The Personal Presence of the Holy Spirit

A Biblical analysis of the the Holy Spirit

By Rodney Swansborough

The Christian doctrine of the "Person" of the Holy Spirit is derived primarily from the New Testament. The concept of ruach in the Old Testament, although having an antecedent relationship with pneuma, was perceived differently by the Old Testament writers.

Ruach was understood in impersonal terms as a force or power, producing manifold manifestations of divine activity in the lives of men. Ruach was not seen as mediating the divine presence of God, nor as being the Presence of God Himself. The "Presence" of God was understood to be either present in the various theophanies or located in His "dwelling place" in Heaven. God in the Old Testament could be present independently of the Spirit and was not dependent upon the Spirit to disclose Himself. There was a separation of the "Presence" of God from the presence of "ruach" in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament the status of the Holy Spirit as a "Person" is determined Christologically, although Luke tends to give the Pentecostal Presence of the Spirit independent divine status by giving this unique and novel manifestation (pneumatophany) of God the Divine Name "Holy Spirit".

The Incarnation was the decisive event which transformed the experiential dimension of the Spirit and associated the Holy Spirit's presence with the Presence of Christ. It is the Apostle Paul (with John) who most readily identifies the Spirit as the "Spirit of Christ", where Jesus, it seems, becomes the "personality" of the Spirit.

For many writers it is this identification of the "personality" of the Spirit with the character of Jesus which has enabled them to refer to the Spirit as "Person", but always as the embodiment of Christ. Such a tendency subordinates the distinctive Pentecostal Presence of the Holy Spirit and suggests that the Holy Spirit has no independent status but must always borrow His "divinity" and "personality" from the other members of the Trinity.

The use of the Hebrew word ruach to describe God's activity in the lives of men, philologically suggests that ruach (Spirit) was understood primarily in impersonal terms as a force or power which produced manifestations in the lives of people. The root r-w-ch, from which the noun is derived, means primarily "to breathe out through the nose with violence". Ruach, being the word for "wind" in the Old Testament, became a natural metaphor to describe the invading, violent and powerful intrusion of God's activity. Out of the 378 uses of "ruach" in the Old Testament, 134 carry a supernatural meaning "to mark agencies operating upon man from without and from beyond Nature".¹ Snaith points out that 37 references to "ruach" as wind speak of the wind as "the agent of Jehovah, mostly destructive, and always strong and violent".² This implication of violence is also generally found in the instances where "ruach" is used of the breath of God.³

When we turn our attention to the use of "ruach" as "ruach adonai" (the Spirit of the Lord), we discover that it is used always against this background of power, violent, strong, overwhelming and controlling in its nature. The ruach-adonai is the manifestation in human experience of the life-giving, energy-creating power⁴ of God.

It is this association with power which permits ruach-adonai to be interpreted as "wind of the Lord" in Hosea 13:15, Isaiah 40:1, 59:19, and even Genesis 1:2, "wind of God". This demonstrates how the impersonal associations of "ruach" were used to denote God's activity.

Despite the psychologising of "ruach" in later Hebrew writings to refer to the dominant disposition within an individual,⁵ the term "Ruach" in relation to God retained its impersonal meaning and was only used occasionally to describe God's dominant disposition. Snaith notes that "Spirit of the Lord/God" was gradually "ethicized as well as personalized" but such development was slow and rare.⁶ There is nevertheless some suggestion of a tendency within the Old Testament to use ruach with a suffix as an equivalent of the sacred Name, e.g. Haggai 2:5; Zechariah 4:6, 6:8; Psalms 61:33, 139:7; Isaiah 30:1, 35:16. However, such tendencies were late rather than early. Snaith concludes his treatment of the Spirit in the Old Testament as follows:

The word "ruach" stands for power, strength, life, and all is from God, and of God. The phrase "ruach-adonai" stands for that special power by which God inspires the individual man, enabling him to do the will of God, and thus to do those things which in his own strength he is wholly unable to do.⁷

These etymological and philological considerations of "ruach", although illustrating the way in which "the Spirit" in the Old Testament was seen primarily as an impersonal force of violence, power or energy associated with the Divine nature, do not in themselves explain why "the Spirit" was considered to be an impersonal activity/power in the Old Testament, nor why "the Spirit" never fully achieved the status of "person" or hypostasis in Old Testament thinking.

It is the contention of this paper that the reticence of the Old Testament in referring to "the Spirit" in personal terms is related to how the Old Testament writers perceived and localized the "Presence"⁸ of God.

God was known through this disclosure, or revelation, to men. As God continued to disclose Himself to Israel throughout her history, so the Hebrew people became more conscious of God's Presence. Alongside this development was an increasing tendency to "localize" God as being somewhere, rather than anywhere. God became the transcendent, holy, majestic and exalted Lord, who, although near to His chosen people, nevertheless lived apart from them in His own "dwelling place" — e.g. "look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place" (Deut. 26:15, cf. Isa. 63:15; 1 Kings 8:30 etc.).⁹ God's "Presence" in spatial terms was localized "in heaven". His dwelling place was where God dwelt, and His revelation to men meant, in some ways, a coming down from heaven and revealing His "Presence" in theophanies.¹⁰ These theophanies were well-known "appearances" of God to men, such as the Angel of the Lord, the face of the Lord, the burning bush, the cloud on Mt. Sinai and in the tent of meeting, the glory in the temple, and other manifestations of His Presence. In some ways these theophanies help "localize" God's Presence "in heaven", for if God could be present "on earth" he could also be absent. Heaven, then, was the place where God dwelt when not present in a theophany.

The Old Testament writers say very little about God's Essence, but they speak quite pragmatically about God's Presence being known. Through His covenant promises God had promised to be with His people, but although these promises assured them of His protection, love and guidance, they did not "localize" God Himself on earth. God mediated His divine purposes through men, although at times He is spoken of as coming down from Heaven to deliver His people, and at other times is said to be watching from heaven. God in the Old Testament was understood in personal terms, and any direct references to His "Presence" generally localized Him in some place, although His permanent "dwelling place" was Heaven.

