A Bible History of BaptismBaird, Samuel J. (Samuel John)
Religion
A Bible History of Baptism
Baird, Samuel J. (Samuel John)
Baptism -- Biblical teaching
2. The language in which Jesus speaks of this procession as being from
the Father seems designed to be adequate and exhaustive. “When the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth _which proceedeth from the Father_, he shall testify of
me.”—John xv, 26. That the Father, specifically, is the one essential
and peculiar source of the Spirit, is here doubly asserted, by the
phrase, “whom I will send unto you _from the Father_;” and by the
further expository statement, “which proceedeth from the Father.” Should
James and John unite in writing a book, any one who in speaking of James
should say that he wrote it, would be justly chargeable with
carelessness of statement. But if the book itself and its authorship and
origin are the subject of discussion, it could not be said, with any
regard to truth and accuracy that “This book was written by James.” And,
if the subject of the book were the life of John, and the statement were
made that “This book was written by James, and gives the story of John’s
life,” the omission, which previously might perhaps be accounted an
inadvertence, assumes a character of falsehood and deceit. This, it
seems to me, is a just parallel to the case which is made by the
insertion of the _filioque_ clause, making the procession to be from the
Father _and the Son_. In the place in question, Jesus is speaking
expressly of the Spirit, whom he describes with reference to his
qualification to be a witness, on behalf of the Son. Had the whole
thought of the passage been concerning the Father, and in describing him
Jesus had said, “From him proceedeth the Spirit,” the declaration would
seem scarcely reconcilable with a coincident procession from the Son.
But when the Spirit, himself, and his qualification to be a witness on
behalf of the Son, is the distinct subject of discourse,—the statement
that “He proceedeth from the Father, and will testify of me,” utterly
excludes a like procession from the Son. This conclusion is strengthened
by the remarkable language on the same subject, uttered by the Lord
Jesus upon another occasion. “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is
not true. There is another that beareth witness of me, and I know that
the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.... The works which the
Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of
me that the Father hath sent me.”—John v, 31-36. Peter declares that
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who
went about doing good.”—Acts x, 38. Jesus here expressly certifies that
the testimony thus by the Spirit given to his ministry was distinctively
the Father’s testimony and not that of the Son,—a statement wholly
irreconcilable with the supposition that the Spirit of witness who was
the efficient author of those miracles proceeded alike from the Son and
the Father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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