How is the doctrine of the Trinity related to Christian life and ministry? One of the aims of Luke in his two-volume work Luke-Acts is to provide assurance for believers such as Theophilus (Luke 1:1–4). To provide this assurance Luke outlines evidence that Jesus is the incarnate Lord who accomplishes the saving purposes of his Father by the power of the Spirit. Furthermore, the risen Lord Jesus continues to administer the Father’s saving rule by the Spirit, who empowers God’s people to bear witness to the Lord Jesus and his salvation. Thus the triune God – and what he has done – is at the heart of Luke’s pastoral project to provide assurance.
I will devote the bulk of my discussion of Luke’s Gospel, in keeping with the emphasis of the narrative, to Jesus as Lord and Son and his relation to the God of Israel. Then I will turn to the Holy Spirit’s relationship to the Father and Son.1 I will focus primarily on how themes introduced in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel prepare for the narrative development that follows and also return with a resounding crescendo in the concluding chapter. When I come to Acts, I will again begin with Luke’s focus on the lordship of Jesus, before turning to expressions of the triunity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Acts.
In both the introduction and conclusion of his Gospel account Luke makes clear that he is describing the fulfilment of God’s saving purposes as anticipated in the promises and expectations found in the Old Testament (Luke 1:1). Thus Luke is describing the continuation of God’s saving purposes for his people and as such is assuming a continuation from the Old Testament in the identity and nature of God.2 Thus ‘God’ (theos) is introduced in the narrative without any explanation of who he is. Zechariah and Elizabeth observe God’s commands (1:6), Zechariah serves God in the temple (1:8) and God is the one who announces his saving purposes in the world by sending an angel to Zechariah (1:19), Mary (1:26) and the shepherds (2:9–15). God is Saviour (1:47), Lord (1:6, 16, 46, 68), mighty (1:37, 49), holy (1:49), merciful (1:50, 72, 78) and sovereign (2:29). The overwhelming emphasis in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel is that the one God of Israel is keeping his promises (to Abraham, 1:55, 73, and David, 1:32–33, 69; 2:4, 11), and is to be praised (1:42–45, 46–47, 58, 64, 68; 2:13–14, 20, 28, 38) for the joyful arrival of his long-hoped-for salvation (1:47, 71, 77; 2:30), the forgiveness of sins (1:77), the ‘consolation of Israel’ (2:25), the ‘redemption of Jerusalem’ (2:38), as well as his ‘revelation to the Gentiles’ (2:32)3.
At the conclusion to his Gospel there are again references to people who had been ‘waiting for the kingdom of God’ (23:51 niv) or hoping that Jesus had been the prophet to ‘redeem Israel’ (24:21). Likewise, explanations of the ‘necessity’ of God’s saving plan (24:7, 26, 44; cf. 22:22) and an emphasis on the fulfilment of the Scriptures (24:25–27, 44–47) dominate the narrative and Luke’s readers are prepared for the proclamation of the ‘forgiveness of sins’ to be announced in Jerusalem and to all nations (24:47). In the last verse Luke returns to the themes of the opening scenes of his account (e.g. the temple) with the disciples continually ‘praising God’ (24:53 niv). Between these ‘bookends’ Luke regularly draws attention to the praise given to God (5:25–26; 7:16; 9:43; 13:13; 17:15; 18:43; 19:37) because God has ‘visited’ or ‘come to help’ (niv) his people (7:16; cf. 1:68, 78; 19:44).
Of course, it is obvious that people praise God in Luke’s Gospel because of the arrival and actions of Jesus. Does this mean, however, that Jesus should be understood as merely a human ‘agent’ of God? The identity of Jesus is a prominent theme with questions about who he is appearing regularly in the first half of Luke’s Gospel.4 Many have noted the multifaceted Christological themes in Luke’s Gospel: Jesus is the royal Messiah (e.g. 1:32; 24:26, 46), the ‘rejected prophet’ (e.g. 4:24; 13:33; 24:19) and Isaianic Servant (e.g. 2:32; 3:22; 4:16–21; 22:37). Luke’s multifaceted Christology is due in part to his conviction that Jesus fulfils all of the Scriptures (e.g. 24:44). Yet Jesus also transcends these categories: he is ‘more than’ a son of David, prophet and servant; he is ‘the Lord’ and the unique ‘Son of God’. We will first note the important ways in which Jesus is introduced in Luke’s narrative as ‘Lord’. This is foundational for understanding who Jesus is in his identification with the God of Israel. Then we will note the further nuance to this identity with the Father–Son relationship in Luke’s Gospel.
