4: The Holy Spirit in Relation to the Trinity

This is one of the issues that divided the Roman Catholic churches from the Orthodox churches, divided the west and the east parts of the church. Did the Holy Spirit proceed (that’s a technical term) from the Father alone (the Orthodox), or from the Father and the Son (the Catholics)? I think the Catholics got it right. The Son was generated by the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son.

As to the generation of the Son, here is an excerpt from my article answering the question whether Jesus is God or the Son of God:

The word monogenes could mean “only begotten” or it could mean “one and only” or it could mean “unique.” It is used of Jesus in John 3:16. But it is also used of Isaac in Hebrews 11:17. Was Isaac Abraham’s only begotten son? No, he had sired Ishmael earlier. But Isaac was his special son by Sarah, the one to whom he was giving his inheritance. Is Jesus begotten by the Father, or does this term monogenes simply designate him as the unique Son of God as opposed to all created beings who might be designated sons of God?

I lean toward the view that monogenes, when applied to Jesus, means “unique” Son of God. However, Scripture also says in 1 John 5:18 of Jesus that he is “born of God.” There is a doctrine that has developed from this called the eternal generation of the Son, which says the Son’s generation by the Father is “an eternal personal act of the Father, wherein, by necessity of nature, not by choice of will, He generates the person (not the essence) of the Son, by communicating to Him the whole indivisible substance of the Godhead, without division, alienation, or change, so that the Son is the express image of His Father’s person, and eternally continues, not from the Father, but in the Father, and the Father in the Son.” (See Theopedia)

What this means is that from all eternity God the Father has been in a relationship with the Son by which He has generated the personality of the Son (and He and the Son have “generated” the personality of the Spirit) so that they share the same essence (deity, divine nature). This makes them entirely equal in every sense of the word so that each is rightly called God, and yet Jesus can also rightly be called the Son of God. This doctrine makes a lot of sense of the data of Scripture concerning Jesus’ absolute deity (John 1:1) and yet his submission to the Father in all things. This makes it reasonable for him to be the one who takes on human nature (the Father and the Spirit did not do this) and to rule God’s kingdom until it can be handed over to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24). Jesus is thus “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3), which seems to speak of some kind of derivation from the Father, and yet at the same time exact equality.

In regard to the Holy Spirit, the term used to describe His origin is procession. He proceeded from the Father, and, I argue, from the Son as well, so that He is fully equal to Father and Son and yet is under them in authority. This is why He can be called the “Spirit of your Father” (Matthew 10:20) and the “Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9), and why He does not only do the bidding of the Father, as Jesus does, but also the bidding of Christ (John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7,13-15).

Procession is that eternal and necessary act of the first and second persons of the Trinity by which they become the ground of the personal subsistence (personhood) of the Holy Spirit, and put the third person in possession of the whole unitary divine essence, without any division, alienation or change. This is not creation. There never has been a time when the Son or the Spirit were not eternally existent. They are separate persons who share the same essence of deity with the Father. The Son is derivative from the Father and the Spirit is derivative from both the Father and the Son.