Pneumatology
The Theology of the Holy Spirit
In The Johannine Writings
The term Pneumatology is derived from two Greek words, Pneuma which is translated as wind, breath, or spirit, and Logos which is translated as word. In Orthodox Christian Theology Pneumatology refers to the study of the workings of the Holy Spirit in Sacred Scriptures, and in the life of the Church. This typically includes topics such as the personhood of the Holy Spirit as member of the Trinity, the Deity of the Holy Spirit, and finally the work of the Holy Spirit within the Sacred Scriptures. (adapted from; bible.org) This Holy Spirit appears throughout the entire corpus of the Bible from the creation story in the Book of Genesis to the formation of the church in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Revelation of Saint John at the very end of the Bible. We are of course focusing on the writings of Saint John which are the most profoundly pneumatological group of writings in the entire corpus of the Sacred Scriptures.
Within the Gospel of Saint John see read of the Divine Action of the Holy Spirit from the very first chapter known as the Prologue. The Prologue takes us back to the beginning of creation when nothing existed except the Eternal God in the three persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which we simply call the Holy Trinity. The opening verses of the Prologue read as was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend.” (OSB John 1:1-5.) These opening verses remind us of the Spirit of God that hovered over the deep in the Book of Genesis at the creation of the world. As we know, this Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, and He proceeds from such; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He the Father, and likewise He is the Lord and giver of Life as we hear Him spoken of in the Nicene Creed. Since the Holy Spirit is Lord He is both coequal and coeternal with the Father and is the Father’s coworker in the creation of all things. Also, we have the Word who is the Only-begotten Son who is the life and light of all men, and He is also coequal and coeternal with Father thus likewise the Father’s coworker in the creation of the universe. The Fathers of the Church teach us that God the Father created the Heavens and the Earth through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Saint John calls our attention to the creative and life giving Love of the Holy Trinity at the beginning of his Gospel to explain to us that the Holy Spirit is working with the Only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ. (OSB Notes pg. 3) “The dyadic union of the Son and the Holy Spirit is indicated here also in a hidden manner in the following verse: “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” (John1:3). This verse, referring to the creation of the world, indicates not only the demiurgic significance of the Second hypostasis but also the accomplishing significance of the Third hypostasis: the ideal “all things” of the Logos “were made,” received reality and life in the Holy Spirit. Here, the action of the two hypostases is defined dyadically, one in or through the other: “All things were made by him.” (The Comforter; Sergius Bulgakov, pgs. 161-162.)
Another explanation of this Pneumatology is found in the account of John the Baptist’s testimony to who Jesus Christ is for the people and the world. John the Baptist calls Jesus the lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world. “And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (OSB John 1:32-34.) Here we see John the Baptist witnessing the reality that the Holy Spirit is resting upon Jesus Christ. Thus, the works and signs of Jesus, and the Baptism of which the future Church will administer to the world are both driven and full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit since He is the Life giver. John the Baptist came as a witness to the Light and the Incarnate Word of God, that all men might come to believe in Christ through his humble witness. The Baptist is only a mere witness to the Light and the Life Giving Spirit, and not the light himself since he is the forerunner. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness to make the path of the Lord straight that all who believe in Christ might have a way to follow after Him. The world of man is full of sin and darkness, because they put themselves at the center of creation instead of God. Jesus Christ, on whom the Spirit rests, comes to save man and bring him to deification through the waters of regeneration, which is Baptism, that all men might be filled with the Holy Spirit and be saved. This reality of the outpouring of the grace Holy Spirit in Baptism is the reality and mystery that the Orthodox Church celebrates to this day when she welcomes new members into the body of Christ. This Mystery of Baptism is affirmed by Christ Himself as He speaks to Nicodemus in chapter three of how one must be borne anew in order to enter the Kingdom of God. “Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”(OSB John 3:5.) Thus, we can see from this pneumatological example that we must received the Holy Spirit through the Mysteries of the Church in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. “To enter into that Kingdom of God with its eternal realities of Spirit, one needs to be born of water and the Spirit. Thus Nicodemus should not marvel that He said to him that it was necessary for him to be born from above if he would enter the Kingdom, for only this new birth from above bestows a status of spirit through which one can enter the spiritual and eternal Kingdom.” (The Gospel of John; Lawrence R. Farley, pg. 54.)