However, when "the Spirit" (ruach) is mentioned in the Old Testament, the emphasis is not on God's Presence, as if "the Spirit" is God's Essence, but on God's activity, or power. Although the term ruach is directly associated with God, we must not conclude that ruach is either God's Essence (ontologically speaking) or God's Presence. Nor can we conclude that "the Spirit" mediates God's Presence. Ruach is not synonymous with God. Throughout the Old Testament "the Spirit" remained impersonal; God could be present apart from the Spirit, and was not dependent on the Spirit to manifest Himself. God could be present without any reference to the Spirit, and so to suggest that the presence of the Spirit automatically presupposed the Presence of God is misleading. Rather, ruach was understood as God's activity, where the emphasis was on the agent or instrument of God's purpose rather than on the Presence (Being) of God in the Spirit. Thus Ezekiel could refer to ruach as "the hand of the Lord",¹¹ and similar descriptions reveal how ruach was understood either as the activity, energising power or agent of God's will. This emphasis would suggest that ruach could only very indirectly, if at all, be associated with God being present, or God's Presence.¹²

It appears, therefore, that references to ruach in the Old Testament, although being associated with God, are primarily concerned with God's activity, and perhaps should not even be referred to as God's active Presence. God's Presence, His Person or Being, was localized most frequently in His dwelling place "in the heavens". However, when we come to "the Spirit" we need to be careful not to equate ruach with the localization of God's Presence on earth, even when God's power is being manifest within an individual. Spirit possession does not presuppose Divine indwelling. Spirit presence does not necessarily mean Divine Presence.

This may be considered a fine distinction, but in discussing the biblical foundations for the doctrine of the "Person" of the Spirit, such a distinction becomes important, particularly when we come to consider the New Testament literature. Thus, when "the Spirit" is manifesting possession in the Old Testament, rather than seeing it as God's Presence within people — as God localized, individualized, or perhaps even "incarnated" in a person — it may be better to describe such "manifestations" as the individualization of God's activity and work in the lives of people. This moves us away from any emphasis on the Personal Presence of God in the Spirit, to the specific manifestations of God's energising power and activity within individuals.

All this suggests that "Ruach" retained its metaphorical associations with "wind" and "breath" to denote the Divine energy, force or power, which in itself remained impersonal, but accomplished the purpose for which it had been sent. Like God, "the Spirit" was unseen, and the word ruach emphasises the hiddenness and intangibility of this "power". The activity, and therefore the "presence", of "the Spirit" was only known to men through sensible manifestations. These manifestations caused most Old Testament thought to focus on the divine activity. The references to the Spirit's activity in the Old Testament are more often than not associated with the unusual and spectacular in the lives of people. Not only were exceptional ecstatic experiences attributed to "the Spirit", but also exceptional skills, abilities, and intellectual and physical endowments. It may be that the people who experienced or witnessed such phenomena were endeavouring to provide a causal explanation for these occurrences, and so the emphasis was on the force or power that took hold of these people, which was understood in religious terms as the dynamic movement of God.

To distinguish between the energising activity of God and His transcendent, ontological "Presence", the word ruach provided a natural metaphor, which became the religious designation for God's activity. However, such phenomena, although attributed to Ruach, were not seen as "the Spirit's" work in the sense that "the Spirit" was accomplishing a specific task. Rather, the manifestations of divine energising activity were seen as God's work, mediated through the agency of divine power (ruach) within the lives of men. Ruach was activity and power, not Divine Presence. God was "Presence"; ruach was power.

The Gospels are remarkably silent when it comes to the Spirit.¹³ However, the references to the Spirit are significant, particularly as they relate to the life and ministry of Jesus. We notice immediately that the phrase "Holy Spirit" is used more frequently, although much of the Spirit's activity is similar to that found in the Old Testament. Both Matthew and Luke acknowledge the activity of the Holy Spirit in the virgin birth, but even here the Spirit is understood as "the power of the Most High" (Lk. 1:35). When we move into the area of the Spirit's involvement in the ministry of Jesus, the Spirit is understood in essentially impersonal terms, enabling Jesus to be a "prophetic" as well as a "charismatic" figure.

The synoptic Gospels do not provide sufficient material on "the Spirit" for us to draw any firm conclusions as to whether or not the Evangelists perceived "the Spirit" in personal terms. It is worth noting, however, that Luke frequently uses the title "Holy Spirit" in his Gospel, which, as will be shown later, becomes an important expression for determining the identity of "the Spirit".

All the Gospels (including John) refer to the water-baptism of Jesus,¹⁴ and to the prophetic utterance of John that "Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit".¹⁵ In associating this "baptism" with Holy Spirit baptism, it could be suggested that "the Spirit" was seen more as a "substance" than a person. Jesus, in being "led" or "driven" into the wilderness "by the Spirit", can be understood as being moved by divine compulsion in much the same way as Old Testament figures.¹⁶ Jesus manifests "charismatic" qualities by the Spirit, but here again we can interpret these in the light of Old Testament antecedents.¹⁷

All the synoptic Gospels contain the controversial passage on the blasphemy against "the Spirit". However, such blasphemy, rather than being directed against the "person" of the Spirit, could be understood as wilfully attributing to Satan the divine manifestations of God's power. If this view is correct, then such "blasphemy" is a denial of God's divine operation in the life of Jesus to bring about salvation. Prophetic utterance (particularly in Luke) is attributed to "the Spirit" in the synoptic Gospels, but once again it is understood essentially in Old Testament terms, even when given by "the Spirit of your Father".

It is not until we come to the Johannine Gospel that we first encounter a detailed treatment of the Holy Spirit as "person". The "person" of the Spirit is understood in similar terms to the "person" of Christ. John, in his prologue, writes of Jesus: "the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us" (John 1:1, 14).

