Does 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 teach that the
Lord Jesus is the same Person as the Holy Spirit? The text reads: “Now
the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And
we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (ESV). This passage makes reference to to
pneuma (“the spirit”) and kuriou pneumatos (“spirit of [the] Lord”)
but does not explicitly allude to “the Holy Spirit.” In fact, the Bible makes a
clear distinction between Jesus and the Holy Spirit as separate divine Persons
(13:14; John 14:26; etc.).
The
Greek word pneuma (“spirit”) is employed in various ways in the NT,
including wind (John 3:8), breath (2 Thess. 2:8), both righteous and wicked
spirit beings (Matt. 8:16; Heb. 1:14), the essence of God (John 4:24), the Holy
Spirit (Matt. 4:1), and the inner person (Acts 7:59; 17:16); the context must
therefore determine its usage.
In the third chapter of 2
Corinthians, the apostle Paul, having alluded to his own restless “spirit” [pneuma] (2:13), metaphorically describes the Corinthian church as an epistle of Christ,
not literally written with ink or on stone but on human hearts with the
“spirit” of the living God (v. 3). It is not the physical writing but the
spiritual message of Christ’s new covenant that makes spiritual life accessible
(v. 6). In vv. 7-16 Christ’s new covenant system (“the ministry of the spirit”
[v. 8] = “the ministry of righteousness” [v. 9]) is contrasted with the
physical, external, ritualistic and obsolete old-covenant-system of Moses (“the
ministry of death” [v. 7] = “the ministry of condemnation” (v. 9]).
When Paul says, “now the
Lord is the spirit” (v. 17), which spirit has he been talking about? His theme
has not been the Holy Spirit per se but the source of spiritual life, emanating
from “the living God” (v. 3) “through Christ” (v. 4). The new covenant of Jesus
Christ, in contrast to the old covenant of Moses, is now the source of spiritual
life (v. 6). Note the contrast: “the ministry of death” (v. 7) vs. “the
ministry of the spirit” (v. 8). It is the Lord [Christ], not Moses, who is the
life-giving spirit.
--Kevin L. Moore
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