THE ETERNAL PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Stuart Olyott

We have seen that the Son of God is what He is, because of the Father. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is what He is, because of the Father and the Son. The whole picture is ably summarized by the Westminster Confession, when it says, 'In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.' So we see that while our Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of as begotten of God, and we talk of the 'eternal generation of the Son' when we talk of the source of His being, in the case of the Holy Spirit we say that He 'proceeds' (John 15:26), and the term used of the source of His being is 'the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit'. This procession of the Holy Spirit, sometimes called 'spiration', is His personal property. It is the thing which can be said about Him cannot be said about the Father or the Son.

What we are talking about, then, is 'that eternal necessary act of the first and second persons of Trinity whereby they, within the divine Being, ground of the personal subsistence of the Holy Spirit, and put the third person in possession of the whole divine essence, without any division, alienation or change' (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p. 97).

That is a lot to take in! But it should be clear that we are talking about something very similar to the truth of the last chapter. Similar–but not exactly the same, for there are some important differences. Generation is the work of the Father alone, while spiration is the work of both the Father and the Son. By His eternal generation the Son is enabled to take part in the work of spiration, but the Holy Spirit does not acquire anything similar as a result of His procession. Logically (but not, of course, chronologically–for all that takes place in the Godhead is timeless) generation takes place before spiration. None the less, just as the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, without being inferior to Him, so the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son without being inferior to them. He is what He is because of them. But He is not Cod in a lesser sense.

That, simply, is the doctrine of the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit. But how did the church, in the early centuries, arrive at these conclusions? Is this doctrine merely the invention of a few ancient theologians? Certainly not. It is a truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures.

In chapter 5 we saw that the Holy Spirit is a Person, who is God Himself, and yet who is neither the Father nor the Son. It would be wearying to repeat now everything that was said there, yet the teaching of that chapter needs to be carefully remembered in all that follows. But seeing that God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and all that can be said about God can be said of each of the three Persons, why is the third Person alone called 'the Spirit'? There must be a reason why the name 'the Spirit' is used of Him, and not of the Father or the Son. The Father is God, and God is a Spirit. The Son is God, and God is a Spirit. But it is the third Person of the Godhead who alone carries the title, 'the Holy Spirit'.

The English word 'spirit' comes from the Latin spiritus, which means 'breath', 'wind', 'air', 'life' or 'soul'. This word comes in turn from the verb spiro, which means 'to breathe'. The Hebrew and Greek words of the Old and New Testaments, which are translated 'spirit' in our English Bibles, have the same shades of meaning as spiritus and spiro. The third Person of the Trinity is called 'the Spirit', because He is the One who is breathed out by the Father and the Son. His unique title indicates what is His relationship to the other two Persons of the Trinity. It expresses His personal property. The titles 'the Father' and 'the Son' show what mutual relationships exist between the first and second Persons. In the same way the phrases 'the Spirit', 'Spirit of God', 'Spirit of the Son' and 'Spirit which proceedeth from the Father' are used of the third Person, to indicate what are His eternal personal relationships with the first and second Persons. Of course, He is called the Holy Spirit because He is the Author of all holiness, purity and beauty, wherever it is found in the universe–a subject which is outside the scope of this book.

In John 15:26 our Lord Jesus Christ says that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father–a truth He had already mentioned in John 14:16-17. He goes on to describe Him as 'the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father'. This is but one of many references which reveal the relationship of the Spirit to the Father. Addressing Jehovah, the psalmist writes, 'Thou sendest forth thy Spirit' (Psalm 104:30). It is because He has this relation to the Father that He is called 'the Spirit of God' (1 Corinthians 2:11); 'the Spirit of the living God' (2 Corinthians 3:3); 'the Spirit of the Lord' (2 Corinthians 3:17); and 'the Spirit of glory and of God' (1 Peter 4:14).