As noted above, from the first mention of God in the narrative it is clear that ‘God’ (theos) is ‘the Lord’ (kyrios, 1:6), and this designation continues throughout these chapters. Sometimes these two terms are used together (e.g. ‘the Lord their God’, 1:16; ‘the Lord God’, 1:32; ‘the Lord God of Israel’, 1:68), sometimes the terms are used interchangeably in the immediate context, where it is clear that ‘Lord’ refers to ‘God’ (e.g. 1:6, 8–9, 11, 19, 26, 28, 37–38, 46–47), and sometimes ‘God’ is simply referred to as ‘Lord’ (e.g. 1:25, 45, 58; 2:9, 22; cf. also the ‘Law of the Lord’, 2:23–24, 39).5
Since the term ‘Lord’ is used predominantly to refer to Yahweh, the God of Israel, it is stunning to find in these same narrative contexts references to Jesus that identify him with this Lord.6 Thus Zechariah is told that not only will his son John (the Baptist) bring many back to ‘the Lord their God’ (1:16); he will actually ‘go before him [the Lord]’ and ‘make ready for the Lord a people prepared’ (1:17). Similarly, when Zechariah himself praises ‘the Lord God of Israel’ (1:68), he declares that John will be a prophet of the Most High who will ‘go before the Lord to prepare his ways’ (1:76).
In the narrative context, given the consistent use of kyrios (Lord) to this point, it could be assumed that the ‘Lord’ whom John will go before is Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel. Between these statements to and by Zechariah, however, Elizabeth, empowered by the Holy Spirit, calls Mary ‘the mother of my Lord’ (1:43)!7 In the immediate context of references to Yahweh as ‘Lord’ (1:38, 45–46) this exclamation of Elizabeth exalts the one her husband, Zechariah, had been told their son would go before!
When John begins his public ministry calling for repentance and announcing the arrival of one ‘mightier’ than him (3:16), he begins with the words of Isaiah that describe his ministry as one that prepares the way for ‘the Lord’ and makes straight paths for him (3:4). In the context of the quotation from Isaiah it is obvious that this is a reference to the Lord, the God of Israel. In the context of Luke’s Gospel, however, with the role of John as the prophet who goes before Jesus, it is Jesus who is the Lord (2:11) whom John goes before.
Parallel to these references that identify Jesus with the Lord God of Israel are references that also identify Jesus as the ‘Saviour’. In the Old Testament Yahweh was the only God and ‘Saviour’ (sōtēr) of his people.8 Similarly, in Luke’s Gospel Mary begins her praise by glorifying ‘the Lord’ and rejoicing in ‘God my Saviour’ (1:47). The only other use of the title ‘Saviour’ in Luke’s Gospel comes with the announcement from the ‘angel of the Lord’ that the one born in the town of David is both ‘Saviour’ and ‘Christ the Lord’ (2:11). So, when John announces that he is calling people to be prepared for ‘the Lord’, in Luke’s Gospel the quotation from Isaiah 40 extends to the statement that everyone will see ‘the salvation of God’ (3:6; citing Isa. 40:5). Jesus, therefore, is the Isaianic ‘Lord’ and ‘Saviour’ as well as the ‘servant of the Lord’.
Thus in the narrative flow of Luke 1 – 3, with statements about Jesus in 1:43 (‘my Lord’), 2:11 (‘the Lord’) and 3:16 (the ‘mightier’ one coming after John), the references to the ‘Lord’ in 1:17, 76 and 3:4 as the one whom John will go before should not be reduced to the false dichotomy of a reference either to Yahweh or to Jesus; Jesus is the incarnation of Yahweh.9 See below, however, that the description of Jesus as ‘Son’ indicates there is a duality of Father and Son within the unity of the one Lord. In Luke’s narrative ‘both the Father and the Son bear the divine name kyrios’.10
As we glance further ahead in Luke’s Gospel we find, in keeping with these early chapters, that Jesus the Lord is not merely an agent of the God of Israel, but is identified with this God. So, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when Simon Peter sees the sovereign power of Jesus’ word (5:5) over the fish in the depths of the lake, he responds, like Isaiah (Isa. 6:5), with fear because he recognizes that he, as a ‘sinful man’ is in the presence of someone who is ‘Lord’ (Luke 5:8–10).11 In this context Jesus’ assurance to Peter that he should not be afraid (5:10) implies that Jesus is the Lord whom John was to go before, the one who would come to bring forgiveness of sins (1:77). This implication is made clear for us later in this same chapter when Jesus declares forgiven the sins of the paralytic (5:20). The Pharisees and teachers of the law recognize this as not merely a statement that God will forgive sins, but that Jesus himself is doing the forgiving, as they think to themselves, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ (5:21).12 In this context Jesus, the knower of thoughts and hearts (5:22; as in 7:39–40; 9:47; 11:17; cf. 16:15) and the forgiver of sins (as also in 7:48–49), is doing what only God does (cf. 2 Chr. 6:30).
