liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.’ St. Pauls theology grew out of his experience. He
knew the personal Divine work of Son and Spirit in his own soul (Ph 3°, Ro 8°91). He had extra-
ordinary gifts of the Spirit (1 Co 1448), He knew
that all religious life comes from the Spirit (Ro 15", Gal 37°).
He knew, also, that Christ in him
was his life, his hope of glory (Col 1°”), But he sharply distinguished the revelation of the Lord in him (Ac 227), and the sending of the Son that we may become sons of God, from the sending of the Spirit to awaken us to the life of sons (Gal 4‘), He did not regard the Spirit as merely the spiritual disposition produced in us by Christ. Christian life is equally related to both Son and Spirit ; they are equally Divine, but not identical. The Spirit proceeds from the Son as the Spirit of Christ (Ro 8°, Gal 4%, 1 Co 2!°, Eph 48), as well as from the Father; and in his experience St. Paul found
‘the Son to be the fundamental type of the form
of life into which believers are brought by the Spirit (so Nésgen, ii. 262). The Spirit is the im- pelling power, the Son is the abiding life element, in the Christian (Ro 8", Gal 148). The same fruits spring from both (Gal 5% 1% 2-34, Kph 5°, Ph 1"), Both make us free from the Law (Gal 5'-18). We are to have the mind of both (1 Co 7*, Ro 87); both intercede with the Father for us (Ro 8*- 7‘), and with us for the Father (Ro 8°, 2 Co 13°). We cannot trace the limits of the working of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; but St. Paul plainly teaches that there are such limits. The Spirit begins the life of the soul in man, but all NT writers ascribe the resurrection life of the body to the risen Christ (2 Co 4°). The Spirit makes man a new personality, the Son makes man a member of His body, the Church (Nésgen, /.c.) The Son may become angry and condemn in wrath (1 Co 15”), the Spirit is only grieved (Eph 4°). The constant use of the names shows a corresponding distinc- tion of functions within the Godhead.
(a) St. Paul’s worship also is of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Spirit is for him personal, searching the deep things of God, with a will of His own for man’s good, and showing Divine treasures to man (1 Co 2"; cf. Lk 24%, Jn 1578), The Spirit does the work of the Father and Son (Ph 4, Gal 3° 4°). Father, Son, and Spirit must have been for St. Paul Divine realities. He could not pray to mere names or personifications. He never suggests that one is more or less Divine or per- sonal than the other. That most solemn claim of Jehovah—‘ I have sworn by myself . . . that unto me every knee shall bow’ (Is 45%)—St. Paul applies to Christ as God (Ro 14", Ph 2”), Fora Jew with the First Commandment as the creed of his life, prayer to Jesus Christ meant full equality with God; for neither OT (Is 428 48", Jer 104%, Ps 182) nor NT (Ro 1+, 1 Th 1°) allows worship of anything but God. The blasphemy of Antichrist was claiming Divine honours (2 Th 2%). St. Paul warned against worshipping dice: wi) ober Peots (Gal 48), hence he must have worshipped Christ as dvcec évre Oe. A Christian was a man calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation (Ac 94-21); and St. Paul, like St. Stephen (Ac7*) and all saints (Rev 22°), prayed to Christ Himself (Ac 2215) and taught others to do so (1 Co 2'). To eall on Christ was the same thing as prayer to God (Ps 88, Is 45%). St. Paul’s test of a Christian was ‘calling on’ the Son (2 Ti2”). False teachers knew this test, and did not dare to omit it (2 Ti 2%), because praying to Jesus was the recognized way of salvation (Ro 1018), A Christian meant a wor- shipper of Christ (1 Co 1’). St. Paul prays to the Son to send the Spirit (Eph 3“). The Spirit prays in him to the Father, echoing the familiar ‘ Abba’ of the Lord’s Prayer (Ro 8”, Gal 4°). He unites Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in doxologies of adoration and praise (2 Co 13"), He prays for the same things—men’s salvation—to Father and Son, and in the same Spirit to both. He thanks the Father through the Son (Ro 187”). He does not pray to them alternately, or in succession, but at the same time (2 Th 1°, Gal 1%, 1 Co 1’). He cannot
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separate them in his worship. In certain thanks- givines St. Paul prays to God as the Father of Jesus Christ (Ro 15°, 2 Co 1°, Eph 1°), showing that he knew the Lord was within the Godhead as Son. He thanks the Father through the Son, because Christ’s work was the ground of all thanksgiving to God. The Son is the completer of the Father’s work for man. ‘The love of God and the grace of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit of love meet, therefore, in the spirit of gratitude. St. Paul’s three cardinal virtues are, faith in Jesus Christ, love to God the Father, and hope in the spirit of promise (Eph 18, Gal 34, 1 Co 13"). They are all fruits of the Spirit (Gal 522°), and come from the Father through the Son. St. Paul certainly taught all the data of a doctrine of the Trinity, however theologians may differ as to its formulation. He could not have learned his fixed, confident doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from Jewish theology ; neither did pagan thought suggest such teachings: he evidently received it as part of the gospel given him by Christ (cf. Gal 1°°).