The objection
Paul says that the Lord is the Spirit and that the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. If Jesus is the Spirit, surely Son and Holy Spirit cannot be two different persons.
1. “Lord” must be determined from the context
2. Corinthians 3 takes up the scene in which Moses comes before the Lord and removes the veil. Paul relates it to freedom and knowledge brought about by the Spirit. We must therefore first ask whether “the Lord” here designates the God addressed in Exodus or Christ in his present saving action.[1]
Both lines of interpretation are advocated. Without this step, the sentence cannot be turned into an abstract identity formula, “Jesus is the same person as the Holy Spirit.”
2. The statement concerns divine presence and efficacy
Paul explains how the veil is removed and glory recognized. The Spirit gives life; in his presence the Lord meets people with liberation. A reference to Christ therefore describes the inseparable presence of the exalted Lord through his Spirit. It need not mean that every personal distinction is abolished.
The following expression, “Spirit of the Lord,” itself preserves a relationship. Correspondingly, Romans 8 can speak of God's Spirit, Christ's Spirit and Christ in believers without making these three mutually independent saving processes.
3. The last Adam does not become the Trinity's third person
1. Corinthians 15 compares Adam as a recipient of life with Christ as the one who mediates resurrection life. The topic is the natural and spiritual body. “Spiritual” there does not mean bodiless; Paul is defending precisely bodily resurrection.
Calling the last Adam a life-giving spirit describes his life-bestowing position as the risen one. It does not report that the Son discarded his person or humanity and was transformed into the Holy Spirit. Such a process would be foreign to the argument.
4. Shared life-giving does not mean the persons are interchangeable
John 14,16 distinguishes the Son from the other Advocate whom he requests from the Father. This explicit relationship is not erased by a compressed statement about their shared efficacy. Conversely, we must not reduce the unity of their activity to mere cooperation between separate beings.
Paul shows how the one divine gift of life reaches us: from the risen Christ in the Holy Spirit. The texts define saving action and its efficacy. They provide no reason to treat the requesting Son and the sent Advocate as the same person.
Biblical texts in context
Sources and further study
- NET Bible, 2. Corinthians 3,16–18Reference to Exodus 34,34 and the formulation concerning Lord and Spirit.