Later Jesus states that John is a prophet, indeed ‘more than a prophet’ (7:26), and in fact greater than anyone born of a woman (i.e. everyone!). Why was John so great? Because, although the Old Testament prophets told of the coming messianic age, John was the messenger of Malachi 3:1 who would go before the Lord to prepare the way for him (7:27). Other prophets pointed ahead to the one to come; John was privileged to point to that One himself. In other words, Jesus essentially says that John is greater than anyone else who was ever born, because he points to me, the Lord of Malachi 3!
Throughout the narrative of his Gospel Luke regularly designates Jesus as ‘the Lord’ (7:13, 19; 10:1, 39; 11:39; 13:15; 17:5–6; 18:6; 22:61). In the dramatic conclusion to the challenges to his authority from the Jerusalem leadership Jesus ends with a question of his own. Without denying the Davidic descent of the Messiah, Jesus asks why David himself calls his descendant not his ‘son’ but his ‘Lord’ who will sit in the presence of ‘the Lord’ at his right hand (Luke 20:41–44, citing Ps. 110:1). Jesus, as ‘the Christ’, is of course a descendant of David; but is also more than a descendant of David: he is ‘Lord’. Before leaving the subject of Jesus as ‘Lord’ in Luke’s Gospel, let us reflect a little further on the significance of this for Luke’s intriguing placement of references to Jesus and ‘God’.
This identification of Jesus as ‘the Lord’ (kyrios), the incarnation of Yahweh, may also help to shed light on the frequent juxtaposition of references to Jesus and ‘God’ (theos) in Luke’s Gospel. Thus whereas Jesus tells the man who has demons cast out of him to return home and tell what ‘God has done for you’, Luke immediately adds that the man goes and tells what ‘Jesus has done for him’ (8:39)!13 After Jesus heals a boy and gives him back to his father, the crowd are all ‘astonished at the majesty of God’. Then Luke says, everyone was ‘marvelling at everything he [Jesus] was doing’ (9:43). The Samaritan who has been healed of leprosy returns to Jesus ‘glorifying God’ (17:15; cf. also 17:18) and falls on his face at Jesus’ feet ‘thanking Jesus’ (17:16).14
Similarly, there are close links between the activity of Jesus and praise to God. After the Pharisees correctly ask, ‘Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ (5:21), Jesus demonstrates that he has ‘authority on earth to forgive sins’ (v. 24) by healing the paralytic instantaneously with just his word. At this display of the sovereign power of Jesus the man gets up and goes home ‘glorifying God’ (v. 25), and the crowd are also amazed and ‘glorified God’ at what they have seen Jesus do (v. 26). Similarly, the blind beggar, after receiving his sight, ‘followed him [Jesus], glorifying God’ (18:43), and the crowd also give praise to God for what they have seen Jesus do. At the triumphal entry the disciples who rejoice and ‘praise God’ for the miracles they have seen (19:37) then say, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord’ (19:38).15
It is of course possible that these parallel statements may be read as simple expressions of praise to God without making any further claims about Jesus’ identity with God. The concluding words of Luke’s Gospel, however, add one more final and significant parallel. Following the ascension of Jesus, the disciples ‘worshipped him’ (i.e. Jesus) and returned to the temple in Jerusalem ‘praising God’ (24:52–53 niv), deliberately recalling the opening scenes of Luke’s Gospel. Not only does this closing scene include another of these parallels between Jesus and God, but we also have the remarkable statement that the disciples worship Jesus! That this action indicates a recognition of the divinity of Jesus is easily recognized in the context of Luke’s Gospel, as it is Jesus himself who says at the beginning of his public ministry that worship belongs to ‘the Lord your God’ alone (Luke 4:8, quoting Deut. 6:13).16 The significance of this worship of Jesus is further highlighted when the distinctions between ‘God’ and ‘humanity’ in Luke-Acts are recalled. In Acts Peter, Paul and Barnabas refuse worship because they ‘are men’, just like the potential worshippers (Acts 10:26; 14:15). Herod, however, is struck dead at his acceptance of the crowd’s acclamation that his voice is that ‘of a god, and not of a man’ (Acts 12:22–23). This worship of Jesus at the conclusion of Luke’s Gospel culminates Luke’s entire Gospel account of Jesus.
