Human beings themselves are “crowned with glory and honor,” and “glory and honor and peace” are promised “to everyone who does good.” Israel has a special glory, for “to them belong the adoption, the glory, and the worship.” The Psalmist speaks of a glory that belongs to himself: “that my glory may sing praise to you,” and, “Awake, my glory.” The Apostle speaks of one glory of the sun, another of the moon and stars; even “the ministry of condemnation came with glory.”
When so many created things are said to possess glory, do you want the Spirit alone to be without glory? Yet the Apostle says that “the ministry of the Spirit” is glorious. How then can the Spirit himself be unworthy of glory? How can the glory of a righteous person be great, as the Psalm says, while according to you the Spirit’s glory is nothing?
There is an obvious danger that such reasoning may bring upon us the sin for which there is no escape. If the person being saved through righteous works honors even “those who fear the Lord,” still less would such a person deprive the Spirit of the glory that is his due.
“Grant that he should be glorified,” they say, “but not together with the Father and the Son.” But what reason is there for abandoning the place appointed to the Spirit by the Lord and inventing another? Why rob of his share in glory the one who is everywhere joined with the Godhead—in the confession of faith, in the baptism of redemption, in the working of miracles, in the indwelling of the saints, and in the graces bestowed upon obedience?
Not a single gift reaches creation without the Holy Spirit. Indeed, not even a word can be spoken in defense of Christ except by those aided by the Spirit, as our Lord and Savior taught in the Gospels. I do not know how anyone who has shared in the Holy Spirit could agree that we should overlook all this, forget his fellowship in all things, and tear him away from the Father and the Son.
Where, then, are we to place him? With creation? But all creation is in bondage, while the Spirit makes free: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Many further arguments could show how unfitting it is to coordinate the Holy Spirit with created nature, but I will pass over them for now. If I presented all the proofs available to us with the fullness appropriate to the dignity of the subject, a long separate treatise would be required and my readers might be exhausted by its length. I therefore reserve that subject for another discussion and return to the questions immediately before us.
Let us examine the matter point by point. The Spirit is good by nature, just as the Father is good and the Son is good. A creature, by contrast, participates in goodness by choosing what is good.
The Spirit knows “the depths of God,” while created beings receive through the Spirit the revelation of things otherwise ineffable. He gives life together with God, who brings all things to life and preserves them, and together with the Son, who gives life.
“He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you.” The Lord says, “My sheep hear my voice ... and I give them eternal life.” Yet Scripture also says, “The Spirit gives life,” and, “The Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The Lord himself testifies, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”
How, then, can we estrange the Spirit from the power of giving life and place him among lifeless created nature? Who could be so contentious, so completely deprived of the heavenly gift and unfed by God’s good words, so without share or portion in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank him with creation?
They object that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, and that a gift does not receive the same honor as the giver. The Spirit certainly is God’s gift—but a gift of life: “The law of the Spirit of life has set us free.” He is also a gift of power: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Does being given therefore make him contemptible?
Did God not also give his own Son freely to humanity? “He who did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?” Elsewhere Scripture speaks of our knowing “the things freely given to us by God,” with reference to the mystery of the Incarnation.
Those who reason in this way therefore make the greatness of God’s love for humanity an occasion for blasphemy and surpass even the ingratitude of the Jews. They reproach the Spirit for granting us the freedom to call God our Father. Yet “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father,’” so that the voice of the Spirit becomes the very voice of those who have received him.