Seeing Eternity Sublime: Understanding the Sending of the Spirit

This article originated as a theology paper written for the purpose of my studies with Union Theological College in Spring 2025.

‘But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.’ This statement in John 15:26 is one of several such statements that Jesus makes about the Spirit to his disciples (John 14:26; 16:7). On each occasion, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be sent to them. This is often called the ‘mission’ of the Spirit, with mission simply being defined as ‘a temporal sending.’[1] The Son is also ‘sent’ and understood to have a ‘mission’ (John 3:17; 5:23; 6:29).[2] This assignment discusses what is meant by this ‘sending’ of the Spirit. First, it argues this mission is founded on the Spirit’s eternal procession. It then goes on to demonstrate that in considering this mission in time, it is most helpful to view it as encompassing the two categories of invisible and visible. It concludes by showing the importance of understanding the sending of the Spirit in this way.

Founded on his eternal procession

These statements in John 14–16 have had a range of readings within the Reformed tradition.[3] John Owen views them as primarily speaking of the Spirit’s temporal mission, occurring after Pentecost.[4] Given that each text promises a future sending that seems to be fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 1:4; 2:16–17; 2:33), this explanation certainly has strong biblical support. Nevertheless, as Owen admits, the eternal procession always remains in the background.[5] Indeed, John 15:26 explicitly speaks of the Spirit ‘who proceeds from the Father.’ This at least hints at some kind of relationship between the Spirit’s temporal sending and his eternal procession. Indeed, this suggestion is strengthened by the perfect correlation between the origin of both divine missions and processions. The Son who is eternally begotten by the Father (John 3:16) is temporally sent by the Father (John 3:17). The Spirit who eternally proceeds from the Father and Son (John 15:26; Gal. 4:6) is temporally poured out by the Father and Son (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7). When seeking to understand the sending of the Spirit, we should begin by acknowledging that Scripture reveals a close relationship between this temporal mission and his eternal procession.

Considering these texts from a theological perspective helps us to clarify the nature of this relationship, and conclude that the Spirit’s divine mission is founded on his divine processions. As “subsistent relations”, we can only distinguish divine persons “in relation to one another.”[6] Therefore, if we are to distinguish between the missions of the Son and Spirit, we must hold that these distinctive missions flow from the distinctive eternal relations. We reach the same conclusion from the perspective of ‘inseparable operations.’ For if everything that God does is an indivisible action, how can we say that only the Son is incarnate? Or that the Spirit alone is poured out?[7] This is only possible by basing such missions on the distinctions within the processions. This allows us to differentiate between the two categories of operations (which are inseparable) and missions (which are distinctive).[8] Further, as Thomas White shows, a foundational relationship is also necessary if we are to affirm divine aseity and eternality.[9] For if the Spirit was to relate to the Son in a new way in time, it would change the eternal trinitarian relations of origin that form the identity of God. To avoid this, we must affirm the Spirit’s temporal mission flows from his eternal procession. As Herman Bavinck summarises, the sending of the Son and Spirit ‘in time is a reflection of the immanent relations of the three persons in the divine being and is grounded in generation and spiration.’[10]

Encompassing both the invisible and visible

Having shown the sending of the Spirit is founded on his spiration, we can now appreciate why Aquinas states that a divine mission ‘includes the eternal procession, with the addition of a temporal effect.’[11] However, when it comes to understanding the nature of this temporal effect, theologians have proposed a range of categories to help us comprehend it. For example, Petrus Van Mastricht argues the Holy Spirit is ‘sent to bring about the things that have been decreed’ and accomplishes this ‘by a threefold operation’ of teaching, sanctifying and comforting.[12] In a similar way, Gregg Allison and Andreas Köstenberger highlight the actions of ‘(1) speaking, (2) creating, re-creating, and perfecting; and (3) filling with the presence of the triune God.’[13] Gerhardus Vos provides a simpler summary of the Spirit’s mission, arguing his ‘distinguishing work’ is ‘perfecting things by bringing them to their goal.’[14] In contrast, William Perkins groups the Spirit blessings into those ‘common to all men’ and those ‘proper to the elect.’[15] While each of these methods has its merit, this assignment argues the most helpful way to comprehend the sending of the Spirit is to draw on Aquinas’ distinction between invisible and visible missions.