Thus throughout Luke’s Gospel Jesus is identified with God and does what God does. He forgives sins (5:20–21; 7:48–49), is sovereign over creation (5:4–7; 8:25), knows people’s hearts and thoughts (5:22; 7:39–40; 9:47; 11:17; cf. 16:15), brings divine judgment (12:49) and salvation (19:10), and, climactically, receives worship (24:52). The notes of hope sounded at the outset of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:17, 76) and reverberating throughout the Gospel, rise to a resounding crescendo in the concluding chapter: the Lord himself has come to save his people and is to be worshipped!
The Father–Son relationship further contributes to our understanding of Jesus’ identification with God in Luke’s Gospel. On the one hand, he is ‘the Lord’, the incarnation of Yahweh. On the other hand, he is not the Father; he is the Son. This combination of ‘Lord’ and ‘Son’ in the narrative of Luke’s Gospel is determinative for our understanding of the trinitarian nature of God. As Rowe observes, ‘The Lukan narrative assumes the differentiation of the Father and Son, but nonetheless gives the divine name both to the Father and to Jesus . . . The duality of Father and Son in the Lukan narrative is no threat to the unitive identity of the one Lord.’17
As with the term ‘lord’, the designation ‘son of God’ need not imply a unique identification with the nature of God. After all, Adam is called the son of God in Luke 3:38, and those who love enemies are called sons of the Most High in Luke 6:35–36. Elsewhere in the Bible, Israel, Solomon, peacemakers and angels are called God’s sons.18 In Luke’s Gospel the designation ‘Son of God’ can be understood as synonymous (though not completely interchangeable)19 with ‘Christ’ (4:41), reflecting 2 Samuel 7:14 and Psalm 2:7. These different referents of the designation ‘son of God’ reflect the various ways in which God may be imitated and his likeness seen.20 However, Jesus is also the ‘Son of God’ in a unique sense. The announcement to Mary that her child will be called the ‘Son of the Most High’ (1:32; in contrast to John the Baptist, who will be called a ‘prophet of the Most High’, 1:76) is linked in the first instance to Jesus’ reign on ‘the throne of his father David’ (1:32–33). As the narrative proceeds, however, it is clear that Jesus is the ‘Son of God’ in a unique sense. On the one hand, he has an everlasting life and an indestructible reign that will have ‘no end’ (1:33). On the other hand, his conception is supernatural, something not said of any other Davidic king! Mary, who is explicitly identified as a virgin (1:27 [twice], 34, lit. ‘I know no man’), will be overshadowed by the power of the Most High and this supernatural virginal conception is given as the reason why Jesus, the Son of God, will be called holy (1:35).21 Although the full significance of this is not developed here in the narrative, these are the beginnings of a picture of Jesus as ‘Son of God’ in a unique rather than a merely human messianic sense.22
This account of Jesus’ supernatural birth is in keeping with indications of his pre-existence in Luke’s Gospel.23 In the same chapter as the announcement of this supernatural birth Zechariah refers to the ‘sunrise’ that will ‘visit us from on high’ (i.e. heaven, 1:78).24 The virgin birth, therefore, is the beginning of Jesus’ humanity, not the beginning of his existence. Jesus himself claims divine prerogatives and assumes pre-existence in the ‘I have come’ sayings. He ‘came to cast fire’ (i.e. divine judgment) on ‘the earth’ (12:49; cf. Gen. 19:24). The demons, with supernatural insight, fear that he has come to destroy the demonic realm (4:34). Jesus also says he was ‘sent’ to preach the good news of the kingdom of God (4:43; cf. also 9:48; 10:16). Reflecting the same language as Ezekiel 34:16, Jesus does what only God does: he ‘came to seek and to save the lost’ (19:10).25 Jesus’ parable of the tenants describes the history of Israel as one in which God, as owner of the vineyard, repeatedly sends his servants to the nation, alluding to the long line of persecuted prophets (cf. Jer. 7:25–26). Finally, God sends not another servant-prophet, but his own beloved son (Luke 20:13). Jesus is qualitatively different and therefore is not the last prophet: he is the unique Son.