God's "Presence", His Being, was tabernacled in human flesh; Deity was "localized" within humanity; Deity was humanized. Through the Incarnation God took upon Himself the personhood of man, so that God "presenced" Himself with man — Immanuel, "God with us". It was this "humanizing" of Deity in Jesus Christ that had a profound effect on the New Testament writers' understanding of the Holy Spirit. Before the Incarnation, "Presence" and "Spirit" had remained separate and distinct. The Presence of God was not associated with Spirit possession, nor was the Presence of God known through Divine indwelling within people in the Old Testament. But in Jesus Christ, God became "present" in human flesh. "The Spirit" not only "possessed" Humanity in Jesus, but also Deity. In Jesus Christ, "Presence" and "activity", Person and power, God and Spirit were fused together within the humanity of Jesus — so much so that "the Spirit" after the Incarnation was spoken of as the "Spirit of Christ", "the Spirit of His Son", because he would be "like Christ", both in function and disposition.²⁰ This localization of Deity and Spirit within the Man Christ Jesus was the factor that dramatically altered the New Testament understanding of "the Spirit". We see this impact revealed through the teaching of Jesus in the Johannine passages on "the Paraclete".¹⁸¹⁹

If this is so, the mystery of the Incarnation is now extended to the "incarnation of Christ in the Spirit".

In the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we read that Jesus "was lifted up" into heaven and "a cloud took him from their sight". Jesus returned to the "dwelling place" of God, and so ended this Divine visitation (epiphany) of the Presence of God in human flesh. This "Epiphany", like the theophanies in the Old Testament, came to an end.²² However, the disciples who had experienced this Divine visitation were promised a "second coming" or appearance:

This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come again in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11)

Jesus at the "ascension" was spatially and visibly removed from their sight. Although he was risen and ascended, at this point he was "absent". His ascension had localized his "Presence" "in heaven", and his presence in heaven, in spatial terms, meant his "absence" on earth.²³ It is against this background of Jesus' absence on earth and presence in Heaven that the "Holy Spirit" is presented in the Acts of the Apostles.²¹

From the beginning the outpouring or "visitation" of "the Holy Spirit" was understood in the light of Jesus being "exalted at the right hand of God" (Acts 2:33). With Jesus being "absent", the "presence" of the "Holy Spirit" became decisive. This tension between the absence of the Ascended Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit is clearly apparent, particularly in the first half of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Pentecostal (Gift) outpouring of "the Spirit" was a Pneumatophany. Luke is hesitant to call this unique manifestation of God "the Spirit", and so gives this Pneumatophany the title²⁴ "Holy Spirit". Although the manifestations of God in this Pentecostal Gift had similarities to the Spirit's activity in the Old Testament, Luke and the early church saw it as distinctive and unique because it not only manifested power but also Divine Presence. It seems that the earliest kerygmatic tradition did not presuppose that this distinctive Pentecostal "Gift" was the Exalted Jesus in another mode of existence. Only once in the Acts of the Apostles is "the Spirit" called "the Spirit of Jesus" (Acts 16:7).

The Spirit as the Pentecostal Presence of God is called "Holy Spirit", a title, it seems, which was not only associated with the unique events on the day of Pentecost, but which was also used to refer to this unique manifestation of the Presence of Deity among men, which subsequently continued within the life of the Christian community.²⁵

The absence of the Exalted Jesus was filled by the Pentecostal Presence of the "Holy Spirit". We further note that this Pentecostal Gift was referred to in personal terms, where the Holy Spirit was addressed not only as a power but a Person, and was known not only as a force but a Friend. And although the "Person" of the Holy Spirit as the distinctive Pentecostal Gift is not specifically discussed in the Acts of the Apostles, it can be seen that this Pneumatophany was understood within experience as the Divine Presence who continued the ministry of Jesus.

It could well be that in the earliest kerygmatic traditions the Pneumatophany of Pentecost was not readily identified or associated with the Exalted Presence of Jesus Christ, as if Jesus was somehow "present" in the Holy Spirit. However, in the later, more theologically developed thought of Paul, the Pentecostal Presence of the Holy Spirit was certainly seen as manifesting the Presence of the Exalted Christ, although the Apostle never went as far as saying that the "Holy Spirit" was the presence of the Exalted Lord.

In the Acts of the Apostles the Pentecostal Pneumatophany manifested the Presence of Deity, but the Deity is not identified as Christ, except in Acts 16:7. It is the Apostle Paul who identifies the Presence of Deity disclosed in the Pentecostal Pneumatophany as the Exalted Christ, and describes this disclosure as "the Spirit of Christ". However, the Divine disclosure of Deity is also identified by Paul as "Spirit of God", "the Holy Spirit" (associating his identification with the Pentecostal events), or simply left unidentified as "the Spirit".

The disciples who had experienced Jesus while in the flesh did not initially equate the disclosure of Deity with the manifestation of Jesus. To them the presence of Jesus was known through his humanness, as a man, and so their experience of the Holy Spirit was a distinctive and different experience to their previous "acquaintance" with Jesus. The disciples were experiencing "Deity" differently to the way they had experienced and known the earthly Jesus. Through the Incarnation Jesus had revealed "Deity" to his followers, and the Pentecostal manifestation of the Holy Spirit transformed their experience of the Deity of Christ into an inward "religious" experience, which was understood as the Presence of Deity indwelling them as the "Holy Spirit".

For those converts to Christianity who had had no acquaintance with the "earthly" Jesus, the only "experience" that they knew of the Deity of Christ was through the witness of the Spirit to Jesus. Without any experience of the "earthly" Jesus, the witness of the Spirit to Jesus brought the knowledge of Christ within the believer, so that through the Holy Spirit Jesus was "experienced" inwardly. This, it appears, located, at least experientially, the Divine Presence of Jesus within the believer, and resulted in the identity of the Spirit becoming less the focus when the Presence of the Exalted Jesus was being made known by the Spirit.

