153. 5. The Lord takes these actions on his own initiative on behalf of the Father, not the other way around. The reference to "taking actions" in this opening sentence means the same thing as "sending the Holy Spirit," since the processes listed above - reforming, regenerating, renewing, bringing to life, sanctifying, justifying, [purifying] from evils, and forgiving sins - which are attributed these days to the Holy Spirit as a God by himself, are actually processes carried out by the Lord.
As for the point that these processes are carried out by the Lord on behalf of the Father and not the other way around, I will first support this from the Word and then illustrate it with parallels.
Support from the Word occurs in the following passages:
When the Comforter comes, whom I am going to send from the Father - the Spirit of Truth that goes out from the Father - he will testify about me. (John 15:26)
If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I do go away, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)
The Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, will not speak to you on his own; he will take from what is mine and make it known to you. All things whatever that the Father has are mine. This is why I said that he will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John 16:13-15)
The Holy Spirit was not yet in existence, because Jesus was not glorified yet. (John 7:39)
Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " (John 20:22)
Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father is glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I myself will do it. (John 14:13-14)
[2] From these passages it is perfectly obvious that the Lord "sends the Holy Spirit," that is, carries out those processes that are ascribed nowadays to the Holy Spirit as a God by himself. The Lord said that he was going to send the Holy Spirit from the Father; he was going to send the Holy Spirit "to you. " Furthermore, the Holy Spirit was not yet in existence, because Jesus was not glorified yet; and after Jesus was glorified he breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " The Lord also said "Whatever you ask in my name, I myself will do it;" and said that the Comforter was going to take "from what is mine" that which he was to make known. (For evidence that the Comforter is the same as the Holy Spirit, see John 14:26.)
It is not that God the Father carries out those processes on his own initiative through the Son, but rather that the Son carries them out on his own initiative on behalf of the Father, as the following passages clearly show: "No one has ever seen God. The only begotten Son, who is close to the Father's heart, has made him visible" (John 1:18 and elsewhere). "You have never heard the voice of the Father or seen what he looks like" (John 5:37).
[3] From these passages it follows that God the Father works on and in the Son but not through him. Instead, the Lord works on his own initiative on behalf of his Father. For he says, "Everything the Father has is mine" (John 16:15). "The Father has given all things into the hand of the Son" (John 3:35). Also, "as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:26). And "the words that I speak are spirit and are life" (John 6:63).
Admittedly, the Lord does say that the Spirit of Truth goes out from the Father (John 15:26). The reason he says this, however, is that the Spirit of Truth goes out from God the Father into the Son, and it goes out from the Son on behalf of the Father. This is why it says, "In that day you will recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father, and you are in me and I am in you" (John 14:11, 20).
The Lord's clear statements reveal as blatantly incorrect the Christian world's belief that God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to us. The Greek Church, as well, is wrong to believe that God the Father sends the Holy Spirit directly.
The concept that the Lord sends the Holy Spirit on his own initiative on behalf of God the Father, not the other way around, comes from heaven. Angels call it a secret that has not yet been discovered in the world.