The unique relationship Jesus has with God the Father is a prominent emphasis in Luke’s Gospel. Although, as we have seen, there are a variety of ways of referring to God in the opening chapters (e.g. ‘Lord’, ‘God’, ‘Most High’), a reference to God as ‘Father’ comes with Jesus’ own opening words in this Gospel. In an account given only in Luke’s Gospel Luke provides a deliberate contrast between the words of Mary and the words of Jesus in 2:48–49 concerning his ‘father’. Upon finding him in the temple courts, Mary says that ‘your father and I’ had been searching anxiously (2:48). Jesus replies, however, that they should have known that he would be in ‘my Father’s house’ (2:49), indicating an awareness at age 12 of his unique relationship with God as his Father.26
Indeed, throughout Luke 3 – 24 references to God as ‘Father’ occur sixteen times and all of these references are in Jesus’ words. Most striking are his words in 10:21–22 (and most concentrated, with five references to ‘Father’ in these two verses), where Jesus speaks of his relationship to the Father as something unique and exclusive.27 To say ‘no one knows . . . who the Father is except the Son’ is staggering! This kind of reciprocal knowledge cannot refer to something Jesus gained as part of his messiahship! Rather this points to an intimacy of a Father–Son relationship that precedes messiahship. It is the Son’s unique knowledge of the Father that enables him to reveal the Father in his sovereignty. Included among Jesus’ references to the Father in Luke’s Gospel are phrases such as ‘my Father’ (10:22a; 22:29; 24:49) and ‘your [pl.] Father’ (6:36; 12:30, 32). This phraseology, along with the large amount of Jesus’ teaching about the character of God the Father,28 ‘represents a narrative portrayal of Jesus’ claim that he alone knows “who the Father is” (10:22c) and reveals the Father to whom he chooses (10:22c)’.29 Interestingly, in the narrative of Luke’s Gospel not only are Jesus’ first words a reference to his Father, but his final words in Luke’s Gospel also speak of ‘my Father’ (24:49).
This unique knowledge of and revelation of the Father that the Son has provides insight into the differentiation of Father and Son within the one Lord. Thus, while the Son is sovereign in election (10:22), it is the Father who has delegated ‘all things’ to the Son (10:22a), things that in the context of Luke 10:21–22 include the revelation of a saving knowledge of the Father.30 It is the Father who sends his beloved Son (20:13), and so it is the Son, not the Father, who comes as the incarnate Lord. The Son rightly rules the kingdom because his Father has granted this to him (22:29; cf. 12:32). The Holy Spirit, whom the Son will send, is the promise of the Father (24:49). There is both unity of sovereign power and purpose between Father and Son as well as a distinction in person and order. As the last reference has indicated, this combination of unity and distinction is further seen in the description of the Holy Spirit in Luke’s Gospel.
In keeping with the focus of Luke’s Gospel I have concentrated primarily on Jesus as Lord and Son. Hence the following discussion of the Spirit in Luke’s Gospel will be brief. Within the narrative of Luke’s Gospel it is clear that the Holy Spirit is fully God. The Holy Spirit is spoken of in terms of God’s power as the ‘power of the Most High’ (1:35) and ‘power from on high’ (24:49). He is ‘the Spirit of the Lord’ (4:18; i.e. ‘of Yahweh’, citing Isa. 61:1).31 Yet the Spirit is not the Father. The Spirit comes upon Jesus at his baptism, whereas the voice of the Father speaks from heaven (3:22). The Spirit is also given by the Father who is in heaven (11:13), and is the promise of the Father (24:49). Interestingly, denying Jesus will result in being denied by God, just as blaspheming against the Holy Spirit results in no forgiveness from God (12:9–10).32 The three are one, yet distinguishable.
In Luke’s Gospel the Spirit is most often involved in empowering God’s people to speak. They are ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit and enabled to proclaim and praise God for the arrival of the Lord Jesus (1:41–45, 67–79; 2:25–32), or empowered to speak for Jesus under pressure (12:12). It is also in an empowering capacity that the Holy Spirit is most prominently involved in the life of Jesus. There is no question of course that Jesus, as the incarnation of Yahweh, is human. The placement of the genealogy in descending order through to Adam immediately next to the account of Jesus’ temptation by the devil deliberately shows Jesus to be the new Adam who will not succumb to temptation (3:37 – 4:13). The humanity of Jesus then is clear, as he is born like any other human baby (2:7), ‘grew and became strong’ from child to adult (2:40, 52; cf. 1:80), is submissive to his parents (2:51), experiences hunger (4:1), sleeps (8:23) and dies (23:46). His human body, which goes into the tomb (23:52–53), is also his after his resurrection (24:3, 39–43).33
The Spirit’s relationship with Jesus appears to be primarily in empowering and sustaining the human life of Jesus.34 This is seen from the first announcement of the birth of Jesus. As noted above, the virgin Mary will conceive and give birth because of the creative ‘overshadowing’ (cf. Gen. 1:2) power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary generating the humanity of Jesus (1:34–35). The descent of the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism is to empower Jesus as he ‘began his ministry’ (3:22–23). By the Spirit Jesus faces temptation as the new Adam (4:1), proclaims the good news as the Isaianic Servant/prophet (4:14, 18) and speaks words of joyful praise as Son to the Father (10:21).