It is in the writings of the Apostle Paul that we find a fusing together of the Presence of the Spirit and the "Person" of Jesus. This fusion becomes so complete at times that we are forced to ask ourselves: is the Person of Jesus "present" in the Spirit, or is the "Presence" of the Spirit the person of Jesus? How we answer these questions will influence our understanding of the biblical evidence for the Person of the Spirit and the possible hypostasis of the Spirit with God or Christ.

Paul himself admits that he was the least of the Apostles, as one who was "untimely born" (1 Cor. 15:8). However, he was not without "Apostolic credentials". He had seen "Jesus our Lord" (1 Cor. 9:1), on the Damascus road, and had been called by God to be an "Apostle to the Gentiles".

Paul nevertheless did not know the "earthly Jesus", although it appears the life of Jesus was not unknown to him. Paul doesn't ever speak of a personal acquaintance with the "earthly Jesus", but only knew him experientially and personally²⁶ in his exalted state as the Ascended Lord. This meant that Paul's experience of Jesus was different to that of the other Apostles and disciples, of which Paul himself was keenly aware. This meant that Paul's relationship with Jesus lacked the human encounter experienced by the others, for Paul's only "experience" of Jesus was supernatural and more mystical, based upon "visions" and "revelations". These "mystical" encounters with the Risen Christ were intensely personal and deeply inward. Perhaps Paul's unfamiliarity with the "earthly Jesus" partly explains why he so freely "localizes" the presence of Jesus Christ within the believer, so that Christ through "the Spirit" is internalized and privatized.

Although Paul does refer to Jesus Christ as being at "the right hand of the Father", in heaven, his exalted status is not given the same spatial separation that is found in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus, to Paul, is not so much "absent" as "hidden", ready to be revealed or made manifest at his coming. In this sense, Jesus is not spatially absent but invisibly present. Even when Paul speaks about being "absent" from the body and "present" with the Lord, he is not speaking of a spatial separation but material distinction. Jesus is invisible but immanent, present in his "spiritual body". It is this immanency of Jesus in Paul's thought which has deep and important implications for his understanding of the "Person" of the Holy Spirit. Paul never lost this sense of the immanence of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit deepened and accentuated it. It has already been suggested in this paper that in Paul's thought the Person of Jesus was manifest through the Pentecostal "Presence" of the Spirit. The immanency of Christ's hidden Exalted "Presence" is made known in the believer through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Paul is not consistent in his treatment of the identity of the Holy Spirit. At times he presents Him in Old Testament terms as the Spirit of "power" producing "manifold manifestations" within the Christian community. On other occasions the Spirit is known as the "Spirit of God", but unlike the Old Testament understanding, Paul understands the "Spirit of God" indwelling within the believer as the Divine Presence of God or Jesus. In fact, in Paul's thought there is very close identification between the presence of the Spirit and the "Presence" (indwelling) of God or Christ. The question we are forced to ask in this regard is: Who is the Spirit manifesting?

1. Paul perceives the Spirit as manifesting "Presence", even if this "Presence" is derived from God or Christ. This may suggest that the Spirit is nothing more than an agent or medium for the manifestation of the Divine "Presence". If this is the case, then in Pauline thought, the presence of the Spirit does not necessarily imply the Spirit having Divine "Presence" or "Person" in Himself.

2. Paul at times equates the presence of the Spirit with impersonal manifestations of power or inspiration or "charisms" (i.e. Rom. 8:11, 15:13, 19; 1 Cor. 2:4; 12:7–9 etc.).

3. The Spirit is referred to as the "Spirit of God", who "dwells" in believers (Rom. 8:11); who leads them (8:14); who comprehends God's thoughts (1 Cor. 2:11); who is the source of prophetic inspiration and divine revelation (1 Cor. 7:40; 12:3; Eph. 3:6; 1 Thes. 4:8, etc.). Although "Spirit of God" is associated with "Divine Presence", the primary emphasis is in relation to the "activity" of the Spirit within the purposes of God.

4. Paul frequently uses the title "the Spirit" to describe the way of grace and power provided by God within the life of the Believer. The Spirit is understood as Divine aid, assisting the Believer to "live" and "walk" (Gal. 5:16–25, cf Rom. 8:4–9) in a way that is pleasing and acceptable to God. "The Spirit" in this Pauline sense is very closely associated with his concept of "grace", where "the Spirit" is identified as the active manifestation of God's grace.

5. The title "Holy Spirit" in Paul's writings is used with the thought in mind that the "Holy Spirit" is the distinctive Pentecostal "gift" (i.e. Rom. 5:5, cf 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 1 Thes. 4:8). As the Pentecostal "gift", the title "Holy Spirit" could be seen as the Divine Name for this new Pentecostal Pneumatophany, which, as has been suggested, was different to and distinct from the Epiphany of the earthly Jesus and the Old Testament Theophany of God.

6. Paul only occasionally identifies the Spirit as the "Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:19), "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9), "Spirit of His Son" (Gal. 4:6). Two of these references refer to Christian "sonship" and could be Paul's way of demonstrating how "the Spirit" places us within the family of God and gives us the knowledge of our own sonship. The emphasis in these references is not only on the identity of the Spirit but also on the function of the Spirit — "the Spirit producing sonship".

Paul's use of different titles for "the Spirit" reveals the multidimensional nature of this word in Pauline thought,²⁷ and illustrates how Paul was not anywhere endeavouring to supply a systematic treatment of the "Person" or "Presence" of the "Holy Spirit".

7. Paul attributes specific personal functions/activities to "the Spirit" which suggest something of Paul's understanding of the personal entity of the Spirit. "The Spirit" bears witness that we are God's children (Rom. 8:16); "the Spirit" intercedes for the saints (Rom. 8:26, 27); "the Spirit" searches everything and comprehends the thoughts of God (1 Cor. 2:10, 11); the Spirit reveals as a teacher the things of God (1 Cor. 2:13). None of these references, however, enable us to conclude unequivocally that "the Spirit" is "Person".

