t This idea is found as early as Theophylact (c. 1077 a.d.), who says that the word may denote iTio; tuphov oitu Myo/^ivav.
672
SPIRIT
SPIRIT
ration succeeded another, and warriors and poets, prophets and priests, all found their inspiration in the firm belief that the Spirit of God was the living motive power animating their Avords and deeds.
There can be no doubt that the Incarnation formed the culminating point, as well as the final guarantee of the truth, of this historic realization. Henceforth there was established in the human consciousness a relationship between God and man which can be conveyed only in terms expressive of the closest mutual intimacy and communion. Not only can it be asserted that God's Spirit ' dwells in ' man, but the counterpart of that truth consists in the resultant abiding of man 'in the Spirit' (^c in>e{jfj.arL, Ro 8^). The consequence of the Divine Spirit's activity in this sphere is the co-operative activity of man's sjiirit attesting the reality of the relationship and working towards ' the righteous- ness of God ' (Ro 10^ 2 (;;o 521 ; cf. Ro 8io-i«). The Pauline identification of ' the Spirit of Christ ' and ' the Spirit of God ' is for us ultimately justified in the twofold story of the birth of Jesus, narrated, as we must think, from two distinct points of view. The Spirit of God was the operative agency by which the Incarnation was accomplished (Mt P^- ^'* ; cf. the intei'changeable terms irvevfia dyiov and dwafiLs 'Txpiarov, Lk P^). The revelation of the Son- ship of Jesus followed immediately upon His anointing (^xp'^'f) Ac 10^^) with the Holy Spirit, and the twofold connexion established by the Syn- optists between this revelation and His Temptation seems to establish beyond doubt that, in their opinion, the consciousness of Jesus became then for the first time fully alive to the wondrous position which He occupied, and to the character of the work He was destined to undertake (cf. the burden of the heavenly message 6 i/tos /tou 6 dya-n-rjros, and the implied doubt repeated in the Temptation ei vibs el Tou deov, as well as the part played by the Spirit in each of these incidents, Mt 3^^ 4i«-, Mk P"-, Lk 322 4^«-, also Jn P^f- ; see Plummer,' St. Luke,' in ICC, ad lor.).
The realization of the abiding presence of the Spirit continued to be for Jesus the dominating feature in His ministry of power (see Mt 1228 ; cf. the corresponding expression ev SaKTvXq} deov, Lk 112"), a,nd gives terrible force and point to His solemn warning against that continued deliberate opposition to His claims which springs from love of darkness and obedience to the spirit of evil. Here, too, lay the secret of that absolute conviction of the truth of His message to the world, resulting as it did in the astonished recognition of its inherent authority by those who heard it (cf. Jn 6''^ 7^^- *^ Mt 728'- 13^^ 22^^ Mk 122 62 11 '^ Lk 4^2). Nor would Jesus confine this conviction to Himself. The descriptive title 'the Spirit of truth,' three times reiterated in the Johannine discourses, em- phasized that side of His teaching which laid particular stress on the identity of the guiding principle of His life and work with that moulding the activity of His disciples. At the same time it guaranteed the continuity of the context of His message and theirs to the world (Jn 14" 15^^ 16'*, cf. the actual bequest in which His promises were, partly at least, fulfilled, Jn 20^2 ; see also 7*^). That they might entertain no doiibt as to the authoritative position they were to occupy in carry- ing out the work begun by Him, Jesus spoke of His own pei'manent return to them as j^ractically identical with the continual abiding of the Holy Spirit in and with them (cf. the phrase ^pxa/J-ai irpbs vfxds, Jn 14'8). ' Christ is in fact from the moment of His Resurrection ever coming to the Avorld and to the Church, and to men as the Risen Lord ' (Westcott, Gospel of St. John, on 14*). In fact the work of ' the Spirit of truth ' is mainlv the glori- fication of Jesus by gradually making Him known
to the world as to His Person and work {iKdvos ifi^ do^daei, 6tl €k tou i/mov Xij/xi/'erat Kai dvayyeXel vfjuv' iravra baa ^x" ° Traryjp e/xd icmv, k.t.X., Jn 16''''- ; cf. iKelvos fiaprvprjcrei. irepi ifj-ov, Jn 152^).
The profound oneness of Jesus and His followers is nowhere more insistently dwelt on than in these passages, and that not alone in the character of the aims which He and they have in view, but also in the motive power helping and the undei'lying j^rin- ciple guiding them, which are identified by Him as the forces at work in His own life and Person. By an argument a fortiori He gives them an assurance that He will bestow the Holy Spirit on those who recognize their need of His guidance (Lk IP*). To such the gift will always be pro- portionate to their immediate needs ( 12'2). We must not forget that the peculiar Lukan phrase Trverj/xaTos dyiov iir\y}adri (lis-'»'-6') is used in connexion with the spiritual experiences of three people whose work lay in the preparatory stage of the coming Kingdom of the Incarnation.