One Spirit

Greg

The following is a basic explanation of my understanding of the spirit of God.  I welcome feedback and discussion as I am always willing to sharpen my views. 

Ephesians 4:4-6: There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

In 1 John 1:3, John wrote that Christian fellowship (or communion) is with the Father and the Son.  In 2 Corinthians 13:14, we see that communion is of the holy spirit (not with), the one spirit that unites the Father, the Son, and all who are in Christ. Just so, in Matthew 28:19, we see these same three subjects - God, his Son, and his spirit.  We are baptized into the name – the authority and agenda - of the Father, and the Son, by God’s spirit. 
 
As the Messiah and the apostles taught us, the only true God is the Father (John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6). Yahweh is the "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephesians 4:6), and he is the “head of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:3). The Messiah stated: “I am come in my Father’s name” (John 5:43).  As such, the Lord Jesus said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). As Yahweh’s Messiah and supreme Agent, the Son operates under the authority of his Father (see Micah 5:4; John 5:43).  Salvation comes to those who submit to the Lordship of the Son. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).  God, through his spirit, seeks to persuade us to turn from our sin filled, self-ruled lives and to submit to Jesus as Lord.  When we yield our lives to the Lord Jesus, we are baptized into the body of Christ by the spirit. “For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body…” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
 
I, with the Lord Jesus, affirm the supremacy of the Father (John 14:28; John 5:26; John 20:17, etc.) and the Son’s preeminent Kingship under his rule.  I do not affirm that the spirit is a third distinct person, though I deny that the spirit is a mere impersonal force.  It is through the spirit as comforter that Christ and God have come to dwell within believers, though they remain in heaven. Christ is not literally inside of each Christian, but through the spirit his mind is projected, enabling him to comfort, reveal truth, aid in times of temptation, and offer guidance.  Before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, we see in the Gospel of John that he said he would not leave his disciples comfortless, but he would send them another comforter, the spirit of truth, who would be with them and guide them into all truth.  When the Lord Jesus left, I believe he became and sent the spirit of truth, which is Christ as the spirit coming to us to be with us.  Christ received of the Father the gift of the holy spirit (Acts 2:33) and he is able to pour himself out as another comforter, the spirit of truth.  I believe the spirit is Christ in another form, the life-giving spirit dwelling in us (1 Corinthians 15:45). “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (John 5:26).  God is the ultimate source of life.  As the spirit in the Old Testament was the operational presence of God, so in the New Testament, the spirit proceeds from the Father, and now also the Son (who is the life-giving spirit-man), in a way the spirit did not exist before. That is why it is the spirit of God and spirit of Christ, one spirit.  Christ is available to us no matter where we are.  The fullness of God indwells the Son (Colossians 2:9), and the fullness of the Father and Son is available to us through the spirit (John 16:13-15).
 
The holy spirit is the presence of God himself, thus the holy spirit is the spirit of God and is God, just as a man has a spirit and man’s spirit is him in the truest sense.