“We Believe in the Holy Spirit”: Revisiting the Deity of the Spirit (Matthew Barrett)

In a recent issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Matthew Barrett has contributed an article entitled, “‘We Believe in the Holy Spirit’: Revisiting the Deity of the Spirit.”  The journal has just made the article, along with a few others, available for download. Matthew Barrett (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University, as well as the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. He is the author of The Grace of Godliness: An Introduction to Doctrine and Piety in the Canons of Dort, Salvation by Grace: The Case for Effectual Calling and Regeneration, as well as the coeditor of Four Views on the Historical Adam (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology), and Whomever He Wills: A Surprising Display of Sovereign Mercy. (He is the author of several other forthcoming books, which you can read about at matthewmbarrett.com).

Here is the introduction to Barrett’s article:

“We believe in the Holy Spirit.” This short, succinct affirmation of the Spirit in the Creed of Nicea leaves the reader wanting much more. While the creed clearly and specifically confessed the deity of the Son against the onslaught of Arianism, nevertheless, a more extensive confessional statement on the deity of the Spirit awaited. Athanasius, so famously known for his defense of Christ’s divinity and equality with the Father, is less recognized for his defense of the Holy Spirit. But without question Athanasius affirmed the deity of the Spirit as well, arguing that the Spirit is “one with the Godhead which is in the unoriginated Triad.” The Spirit, said Athanasius, “has the same oneness with the Son as the Son has with the Father.” Therefore, contra Arianism, the Spirit does not have a beginning nor is he created at some point in time. Rather, he is consubstantial (i.e., homoousios) with the Father and the Son. And yet, at the same time, the Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. As Gregg Allison explains, “Although eternal and equal, the three are eternally and immutably distinct.” Athanasius’ contribution was pivotal. His Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit (355-360) sought to refute the Tropici who affirmed the Son’s divinity while rejecting the Spirit’s divine equality, claiming instead that he is a created being.

But Athanasius would not be alone in his affirmation of the Spirit’s deity. The Cappadocian fathers—Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus—would likewise defend the Spirit’s divinity. The Pneumatomachi (fighters against the Spirit; also called Macedonians) refused to worship the Spirit, arguing that the Spirit was not equal in deity to God. But in 376 Basil the Great (330-379) refuted the Pneumatomachians with On the Holy Spirit, where he argued for the full deity of the Spirit, and at the same time was clear that the Spirit is not to be confused with the Father and the Son but is a distinct hypostasis. Therefore, while there is one, undivided divine ousia, there are three, distinct divine hypostaseis.

Gregory of Nazianzus would be more forthright still. While Basil and Gregory of Nyssa were hesitant to title the Spirit homoousios with the Father and the Son “for fear of alienating potential supporters,” Gregory of Nazianzus was not. Gregory writes in his Orations, “What then? Is the Spirit God? Most certainly. Well then, is he consubstantial (homoousios)? Yes, if he is God.” The Spirit’s deity was no abstract matter either. Worship and prayer, for Gregory, hinge on the matter. To worship or pray to one of the three (e.g., Spirit) is to adore all three persons given the equality of the three in deity.

The issue progressed in 381 with the Council of Constantinople, which elaborated upon the Creed of Nicea resulting in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. We believe “in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, who spoke by the prophets.” The Spirit is not a created being, nor subordinate in deity, but is the Lord and to be worshipped along with the Father and Son! And he is a person, one who speaks and gives life.

The debates of the fourth century over the deity of the Spirit seem so far removed from our twenty-first century context for a variety of reasons. With the birth of the Pentecostal movement the attention has shifted in pneumatology from the deity of the Spirit to the gifts of the Spirit; from his divine person to his work in “Spirit baptism” and the debate over whether he bestows extraordinary gifts on the church today (e.g., tongues, prophecy). The shift in pneumatology towards the work of the Spirit can also be seen in soteriological controversies. Religious pluralism and inclusivism have raised considerable debate over whether or not the Spirit works in other religions, even apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. In short, the work of the Spirit has taken center stage, and understandably since how we define the Spirit’s work in salvation, sanctification, and the church is central to Christian faith and living.

However, if we, as evangelicals, simply relegate the subject of the person of the Spirit to an ancient era, then we neglect to see the Spirit’s relevancy to Christian doctrine and doxology. In the twenty-first century, as Fred Sanders has observed, evangelicals face two dangers: (1) coldness toward the Trinity and (2) shallowness in regards to the Trinity. And if this is the case with the Trinity at large, how much more so with the Holy Spirit in particular, who is often the forgotten member of the three? But as this study will demonstrate, not only is the person and deity of the Spirit biblically rooted, but it transforms how we think about the most important aspects of the Christian faith.

Our purpose in what follows is to revisit the biblical doctrine of the person and deity of the Holy Spirit. In doing so we are seeking to put into practice a pneumatology from above, one that is faithfully grounded in the biblical text. In order to do so, three questions must be answered: (1) Is the Holy Spirit a person? (2) Is the Holy Spirit God? (3) What difference does the deity of the Spirit make?

Read the rest of Barrett’s article here.