Understanding why the relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is central to salvation begins with the Synoptic Gospels. Here, the Holy Spirit is an integral part of Jesus’ mission (O’Collins 153): his birth (Matt 1:18-21), baptism (Luke 3:21-22), ministry (Mark 1:12; Luke 4:14; Luke 12:12), and death (Matt. 27:50). Then, John’s Gospel and the Book of Acts further elaborate on the Holy Spirit’s relationship with Jesus. “According to John, the Spirit comes from Jesus, is sent by Jesus, or is bestowed by Jesus” (‘O’Collins 153; John 7:39, 15:26, 20:22).
Additionally, at his death on the cross, Jesus “handed over the spirit” (John 19:30); he breathes the Holy Spirit onto the disciples after his resurrection; and his ascension into heaven leads to the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the Apostles at Pentecost, empowering them to live in God’s grace and share the Gospel, while also building Christ’s Church (Acts 2:1-33; Matthew 16:18-19).
As Kapic and Vander Lugt point out, Jesus’ ascension and the Holy Spirit’s descension have a symbiotic, necessary relationship to humankind’s salvation: Jesus ascends to heaven so that Holy Spirit can be sent down to humankind to deliver divine grace and all its other gifts. To support this summary, Kapic and Vander Lugt draw extensively from the Church Fathers’ works and other scholarship sources. For example, when looking at Augustine’s commentary on the Holy Spirit, Kapic and Vander Lugt quote from Marravee that, for Augustine, “The Ascension of Christ as man and the sending of the Holy Spirit both make it possible for man to ascend through Christ’s humanity to his divinity and to believe in him as God” (30).
Therefore, Jesus and the Holy Spirt, through God the Father’s power, and because of Jesus’ resurrection, are now equally instrumental in salvation and how believers are to be witnesses to the Gospel. Paul’s letters are chalk full of examples of how Christ and the Holy Spirit work in tandem to uphold salvation and animate believers. In fact, Paul often identifies Jesus and the Holy Spirit as essentially co-operators within believers: The Spirt witnesses to Christ (1. Cor. 12:3); and baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3) invites the Holy Spirit to dwell within believers (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6). In short, the resurrection transformed the eternal relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit (O’Collins 153, 154).
Yet it is important not to identify the Holy Spirit as the same ‘person’, per say, as Jesus. As Christian theology explains God as triune — Father, Son, Holy Spirit; three distinct persons in one — all three persons have individual roles, though each affects the other. By the Holy Spirit’s power, Jesus was conceived. The Son, not the Spirit, descended from heaven to take human form and redeem humankind from sin. And when Jesus instructs believers to pray to ‘Abba’, it is the Holy Spirit, not an “indwelling Christ,” that animates believers in their spiritual life (O’Collins 154, 155).
Furthermore, as Morrison states, it is ultimately the Father who is the source of everything, including salvation. It is also ultimately the Father, and through his love for humankind, who sent his Son, Jesus, to die for humankind’s sins. Then, through his resurrection and ascension, Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit, is exalted as the eternal Savior (Morrison 36).
Works Cited
Kapic, Kelly M., and Wesley Vander Lugt. “The Ascension of Jesus and the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Patristic Perspective: A Theological Reading.” Evangelical Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 23–33.
Morrison, Hector. “The Ascension of Jesus and the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” Evangel, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 2007, pp. 36–38.
O’Collins, Gerald. Christology: A Biblical, Historical and Systematic Study of Jesus. 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.