Gwen Frangs / Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary / 30 July 2024
The Bible teaches that the Son of God is the incarnate Holy Spirit. The scriptures in the Old Testament which refer to the Son of God are prophetic pointing to the time when the Son would come. The most significant reference to the Son of God is found in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 makes it clear that the Son of God was only begotten after there were already nations on the earth:
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
There were no nations present at the creation, because they had not been created yet, therefore the Son of God could not have been begotten before the creation.
In Zechariah 3, the second last book of the Old Testament, the Father is speaking through the Holy Spirit about the Branch. In verse 8 Yahweh says: ‘I Am bringing forth My Servant the Branch….’ Zechariah 3:8. He is describing a future event. He is not describing something that had happened in the past prior to creation. The Son was begotten only at the beginning of the New Testament when Mary became pregnant with Him, as a result of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her. When the Holy Spirit took up residence in the body that the Father had prepared for Him, the Son was begotten:
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a]
The Son of God did not exist prior to that point. The Holy Spirit, existed before that point. The speaker in the verse makes it clear that He sees Himself as separate from the body that was prepared. In other words He is not the body. He is in the body. This is because the speaker is the Holy Spirit. This is what incarnation means – that a spirit or deity takes on flesh. This is why the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church:
7 Now the Lord[a] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,[b] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.[c] For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
The incarnation entails that the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, became flesh. In flesh the Holy Spirit becomes the Davidic King that has been prophesied will rule in Jerusalem. However, He is still the Holy Spirit and all things have been created through Him and are being upheld by Him. This is what we have to try and understand, that the Son of God is both the Davidic King and the Holy Spirit simultaneously. I believe that this is what the author of Hebrews 1 is saying in verses 2 and 3:
… in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Because He is flesh, the Son inherits all things as the Davidic King, while simultaneously, because He is the incarnate Holy Spirit, He has created everything, is the radiance of the glory of God and the imprint or image of His form and is upholding all things by the power of His word. The Son of Man is as much the Holy Spirit as He is the Davidic King. He did not stop being the Holy Spirit when He became a man.
Perhaps one can think of the incarnation as a bottle of sea water. The sea is vast, however, if some of it is scooped into a bottle to fill the bottle, the sea water in the bottle is still sea water, it is still a part of the sea; however, now it is in the bottle and it is constrained by the form of the bottle. The sea continues to be the sea, although a part of it is now in the bottle. The apostle Paul understood this, which is why he wrote that the Lord is the Spirit.
The fact that the Son of God is the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that He isn’t a real man. What makes a man is the flesh and the Holy Spirit became flesh, so the Son of God is a real man.
The Son of God is superior to the angels because He is a new Being Who is both the Davidic King and the Holy Spirit. That is why He has been ‘begotten’ by the Father. He is something new and superior. Perhaps a helpful example might be that of eggs and an omelette. The eggs are made into the omelette and the omelette is considered to be superior to the eggs. When we see the omelette we call it an omelette; we don’t say: ‘Oh, look at those eggs.’ However, the eggs are still very much a part of the omelette. In fact, the eggs make up the majority of the omelette. The apostle John wrote his Gospel to show us that the eggs make up the majority of the omelette. Verse after verse in the Gospel of John make it clear that Jesus was fully aware while He was living on the earth that He is the incarnate Holy Spirit. He spoke about this in John 17:5:
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
He spoke about this past in John 17:24:
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
If one understands the incarnation and the implications of the incarnation, then one no longer struggles to understand how it can be that Jesus is the Spirit.