The Forgotten Trinity (20 page)

WHO DID ISAIAH SEE?

Toward the end of Jesus' public ministry as recorded by John we
find an incident where a group of Greeks seek out the Lord Jesus. The
significance of the passage often goes right past us because we are looking more at the encounter than a little comment John tacks on to the
end of his citation from Isaiah:

But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet
they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR
REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?" For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said
again, "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR
HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM."
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of
Him. (John 12:37-41)

The struggle with the meaning of the words from Isaiah often
causes us to fly right past verse 41. Yet what does John mean when he
says that Isaiah "said these things because he saw His glory and spoke
of Him"? Who is the "Him" to whom Isaiah refers?

We have to go back a little to see that John cites two passages from
the book of Isaiah. In verse 38 he quotes from Isaiah 53:1, the great
"Suffering Servant" passage that so plainly describes the ministry of
the Lord Jesus Christ. John says the unbelief of the Jews, despite their
seeing signs, was a fulfillment of the word of Isaiah in Isaiah 53. He
then goes beyond this to assert their inability to believe and quotes
from Isaiah 6 and the "Temple Vision" Isaiah received when he was
commissioned as a prophet:

In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a
throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two
he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two
he flew. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who
called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4)

In this awesome vision, Isaiah sees Yahweh (the LORD) sitting upon
His throne, surrounded by angelic worshipers. The glory of Yahweh
fills his sight. Isaiah recognizes his sin and is cleansed by the Lord, then
commissioned to go and take a message to the people. But the message
is not one of salvation, but of judgment.

He said, "Go, and tell this people: `Keep on listening, but do
not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.' Render the
hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim,
otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed." Then I said,
"Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastated
and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is
utterly desolate" (Isaiah 6:9-11).

John cites the heart of the message of judgment given to Isaiah and
sees the hardheartedness of the Jews, who had seen the miracles of the
Lord Jesus and heard His words of grace as the fulfillment of these
words.

Then John says, "These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory,
and he spoke of Him." John has quoted from two passages in Isaiah,
Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10. Yet the immediate context refers to the
words from Isaiah 6, and there are other reasons why we should see
the primary reference as the Isaiah 6 passage. John speaks of Isaiah
"seeing" "glory." In Isaiah 6:1 the very same term is used of "seeing"
the LORD, and the very term "glory" appears in verse 3.7 Even if we
connect both passages together, the fact remains that the only way to
define what "glory" Isaiah saw was to refer to the glory of Isaiah 6:3.8
And that glory was the glory of Yahweh. There is none other whose
glory we can connect with Isaiah's words.'

Therefore, if we ask Isaiah, "Whose glory did you see in your vision
of the temple?" he would reply, "Yahweh's." But if we ask the same
question of John, "Whose glory did Isaiah see?" he would answer with the same answer-only in its fullness, "Jesus'." Who, then, was Jesus
to John? None other than the eternal God in human flesh, Yahweh.

If the apostles themselves did not hesitate to apply to the Lord Jesus
such unique and distinctive passages that can only meaningfully be applied to deity, to the Lord Jesus, how can we fail to give Him the same
honor in recognizing Him for who He truly is?

There is a reason why the Holy Spirit does not receive the same
level and kind of attention that is focused upon the Father and the Son:
it is not His purpose to attract that kind of attention to himself. Just
as the Son voluntarily chose to take the role of Suffering Servant so as
to redeem God's people, so, too, the Spirit has chosen to take the role
as Sanctifier and Advocate of the people of God. But since it is the
Spirit's role to direct the hearts of men to Christ, and to conform them
to His image, He does not seek to push himself into the forefront and
gain attention for himself.

One result of this voluntary role of the Spirit in the work of
salvation' is that the evidences of His personality and deity are not as
numerous or obvious as those for the Father or the Son. He is not "up
front" and is not spoken of as often as the other persons. Some take
this as evidence of inferiority, but as we have noted before, difference
in function does not indicate inferiority of nature.

There are two issues to address when looking at the biblical witness
to the Holy Spirit. Due to the fact that some deny His personality, we
must establish the clear truth that the Holy Spirit is not merely a
"force" or "power," but is, in fact, a person. Having established this,
we must then demonstrate that He is an eternal person, Deity, along
with the Father and the Son.

HE, NOT IT

One of the ways the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses
attempts to undermine the Trinity is by consistently rendering the
phrase "Holy Spirit" as "holy spirit." When possible, they omit the
article, resulting in strange renderings like "That one will baptize YOU
people with holy spirit" (Matthew 3:11), "and he will be filled with
holy spirit right from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15), and "she was
found to be pregnant by holy spirit before they were united" (Matthew
1:18). Their intention is clear: the Watchtower Society denies that the
Holy Spirit is a person, hence, they desire their "translation" of the
Bible to communicate the idea that the Holy Spirit is an "it," a force
or power.

Of course, the argument that is often heard is that the phrase "Holy
Spirit" in Greek is in the neuter gender, and it is.' But Greek genders
do not necessarily indicate personality.' Inanimate things can have
masculine and feminine genders, and personal things can have the
neuter gender. We cannot automatically insert the pronoun "it" when
referring to every neuter noun any more than we should always insert
the pronoun "she" for "love," since love in Greek is feminine." Instead,
we determine whether the Holy Spirit is personal the same way we
would demonstrate that the Father or the Son is a person. Does the
Spirit exhibit personality by speaking, using personal pronouns, and
doing other things that only persons can do? Does the Spirit have a
will? Can we insult or resist the Holy Spirit?

One of the clearest indications of the personhood of the Spirit is
His use of the personal pronoun in reference to himself. That is, I
prove my own personhood by speaking of myself as "I" and "me." The
Spirit likewise speaks of himself in this way. When the Spirit set aside Barnabas and Saul, He did so personally:

While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy
Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to
which I have called them" (Acts 13:2).

The work of ministry is a work unto the Lord, but here the Spirit
not only speaks of himself with the personal pronoun "Me," but we
see that we are to view the calling to the service of God as a ministry
unto the Holy Spirit himself. Earlier in Acts the Spirit had referred to
himself in the same way:

While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him,
"Behold, three men are looking for you. But get up, go downstairs
and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them
Myself" (Acts 10:19-20).

The Spirit speaks to Peter and again uses a personal pronoun, indicating His sovereign action in sending the men to Peter. Impersonal
forces do not send men, speak, or use personal pronouns in reference
to their actions.

Likewise, the Spirit is referred to by the Son as a person. When
teaching the apostles about the future ministry of the Spirit among
them, the Lord said,

When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the
Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,
He will testify about Me. (John 15:26)

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into
all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is
to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. (John 16:13-14)

The Spirit here testifies about the Lord Jesus. The Spirit guides disciples, He speaks, and He discloses future events. He glorifies Christ as
well. Each of these activities indicate personality.

The speaking of the Spirit is found throughout the text of the Bible.
We have already seen some references in Acts. Two others should be
noted:

Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot"
(Acts 8:29).

And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet
and hands, and said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says: `In this
way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt
and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles' " (Acts 21:11).

But the Spirit speaks in another vital way as well:

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Galatians 4:6).

This tremendously special manner of speaking is very much like
what the Spirit does in His work of intercession for the elect as Paul
discusses it in Romans 8:26-27:

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do
not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who
searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because
He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans
8:26-27)

Here the Spirit "helps," "intercedes with groanings," and "intercedes for the saints."' Impersonal forces do not help, groan, or intercede in this obviously intensely personal fashion. The very act of
intercession demands personality. So, likewise, does the act of "searching" and "knowing the thoughts of God" predicated of the Spirit by
Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians: