By Sir Anthony F. Buzzard

In John’s Gospel Jesus spends time explaining that he was going to leave them and go to the Father (not “go back” to the Father as wrongly inserted into some translations like the NIV in John 13:3, 16:28; 20:17). Jesus said that though he was leaving, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). You see clearly the promise that he, Jesus, will come to them in spirit, not as until then he had been physically with them in tangible presence. In the same context in which he says that he is going to leave but will not abandon them as orphans, note that he promises, “I will come to you.” Jesus came to them in the spirit, and so Paul can even say “the Lord is the spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

In that same context in John it is the famous Consoler, Comforter, Advocate (parakletos, one called alongside to assist and plead for a person) about which Jesus speaks. The word “Comforter” appears 4 times in the gospel of John. It is a spiritual presence which will be with the disciples. Compare the great statement in Matthew: “I will be with you to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

In 1 John 2:1, a text much neglected, we read that the Comforter, Consoler, Advocate (parakletos) is Jesus Christ! So in the writings of John the holy spirit, comforter is Jesus himself, returned not physically or visibly, but in invisible presence. Thus the disciples are not abandoned as orphans. (An orphan lacks a parent, and Jesus was for the disciples, and for us, a father, teacher figure as well as brother. He is not of course the Father, but he had spiritual children whom he taught.)

There is no evidence of a third Person in a Trinity in the writing of John or any NT writer. The holy spirit is never worshiped or prayed to and never sends any greetings!

Paul has the same notion that the spirit of God working in his life is in effect the very spirit of Jesus. This does not mean that Jesus is God, which would make two who are God. It does mean that the operational presence of Jesus, “the spirit of Jesus” operates in the lives of the true believers to guide, instruct and comfort (Phil. 1:9; Acts 16:7).

It is unnecessary to think of two advocates. Jesus is identified as the Advocate, Comforter, Vindicator, Consoler, in 1 John 2:1. John thus interprets his own references to Comforter/Advocate in John chapters 14-16.

Paul actually says that “the Lord is the spirit” in 2 Corinthians 3:18. The Lord here is the Lord Jesus. The effects of the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of God are not distinguished. They are one in effect.

Paul says that the risen and exalted Jesus has now become a life-imparting spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Jesus is no longer a flesh and blood human being but he is an immortalized human being, still a man but a man who has been given immortality and a spiritual body. Christians will likewise at the resurrection receive a spiritual body. We will still be identifiable as who we are, but our bodies will be given new spiritual capacities which we do not have now. We will still be able to eat and drink and experience our surroundings, but we will have a body that is spiritual (1 Cor. 15:42, 44).

Jesus is centrally important for us all. Yes, the Father has given him all this authority. Jesus can be prayed to also. John 14:14: “If you ask me [Jesus] anything in my name, I will do it.” Christians call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:2). The Father is of course also and very often to be addressed in prayer.

Revelation chapters 4 and 5 can be consulted often to see who the two great personages are in heaven. There is the one and only God, who is the Father, and next to Him at His right hand is the Son of God, the adoni of Psalm 110:1, who is lord Messiah, not the Lord GOD! That Lord Messiah was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:11), and all Bible students should know that GOD cannot be born! Nor can GOD die. He is immortal. Jesus, the Son of God, died (Rom. 5:10).

All this makes perfect and easy sense of the creed which Jesus taught us is the most important of all truths. “The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29). Certainly not two or three Lords in one. This is a much later confusing development under the influence of Greek philosophy. Jesus and Paul knew nothing about the Trinity. “The evolution of the Trinity: No responsible NT scholar would claim that the doctrine of the Trinity was taught by Jesus or preached by the earliest Christians or consciously held by any writer of the NT. It was in fact slowly worked out in the course of the first few centuries in an attempt to give an intelligible doctrine of God” (Dr. A.T. Hanson, Professor of Theology, University of Hull, The Image of the Invisible God, SCM Press, 1982).