But if we look again at John 15:26, we see that the promise of Jesus is of the Comforter whom I will send unto you from the Father'. What the Scriptures say of the relation of the Spirit to the Father, they also say of the relation of the Spirit to the Son. And so in Acts 16:6-7 modern translations correctly render the Greek 'the Holy Spirit... the Spirit of Jesus'. Elsewhere He is referred to as 'the Spirit of Jesus Christ' (Philippians 1:19), and 'the Spirit of Christ' (1 Peter 1:11).

On a number of occasions it is made clear in the same verse that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and acts for them both. Talking of 'the Spirit' in Romans 8:9, Paul switches naturally from the term 'the Spirit of God' to what is obviously a parallel term, 'the Spirit of Christ'. In Galatians 4:6 he insists that 'God hath sent forth the Spirit...', but the Spirit of which he is writing is 'the Spirit of his Son'.

But nowhere is this point made more clearly than in our Lord's final discourse to His disciples before His crucifixion. It is true that the Spirit comes from the Father, but only because the Son requests this (John 14:16). When the Father sends Him, He sends Him in the Son's name (John 14:26). Yet it is also true that the Son Himself sends the Spirit (John 16:7), although it is stressed that He sends Him from the Father, and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father (John 15:26). With the single exception of this last phrase, 'which proceedeth from the Father', the Scriptures say exactly the same things regarding the relation of the Spirit to the Son, as they say regarding the relation of the Spirit to the Father. The Spirit does not send Himself. He is 'the Spirit'–the One who is breathed out. And it is from the Father and the Son that He is breathed, so that wherever He works, both the Father and the Son are revealed, and exercise their power (john 16:14-15; 15:26; 14:9).

One of the most famous councils in early church history was the Council of Nicaea, held in A.D. 325. This council defined the doctrine of the deity of Christ in the most precise manner possible, but was a bit vague in what it had to say about the Holy Spirit. All it did was to declare its belief 'in the Holy Ghost'. But shortly afterwards there arose the heresy of Macedonius, who denied the deity of the Holy Spirit by refusing to accept Him as supreme God. To combat this, the Council of Constantinople of A.D. 381 expanded the Nicene Creed to read, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father....'

However, this addition did not satisfy everyone. The Latin-speaking churches (known as the Western Church) were anxious to preserve the plain scriptural teaching that the Spirit is as much the Spirit of Christ as of the Father. Mostly because of the influence of Augustine of Hippo, they insisted that the Holy Spirit sustains precisely the same relation to the Son as He does to the Father. Thus in A.D. 569, at the council of Toledo, they added the single Latin word Filioque to the Latin version of the Creed of Constantinople. The sentence we have just quoted was now made to read, 'I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son'.

The Greek-speaking churches (known as the Eastern Church) violently opposed this insertion. At first they were willing to agree to the compromise, '... from the Father through the Son', but this was eventually rejected by both sides. 'The Nicene Creed' of today is, in fact, the Creed of Constantinople as amended by the Council of Toledo. It is included at the end of this book. It is accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, and by all Protestant denominations. But to this day the Greek Orthodox Church, and other bodies of the Eastern tradition, reject the Filioque addition. The controversy continues.

Why do the Eastern churches reject what is so obviously the clear teaching of Scripture? It is because they consider that it makes the Son a second 'Fount of Deity' in addition to the Father. To them, it does not tie up with the truth that there is a subordination of the Son to the Father (a truth we will touch on in our next two chapters). The thought of two who are each a 'Fount of Deity' seems to them to be a threat to the inner harmony of the divine Three. But we have seen again and again that there are truths in the Word of God which human logic can never neatly tie up in its own mind. This is supremely true in everything that relates to the doctrine of the Trinity. The limitations of our minds are not reason enough to reject what God has revealed. Our Lord's language in John 14-16 does not suggest, even for a moment, that the inner harmony of the Trinity is marred. The Father sends the Spirit. The Son sends the Spirit. The Father sends the Spirit in response to the Son's request, and sends Him in the Son's name. The Son sends the Spirit from the Father. This is the language of unique harmony. It is without analogy. The Spirit is the unifying bond in the Godhead, proceeding alike from the Father and the Son, and is as much the Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of God.