Even in those verses where "the Spirit" appears to be synonymous with "Lord", as in 2 Cor. 3:18, most commentators feel that it is not Paul's intention to see the two terms as interchangeable. However, the close relationship between Christ and the Spirit is affirmed nevertheless. David Hill writes:

…after the Resurrection that Spirit becomes the mode or manner of Jesus' existence as Lord: the limitations and infirmity of the flesh have given way to power in the Spirit. By the resurrection there has been brought into being the age of the Spirit, the age of power in which the impact of Christ becomes effective upon all believers.²⁸

Ladd argues that II Cor. 3:17 does not mean "complete personal identification, for Paul speaks both of the Lord as the Spirit and the Spirit of the Lord".²⁹ Ladd continues:

Thus a new order has been inaugurated by the risen Lord, who has entered the realm of spirit. The Lord and the Spirit are not personally identified, but the Spirit is the mode in which the Lord works in his church. The Spirit is Christ himself present in the new dispensation.³⁰

The many and varied references of Paul to "the Spirit" do not in themselves adequately deal with the question of the "Person" of the Spirit. It seems that the Spirit's indwelling was understood as manifesting personal qualities which could quite easily be associated with either Christ or God, or simply left unexplained.

The hiddenness of Christ's Exalted "Presence", although immanent, required the activity of "the Spirit" to reveal or manifest it within the physical realm. Jesus Christ had already, through the Incarnation, moved from one realm into another to become flesh, but after the Ascension he is understood by Paul as having returned to the eternal, unseen "spiritual" realm.

The Spirit, in Paul's thought, gives the believer "access" to the Father in this eternal unseen realm "in heaven", and also provides the means by which the presence and power of the Kingdom of Christ is made available within the life of the Believer. The Spirit, in giving us "access", provides the "bridge" between the two realms. But because the Spirit is not confined spatially, he is able to dwell in our hearts and bring the presence of Christ and the Kingdom into our very own experience. In this sense, Paul sees the Divine Presence of God and Christ "localized" within the human body. Deity indwells humanity through "the Spirit", enabling Paul to speak of our bodies as the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16), or the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). Thus Christ's Exalted Presence, although hidden, is interiorized by the Spirit, so that to have the Spirit indwelling is to have God or Christ "present". This enables Paul to refer to the Spirit's indwelling "Presence" as either "the Spirit of God" or "the Spirit of Christ" within the Believer. In this sense the "Presence" of the Spirit is identified as Christ or God indwelling, so that the word "Spirit" becomes the term for Divine Presence, suggesting the interpretation:

…you are in the Divine Presence, if the Divine Presence of God really dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Divine Presence of Christ does not belong to him. (Rom. 8:9)

Obviously this Divine Presence or "Spirit Indwelling" is different in spatial terms to the physical Presence of Jesus, but the substituting of "Spirit" for Divine Presence begins, I feel, to reveal something of the Divine Encounter experienced by the early Christians after Pentecost. It also radically transforms the Old Testament thought which tended to separate Divine Presence from the Spirit.

If we closely associate Spirit with "Presence", then Spirit is Deity manifest, so that "the Spirit" is not simply the mediatorial agent of the Presence of God or Christ. The Spirit is "Divine Presence", known as God or Jesus Christ, and finally "Holy Spirit".³¹ This means that the "Pentecostal Presence" of God in the Holy Spirit is a distinctive manifestation of God — Pneumatophany; as distinctive as the "Incarnational Presence" of God in Jesus Christ — Epiphany, or the "Heavenly Presence" of God in Old Testament Theophanies.

(a) The Spirit in the Old Testament is primarily understood in impersonal terms, not as the Presence of God, but as the power or activity of God in people. In this sense the Spirit is understood as an agent of God's purpose, and although being directed by God, does not mediate the divine Presence as much as accomplish the divine Purpose. The Spirit manifests God's activity in the lives of people, but is not considered to be "Essence", but "energy". One cannot say from the Old Testament that where the Spirit is present God is present. There is no hypostasis of God and Spirit in the Old Testament, but rather a desire to maintain a distinction between the divine being Yahweh and the divine activity or agent Spirit. It is not until the New Testament that we see a coming together of Presence and activity.

(b) The synoptic Gospels do not equate "the Spirit" with the Presence of God. The Gospel material on the Spirit is based largely on Old Testament thinking, and the silence of the Synoptics on "the Spirit" therefore adds very little, if anything, to our understanding of the Person of the Spirit.

(c) The Johannine Gospel and material readily associate the "Paraclete" with Divine "Presence". The Spirit as a "Counsellor" is identified as Person through the use of the masculine pronoun, but more especially through the language used to illustrate the Holy Spirit as the second Paraclete, with Christ being the first.

(d) The Acts of the Apostles reveal how the title "Holy Spirit" was chosen to describe the distinctive Pentecostal Gift of the Spirit. This "promise of the Father" manifested "Presence" in a way not previously experienced by the early disciples, and so shows that this new Pentecostal Presence was distinct from the Incarnational presence of God in Jesus, and different to Old Testament experiences of "the Spirit". The title "Holy Spirit" became the Divine Name for this "Pentecostal" Pneumatophany. The Apostle Paul followed this tradition in his references to the "Holy Spirit". "Holy Spirit", unlike the other titles for "the Spirit", was not so much a descriptive title but a Divine Name. It is this distinctive post-Pentecostal title for "the Spirit" which elevates the pneumatophany or manifestation of the Spirit to Divine "Presence". As Divine Presence, "Holy Spirit" expresses all the attributes of Deity, and as such must also be given the Divine status of Person.

