A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Moving from Old Testament to New, Yarnell focuses on identifying characteristics of the person of the Holy Spirit himself, rather than discussing the work of the Spirit solely in the context of salvation and sanctification, or external signs and wonders.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Where Do We Begin? Insights from Genesis 1
2 Is the Spirit Also the Sovereign Lord God? Insights from 1 Samuel 10–19
3 Why Call the Spirit “Holy”? Insights from Psalm 51
4 Who Is the Holy Spirit to Jesus? Insights from the Gospel of Matthew
5 Who Is This Person? Insights from the Gospel of John
6 Who Is the Holy Spirit to Believers? Insights from Romans 8
7 Who Is the Holy Spirit to You?
Selected Quotes
- “The best translation of Ruah Elohim in Gen 1:2, especially if we take it as a reference substantively to his person rather than less substantively, though still personally, to his activity, therefore, remains ‘Spirit of God’.” (9)
- “These two correlations—the identification of the Spirit’s activity with God’s activity and the identification of the Spirit’s presence with God’s presence—subtly, if inexorably, indicate that the author of 1 Samuel believed in the essential unity of the Spirit with God. We shall see that the biblical canon develops these correlations progressively.” (23)
- “Those who think of the Spirit of God in impersonal terms should be shaken with the implications of this personal identity between the Spirit and God.” (32)
- “As we transition to the New Testament witness regarding the Holy Spirit’s identity, it is absolutely necessary to take into account the relationship of the Spirit to the primary subject of the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth. Who is the Holy Spirit to Jesus?” (55)
- “Jesus presents the Holy Spirit as sharing fully in the deity of God the Father and God the Son.” (71)
- “The deity of the Holy Spirit and his intimate person-to-person relationship with the Son of God should shape our understanding of who God is and how God acts. We simply may not divide God the Trinity into pieces; at the same time, we simply may not confuse the persons of the Trinity. The distinct persons of the Trinity may not be encountered by humanity apart from an encounter with the entire Godhead as one, for God is One yet Three.” (75)
- “The Spirit is the one who creates life within the Christian through uniting us with Christ, who himself made life available for the Christian through his cross and his resurrection.” (103-104)
- “The power of Romans 8 is not found merely in its trustworthy propositions about God the Spirit but also in its compelling description of the believer’s transforming encounter with God through the personal work of the Holy Spirit.” (113)