In the Epistles of Saint John, the Holy Spirit likewise plays a huge role in the formation of the Christian community to which Saint John is writing. For example, in the second chapter of Saint John’s first epistle he writes of an Advocate or another word we can use is Paraclete who is with the Father and Saint John tells us that this is Jesus Christ the righteous one. Saint John writes; “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (OSB 1 John 2:1-2) Saint John is instructing the faithful to avoid sin and the passions of the world that they might be filled with the Wisdom God, the Holy Spirit Himself. The Apostolic Kerygma here is the preaching of the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ, and that the Holy Spirit is with the Church. The ones who practice false doctrine and live in sin are outside of the Church, and they do not possess the Holy Spirit. It seems that there are two ways to live, either we walk in the light of the Holy Spirit or the darkness of sin and death in the world. God is Spirit, Love, and the Light of humanity, we must choose to walk in the Light and avoid the darkness. We are called to witness the Light and act ethically, for if we do not do this we become children of the evil one. The cleansing away of sin in the Church is to be continuous in order that we may walk always in the Light of the Spirit of Truth. The Advocate or Paraclete is an emanation from the Father and is modeled in both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. If Jesus did not return to the Father, the other Paraclete or the Holy Spirit He promised would not have come. “The work of Christ is the basis on which the Christian may approach God for full forgiveness and cleansing. John uses three terms to describe it. The first is “advocate,” or “one who speaks… in our defense.” This is a legal term, in Greek as in English; but in the Greek language, unlike English, the word has a passive rather than an active sense. It means literally “one called alongside of” and describes anyone who is called to upon to help another, particularly in a court of law. It is easy to see, then, how John can use the word of Jesus; for he simply means that Jesus is the one called to help us before the judgment bar of God.” (The Epistles of John; John M. Boice pg. 38.) The Lord Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession on our behalf for His blood has sanctified all the faithful. Both Paracletes Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, love mankind intimately because they come from the Father, for we know that God is Love because He is Trinity which is a community of Love. This Love of Christ is expressed in His willingness to die for the Salvation of the world, and we must strive to possess this type of kenotic Love and be filled with the Spirit of this Advocate. We must read the Epistles of John as an experience of realized eschatology because we are living in the end times. This new commandment of Love is manifested in the Spirit filled Church.
In returning to the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Saint John we will discover the Role and work of the Spirit in all of Johannine Literature. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” (OSB John 16:7-13.) In this passage Jesus is telling us the Work and Role the Holy Spirit will play in the life of the Church. Throughout the corpus of the Gospel of Saint John the Holy Spirit is the one who manifests Jesus Christ to the world, and in the farewell discourse in chapter sixteen Jesus explains to us why He must go back to the Father that Holy Spirit may come to guide the Church into all Truth. Saint John is also asserting in this passage that the Church is better off being lead by the word and the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is not bound by physical earthly limitations. Unlike human guides, such as the Apostles or Saint Paul, the word and Spirit could be everywhere and filling all things, unlimited by time and space, thus in effect the Spirit is able to do what even Jesus Himself as a man could not. It is better for the Church to rely on the written and spoken words of the Gospel and the Spirit that lives in these words. That is why Jesus tell us these things Himself, but none of this can happen until Jesus is Glorified and completes His mission by His sacrificial death on the Cross, His glorious resurrection, and after forty day His Ascension into Heaven. The Holy Spirit will also convict the world of unrighteousness and sin, thus showing forth judgement. Men who walk in the darkness have already condemned themselves because they know the Light who is Jesus Christ and His Orthodox Church and yet they reject the truth. Jesus says that the world is already judged, especially Satan, who is the ruler of this world. The Comforting Holy Spirit will come in order to guide the faithful into all the fullness of the truth that God has to offer because He comes forth from the Father and does only the Father’s will. “The idea is that when the believers face judgement in God’s court, the Spirit will act before God as the believers’ “defense attorney,” so to speak, and as the “prosecuting attorney” of the persecutors who rejected the gospel. The Spirit will show before God that the persecution was unjustified. In the world, things are upside down now, with the just being tormented by the unjust, but the Spirit will set things straight, revealing who is truly just and who is truly unjust. Just as the believer obeys God, in John’s Gospel the evildoer is not simply a free agent but one who obeys Satan as “the ruler of this world,” and ultimately, it is Satan who will be condemned.” (The New Testament Intro: Johannine Writings; Paul Tarazi, pg. 228.) Therefore, the Holy Spirit will safeguard the believers who are members of the Body of Christ, and guide them through this world of darkness and sin to the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom. The Holy Spirit rests solely in the Holy Orthodox Church, this Church is the Ark of Salvation. All people must come to her to be healed and restored to spiritual health for their Salvation depends upon it, for outside of this Holy Ark there is no Holy Spirit, no Jesus Christ, no Theotokos, and therefore no Salvation.