(e) Paul does not systematically deal with "the Spirit". The term "Spirit" becomes a multidimensional word in Paul's thought, with a multiplicity of meanings. Even though many of Paul's references to "the Spirit" reveal Old Testament patterns, he nevertheless brings his own distinctive understanding into his use of the term. "The Spirit" is expressed in a variety of ways, but we notice a very strong emphasis in Paul's thought on the Divine Presence of the Spirit. We may have difficulty in determining exactly who the Spirit is disclosing, for the Spirit is understood as either the Presence of God, or the Presence of Christ, or the Presence of the Pentecostal Gift, "Holy Spirit". The term, in this sense, is virtually interchangeable with the word "Presence". It seems that Paul understands "the Spirit" as Divine Presence, and more specifically, the Presence of Christ, and so finds no difficulty in attributing to the Spirit functions requiring the activity of Divine Being or Person. The Presence of the Spirit reveals the character of Christ, and as such is never an impersonal force in Paul's thought.

If then the "personality" of the Spirit is derived from Christ, it would seem that one could not speak of the "Person" of the Spirit in Paul's thought without reference to Christ, where the Spirit becomes the "Spirit of Christ".

Although we are not left with a definitive statement from Paul on the "Person" of the Spirit as a separate Entity, we nevertheless have been able to demonstrate that the Divine Presence disclosed through the Pentecostal Pneumatophany can be spoken about in "personal" terms. This may enable us to equate Divine Presence with Person, but it does not enable us to resolve absolutely the distinct and separate Entity of "the Spirit" within Pauline thought.

We further note that the biblical material is reticent in referring to the "substance" of Deity. The biblical preference is for the Presence of Deity through the Theophanies of God, the Epiphany of Christ and the Pneumatophany of the Spirit. All we can really say of "the Spirit" from the biblical material is that in the New Testament, particularly in the Johannine material, the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline Corpus, "the Spirit" was used in a variety of ways, but when singled out as "Holy Spirit" is known as the distinctive and novel manifestation of Deity in the Pentecostal "Gift".

In identifying the Pentecostal Gift of the Spirit as a Pneumatophany, we immediately link this particular manifestation of the Presence of God with the other biblical terms used to describe the self-disclosure of God. As in the Theophanies of the Old Testament and the Epiphany of Christ, the emphasis is not only on the particular mode of Divine disclosure, but perhaps more importantly on the Presence being disclosed. The unifying element in the various manifestations found within the Theophanies, Epiphany, and Pneumatophany is the Divine Presence itself. Deity is always primary; the manifestation is secondary. Therefore, the title "Holy Spirit", as the name for the Pentecostal Pneumatophany, although associated with a distinctive manifestation of God, becomes a Divine Name for God, who, as the Divine Trinity, is known as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit — three Persons in One.

It may be that we need to rediscover that it is only as we experience and know the "Presence" of the Holy Spirit that we will confidently be able to call Him "Lord", and, calling Him such, discover that He is the Lord Christ, the Divine "Presence", the Eternal God.

1. Henry P. Van Dusen, Spirit, Son and Father, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1960, p. 37.

2. Norman H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament, The Epworth Press, London, p. 145.

3. e.g. 2 Sam. 22:16; Job 4:9.

4. Snaith, op. cit., p. 153.

5. See D.S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, SCM, London, 1974.

6. Snaith, op. cit., p. 156.

7. ibid., p. 158.

8. The concept of "Presence" is particularly important within this paper. For the purpose of this paper, the term "Presence", as a proper noun, denotes the Being of God, the Divine Existence. No attempt is made to define the "nature", "essence" or "substance" of the Divine Being. Rather the emphasis is on the self-manifestation of God, where "Presence" is used to describe God's self-revelation. "Presence" is God Himself.

9. For an extensive discussion on Hebrew conceptualization of God's dwelling place see Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, Vol. 2, SCM, London, 1979, Chapter 18, "The Celestial World", No.1, Yahweh's Dwelling-Place in Heaven, pp. 186–194.

10. Theophany (with Epiphany) — Greek: manifestation, appearing of God. In its original sense, Theophany refers to a sudden and transient manifestation of Divine Presence, will or power, in forms more or less perceptible (by hearing, seeing, touching), and either natural or mysterious in character. So defined, "Theophany" is a central concept in all religions, the manifestation of the divine in the world of human experience.

11. Ezekiel 1:3; 3:14; 8:1 etc. The phrase "hand of the Lord" was used to describe the coming of the Spirit upon the prophet.

12. This view is not supported by Wheeler Robinson and other writers. Robinson writes: "God's activity is described as His presence (literally 'face'), and this is paralleled with his 'ruach'…Where God is present, He is always active, and no word gathers up His activity more completely than this word 'ruach' — Yahweh's presence among his people". Wheeler Robinson, The Christian Experience of the Holy Spirit, Nisbet & Co., Great Britain, 1944, p.11. Robinson associates the presence of the Spirit with the Presence of God.

13. For a discussion on the silence of the Gospels about the Spirit see C.K. Barrett, The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition, S.P.C.K., London, 1977, Chapter 10, "Why do the Gospels say so little about the Spirit?"

14. For further discussion see: I. Howard Marshall, "The Meaning of the verb 'to baptize'," The Evangelical Quarterly; and G.R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New Testament, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1963.

15. This phrase is examined in detail in the following: James D.G. Dunn, "The Birth of a Metaphor — Baptized in Spirit," Parts I & II, The Expository Times, Vol.89, 1977–78, pp. 134–138, pp. 173–175; James D.G. Dunn, "Spirit-Baptism and Pentecostalism," Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.23, No.4, Nov. 1970, pp. 397–407; J.K. Parratt, "The Holy Spirit and Baptism," Parts I & II, The Expository Times, Vol.82, 1970–71, pp.231–235, pp. 266–271; Gerald Patzia, "Did John the Baptist Preach a Baptism of Fire and the Holy Spirit," The Evangelical Quarterly, Vol. XL, No.1, 1968, pp.21–27; James Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Studies in Biblical Theology, SCM, London, 1970.

16. i.e. 1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16.

