J. Gerhard Sermon on John 15:26 - Exaudi

The Holy Spirit Proceeds from the Father and the Son

 



 

In the original [Greek] the word ‘proceed’ also extends itself to mean ‘a flowing forth’ – like a stream that flows from a spring [of water]. So also Christ wants to show that the Holy Spirit is the living Water in John 7:38 which has flowed forth from the essence of the Father from all eternity. And yet this living Water is of one essence and abides with the Father, just as both the spring and the stream are of one nature. So you see, we thus are able to conclude from the words of Christ that the Holy Spirit is of one essence with the Father, and thus is true God.

Furthermore, we may conclude from this that the Holy Spirit is independently self-sufficient from the Father, a truly, distinctively separate Person. For since the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, He must be a unique and decisively different Person from the Father. He comes forth from this personal distinction, which then constitutes this eternal proceeding.

Accordingly then, the personal distinction of the Father is that He is not begotten, nor proceeds from another Person, but rather is of Himself. Also, the personal distinction of the Son consists of this: that from eternity He was begotten by the Father. So also this is the personal distinction of the Holy Spirit by which He is distinguished from the Father and the Son: that He proceeds from eternity from the Father and the Son.

The fact that Christ here in particular says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father should not be taken to mean that He does not also proceed from the Son. Rather, because the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30), we should all the more conclude from this that the Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Son because of the fact that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, just as Christ also teaches this when He promises to send the Holy Spirit to His beloved apostles. So then, just as Christ, God’s Son, in time sent the Holy Spirit, it obviously follows that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Christ from eternity no less that He proceeds from the Father – especially since the proceeding in time came forth from eternity.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Father and the Breath of the Almighty (Psa. 33:6; Job 33:4) because He immediately proceeds from the divine mouth of the Father from eternity. He then also is called the Spirit of the Son (Gal. 4:6), the Spirit of His Mouth (2 The. 2:8) and His Lips (Isa. 11:4) because He likewise similarly proceeds from the divine mouth of the Son from eternity.

However, we are unable to grasp with our feeble-minded reason what is to be comprehended and what kind of distinction there is between the eternal begetting of the Son by the Father and the eternal proceeding of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. This, along with the work of redemption, shall remain the greatest of mysteries – we will have plenty to learn about this in heaven’s school. For now, we shall have to be satisfied to simply believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the majestic Trinity. He, in an inexpressible and unfathomable manner, proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity; also, on account of such proceeding He is only one distinct person, while at the same time according to the indivisible essence is in all things one true God with the Father and the Son, highly praised to all eternity.

Sermon of Johann Gerhard. Postilla, vol. 1. “On the Sixth Sunday after Easter (Exaudi).”  Trans. by the Rev. Dr. Elmer M Hohle from the German. The Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy, Malone, TX:2003. Pgs. 439-440.