Luke’s Gospel also points forward to Jesus’ activity in sending the Spirit beyond his earthly ministry. Before Jesus even begins his public ministry, John announces that one ‘mightier’ than him will baptize ‘with the Holy Spirit’ (3:16). Interestingly, whereas in 12:12 Jesus reassures his disciples that the Holy Spirit will help them to speak when they are brought before rulers, in 21:15 Jesus says that he himself will give them the words to say. Although not clarified at this point in Luke’s narrative, this anticipates the book of Acts in which Jesus accomplishes his purposes through the Spirit who empowers his people. In the closing verses of Luke’s Gospel we get a clearer anticipation of Luke’s trinitarian emphasis to come in Acts. Just prior to the ascension Jesus tells the disciples that he is the one who will send the Holy Spirit, even though, as Jesus says, the Spirit is ‘the promise of my Father’ (Luke 24:49). The sending of this promised Holy Spirit will mean that Jesus’ disciples will be ‘clothed with power from on high’ in order to proclaim the name of Jesus. And so it is to the book of Acts we turn to see the unfolding of the saving plan of the triune God.
In the book of Acts Luke continues to outline evidence that God has indeed accomplished his saving purposes as promised.35 Thus Luke continues to refer to God (theos) as the God of Israel and the nations, the God who keeps his promises and saves his people. The first and last references to God in the narrative of Acts refer to the ‘kingdom’ or saving rule of God (1:3; 28:31). Throughout the narrative of Acts continuity with the God of Israel is constantly assumed. God is ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers’ (3:13; cf. 5:30; 7:32; 22:14; 24:14), he is the ‘living God’ and the sovereign creator of everything (14:15; 17:24). Idolatry (7:41–42; 14:15; 15:19–20; 17:29–30), sorcery (8:9; 13:6; 19:19) and false worship of a human being (8:10; 10:25–26; 12:22–23; 14:11–15) or anything else in creation (7:42) rather than God alone are therefore ruled out. The God of Israel sovereignly guided Israel’s history, graciously providing land, tabernacle, temple, judges and kings (7:1–50; 13:16–22). God’s gracious provision culminates in bringing to Israel the ‘Saviour, Jesus, as he promised’ (13:23). God accomplished his saving purposes through the life (2:22; 10:37–38), death (2:23; 4:27–28), resurrection and exaltation (2:24, 32–33; 3:15; 5:30–31; etc.) of Jesus. God is the one responsible for the inclusion of Gentiles together with Jews among the people of God (10:1 – 11:18; 13:26, 48; 15:7–8, 14; 21:19) by grace through faith (10:43; 13:39; 14:1; 15:9).
As with Luke’s Gospel, so also in Acts, God’s saving purposes for Israel and the nations come through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins that is offered through his life, death and resurrection. Continuity with the Christology of Luke’s Gospel is explicitly stated in the opening verse of Acts. Luke’s Gospel is about all that Jesus ‘began to do and teach’ (Acts 1:1). The implication, therefore, is that Acts is about all that Jesus continues to do and teach. Thus Luke’s multifaceted Christology continues: Jesus is the promised royal descendant of David (2:30–31; 13:23), the prophet Moses spoke of (3:22–23), the Servant of the Lord (3:13, 26), a man accredited by God (2:22) and anointed with the Holy Spirit (10:38). Once again, however, does this mean that Jesus is merely a human agent of God’s saving purposes? Having already established that Jesus is the incarnate Lord who is to be worshipped, it is no surprise that Luke continues to use ‘Lord’ (kyrios) for both Jesus and God the Father.
