Full Text for Dogmatics 3- Volume 35 - The Unique Attributes of the Holy Spirit (Video)

No. 35 If Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together in unity or indivisibly for us, how can we speak of what is proper or unique to the Holy Spirit in distinction from the Father and the Son? I hope my question is understandable. >>DR. LEOPALDO SANCHEZ M.: Thank you, Eric. That's a great question. It is a question of -- really of Trinitarian theology. And I think to shed some light on it, we may want to make a distinction between substantial statements and personal statements. Now I'll get into that rather quickly here. Just by way of review, the way that we articulate our Christian faith is by saying that we believe in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At times we talk about believing in one God in three persons. A more abstract way of expressing the same Trinitarian faith is to speak of one divine substance, three persons or hypostases. Now, statements that refer to the one divine substance are substantial statements. Statements that refer to the three in one person are personal statements. Now, a substantial, natural, statement tells us what the Holy Spirit has in common with the Father and the Son. In other words, that they share the one divine substance or nature. That they are all Creator. That they are all God. They are Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one God. Now, if they share the same divine substance, then we may also say that they also share all divine attributes. So for example you could say Father, Son and Holy Spirit are omnipotent or almighty; that they are omniscient for example or they know all things. You may say they are all holy, the source of sanctification. The Holy Spirit is also involved with the Father and the Son in all the works that they do in the world. Although usually we think of the first article of the Creed as referring only to the Father who creates and the second one to the Son who redeems and the Spirit to the one who sanctifies. In a sense they are all Creator. They are all Redeemer. They are all the ones who sanctify. Another way of saying this is that they share in common all of their works. Their works in the world are indivisible or without a division. You see all these statements are substantial statements because they always refer us to what Father, Son and Holy Spirit have in common with one another. A personal statement, on the other hand, tells us how the Holy Spirit is actually distinct from the Father and the Son. They are three distinct persons. Each of them has characteristics or properties that are unique to them. So for example, we often speak of the Son being begotten in eternity of the Father. We don't say that the Father is begotten of the Son or something like that. Or we often talk about the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. So we don't talk about the Father, for example, proceeding from the Holy Spirit or from the Son. So there are characteristics or properties that are unique to each of the persons. Now, even though all three persons work together in the world as we said before in an indivisible way, it is also true that there are certain acts that are unique to each of them in the history of salvation. So for example only the Father in the biblical narratives is said to send the Son into the world. You never hear of the Son sending the Father into the world. Also, we know that only the logos, only the Son, becomes incarnate. Only the Son dies on the cross. Only the Son is raised from the dead. Not the Father, not the Holy Spirit. And we can also say that in the biblical narratives, only the Holy Spirit is said to rest, to remain on the Son, and to be sent by the Father and the Son to the church. So you see, although the works of the three divine persons in the world are always done together in harmony and thus are indivisible or without division, these works can still be differentiated in some way. Now, another helpful way to distinguish the works of the three persons in the history of salvation, may be the following: Perhaps we can think of God the Father as origin, as source, fountain. The one from whom all good gifts come. Not only created gifts. But especially the gift of his Son. He's the one who sends his Son into the world. But we may -- or we may think of the Father as the one from whom the Holy Spirit comes. If we think of the Father as origin, as ultimate source in a sense, we could perhaps think of the Son best as our mediator. That is to say the Son as the one through whom God creates all things. But especially the one through whom we are reconciled to God through the forgiveness of sins. Christ as mediator may be said to be the one through whose death and resurrection God reconciles the world to himself. So if God the Father is origin and the -- excuse me; the Son is mediator, where does that leave the Holy Spirit? Perhaps a helpful way of thinking about what is unique to the Holy Spirit in the history of salvation is to think of him as consummator, the one who brings the fulfillment. The one who brings to perfection God's plans for his creatures. He may be said to be the one in whom God brings to perfection his salvific plan for the human race. The Holy Spirit as consummator may be said to be the one in whom God's creatures come to confess Jesus as Lord and through Jesus come to know God as a gracious and loving Father.