When I consider the matter, it seems to me that although the expression itself is simple and brief, the meanings conveyed through it are many and varied. For in as many senses as the word “in” is used, in so many ways we find it serving our conceptions concerning the Spirit.
Thus form is said to be in matter, power in what is capable of receiving it, and a disposition in the one who is disposed according to it, and there are many similar usages. Accordingly, insofar as the Holy Spirit perfects rational beings and brings their excellence to completion, he occupies the place of form. For the person who no longer lives according to the flesh but is led by the Spirit of God, who is called a son of God and has become conformed to the image of the Son of God, is called spiritual.
And just as the power of sight is in a healthy eye, so the activity of the Spirit is in a purified soul. This is why Paul prays for the Ephesians that their eyes may be enlightened in the Spirit of wisdom.
Again, just as an art is in the person who has acquired it, so the grace of the Spirit is in the person who has received it: it is always present, though not always continuously active. An art is present in the artisan even when he is not exercising it, and becomes active when he works according to it. So too the Spirit is always present with those who are worthy, but acts according to need—whether in prophecies, in healings, or in other works of power.
And just as health, warmth, and other readily changeable conditions are in bodies, so the Spirit is often in a soul without remaining there when, because of instability of purpose, a person easily thrusts away the grace once received. Such was Saul, and such were the seventy elders of the children of Israel, except Eldad and Medad—for with these two alone, among them all, the Spirit appears to have remained—and, in general, anyone whose disposition resembles theirs.
There is also an analogy with reason in the soul: sometimes it is the thought within the heart, and sometimes the word uttered through the tongue. So too the Holy Spirit is present when he “bears witness with our spirit” and when he “cries in our hearts, ‘Abba, Father,’” and again when he speaks through us, according to the saying, “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”
The Spirit is also conceived as a whole in parts according to the distribution of gifts. For we are all “members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace of God given to us.” Therefore “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” Rather, all the members together complete the body of Christ in the unity of the Spirit, while supplying one another with the help made necessary by their differing gifts. “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he willed,” and yet “the members have the same care for one another,” because a spiritual communion of sympathy belongs to them. Therefore “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” And as individual parts exist within a whole, so each of us is in the Spirit, because all of us “were baptized in one body into one Spirit.”
It may sound extraordinary, but it is no less true that the Spirit is often spoken of as the place of those who are being sanctified. Even this manner of speaking will prove not to diminish the Spirit but rather to glorify him. For Scripture frequently transfers terms belonging to bodily things to spiritual realities for the sake of making them clear.
Thus the Psalmist says even of God, “Become for me a protecting God and a strong place to save me.” And concerning the Spirit Scripture says, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand upon the rock.” What else can this “place” mean but contemplation in the Spirit—the sphere into which Moses entered and in which he was able to behold God manifested to him in a way accessible to knowledge?
This is the proper place of true worship. For Scripture says, “Take heed that you do not offer your whole burnt offerings in every place, but in the place that the Lord your God shall choose.” What, then, is the spiritual whole burnt offering? “The sacrifice of praise.” And in what place do we offer it? In the Holy Spirit. Where did we learn this? From the Lord himself, who says, “The true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.” Jacob saw this place and said, “The Lord is in this place.”
Thus the Spirit truly is the place of the saints, and the saint is a place proper to the Spirit, offering himself for indwelling with God and being called his temple. Just as Paul speaks in Christ—“before God we speak in Christ”—and Christ speaks in Paul, as Paul himself says, “Do you seek proof of Christ speaking in me?”—so Paul speaks mysteries in the Spirit, and the Spirit in turn speaks in him.
With created beings, then, the Spirit is said to be “in” them in many portions and many ways. But in relation to the Father and the Son, it is more reverent to say not that he is in them but that he is with them.
The grace that comes from the Spirit, because he dwells in those who are worthy and performs his own works in them, is properly said to be in those capable of receiving him. But his existence before the ages and his ceaseless abiding with the Son and the Father require words that express eternal conjunction. Proper and true co-existence is said of things that are inseparably together.
We say, for example, that heat is in heated iron, but that it co-exists with fire itself; and that health is in the body, but that life co-exists with the soul. Wherever the communion is intimate, natural, and inseparable, therefore, “with” is the more appropriate expression because it indicates inseparable fellowship. But where grace flowing from the Spirit comes to a person and may also depart, it is properly said to be “in” that person, even if, because the recipient’s purpose is firmly fixed upon the good, the grace remains continually.
Whenever, then, we contemplate the Spirit according to his proper rank, we understand him as being with the Father and the Son. Whenever we contemplate the grace that flows from him and works in those who participate in it, we say that the Spirit is in us.
Accordingly, when we offer the doxology “in the Spirit,” this does not state his rank so much as confess our own weakness. We show that we are not sufficient of ourselves to glorify God, but that our sufficiency is in the Holy Spirit. Empowered in him, we give thanks to our God for the benefits we have received, each receiving a greater or smaller share of the Spirit’s help according to the measure of purification from evil, so that we may offer to God “the sacrifice of praise.” In this sense, then, true religion requires us to offer thanksgiving in the Spirit.
Yet it is not free from presumption for just anyone to testify concerning himself, “The Spirit of God is in me, and through the grace that comes from him I have been made wise and offer glory.” It was fitting for Paul to say, “I think that I too have the Spirit of God,” and again, “Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” It was fitting to say of Daniel, “The Holy Spirit of God is in him,” and likewise of those who resemble such people in virtue.
There is still another way to understand the expression. Just as the Father is seen in the Son, so the Son is seen in the Spirit.
Worship “in the Spirit” therefore suggests that the activity of our mind takes place in light. We can learn this from what was said to the Samaritan woman. She had been misled by the custom of her people into thinking that worship was tied to a place. The Lord, correcting her understanding, said that worship must be offered “in Spirit and in truth,” plainly calling himself the Truth.
As, then, we speak of worship offered in the Image of God the Father as worship in the Son, so we also speak of worship in the Spirit, because in himself the Spirit shows us the divinity of the Lord. For this reason the Holy Spirit is inseparable from the Father and the Son even in worship.
If you are outside the Spirit, you cannot worship at all. But once you are in him, you cannot separate him from God any more than you can separate light from the things made visible by it. It is impossible to behold the Image of the invisible God except through the illumination of the Spirit; and whoever fixes his gaze upon the Image cannot separate the light from the Image, because the cause of seeing is necessarily perceived together with what is seen.
Therefore, fittingly and consistently, through the illumination of the Spirit we behold the “radiance of the glory” of God, and through the “exact imprint” we are led upward to him whose exact imprint and seal he is.