17. For justification of the use of the term "charismatic" in reference to Jesus see James D.G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit, SCM, London, 1978, Chapter 4, "Was Jesus a Charismatic?"

18. An excellent examination of the function of the Paraclete is given by D.A. Carson, "The Function of the Paraclete in John 16:7–11," Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol.98, No.4, 1979, pp.547–566.

19. This is evidenced by the parallelism between the ministry of Jesus and that of the Paraclete: both come forth from the Father (15:26; 16:27f.); both are given and sent by the Father (3:16ff; 14:16,26); both teach the disciples (6:59; 7:14, 28; 8:20; 14:26) etc.

20. James D.G. Dunn, op. cit., Jesus and the Spirit, writes: "Jesus is clearly understood as the first Paraclete (1 John 2:1); and by the fact that the coming of the Spirit obviously fulfils the promise of Jesus to come again and dwell in his disciples" — pp.350–351.

21. In referring to the Holy Spirit as "Presence", we suggest that He is Divine Being, God Himself. However, before we can give Him the full status of Deity, we must recognize that His "Presence" is determined more by Jesus than by the Heavenly Presence of God in the Old Testament. James Dunn, in answer to my question "whose Presence is He?" would say: "The Spirit…continues the presence of Jesus. In short, the Paraclete is the presence of Jesus when Jesus is absent" — Jesus and the Spirit, pp.350–351. This would suggest that "the Spirit" assumes the "Presence" of Jesus, and has no independent "Presence" apart from Jesus. However, Dunn's use of the word "presence" is imprecise and vague, and it is difficult to know exactly what it means. It appears that any reference to the Pentecostal "Presence of the Holy Spirit" must always, in Dunn's thinking, be subsumed beneath the "presence of Jesus". There is something distinct, novel, unique about the Holy Spirit's Presence, and this distinction is based on the fact that His "Presence", as was the Presence of Jesus, is not incarnational — whatever that means. We may be experiencing the "Person" of Jesus in the Spirit, but this is not his Incarnational Presence, and this, I believe, is why the title "Holy Spirit" was used to address this new and novel Pentecostal "Presence of God". Nowhere in the New Testament do we find the Spirit being addressed as "Holy Spirit of Jesus", for it seems that while the New Testament writers understood the Holy Spirit as mediating the "person" of Jesus, they also recognized the distinctiveness of the Holy Spirit's Presence.

22. In seeing the Incarnation as an "Epiphany", we emphasise the transient nature of this self-manifestation of God, and draw attention to the primary truth about such "theophanies" — the manifestation of Divine Presence. Like all "manifestations", they always remain secondary to the Presence they are disclosing.

23. Eric Franklin, "The Ascension and the Eschatology of Luke-Acts," Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.23, No.2, May 1970, pp. 191–200, discusses the place the Ascension played in Lukan Theology, and illustrates how the "absence" of Jesus transformed his understanding of history and the "Eschatological" coming of the Holy Spirit. (Publisher preview note: the article opens by situating itself within scholarly debate over whether Luke reinterprets, rather than abandons, early Christian end-times expectation — the full text is paywalled on Cambridge Core.)

24. With the "absence" of the Incarnational Presence of Jesus, the Pentecostal Presence of the Holy Spirit in being poured out becomes a dominant interest in Luke's writing. The presence of the Holy Spirit is distinctive, novel and unique, and to illustrate this, this new Pentecostal Presence (Pneumatophany) is given the divine name Holy Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit is closely associated with Jesus and his Ascension, the Holy Spirit is not (at least in Luke's writings) identified as Jesus being present. Out of all the 52 references to the Spirit in Acts, 41 refer directly to "the Holy Spirit", 8 to "the Spirit" or "Spirit of the Lord", and only 1 to the "Spirit of Jesus". (For further reading — two freely available, full-text studies engaging this same question: Max Turner, The Work of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts (Word & World, 2003), and Craig S. Keener, The Spirit and the Mission of the Church in Acts 1–2 (JETS, 2019) — both explore the Spirit's role in mission and empowerment in Acts.)

25. i.e. The Spirit could (1) be tempted (Acts 5:9, “Peter asked her, ‘How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.’”); (2) be a witness (5:32, “We are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”); (3) be resisted (7:51, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.”); (4) speak directly (8:29, “The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.’”; 10:19, “While Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men seek you.’”; 11:28, “One of them named Agabus stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there should be a great famine all over the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius.”; 13:2, “As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.’” and 13:4, “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus.” — prophetically); (5) concur with decisions (15:28, “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:”); (6) forbid decisions (16:6, “When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.”); (7) testify (20:23, “except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.”); (8) appoint (20:28, “Take heed, therefore, to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.”). (Scripture quotations from the World English Bible, public domain.)

26. James Dunn, op. cit., Jesus and the Spirit, pp.97–114, examines in depth Paul's "conversion experience" and the "resurrection appearance" of Jesus, and reinforces the idea that Paul's experience of the Ascended Lord was a mystical "ecstatic vision". F.F. Bruce, Paul, Apostle of the Free Spirit, Paternoster Press, Great Britain, 1977, examines Paul's relationship to both the "Historical Jesus" and the "Exalted Christ". In Chapter 11, "Paul and the Historical Jesus," he writes: "Paul had not been acquainted with Jesus before his crucifixion; he first came to know Jesus as the risen Lord. His perspective on the 'historical Jesus' was inevitably different from that of the original disciples" (p.95). In Chapter 12, "Paul and the Exalted Christ," he writes: "While Paul had no doubt about the personal identity of the earthly Jesus and the heavenly Christ, he equally had no doubt that the heavenly Christ's mode of existence was different from that of the earthly Jesus".

