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Sermon Passage breakdown for Sundays
The Spirit of God is easily the most forgotten and misunderstood member of the Trinity. It is easy to talk about the Father and Jesus, the Son. Theological points of clarity about Father and Son seem simple and clear for most. But the Spirit feels different. There are layers of confusion and conjecture about the Spirit, and worse.
Before we get into the specific points of interest in First Corinthians 12-14, we need to do a little foundation work on Holy Spirit theology. Who is He? What is He like? What is His purpose and mission? How do we engage Him? What is His heart toward us?
The first major point of biblical theology on the Spirit is that the Holy Spirit of God is a person. He is personal. This means that the Holy Spirit is not a force, a wind, a dove, an etherial movement or an “it.” We see this in the biblical revelation of the Spirit’s emotions, will, desires, actions, insight and personal work in the world and especially in believers. The Holy Spirit of God is personal. He is a He.
This simple but often forgotten truth will become the central point of our study of First Corinthians 12-14. Because the Holy Spirit of God is a Person, we are talking about a living relationship with the Living Spirit of God. This is not science. We are not trying to crack a complex math equation. We are not engineering a longer-lasting light bulb. We are not designing a stronger yet lighter metal alloy. We are talking about a personal relationship. Relationships are not science, simply because they involve hearts, minds, souls and stories. Because the Spirit of God is a Person and personal, life with the Spirit of God is a life-giving relationship with the Living God. We must stop and clearly understand and grasp this point. If we fail at this juncture, the rest of our study will be unstable, confusing and misdirected.
This simple truth about the Personal Spirit of God helps is our entrance point into the larger biblical truth of Trinity. God is one in essence, three in person. There are not three Gods, but one. Yet God is Father, Son, Spirit. The Father is not the Son in a different mode or expression. The Son is not the Spirt. The Spirit is not the Father. Yet there are not three Gods, but one. Three persons, one essence. This is not an invention of the first century church or Constantine. The early church councils and creeds took up the exact biblical expression and nature of the Trinity because the death and resurrection of Jesus so profoundly affected our understanding of revealed Scripture that He, Jesus, needed to be understood properly. Although the creeds and councils accumulated over centuries, the truth of Trinity was recognized very early. This is a word - Trinity, or tri-unity - that helps describe a biblical truth seen from the first pages of Scripture to the last.
Although not expressed with the word “trinity” in the bible, the truth of God’s character is clearly seen - one God in three persons; Not three gods Nor three modes of being; Three persons (Father-Son-Spirit), One essence - is clearly revealed and developed throughout OT and NT. (Isaiah 48:12-16; Matthew 3:16-17; John 14:16; 14:26; 16:13-15; Romans 1:4; 8:26-27; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 13:14; Ephesians 1:13-14; 3:14-17; etc.)
It is critical for orthodox Christians to maintain the truth that the Holy Spirit is co-equal to the Father and Son, a full member of the Trinity. He, the Spirit, receives the same worship and is spoken of as divine, and as fully connected to Father and Son repeatedly.
Although equal, the Spirit is “sent” by the Father and the Son, therefore functionally subordinate. This is not the same thing as inferior or less-than-fully divine. (John 14:16; 14:26; 15:26)
The Spirit of God is sent by Father and Son to glorify Father and Son. But in the Gospels and the rest of the NT, the Spirit primarily glorifies the Son (John 16:14).
There are specific attributes of the Holy Spirit that are fully shared with Father and Son, yet another marker of the full Deity of the Spirit and the reality of our Trinitarian God. Here is just a sampling of the Divine attributes of the Spirit: