At the moment I’m reading through John Owen’s volume A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Pneumatologia. The Holy Spirit is of perennial interest in charismatic circles but an emphasis on spiritual gifts often dwarfs a theology of the Spirit proper. Owen, instead of beginning with a consideration of spiritual gifts in the Church, begins with the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit. Take this quote as an example,
“The dispensation and work of the Holy Ghost in this new creation respect, first, The Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his human nature, as it was to be, and was, united unto the person of the Son of God. Secondly, It concerns the members of that mystical body in all that belongs unto them as such. And under these two heads we shall consider them.” (159).
In other words, when considering the work of the Spirit in the Church we must first understand the work of the Spirit in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Only then can we properly understand the work of the Spirit in the Church. The life of Jesus is definitive for all those that belong to him. As Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20).
Beginning with Jesus then, Owen goes on to say that all of the actions of the incarnate Son are made effectual by the Spirit. For example, when Jesus turns water into wine he doesn’t perform the miracle in virtue of his own divinity, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“…he [the Holy Spirit] is the immediate operator of all divine acts of the Son himself, even on his own human nature. Whatever the Son of God wrought in, by, or upon the human nature, he did it by the Holy Ghost, who is his Spirit, as he is the Spirit of the Father.” (162).
In order to establish this Owen rejects the Lutheran approach to the ‘communication of attributes’. When the Son takes a human nature to himself in the incarnation the properties of the divine nature are not ‘transfused’ into the human nature and vice versa. Rather, the properties of the divine and human natures are predicated to the person of the Son. In which case,
“…all other actings of God in the person of the Son towards the human nature were voluntary, and did not necessarily ensue on the union mentioned…” (161)
Since the way in which the divinity acts upon the humanity is voluntary the acts of the divinity follow the usual Trinitarian pattern. For Owen this means that divine action is purposed and designed by the Father, procured by the Son, and applied or accomplished by the Spirit.
There is a complex doctrine of the Trinity at work here and a short blog post can only fail to do justice to it. What can be said though is that in the development of his trinitarianism and consequent view of divine action Owen always seeks to be faithful to Scripture’s teaching. Owen doesn’t believe in a solitary Christ, but in a sending Father, an incarnate Son, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity works inseparably and his view of the incarnate Christ reflects that.
Geometric Theology 