Bible Insights | CafeLogos.org
Over the centuries there has been a considerable amount of debate concerning the deity, or the divinity of Jesus. In order to understand who Jesus is and His relationship to the “Trinity” it is vital that we understand the Holy Spirit and how God operates with His Spirit.
The Power in the Blood - the Divinity of Jesus Christ
Jesus said that God is Spirit (singular) – John 4:24. God is one Spirit. Whenever we have more than one spirit, we have more than one God which would make us polytheists. There is only one God the Father who is one Spirit. The Apostle Paul said that “God is one” – Galatians 3:20. There is absolutely no plurality in God the Father.
God is one Spirit and He has a “person;” sometimes referred to as “soul/nephesh” in the word, which is His personality, intelligence, will, being, mind. His person dwells in light that no man can approach (I Timothy 6:16) and no one has seen God at anytime (John 1:18). Yet, at the same time His Spirit fills heaven and earth - (Jeremiah 23:24), and His Spirit is the vehicle through which God communicates with people. The Apostle Peter tells us that holy men of God were moved by the Spirit and through the Holy Spirit were directed to write the Scriptures (II Peter 1:20,21). This is how God spoke to His prophets –Hebrews 1:1, 3:7, Psalm 95:7.
The Holy Spirit is not a second Spirit but is the Spirit of the Father, (Matthew 10:20), the Spirit of our God (I Corinthians 6:11). The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of God throughout the Old and New Testaments.
The Spirit is distinct from God’s person, and is directed by the person/mind of the Father.
You send forth Your Spirit and they are created – Psalm 104:30.
I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh – Joel 2:28.
The mind of God wills, His Spirit responds.
In the book of Acts, chapter two, we see the Prophet Joel’s prophecy being fulfilled as the Holy Spirit is manifested upon the heads of the believers in individual tongues of fire; demonstrating for us that God is the God of the individual and He has the ability to operate as more than one without ever becoming more than one. God is one Spirit. We see another example of this principle here -
Then shall we know if we follow on to know the LORD (YHWH, God the Father): His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth – Hosea 6:3.
God comes to us as the rain (which is symbolic of His Spirit in the word). Here the Scripture does not make any distinction between the LORD, (the Father) and His Holy Spirit, they are the same element.
God the Father is basically two that are one, person/soul and Spirit.
In order to procure our salvation, Jesus’ soul/person must be a distinct begotten entity from the Father in order to receive our sins upon Himself. His soul is the offering for our sins – Isaiah 53:10. Jesus’ soul is begotten or birthed. Anyone who is birthed must come from a pre-existing substance. We all are birthed from the pre-existing substance of our mother’s bodies. Jesus’ soul was birthed from the pre-existing substance of the Father’s Spirit, by the will of the Father.
Jesus’ soul is the first soul to exist and is like ours, except Jesus’ soul is the perfect image of the Father in holiness and character.
God will not give His glory to another, Isaiah 42:8, He gave His glory to the perfect image of Himself. God joins Himself to the Messiah by His Spirit “I have put My Spirit upon Him” – Isaiah 42:1. Thus the “two” of God’s soul and Spirit becomes “Three,” (specifically for the procuring of our salvation) -Three that are One through the union of God’s Spirit. Thus the Scriptures have illustrated for us the mystery of John 1:1 – The Word (the image/person/soul of Jesus) was with God – (and through the union of God’s Spirit) was God. “I and My Father are one” – John 10:30.
Jesus and God the Father are one Spirit.
The Jews before Jesus recognized that the Spirit of God that moved upon the waters in Genesis 1:2, was the Spirit of Messiah. This view is confirmed by the Apostles who were also Jews.
The Lord is that Spirit – II Corinthians 3:17,18
The Spirit of Messiah that was in them – I Peter 1:11
He has given us the Spirit of His Son – Galatians 4:6
Throughout the Scriptures the Apostles make no distinction between the Father’s Holy Spirit and the Spirit of His Son, they are one; Romans 8:9 is just one example. And as we have been shown, the Scriptures make no distinction between God and His Spirit.
Jesus said to His disciples - And no man has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is in heaven – John 3:13.
It is interesting to note here, that Jesus said He came down from heaven, yet indicated in John 3:13 that He was also “in heaven” at the same time, verifying the fact that His Spirit is God’s omnipresent Spirit and can be in more than one place at once.
He also told His disciples that “He that dwells with you, would be in you” –John 14:17, meaning that God the Father who is indwelling His Son through His Spirit and Jesus who is God’s Spirit incarnate, would indwell them.
“I will come to you,” John 14:18 - “We will come” - John 14:23. The “person” of the Holy Spirit is the person of the Father and the Son.
The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas, which means tri-unity. The pre-existent tri-unity of the Father’s person, His Son’s person and their Spirit is manifested in Jesus’ body as a man. Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself – II Corinthians 5:19.
Jesus’ begotten soul is placed in Mary’s body and given life by the Holy Spirit, which sets Him apart from any other man who has ever been born.
The life of every man is in the blood – “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” – Leviticus 17:11.
We are sanctified by the blood of Jesus – Hebrews 13:12.
Therefore, Jesus’ blood is distinctly different from an ordinary man’s blood, which does not have the supernatural ability to sanctify or bestow eternal life on anyone.
We are told that we are also sanctified by the Holy Spirit (II Thessalonians 2:13, I Peter 1:2) – which is the sanctifying agent in the blood of Jesus; “the power in the blood,” and this is where Jesus’ divinity is found.
The first Adam was not given life by the Holy Spirit, but by God’s breath, the “Neshamah.” The word Ruach which is used to designate God’s Holy Spirit is not used regarding Adam’s creation. Jesus’ soul was animated by the Holy Spirit.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening (Life Giving) Spirit - I Corinthians 15:45.
That life giving Spirit as we have been shown from the Scriptures is God’s Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that it is the Spirit who gives life – John 6:63.
Jesus also said before His resurrection that He had been given “Life within Himself” – John 5:26, (a quality that only God can have) and that He had the power to raise Himself from the dead (John 10:18). That power is the Holy Spirit. Jesus was made alive by the Spirit as the Apostle Peter affirms - For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit - I Peter 3:18.
The life is in the blood – Jesus said to eat His flesh (His Word) and drink His blood (His Spirit) or we have no life in us – Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. – John 6:63."Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day”. – John 6:63, 64. The Holy Spirit of God the Father is the life in the blood of Jesus that we ingest by faith.
After Jesus’ resurrection, He breathed His Holy Spirit into His disciples - And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit – John 20:22. The only other time the word “breathed” is used in the Scriptures pertaining to the giving of life is when God breathed the neshamah into Adam. Here Jesus is overriding Adam’s “breath of Life” that cannot give eternal life, with the Holy Spirit, the Eternal Spirit of God that embraces our souls with eternity.
The Holy Spirit of the Father, which is the Spirit of His Son, is the life in the blood of the Messiah that is imparted to us through faith in His death and resurrection from the dead – because we are purchased by “The blood of God.” – Acts 20:28
Copyright 2012 by H. D. Shively