27. The terms used by Paul to refer to the Spirit are: "the Spirit"; "Holy Spirit"; "Spirit of God"; "Spirit of Christ"; "Spirit of Life"; "Spirit of Him"; "his Spirit"; "Spirit Himself"; "Spirit of the Living God"; "Spirit of the Lord"; "the Spirit of his Son"; "the Spirit of Jesus Christ". Paul uses the term "the Spirit" 59 times, "Holy Spirit" 18 times, "Spirit of God" 14 times, and "Spirit of Christ (his Son) Jesus Christ" 3 times. Even though Paul associates the Spirit with Christ, any direct association is rare, particularly when their respective identities are important.

28. George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, USA, 1974, p.489.

29. Ladd, op. cit., p.490.

30. ibid.

31. The Spirit in other New Testament writings: — Hebrews: The writer to the Hebrews attributes inspiration directly to the Holy Spirit in a way similar to Luke and Acts, so that the Holy Spirit Himself speaks through the prophets (Heb. 3:7) and bears witness to us of the truth of God's word (Heb. 10:15). The Holy Spirit can be "outraged" when the Son of God is "spurned" and the blood of the covenant is "profaned" (Heb. 10:29). These references suggest that this writer perceived the Holy Spirit in personal terms. — I & II Peter: Peter identifies the Spirit with the pre-existence of Christ, so that the prophets inquired about the salvation that "was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them" (1 Peter 1:11). However, the few references to the Spirit are understood primarily in Old Testament terms, as the Spirit inspiring prophecy. — Johannine Letters: John identifies the presence of the Spirit as the abiding Presence of Jesus (1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13). This reinforces the idea that for Jesus to be "present" in the physical realm, he could only be known and experienced through the Spirit, who localized his "Presence" within the believer. In this way Christ was able to abide in the Christian. — The Revelation to John: John attributes prophetic utterance to the Spirit with his formula "he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; cf 14:13). "The Spirit" invites people to "come…take the water of life without price" (Rev. 22:17). For further information on the Spirit in the Revelation to John see Richard J. Bauckham, "The Role of the Spirit in the Apocalypse," The Evangelical Quarterly, Vol. LII, No.2, April–June 1980, pp.66–83.

Articles

Carson, D.A., "The Function of the Paraclete in John 16:7–11," Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol.98, No.4, 1979, pp.547–566.

Hunt, W.B., "John's Doctrine of the Spirit," Southwestern Journal of Theology, Vol. VIII, No.1, Oct. 1965.

Drumwright, H.L., "The Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts," Southwestern Journal of Theology, Vol. XVII, No.1, 1974.

Dunn, J.D.G., "Spirit and Kingdom," The Expository Times, Vol.82, 1970–71.

Dunn, J.D.G., "Spirit-and-Fire Baptism," Novum Testamentum, Vol. XIV, Fasc.2, April 1972.

Dunn, James D.G., "The Birth of a Metaphor — Baptism in the Spirit" (Parts 1 & 2), The Expository Times, Vol.89, 1977–78.

Dunn, James D.G., "Spirit-Baptism and Pentecostalism," Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.23, No.4, Nov. 1970.

Franklin, E., "The Ascension and the Eschatology of Luke-Acts," Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.23, No.2, May 1970.

Marshall, I.H., "The Significance of Pentecost," Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.30, No.4, 1977.

Marshall, I.H., "The Meaning of the verb 'to baptize'," The Evangelical Quarterly.

Parratt, J.K., "The Holy Spirit and Baptism," Parts I & II, The Expository Times, Vol.82, 1970–71.

Patzia, G., "Did John the Baptist Preach a Baptism of Fire and the Holy Spirit," The Evangelical Quarterly, Vol. XL, No.1, 1968.

Snaith, N.H., "The Meaning of Paraclete," Expository Times.

General

Banks, R., Paul's Idea of Community, Anzea Books, Australia, 1979.

Barrett, C.K., The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition, SPCK, London, 1977.

Beasley-Murray, G.R., Baptism in the New Testament, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1963.

Berdyaev, N., Spirit and Reality, Centenary Press, London, 1939.

Bruce, F.F., Paul, Apostle of the Free Spirit, Paternoster Press, Great Britain, 1977.

Bruner, F.D., A Theology of the Holy Spirit, Eerdmans, USA, 1977.

Bultmann, R., Theology of the New Testament, Vols. 1 & 2, SCM, London, 1965.

Deus, L., The Holy Spirit and Modern Thought, Mowbray, London, 1959.

Dunn, James D.G., Baptism in the Holy Spirit, SCM, London, 1970.

Dunn, James D.G., Jesus and the Spirit, SCM, London, 1978.

Eichrodt, W., Theology of the Old Testament, Vols. 1 & 2, SCM, London, 1979.

Fison, J.E., The Blessing of the Holy Spirit, Longmans, London, 1956.

Green, M., I Believe in the Holy Spirit, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1975.

Isaacs, M.E., The Concept of Spirit, Heythrop Monographs, London, 1976.

Kuyper, A., The Work of the Holy Spirit, Eerdmans, USA, 1979.

Ladd, G.E., A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, USA, 1974.

Morris, L., Spirit of the Living God, Intervarsity Press, 1974.

Moule, C.F.D., The Holy Spirit, Mowbray, London, 1978.

Moule, C.F.D., The Origin of Christology, Cambridge, London, 1978.

Murray, A., The Spirit of Christ, Lowe and Brydone, London, 1973.

Pannenberg, W., Jesus God and Man, SCM, London, 1970.

Ramsey, M., Holy Spirit, SPCK, London, 1977.

Robinson, H.W., The Christian Experience of the Holy Spirit, Nisbet, London, 1944.

Russell, D.S., The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, SCM, London, 1974.

Smail, T.A., Reflected Glory, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1975.

Snaith, N.H., The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament, The Epworth Press, London.

Smeaton, G., The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Billings & Sons, London, 1974.

Swete, H.D., The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, Baker Book House, USA, 1976.

Taylor, J.V., The Go-Between God, SCM, London, 1976.

Thomas, W.H.G., The Holy Spirit, Eerdmans, London, 1976.

Van Dusen, H.P., Spirit, Son and Father, Adam & Black, London, 1960.