"Life-giving spirit": Probing the center of Paul's pneumatology

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 1998 by Gaffin, Richard B Jr

Verse 17b ("the Spirit of the Lord") already distinguishes between "the Spirit" and "the Lord" so that the latter likely refers to Christ in the light of what immediately follows in v. 18. There "the glory of the Lord" is surely not the glory of the Spirit in distinction from Christ but the glory of Christ. In beholding/reflecting that glory, Paul continues, believers are being transformed into "the same image," and that image can only be the glory image of the exalted Christ. In the verses that follow, 4:4 ("the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God") especially points to that conclusion (note as well Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:49). The only transforming glory believers behold "with unveiled faces" that Paul knows of is "the glory of God in the [gospel-]face of Christ" (2 Cor 4:6), mediated, to be sure, to and within them by the Spirit.34

In Paul, whether in this passage or elsewhere, Christ never retreats into the background before the Spirit, nor does the Spirit in any way supplant Christ. Paul remains faithful to the outlook of Jesus expressed in John 1416: The Spirit is the "vicar" of Christ, not the reverse. As "the Spirit of truth" he has no agenda of his own. His role in the Church is basically selfeffacing and Christ-enhancing (John 16:13-14 especially points to that). So much is that so that his presence in the Church is vicariously the presence of the ascended Jesus. For the Spirit to come is for Christ to make good on his promise to the Church: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (14:18). 1 Corinthians 15:45b, for one, enunciates and elaborates the fulfillment of this promise.

It is difficult to imagine, then, that Paul would not expect 2 Cor 3:17-18 to be read in the light of 1 Cor 15:45. The transforming reality in view in 2 Corinthians 3 roots in the truth of 1 Corinthians 15. However we settle the exegesis of 2 Cor 3:17a ("the Lord is the Spirit"), the "is" (gotv) there is based on the "became" of 1 Cor 15:45b.

In 2 Cor 3:17a too, we should be clear, essential Trinitarian identities and relationships are not being denied or blurred but are quite outside Paul's purview. His focus is the conjoint activity of the Spirit and Christ as glorified. The exaltation experienced by the incarnate Christ results in a (working) relationship with the Holy Spirit of new and unprecedented intimacy. They are one here, specifically, in giving (eschatological) "freedom" (3:17b), the close correlative of the resurrection life in view in 1 Corinthians 15. That correlation is particularly unmistakable in the phrasing of Rom 8:2: "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free."

The truth of 1 Cor 15:45 is not only central to Paul's Christology and pneumatology and his most pivotal pronouncement on the relationship between the exalted Christ and the Spirit. As such it is as well the cornerstone of his entire teaching on the Holy Spirit and the Christian life. Life in the Spirit has its specific eschatological quality because it is the shared life of the resurrected Christ in union with him. There is no activity of the Spirit within the believer that is not also the activity of Christ. Christ at work in the Church is the Spirit at work.