Dominic Legge defines an invisible mission as having two elements: ‘an eternal procession of a divine person from another’ and ‘a created effect by which that procession is made present in a new way in a creature.’[16] The Spirit’s invisible mission is certainly connected with all that is identified above, including the Spirit’s special speaking and sanctifying work. Nevertheless, it primarily consists of ‘the indwelling of the divine person.’[17] Before we begin to consider the various spiritual gifts that the Spirit brings, we must acknowledge he himself is ‘the crowning gift given to human beings.’[18] As the gift of divine love, the Spirit reproduces this love in our hearts (Rom. 5:5), which is the greatest of all graces (Rom 14:8; 1 Cor. 13:13), and draws us into deeper fellowship with both the Father and the Son (John 14:23). Therefore, by sending us the Spirit, the Father and Son draw us to themselves. In this way, the sending of the Spirit is ultimately less about him coming into us and more about us coming into him.

The visible missions are often the most prominent features when we first consider the sending of the Son and Spirit. For example, the incarnation is the Son’s obvious visible mission (Gal. 4:4). In contrast, the Spirit’s visible mission is more varied, being a dove and a cloud toward Christ (Matt 3:16; 17:5), and breath and tongues to the apostles (John 20:22; Acts 2:3). The meaning of these missions only becomes apparent when the concept is carefully defined. Building on his definition of an invisible mission, Aquinas holds that visible missions also require that ‘one is sent from another’ and ‘is in another according to some special mode.’ The only addition to this is that ‘one or the other of these is shown through some visible sign.’[19] This is why Legge points out that ‘what is visible always points to some invisible reality.’[20] This could be either ‘the personal principle (procession from another)’ or ‘the terminus (a new mode of existing in another).’[21] For example, the visible missions of the Spirit clearly point to the Spirit’s new mode of indwelling. Aquinas argues that in this lies the rationale for these missions, ‘that the invisible things of God would be manifested to man through the visible.’[22]

Conclusion

This assignment has shown that the mission of the Spirit is founded on his eternal procession, and that this sending in time encompasses the two categories of invisible and visible missions. This helpfully guards us from a variety of errors. For example, it undermines the Socinian argument that the Spirit’s sending denies his omnipresence.[23] For it shows that it is not that the Spirit exists where he did not exist before, but accomplishes what he had not accomplished before.[24]Likewise it strengthens the case for the filioque, for while Scripture does not explicitly speak of the Spirit proceeding from the Son, it does state that the Spirit is sent by the Son. However, most helpfully, this understanding enables us to move our minds beyond the visible to the invisible, and even into the eternal. As Augustine poignantly put it, the Spirit was sent ‘that outward sights might in this way stir the minds of men, and draw them on from the public manifestations of his coming in time to the still and hidden presence of his eternity sublime.’[25]

[1] Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit (Nashville, 2020), 274.

[2] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Volume 2: God and Creation, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, 2004), 320.

[3] Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids, 2003), iv:378.

[4] John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. W.H. Goold (Edinburgh, 1850-55), iii.117.

[5] Ibid., 118.

[6] Thomas G. Weinandy, ‘The Filioque: Theology and Controversy’, in D. Castelo and K. Loyer (eds), T&T Clark Handbook of Pneumatology(London, 2020), 175; O. P. Emery, The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God (Washington D.C., 2011), 144.

[7] Fred Sanders, The Holy Spirit: An Introduction (Wheaton, 2023), 53.

[8] Adonis Vidu, The Divine Missions: An Introduction (Eugene, 2021), 8.

[9] Thomas Joseph White, The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God (Washington, D.C, 2022), 497.

[10] Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 320.

[11] Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1a 43.2.

[12] Petrus Van Mastricht, Theoretical-Practical Theology: Volume 2: Faith in the Triune God, trans. Todd M. Rester (Grand Rapids, 2019), 574.

[13] Allison and Köstenberger, The Holy Spirit, 284.

[14] Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics: A System of Christian Theology, ed. and trans. Richard B. Gaffin Jr. (Bellingham, 2020), 84.

[15] William Perkins, The Works of William Perkins: Volume 5, ed. Ryan Hurd (Grand Rapids, 2017), 309.

[16] Dominic Legge, The Trinitarian Christology of St Thomas Aquinas (Oxford, 2017), 25.

[17] Vidu, The Divine Missions, 37.

[18] Legge, The Trinitarian Christology of St Thomas Aquinas, 29.

[19] Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences: Book I, 16 1.1.

[20] Legge, The Trinitarian Christology of St Thomas Aquinas, 49.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1a 43.7.

[23] Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 379.

[24] Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, q25.6.

[25] Augustine, De Trinitate, ii:10.