Who is the Comforter?
Towards the end of the 2nd century a new and strange idea of God began to invade Christendom. This teaching later came to be known as Modalism or Sabellianism. This teaching is closely associated with a priest by the name of Sabellius who lived in the 3rd Century AD. According to this teaching, there is only one God who is known by the different modes, roles or faces that He chooses to take upon Himself. Basically, God is known as the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit when He chooses to take upon the role of the Father, the Son and the Spirit respectively.
Another false idea that is part of this teaching is that these roles or modes that God plays are each confined to certain periods of time. The Old Testament period belong to the Father. On Christ’s first advent as a man, is said to be the period of the Son and finally after the ascension of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the period changes to that of the Spirit. These periods do not overlap one over the other. When God was the Father, there was neither Son nor Spirit. When He became the Son, the Father and the Spirit were non-existent and when He revealed Himself as the Spirit, there was no Father and no Son. This teaching paved the way for the doctrine of the trinity to be established in the church.
The Bible does not support the ideas of Sabellius and his associates. God and His Son both took part in the work of creation. (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2, 1Corinthians 8:6). The Holy Spirit is also featured in both the Old and New Testaments. There are still many people who have this same understanding about God.
The supporters of this idea take verses from the Bible to support their belief. In fact, these verses, when not properly understood, do seem to strongly support the teaching of Sabellius. One of these verses is found in John 7:37-39.
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. (38) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of flowing water. (39) (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” (John 7:37-39)
Was there really no Holy Spirit before Christ’s glorification? This verse seems to say so. But when we closely examine the scriptures, we see that this passage contradicts the entire Bible. So, what is this Holy Spirit that was not yet given? What qualities of the Spirit that were not present before Christ was glorified? To come to a reasonable conclusion, we shall first examine the work and the qualities associated with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament or prior to the glorification of Christ.
The Power of God
Firstly, we know from the last article (“Who is the Holy Spirit?”) that the Spirit is the presence, character, nature, mind, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, thoughts and any non-physical and non-tangible elements of God. The scriptures also reveal that the Holy Spirit is the power of God. When people were imbued with the Spirit, they had the power to work miracles, prophesy, dream dreams and the like. Below are some of the examples from the Bible of what I am saying.
When the angel Gabriel appeared before Mary to announce that she would conceive the Son of God, he mentioned that she would receive the Holy Spirit and the power of God would be poured on her.
Luke 1:35 “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
Another example that is also found in the Bible is the life and experiences of Samson. There are some who cling to the idea that owing to his physical attributes, Samson was able to kill the lion, lift the city gate or even kill a thousand men with only a donkey’s jawbone as his weapon. However, the Bible reveals a different story.
Judges 14:5,6 “Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him. (6) And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.”
Judges 15:14,15 “And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. (15) And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand me therewith.”
In both these occasions in the life of Samson, the Bible tells us clearly that he could do these things because God’s power came upon him when he was bathed with the Holy Spirit. This same power worked on many individuals in the Old Testament to prophesy, heal and raising the dead. This is also true in the life of Christ.
Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
Just in passing, here again we see that the Holy Spirit is both the presence and power of God. Jesus Himself declared that He could do nothing without the Father (John 5:19,30). This means that He cannot perform even a single miracle without the presence of God through the Spirit which God had given His Son liberally.
This power that came upon men at that time enabled them to do many things, including the wisdom to write the Bible. But at the same time, it lacked the power to help man overcome sin. David wrote the Psalms as he was moved by the Spirit, but we may observe that he hated his enemies with a perfect hatred (Psalms 139:22). Even though David received the anointing of the Spirit to write the Bible, but this same power could not change the nature of this man to the image of God. So what can help man overcome sin? What can change out carnal nature?
The Spirit of the Father and the Son
To understand this, we should first remember that the Spirit of God can exist in a conscious state even outside His physical body. And the Spirit of God can unite with the spirit of Christ, the angels and man. In this aspect, the spirit of man differs from the Spirit of God. When Christ came as a man, He did not come with divine powers that should enable Him to be omnipresent. So, in order that He might be able to be with his followers wherever they may be, it required that He should get this power again from the Father. For this to happen, His Spirit and the Spirit of the Father should be joined together in a very special way. This was fulfilled in the day of Pentecost, ten days after His ascension, when He was glorified by the Father, in heaven. In His glorification, Jesus once again received the powers of divinity that he shared with the Father from the days of eternity. When the believers in Christ received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the day of Pentecost, they received both the Father and the Son. It is this divine life of the Father and the human-divine life of Christ, blended together that makes up the Comforter whom Christ promised to His disciples and all who believed on Him.
The Comforter is the Holy Spirit, that I do not deny. But the difference between this Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit prior to the glorification is that, now the Spirit is not just a power that enabled men to work miracles but most importantly, it is also the life of Christ that had fought and gained victory over Satan, temptations, sin and death. And this life can be ours if we are willing to receive it. As Paul puts it, “Christ out life” (Colossians 3:4). This is the Spirit that was not yet given prior to the glorification. In the Old Testament we never come across the terms “Spirit of Christ” or “Spirit of the Son” as in the New Testament. This is because the Spirit in the Old Testament had no special qualities other than power and presence, even though it is true that this Spirit was given through Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit today, is the life of God the Father and the victorious life of Christ. This is the reason why when Jesus spoke concerning the Comforter, He said that if a believer who loves Him, the Father and the Son would make Their abode with him.
John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
From the Father we receive the gift of healing, prophesying, and the like. Form Christ we receive the power to overcome sin. It is in this way that Christ says that the Father will send “another Comforter” (John 14:16). And it is from this angle that Christ told His disciples that it was for their benefit that he should leave them and go to the Father so that the Comforter might come. (John 16:7). Therefore, the Holy Spirit is both the spirit of the Father and the Son and not someone else according to the doctrine of the trinity.
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