gives knowledge and insight (Gen. 41:38; Num. 11:16–17, 25; 27:18–20; Ezek. 3:12–24; 8:3; 11:1, 5; 37:1). He is the source of prophecy. The Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed states that the Holy Spirit “spoke by the prophets.” Very occasionally, this happened in ecstatic ways, but as an exception rather than a rule. The writing prophets were hardly in a trancelike state; their faculties were fully engaged in research, as they examined the historical records and then crafted their writing. That the capacity to prophesy in these particular ways came from the Spirit and not from inherent human abilities is clear. From this, Paul and others conclude that the Spirit of God breathed out the Scriptures of the Old Testament in all the ways that they were produced (2 Tim. 3:16–17; 1 Peter 1:10–12; 2 Peter 1:20–21) while using the actions of the human authors. Furthermore, the Spirit’s voice is living and dynamic, for He still speaks (present tense) through the text that He inspired (Heb. 3:7).
That the Spirit’s coming upon a person cannot be identified with ecstatic experiences is evident in the case of Bezalel, the craftsman who produced the tabernacle furniture. He had been filled by the Spirit for this purpose, as had other “able men” (Ex. 31:1–6). Throughout their lives, the Spirit had guided and equipped these men to develop the skills and craftsmanship required, superintending their work over a lifetime of patient learning and development.
Above all, an outpouring of the Spirit was to accompany the future realization of the kingdom of God in the coming of the Messiah (Isa. 42:1; 61:1–3; Joel 2:28–32; Zech. 4:6), an effusion that was to be in abundant measure (Isa. 11:1–10; 32:15–18), resting on the Anointed One for His work, and in turn poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28–32).
In individuals. In the Old Testament, the Spirit is God’s presence, and therefore He was with and in His people. It might appear that, according to Psalm 51:11, the Spirit was with the faithful on merely an intermittent basis. This is not the case, however. David, in confessing his sin, realizes that continued impenitence is incompatible with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, confessing Yahweh as the one true God, given the range of pressures from Near Eastern paganism, was as dependent on the Spirit as is confessing Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3).
In the Old Testament, we find “the indwelling Spirit of holiness in the hearts of God’s children,” as B.B. Warfield says. Warfield points to “the revolutionary ethical consequences” that follow, with conviction of sin, changes in lives, and protection from the nation’s enemies (1 Sam. 10:6; Pss. 51:11; 143:10–11; Isa. 63:10–14). Warfield concludes, correctly, that the Spirit was operative in all the areas that He is said to be at work in the New Testament.
the holy spirit in the new testament
After Pentecost, there is a dramatic increase in reference to the Spirit at work. Clearly, He is presented as functioning in larger and more evident ways. All these particular works are redemptive. Since the history of redemption reaches its climax in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, this is hardly surprising. Pentecost is an integral part of that. Here the prophecies of, among others, Jeremiah 31:31–33 and Joel 2:28–32 reach their fulfillment.
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18–23), and thereafter the Spirit pervades the birth and infancy narratives in Luke (2:25–27; 3:16, 21–22; 4:1, 14, 16–19). At the outset of Jesus’ ministry, He is anointed by the Spirit (Matt. 3:13–17; Mark 1:10–11; Luke 3:21–22). At the cross, He offers Himself to the Father through the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), and it is by the Spirit that the Father raises Him from the dead, as He will raise us in the future (Rom. 8:10–11). His ascension is inextricably connected with the coming of the Spirit a few days later (Acts 1:8–11).
Thereafter, the Spirit is at work in the church. He sends the Apostles on their journey and directs them on the details of their work (Acts 13:2–4; 16:6–10). He fills and equips leaders for their task (Acts 6:1–6; 2 Tim. 1:7). He continues to superintend the writing of Scripture (2 Peter 1:20–21). He gives gifts to His church.
He personally indwells the faithful, making His permanent residence with us and in us (John 14:16–23; Eph. 3:16–17), and He intercedes for us as we try to pray (Rom. 8:26–27). He enables us to grow in grace and to conquer sin. He grants life (vv. 1–14). He assures us of our adoption (vv. 15–16; Gal. 4:4–6). It is by His power and grace that we worship the Father through the Son (Eph. 2:18). He assures us of our salvation (Rom. 8:15–17; 1 John 3:24) and is the guarantor of our future inheritance (Eph. 1:13–14). He is transforming us into the image of the glorified Christ, from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). His words strengthen us as we face death (Rev. 14:13). He will raise us from the dead, in union with Christ the Son, just as He did with Christ Himself (Rom. 8:10–11). Our resurrection bodies and the mode of life that we will have will be in and under the pervasive power of the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:35–49).
He is still providentially moving in the world and the universe, governing it inseparably with the Father and the Son in the unity of the indivisible Trinity. Nothing here changes, not through inertia but because God Himself is eternally true to who He is.
For all the developments that occurred at Pentecost, there is a clear continuity with the state of the covenant community of the Old Testament. Yet that should not be thought to diminish the impact of the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, and Pentecost. What was present before, perhaps in the background, is now powerfully prominent in center stage. We have been said to be living in the age of the Spirit, and therefore, we are directed, with the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed, to “look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come,” where unimaginably greater things await us (1 Cor. 2:9).