The unity of the Son of God and the Spirit of God

In the beginning God...

This is the start to the Bible, and it rightly starts with God. The beginning is about creation, but it also tells us who God is. He is the all powerful creator God, and he creates by his word and his Spirit. ("...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said... Genesis 1:2-3) In this creation account we learn that God is dynamic, complex, and mysterious as to his true nature and desires, as well as to how he accomplishes those desires.

Throughout the Bible, we are given further details about who God is. For example, in Isaiah 66:1 it says, "This is what the Lord says: 'The heavens are my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house you will build for me? Where is the place where I will rest?'" From this verse and the creation account God is seen as distinct from creation, while simultaneously ruling over it.

He is in sovereign control over creation, and is working in creation through his Spirit (The Lord’s spirit will rest on [messiah] – a spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, a spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, a spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord" Isaiah 11:2-3) Here, God works through his Spirit and his anointed one, messiah, which was fulfilled when Jesus Messiah lived on the earth in the first century.

Jesus’ birth was a miracle, as his mother Mary was a virgin upon conception (Luke 1:34). It was through the Spirit that Mary conceived Jesus (Matthew 1:18). Although Jesus is a human being, growing in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52), he is also from ancient of days (Daniel 7:13, John 1:1-3) because of his miraculous conception and relation to the Spirit.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), teaches people the truth about God, man, and right living. He fulfills the entire law of God and then does something miraculous, namely, He atones for the sin of the world (John 1:29). Before his death, Jesus comforts His disciples with these words in John 16:7: "But I tell you the truth: it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."

After Jesus' crucifixion, his body is laid in a tomb, and on the third day he rises from death. After 40 days of appearing to His disciples as well as many others, he ascended into heaven, becoming a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:3-8,1 Corinthians 15:45). He is now seated at the right hand of God (Luke 22:69), and will remain there until the time comes to restore everything (Acts 3:21).

Jesus’ true nature is further revealed in John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Jesus is the word of God and accomplishes the plan, or will, of God. By connecting Jesus to Genesis 1, the Apostle John is stating that Jesus is found throughout the Bible as the word of God, or the Breath of God, or the Spirit of God. It is by connecting to the Spirit that people are connected to God in heaven, the Father. In fact, the Spirit of God is also interchangeably called the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9, Philippians 1:19).

In Acts chapter 2, we see how the Apostles of Jesus were waiting for the Spirit to anoint them in power and send them out into the world to testify about Jesus Messiah. It is Jesus, himself, who sends the Holy Spirit after he receives this promise from God, the Father (Acts 2:33). This Jesus is now Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), and sends the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who repent and are baptized into the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38).

This concept is seen in a vivid imagery describing the church (or gathering of believers) as the body of Christ. (Romans 7:4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God (Emphasis added), and Ephesians 4:11-13 It was [Jesus] who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature (Emphasis added)) The Spirit who indwells believers is one with Christ, and therefore forms the collective body of Christ.

Ephesians 3:16-19 “I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

One early church father, Hermas, pointedly stated, “the Spirit is the Son of God (parable 9.1.78), and another in 2 Clement 14:4 said, “Now if we say that the flesh is the church and the Spirit is Christ, then the one who abuses the flesh abuses the church. Consequently such a person will not receive the Spirit, which is Christ (emphasis added).

I hope this encourages you to pursue a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit filling and empowering us, together with all the saints, as the body of Christ, to connect us to God, accomplish the plan of God, and fulfill the desires of God.