This wider narrative context of Luke-Acts helps us understand the statement of Peter that God ‘has made him both Lord and Christ’ (2:36). It is obvious from Luke’s Gospel (e.g. Luke 2:11), and already from the opening chapters of Acts (e.g. 1:6; 2:31), that this does not mean Jesus was not Lord or Christ before his resurrection and enthronement. Rather, Jesus has entered ‘his glory’ after suffering (Luke 24:26) and, upon enthronement, is now the reigning ‘Spirit-giving Lord of glory’.36 Furthermore, because it is Jesus who now grants forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit (2:33, 38), the name of the Lord (Yahweh in Joel), who must be called upon in order to be saved from judgment on the ‘day of the Lord’, is the Lord Jesus, David’s Lord who sits at the right hand of the Lord (2:34).37
So Acts emphasizes that it is the risen and reigning Lord Jesus who continues to accomplish God’s saving rule. There are regular statements that show that the Lord Jesus is continuing to rule as he directs the spread of the word by adding to the church (2:47; 11:21; 16:14), healing people (3:16; 9:34) and directing the whole of Paul’s movements and ministry (9:15; 18:10; 23:11). Indeed, Jesus is ‘Lord of all’ (10:36)! Although there is much more that could be said, the following examples show that Luke views the Lord Jesus not only as continuing to be involved in the world, but as the divine Lord and Saviour of his people (4:12). In Acts 11:21, for instance, we are told that the reason why a ‘great number who believed turned to the Lord’ in Antioch is because ‘the hand of the Lord’ was with those who were telling people about the Lord Jesus. The phrase ‘the hand of the Lord’ is an idiomatic expression found throughout the Old Testament to refer to the power and presence of Yahweh, whether in judgment or in salvation and help for his people.38 In this context the Lord whose ‘hand’ is referred to must be the Lord Jesus, because immediately prior to this is the reference to the spread of the good news about ‘the Lord Jesus’ (11:20), and immediately following this is the reference to ‘a great number’ of people believing and turning to ‘the Lord’ (11:21). Therefore the reason given for why people are responding in faith and repentance here is because the Lord Jesus is empowering his people in their proclamation such that he effects faith and repentance in ‘a great number’ of people.
Another instance of the Lord Jesus’ acting with divine prerogatives is found in the story of Lydia’s conversion. The reason why Lydia responded to Paul’s message about Jesus is because ‘the Lord opened her heart’ (16:14). Once again Lydia’s description of herself in the following verse as a ‘believer in the Lord’ (niv) indicates that the Lord who opened her heart here is the Lord Jesus. As in Luke’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus is the one who knows and, in this example, changes human hearts.39 In the Old Testament Yahweh is the one who knows human hearts and directs them according to his sovereign will.40
Jesus is also prayed to as the sovereign Lord who has divine power. After choosing two men who fitted the qualifications for being an apostle (Joseph-Barsabbas and Matthias), the disciples prayed, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen’ (Acts 1:23–24). Two explicit links to the opening verses of this chapter and the use of ‘Lord’ in the immediately preceding verses confirm that this is a prayer to the Lord Jesus. First, the phrase ‘the day when he was taken up from us’ in 1:22 recalls the same phrase in 1:2, and the phrase ‘you have chosen’ in their prayer (1:24) recalls those same opening verses where the apostles are described as those ‘whom he [Jesus] had chosen’ (1:2; cf. Luke 6:13; 10:22). These two explicit links indicate that Jesus’ ‘choosing’ activity in 1:2 is in the background here. Second, in the verses immediately preceding this prayer, the ‘Lord’ is explicitly ‘the Lord Jesus’. The potentially qualified replacement apostle must have been with the disciples ‘all the time that the Lord Jesus’ was among them (1:21–22).41 Their prayer to the ‘Lord’, therefore, shows that they expect the Lord Jesus to choose from heaven this twelfth apostle as he chose the apostles during his earthly ministry. Praying to Jesus as the ‘Lord’ who chooses his apostles, describing Jesus as someone who knows ‘the hearts of all’,42 and then casting lots (cf. Prov. 16:33), an action that in this context acknowledges sovereignty over seemingly random events, all attribute divine prerogatives to the Lord Jesus, who continues to rule over his church.
A further example of prayer to Jesus as Lord is found in the description of Stephen’s dying moments in Acts 7:59–60. At the conclusion of his sermon Stephen directs his angry attackers to look to Jesus, the Danielic Son of Man in heaven, in the glorious presence of God, and in a position of power and authority ‘at the right hand of God’ (7:55–56). This final declaration concerning Jesus and the location of God’s presence, in contrast to the temple, is the final straw for this angry mob; they cover their ears, yell at the top of their voices, and stone him to death (7:57–58). In the face of death, however, Stephen utters two prayers – to the Lord Jesus! This in itself is remarkable. We have just been informed that Stephen has seen ‘the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God’. Yet when Stephen prays, he prays to the Lord Jesus!
