The Holy Spirit and Covenant

Spirit and Covenant
How does the Holy Spirit fit into this covenantal picture? It may seem that “Spirit” is only vaguely covenantal. In fact, however, in the Bible, the Holy Spirit is emphatically covenantal. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the covenant. He is associated with covenantal creation in the very beginning and covenant making throughout the Scriptures.
         The work of the Holy Spirit in the original creation is explicit from the second verse of Scripture: “and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” The fact that the creation of the world was a covenantal act and that the Spirit’s moving is central to that act, especially the creation of man, is the thesis of Meredith Kline’s Images of the Spirit. Kline wrote in his preface,
         Overlooked though it has been, the idea of creation in the image of the Glory-Spirit is, in fact, a foundational and pervasive theme in the Scriptures. We come upon it in historical narration, symbolic representation in the cultus, didactic exposition, and eschatological expectation. The present work merely suggests selectively something of these biblical riches. Waiting to be pursued further also is the relationship of the imago Dei to certain other major biblical concepts. Once it is seen that God the Spirit in his theophanic Presence is the divine paradigm in the creation of the image of God, a conceptual overlap, if not synonymity, will be recognized between the imago Dei and concepts like messiahship and the Spirit’s filling or baptism of God’s people. And to perceive that it is the same Spirit by whose charismatic enduing the church is qualified to fulfill the great commission who also as Paradigm Creator of man in the image of God, endowed him to execute the cultural commission, is to possess a vital coherence factor for working out a unified world and life field theory, inclusive of creation and redemption and, within the area of the redemptive accomplishment of God’s creation designs, comprehensive of both holy and common vocations.18
        The work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is often neglected, in spite of the fact that there are well over 100 clear references to the Spirit and his work. The Spirit is associated with the gift of life, prophecy, and other gifts that require special abilities and wisdom. On the whole, these are the same basic themes that we find in the New Testament. Explicit associations of the Holy Spirit with the covenant are rare in both testaments (Is. 59:21; 2Cor. 3:6; Heb. 10:29), but the underlying theme, as Kline points out, is pervasive.
        In Genesis, when God creates the world the work of the Holy Spirit in the covenant act of creation is central (Gen. 1:2). The Spirit’s hovering over the world should be understood to be the way that God brings the word to bear on the creation. The Father breathes the Word by the Spirit/Breath and the Spirit applies the Word to the creation. The whole process is covenantal: God commands, the world obeys, God blesses the obedient creation.
        It should be noted that this scenario, suggested by Meredith Kline’s work on the Spirit in creation, supposes both that the Son proceeds from the Spirit and that the Spirit proceeds from the Son.

        In creating all things, the Word of God who was in the beginning thus proceeded forth from the Spirit of God — as did also the incarnate word and the inscripturated Word. We are confronted again with this mystery of the Son’s identity with the Spirit and his personal distinctiveness and his procession from the Spirit in the figure of that Angel associated with the Glory-cloud and called “the Angel of the Presence” (Isa. 63:9ff.; Exod. 32:34; 33:2, 12–15).19

