As I continue writing this post series on the Nicene Creed, the last thing I want is to make these posts too academic and neglect how much the Nicene Creed leads us to consider God's grandeur. We are currently continuing in our attempts to expound the Nicene Creed's statement about the Holy Spirit: "who proceeds from the Father and the Son".
The procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son is a deeply practical as well as theologically rich truth to consider. Decades ago the late W.A. Criswell of the First Baptist Church of Dallas preached a series of sermons on the Holy Spirit wherein he focused on this particular part of the Nicene Creed here History of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit – W. A. Criswell Sermon Library
What Criswell said near the beginning of that sermon captures well my aim in these posts: "It is a study that brings to my own soul an incomparable new understanding. And it is my earnest and humble prayer that in these days God will give to us a new knowledge of the presence of the Spirit in our congregation and in our own souls."
In our last post we surveyed the key Scriptural texts for support of the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father and the Son. As we continue on noting the details of the filioque controversy and why it matters, it is important to understand what is meant by the term "Procession".
In one respect the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit is hard to comprehend.
As I began entering into this portion of the Nicene Creed, I knew that words were going to reach their limit. We must not forget that in confessing one's faith in the Triune God, the Nicene Creed is recited in the context of worship and awe of this God. Nineteenth century Baptist theologian J.P. Boice wrote this of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's procession:
"This outbreathing of God is even more difficult to interpret, and the nature of the relation thus indicated even more incomprehensible than that of the generation of the Son. In this, therefore, as in that, we must be content to accept the statement, just as it is revealed, being only careful to separate from it all ideas inconsistent with acts of God."
Boice then states:
"The procession of the Spirit, must, therefore, be regarded as eternal action, completed, only because perfect, and continuing, only in the sense of not ended."
The key doctrinal points were central to the filioque controversy between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches
The Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus to His disciples and to His church. This term "procession" as expressed in John 15:26 and in the Nicene Creed carries with it a reminder of how the Holy Spirit brings to the Christian the inner life of the Triune God. When I read in Romans 8:9 of the Holy Spirit being "the Spirit of God" and "The Spirit of Christ", the doctrine of His double procession brings home that He legitimately connects every Christian to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is at stake in the filioque ("and the Son") controversy? Among other things, the whole issue of the filioque centers on whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or whether we also include the Son.
Our Eastern Orthodox friends complain that inclusion of the filioque would make there to be two sources and a possible division within the life of God Himself, resulting in making the Father and the Son as different sources in the Godhead and the threat of modalism, a third century heresy denounced by the early church.
The Western Church has historically countered that by adding "and the Son" (or "filioque") in the church's confession of the Holy Spirit's procession, it preserved what had already been confessed by past theologians (such as Augustine in his "On the Trinity") and other creeds (such as the Athanasian Creed of 450 A.D) prior to the Council of Toledo in 589 A.D.
In the minds of the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Toledo in 589 A.D., confession of the filioque enabled greater confession of the unity of the Son with the Father, as well as better preserving of the unity of the Godhead. The fear was that the Eastern Orthodox insistence on the Father alone being the source of the Holy Spirit's Person could drift toward seeing the Holy Spirit too separated from the Son, veering toward the ancient heresy of tritheism.
Whether such tendencies would have resulted in modalism or tritheism remained to be seen. Nevertheless, such theological argumentation and certain political movements in Spain at the time led to the convening of the sessions of Toledo at the end of the sixth century. These two charges from either side summarized theologically why the Council of Toledo chose to include the filioque clause and why the Eastern and Western churches would severely split as they did in 1054 A.D.
How the Son being begotten can help us discuss the Holy Spirit's procession.
One thing a Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit does is to point us back to the Son. If we but for a moment reflect on what is true about the Son in His being begotten by the Father, we may be able to glean insight into the otherwise imponderable mystery of the Spirit's procession from the Father and the Son. We need to walk back to two posts where we looked at the meaning and nature of the Son's generation or "begetting" from the Father here Growing Christian Resources: Post #8 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "The only begotten Son of God" (P1 Arguments favorable to the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son) and here Growing Christian Resources: Post #9 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "The only begotten Son of God" (P2 Why the doctrine of eternal generation holds despite opposing arguments to it)
Within the Trinity the Persons of the Godhead relate to one another by what theologians call "relations of origin". These relations of origin refer to two terms relevant to our current discussion: The Son being "begotten" (Psalm 2:7; John 1:14,18; 3:16;3:8; Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5; 1 John 4:9) and the Holy Spirit's "procession" (John 15:26). The Nicene Creed devotes several lines to expounding the first term, begotten:
1. "the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds"
2. "begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made."
