The Spirit of the Lord
The Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:17) indicates that the ascension of Christ is compounded with the Spirit. The Lord in this verse refers to the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. In His exaltation He was made Lord (Acts 2:36).
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” First, it shows us that the two are one, and second, it shows us that the two are still two. Likewise, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word and God are one, yet the Word was with God, which indicates that They are two.
The Spirit Identical to the Lord
The Spirit is identical to the Lord. In the past the term the pneumatic Christ was used in Christology. The pneumatic Christ indicates that Christ Himself is the Spirit. However, do not think that when the Bible says that the Lord is the Spirit, it annuls the distinction between the Son and the Spirit. They are one yet still two. They are one yet still distinct.
Every truth in the Bible has two sides. Regarding the Triune God, if you stand too far on the side of one, you are modalistic. If you stand too far on the side of three, you are tritheistic. We stand on the Word, so we are neither tritheistic nor modalistic. We believe in the genuine Trinity, that God is three-one. God is uniquely one, yet His Godhead is of the Trinity. The word triune comes from Latin. Tri- means “three”; -une means “one.” Hence, triune means “three-one.”
In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said that whoever loves Him, He and the Father will come to this one and make an abode with him. Also, in John 14:17 the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit as the Spirit of reality will come to abide in the believers. Thus, in the same chapter we are told that the Father and the Son will make an abode with him who loves Him and that the Spirit abides in the one who loves Him. This shows us that the three are in the believers simultaneously. The Triune God is in us. This is a mystery, but by our experience we know that this is so.
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The same Greek preposition for into is also used in Romans 6:3. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death. Matthew 28:19 charges us to baptize new believers into the name of the Triune God. M. R. Vincent says, “Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with him.” He further says that the name “is equivalent to his person.” To be baptized into the divine name is to be immersed in the divine person.
A note in the Scofield Reference Bible says, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the final name of the one true God.” Some translations do not have of three times, just “the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Our God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. However, such a title, such a name, was not revealed until after Jesus’ resurrection. Matthew 28:19 was spoken after the resurrection of the glorified Jesus. It was revealed after the process of our Savior from incarnation through resurrection was completed.
Before the resurrection of Christ, such a Spirit, the compound Spirit, was not yet (John 7:39). But after His resurrection the Spirit of God was compounded, and He is now the compound, all-inclusive, processed Spirit. This compound Spirit, who is identical to the Lord, is, as revealed in 2 Corinthians 3, the life-giving, liberating, and transforming Spirit, who gives us the divine life (v. 6), liberates us from the bondage of law (v. 17), and transforms us into the image of Christ from glory to glory (v. 18).