(5) The fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit appears still more personal and essential in the actual work of man’s redemption. The re- ligious value of Father, Son, and Spirit appears to be the same. The Spirit is not prominent in the teachings of Jesus, first, because its work, internal, subjective, tender, must be felt rather than de- seribed ; and, second, because the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was not to come till after His ascension. Yet the Spirit is there (Mt 10”), for faith in God involves also faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit ; since each has part in man’s salva- tion. ‘This truth appears whether considered from God downwards, from man upwards, or from Christ the centre outwards. This last is specially import- ant in NT teachings, for Jesus ever looks back to the Father and forward to the Spirit. He is the only, the living bond between them. No man can come to the Father but by Him (Mt 11%, Jn 6%) ; no man can come to Him unless the Father draw him (Mt 11%, Lk 1074) ; neither can any man come to Father and Son unless born of the Holy Ghost (Mk 134, Mt 5%, Lk 115). Salvation, Jesus teaches, depends upon right relations to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Unless men enter the kingdom of the Father through faith in God they will be lost (Mk 1° 112), Unless they believe in the Son as Saviour they will be left under sin (Mt 1128 24%- 44 9534), And unless they accept the Holy Spirit they will incur eternal death (Mk 32) seebne kingdom of heaven comes from the Father (Mt 6”), is brought by the Son (Mk 1 12%), and put in the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus showed the Holy Ghost casting out devils He said, ‘Then is the kingdom of God come unto you’ (Mt 12%). Both Father and Son hear the prayer prompted by the Spirit (Mt 6°, Jn 14%) ; and all the blessings of the kingdom of God flow from the Father in heaven through Christ, who bids us ask what we will; and the Holy Spirit, who brings all the gifts of the heavenly Father to His children on earth (Mt 7", Lk 11%), will impart it unto us. Jesus taught that the full establishment of the kingdom would be the work of the Holy Ghost (Lk 2449, Ac 15). ;
(c) The Trinity underlies the kingdom of God ; it is also the revelation of God which overthrows the rival kingdom of the devil (Mt 12°). God the Father is at the head of the one, the devil the father is at the head of the other (Mt 13%, Jn 8%). Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (Gn 34, Mk 1%, 1 Jn 3°), and the Holy Spirit was the power of God in His hands to cast out Satan, The world of demons was much more prominent in NT thought than we sometimes suppose (cf. Weinel, Wirkungen des Geistes, pp. 1-26). Jesus summed up the Lord’s Prayer in ‘Thy kingdom come’ and ‘ Deliver us from the evil one.’ His commission to the Twelve consisted essentially in ‘Preach the
gospel’ and ‘Cast out the devil’ (Mlk 1° 25-89 31 161-17, Lk 48234 91-2); His own work might be simi- larly summed up. The destroyer and the Saviour were thought of together: Nwllus diabolus, nullus Redemptor, seems to be the NT nexus of thought. It was a conscious conflict of personalities. The demons assailed Christ, or appealed to Him as the Son of God, doubtless understanding more by that title than did the Jews (Mk 3"); and He replied that He carried on a war of destruction by means of the Holy Spirit (Lk 9% 117°, Mt 12%), who was given by the Father (Lk 11°14), The evil spirit was cast out by the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit came from the Father through the Son (Mt 12°), That Son and Spirit are both Divine and personal, Jesus shows in the terrible passage Mt 1272-82. cf, Mk 37°39, Lk 12! Men saw the Son through the Spirit casting out devils, and were so blind as to call it the work of Beelzebub. Looking at the sun they called it midnight. Such confound- ing of spiritual values meant moral chaos. All other impulsive blasphemies against Father or Son would be forgiven ; but to see the personal Hol Ghost at work and call Him the personal devil meant death to spiritual distinctions. It was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (perhaps, as the derivation of the word, BAdmrey rhv pinr, suggests, attack on personal character), and in- volved ‘guilt of eternal sin’ (Mk 3”). It was also, so one are Son and Spirit, in some sense an unforgivable sin against the Son (cf. Lk 12% ‘a word against the Son’), ‘because they said he hath an unclean spirit.’ So pointed is the per- sonal antagonism that Jesus seems also to teach: Nullus diabolus, nullus Spiritus Sanctus. The blasphemy which Jesus declared fatal was against the Holy Spirit; the blasphemy which the Apostles first feared was against the Son of God (Ac 13%, Ja 27,1 Til), The two sins which have no for- giveness are lying to or about the Holy Ghost, and putting the Son of God to the shame of open denial (Mk 3” 858, Lk 9°; cf. Ac 5°, He 6°), The destiny of man’s soul depends upon his attitude towards the Son of God and the Holy Spirit ; we can hardly think of higher claims for the Divinity and Person- ality of both.