Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 62:1 (Mar 2019)
Article: “Lord And Giver Of Life”: The Holy Spirit In Redemptive History
Author: Michael S. Horton

JETS 62:1 (March 2019) p. 47

“Lord And Giver Of Life”:
The Holy Spirit In Redemptive History

Michael Horton*

* Michael Horton is the J. Gresham Machen professor of theology and apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary California, 1725 Bear Valley Parkway, Escondido, CA 92027. He delivered this plenary address at the 70^th annual meeting of the ETS in Denver, CO on November 15, 2018.

Abstract: After mentioning three errors regarding the Spirit, this essay focuses on the Spirit’s specific activity in redemptive history of generating a body for the Son, seen in the preparation of both a natural, physical body, and also an ecclesial body of which he is the head and husband. The Spirit was essentially involved in the original creative act of forming humanity. Further, the Spirit was active in preparing a body, Israel, from which the world’s Messiah would come. The Old Testament prophets were energized by the Spirit as they laid the groundwork for the historical appearance of the Son among humanity. The Spirit united the eternal Son to human flesh in the incarnation. In preparing a body for the Son, the Spirit narrowed his work from humanity to Israel to Jesus of Nazareth, but then expanded his work to involve the church whom he indwells.

Key words: Holy Spirit, redemptive history, body, incarnation

This paper focuses on the Spirit’s activity in redemptive history—specifically, in the generation of a body for the Son. By “body,” I intend both the natural body—the humanity assumed by the Son—and the ecclesial body entrusted to the Son as mediator by the Father before all ages and united to the Son by the Spirit in time.

Before launching into this survey, however, a few brief introductory remarks may be permitted. My interest in the person and work of the Holy Spirit over recent years has been provoked first and foremost by the joy of discovering the prominence of the third person throughout Scripture, beginning with the Bible’s second verse. And it has been spurred also by the concern to eschew certain errors that have weakened our view and experience of the Spirit.

I explore some aberrant formulations, academic and popular, in Rediscovering the Holy Spirit. Many of these problems are perennial temptations, ever since the ancient church struggled victoriously to amend the Nicene Creed at Constantinople to include the decisive clause concerning the Spirit: “who, together with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified.” The first problem is depersonalizing the Spirit, which appears most obviously in the use of the impersonal pronoun “it,” which of course would never be considered appropriate for referring to the Father or the Son. Su...