Michael Horton - Rediscovering the Holy Spirit: God’s Perfecting Presence in Creation, Redemption, and Everyday Life

You dont have to agree with everything that Michael Horton says in this important book, but the main lines of his thought are certainly right and utterly transforming. The Holy Spirit is not shy. Nor is he the member of the Godhead who fills in the bits and pieces of our experience that the Father and the Son neglected to take on. By displaying the sweeping work of the Spirit across redemptive history, Horton not only deepens our understanding of Scripture but our grasp of what it means to confess God as triune. And that calls us to deeper worship.

D. A. C ARSON

Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, President of The Gospel Coalition, and author of Praying with Paul.

Horton has given us a magisterial account of the person and work of the Spirit that is also a journey through the entire sweep of Christian doctrine. Along the way, he offers rich scriptural insights, engagement with key figures down the millennia and across traditions, and speaks into pressing contemporary concerns, drawing out the implications of a robustly scriptural and Trinitarian pneumatology for faith and life, worship and mission.

S UZANNE M C D ONALD

Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan, author of Re-Imaging Election.

Rediscovering the Holy Spirit is a veritable voyage of theological discovery in the engaging company of expedition leader professor Michael Horton. Plotting a fascinating course through the ocean of biblical theology, he maps out the terrain of systematic theology and sets up landmarks for the faith of the church as she confesses I believe in the Holy Spirit. En route he points out some of the breathtaking vistas and glorious panoramas of the Spirits divine person and his creating, saving, and consummating activity. The whole expedition is a further demonstration of Mike Hortons remarkable ability to tackle great themes with both freshness of insight and joy in exposition. Here is a work to which readers will return and find themselves, in concert with the church in every age, gladly bowing in worship to the Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son.

S INCLAIR B. F ERGUSON

Teaching Fellow for Ligonier Ministries and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, author of The Holy Spirit: Contours in Systematic Theology.

Here is a carefully wrought work that reorganizes much of the material we expect to find in a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, connecting things too often bifurcated while distinguishing things too often conflated. This pneumatology pushes and pulls on some of our habitual categories because it attends so carefully to the Holy Spirit as the one who not only reconciles and perfects (the sections on the Spirit in creation and eschatology stand out) but also sanctifies and separates (the Spirits role in judgment and consecration is strikingly accented). It is wonderful that Horton says considerably more here about the Holy Spirit than we have heard from him in previous books, but it is equally wonderful that what he says is in keeping with the main lines of his theological project: anchored in the Trinity, spanning redemptive history, and directly connected to the ordinary ministry of the church.

F RED S ANDERS

Professor, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, and author of The Trinity: New Studies in Dogmatics

ZONDERVAN

Rediscovering the Holy Spirit

Copyright 2017 by Michael S. Horton

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition March 2017: ISBN 978-0-310-53407-5

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV is [are] taken from the New King James Version. 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible. Copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Tobias Outerwear for Books

Cover photo: Adobe Stock

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 /DHV/ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Mark Thompson, his family, and the community of Moore Theological College, for their encouragement, hospitality, and friendship.

C ONTENTS

T here are few topics that are as rewarding of our time and patient exploration than the person and work of the Holy Spirit and that fact has been confirmed to me as I have been working through these chapters over the past few years. The project was initiated by the kind invitation of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, to bring their annual lecture series. Hence, it is to the faculty and especially to my friend and Moore principal, Mark Thompson, that I dedicate this work. I am also grateful to Michael Allen for his valuable input and corrections. I am deeply appreciative of the collegiality, wisdom, and expertise of the Zondervan team, particularly Ryan Pazdur and Christopher Beetham. And I am especially grateful once again to my wife and children for their interest and comments on the work and for encouraging me in this project.

AB	Anchor Bible
BDAG	F. W. Danker, W. Bauer, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
BETL	Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium
BNTC	Blacks New Testament Commentaries
CD	Karl Barth. Church Dogmatics. Ed. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 19571975.
CTJ	Calvin Theological Journal
CTQ	Concordia Theological Quarterly
HTR	Harvard Theological Review
KJV	King James Version
LNTS	Library of New Testament Studies