        Kline offers a revision to traditional Trinitarian doctrine in which the Son proceeds from the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son – in the West – or from the Father — in the East. In Kline’s perspective, the Son proceeds from the Spirit and then the Spirit proceeds from the Son. That this is a Biblical reconstruction seems clear from the Gospels. Jesus is born through the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary (Mat. 1:20; Luke 1:35), according to Kline an allusion to the original creation of man.20 Jesus is also filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit. Indeed, we even read that the Spirit “drove him [Jesus] into the wilderness” (Mar. 1:12). In His death, also, He offered Himself up to God through the Spirit (Heb. 9:14). Thus, the Word proceeds from the Spirit, even as the Spirit proceeds from the Word. The Spirit does not exactly send the Son by commandment, as the Son sends the Spirit, but He does lead the Son into the world, and while the Son is in the world, all that He does is done in the Spirit.
         The gift of the Messiah as the New Adam and as the leader of a New Covenant, therefore, is distinctly the work of the Spirit, just as the creation of the old Adam in the old covenant was distinctly the work of the Spirit. But we must also say that the Holy Spirit Himself is the promised gift of the New Covenant (Acts 1:4-5; 2:38-39). His indwelling the Church as the new temple of God corresponds to His covenantal indwelling of the tabernacle and temple in the old covenant era. In the gift of the tabernacle, the temple, and the restored temple of Ezra’s day, the work of the Holy Spirit is prominent and His presence is what makes the temple God’s covenantal throne and dwelling place.
        Whenever therefore we think of the Holy Spirit, we should think of God’s covenant presence and blessing. It was so in the original covenant when God created the world, especially when He breathed life into man (Gen. 1:2; 2:7). It was so in the days of Moses and David (Ex. 14:19 ff.; Num. 11:17; Isa. 63:7-14; 2 Sam. 23:1-7; 1 Kings 8:10-11). It was so when God sent the Messiah to bring in a New Covenant (Isa. 11:1-5; 42:1-4; 48:16; 61:1-9; Mat. 3:16-17; John 1:32-34). It is so in the Church now and forever (Acts 1:5-8; 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:19-22). The Spirit is the Spirit of the Covenant because He is the Spirit of life.

Conclusion
         What we have seen, then, is that the three special and distinct names for the Persons of the Trinity are all names that express covenantal relationships. Fathers and sons are inevitably in covenant with one another — whether they think in these terms or not. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit who creates and re-creates in covenant. Since the words “father,” “son,” and “Holy Spirit” all define covenantal relationships in the created world, we must see the Father, Son and Spirit as Persons who relate to one another in an eternal covenant of love.
        We must add to the discussion above the fact that the names of the Persons of the Trinity we have discussed are also the name of the Triune God — “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Mat. 28:19b). There is one name for the Three Persons and that special Trinitarian name is covenant name “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Add also that this definitive Triune name of God is used in the covenant ceremony of baptism (Mat. 28:19). Here, then, in one of the most important passages in the New Testament on the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus speaks of the name of God in a manner that is distinctly covenantal and instructs us to use that name for the ceremony that initiates us into covenant with God. In the light of the covenantal meaning of the individual words “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit,” Jesus’ instruction brings to even greater clarity the reality of the eternal covenant of love within the Persons of the Godhead. To be baptized is to be introduced into that covenantal fellowship of love.

Footnotes:
18 Images of the Spirit, p. 11

19 “Creation in the Image of the Glory Spirit,” Westminster Theological Journal, vol. 39, no. 2, p. 254.
20 On this Kline writes, “As that is portrayed in Genesis 2:7, man was made a living soul by a divine inbreathing. That this is to be understood in terms of the vitalizing breath of the Spirit is evident from the quickening function attributed to the Spirit in Scripture, sometimes in passages reflective of Genesis 2:7. According to Psalm 104:29–31, when God sends forth his Spirit-Glory-Face, the face of the earth is renewed and living creatures are created. In Lamentations 4:20, “the breath (ruah) of our nostrils” stands in appositional parallelism to “the (Spirit-) anointed of the Lord.” In the vision of Ezekiel 37, when God summons his Spirit-wind to breathe upon the lifeless in the valley, the valley comes to life with a host of living men (vss. 1–10, 14). At the coming into the world of the second Adam, it was revealed to his mother: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” (Lk. 1:35). And when our Lord prophetically portrayed his creation of the new man(kind), he breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 20:22). Clearly then we are to understand that it was the Spirit-Glory of Genesis 1:2, who had hovered over the lifeless deep-and-darkness sovereignly blowing where he would to bring the world into life, who was the divine breath that fathered the living man-son in Genesis 2:7.”

EXTRACTED from the Article of Ralph Allan Smith entitled A Covenantal Ontology of the Triune God - An Attempt to Expound the Relationship between the Covenant and Ontology and Answer Richard Phillips’ Criticisms of My Views. You can download and read the article HERE in PDF format.

Ralph Allan Smith is also the author of the book entitled The Eternal Covenant: How the Trinity Reshapes Covenant Theology. The book is partly available online HERE.