In the Nicene Creed's confession of the Son as "the only begotten", the culminating word "homoousios" (one substance) shows the heart of the Father's begetting or filiation of the Son, namely that He and the Son are identical in nature and distinct in their identities as "Father" and "Son".1
What then can we say about that second term, procession? Much like the term "begotten", the Holy Spirit's procession attempts to convey the Holy Spirit as equal to the Father and Son in essence.
At the same time, the term "procession" communicates that the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the Son in that He "proceeds", rather than being "begotten". Consequently, this leads us to consider why the Holy Spirit is called "The Spirit" in the Bible.
The name "Spirit" reveals the manner of this procession He enjoys from the Father and the Son.1 J.P. Boice's "Abstracts of Systematic Theology" explains what is entailed in this term "procession" and the Holy Spirit's designation as "Spirit":
"When it is remembered, that these names describe persons subsisting in the same divine essence, this fact becomes very significant of some peculiar distinction between them in the mode of such subsistence."
Boyce's use of the term "subsisting" and the closely related term "mode of such subsistence" refers to each member of the Trinity as an "eternally abiding subject with distinct personal properties".2 The Son for instance has a "personal property" of being begotten that is not that of the Father nor the Spirit. As an "eternally abiding subject" or "subsistence", the Son has always been "the Son", which entails the Father always being "The Father".
When we apply this language to our discussion of the Holy Spirit in terms of His procession, we can say the Son is begotten but does not proceed from the Father, for example. The Father is not begotten, since He as the source of relations in the Trinity begets the Son and breaths out the Spirit with the Son. The Holy Spirit as a "subsistence" is as eternal as the Father and the Son, proceeding from the them both and thus not begotten (like the Son) nor unbegotten (as the Father). Such terms, though at first awkward, is how the early church carefully discussed the Trinity.
Boyce then continues in His exposition of the term "procession" with respect to the Holy Spirit:
"The word “pneuma,” which is the designation in the Greek original, means spirit, breath, or wind, and seems to indicate some influence, or power which proceeds from God, not impersonally, but with a personal relation in the Godhead."
It is here where Boice points out how theologians describe the Spirit's procession as a "breathing out" or "spiration" by the Father and the Son from all eternity. The title or name "Spirit" entails the doctrine of the procession of the Spirit and helps us at least to see how the Spirit conveys the very life of God within the Trinity.
Conclusion for now
As we continue to slowly unpack the meaning of the Nicene Creed's confession about the Holy Spirit: "who proceeds from the Father and the Son", we can say that like the term "begotten" in regards to the Son, the Holy Spirit's procession refers to the equality of nature He shares with the Father, leading to the conclusion that He, the Son, and the Father are co-equal and co-eternal sharers of the one, undivided nature. Also too, the idea of "procession" is what distinguishes the Holy Spirit from the Son and the Father.
Although we may not comprehend all that is expressed by passages such as John 15:26 and Romans 8:9 relative to the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father and the Son, the Nicene Creed's choice to use this term expresses a staple in Trinitarian thought of the equality and distinctiveness of the Persons of the Triune God. In our next post we will go a little more further unfolding this term and the discussion about the filioque. Stay tuned!
Endnotes:
1. Theologians call the Son being begotten and the Spirit as Proceeding by the term "modes of subsistence". This ought not be confused with the heresy of "modalism", which confuses the Persons with being nothing more than different modes in the being of God. To say "modes of subsistence" is to describe why each "Person" in the Godhead is distinguished from the other two. To "subsist" in Trinitarian theology refers to an "abiding agent" or "abiding subject", meaning the Father, Son, and Spirit are each acting subjects who bear in equal measure the undivided essence of God. When we attach the term "mode", al we are saying is that what makes the Son the Son and not the Father or the Spirit is that He is "begotten". Also, what makes the Spirit the Spirit is that He "proceeds" from the Father and the Son and is not "begotten" by either of them. The Father's "mode of subsistence" then is that He is not begotten nor does He proceed from anyone or anything, since He is unoriginated.
It is these two terms "begotten" and "proceeds" in the language of mode of subsistence that keeps the distinction of the Triune Persons intact while preserving they are otherwise equal in all respects as it pertains to the Divine essence, glory, and worthy of worship.
2. When Boyce uses the term "subsistence" or "subsisting", He is describing how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are abiding, acting subjects, which is the root meaning of the Greek term behind "subsistence", i.e. "hypostasis", or what the Latin church father would later translate with the Latin "persona", whence our term "Person". Put another way, Boyce's use of "subsisting" or "subsistence" describes the eternal relating of the Father begetting the Son and that of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.