Furthermore, Stephen’s prayers attribute divine prerogatives to Jesus. First, he calls upon the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit (7:59) – Jesus is the Lord to call upon to grant access to heaven.43 Then he asks that the Lord Jesus not hold this sin against his attackers (7:60) – Jesus has the power to forgive murderers. At one level Stephen clearly reflects the character of the Lord Jesus here (cf. Luke 23:34, 46). Stephen is going further, however, than merely following Jesus’ example. In the context of his speech Stephen’s concluding words and dying prayers declare Jesus to be the fulfilment of the temple. Jesus, in the presence of God, is the one who is prayed to, grants access to heaven and provides forgiveness of sin.
Jesus is the Lord, Yahweh, who must be called upon to be saved, the Lord who enables the growth of God’s people and who knows and opens hearts, the Lord who answers prayer, grants access to heaven, and forgives murderers! He is the divine Saviour! Let us turn now to treat briefly some of the evidence in Acts for the unity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as the distinctions also evident.
As with Luke’s Gospel, in Acts ‘God’ (theos) refers to God the Father in distinction from Jesus, the Lord. However, Acts also continues the pattern in Luke’s Gospel of closely associating Jesus and ‘God’. For instance, Peter begins his sermon on the day of Pentecost with a quotation from Joel 2 in which ‘God says “I will pour out my Spirit”’ (Acts 2:17–18). Yet in Acts 2:33 Peter says Jesus has ‘poured out what you now see and hear’ (niv).44 Likewise, in Acts 11:15–17 Peter explains the ‘pouring out’ (cf. 10:45) of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles by recalling the ‘word of the Lord’ (11:16).45 In this context the ‘word of the Lord’ is the teaching of Jesus, who contrasted John’s water baptism with the promise that his disciples would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (cf. 1:5).46 Then Peter declares that God has given these Gentiles ‘the same gift he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ’ (11:17 niv; cf. also 5:32). Thus Acts 2 and 11 show interchangeable references to what ‘God’ did and what ‘the Lord Jesus’ did in sending the Holy Spirit.
Luke’s correlation of Jesus’ activity with God’s activity is also seen in the accounts of Paul’s conversion and call. In Acts 9:15 the Lord Jesus tells Ananias that Paul is ‘my chosen instrument’ (niv) and, in an outline of the rest of Paul’s life, declares that he will bear Jesus’ name before the Gentiles, their kings and the people of Israel. Interestingly, in the additional details given in Acts 22 Paul recounts Ananias’s message that ‘the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will’ (22:14). Then in Acts 26 Paul recounts the words of the Lord Jesus that he has appeared to Paul ‘to appoint you as a servant and witness’ (26:16). Jesus’ initiative and purpose in Acts 9 and 26 is described in terms of God’s initiative and purpose in Acts 22. In fact, the same term, ‘chosen/appointed’, is used for God’s activity (in 22:14) and Jesus’ activity (in 26:16).47
Similar associations are sometimes found in Luke’s descriptions of people who respond to the gospel. For instance, Paul’s response to the Philippian jailer’s question about how to be saved is that he must ‘believe in the Lord Jesus’ (16:31). A few verses later, however, Luke says that the reason for the jailor’s joy is because he has ‘believed in God’ (16:34).48 Elsewhere in Acts Paul describes the required response to the gospel as both ‘repentance towards God’ and ‘faith in our Lord Jesus Christ’ (20:21). Similarly, repentance can be described as ‘turning’ to God (14:15; 15:19; 26:18, 20) or ‘turning’ to the Lord Jesus (9:35 [cf. 9:42]; 11:21). Repentance can be described as a gift from God (11:18) or the Lord Jesus (5:31). Faith can also be described as granted by God (14:27) or the Lord Jesus (3:16).
Whereas the previous references have identified Jesus with God in the action of pouring out the Spirit, the conversion and calling of Paul, and responses to the gospel, on other occasions the Spirit is also clearly identified with God. Thus, on the one hand, Peter can declare that Ananias has told a ‘lie to the Holy Spirit’ (5:3), but in the next verse (in keeping with the distinction made between ‘man’ and ‘God’ found through Luke-Acts) Peter declares that Ananias has ‘not lied to men but to God’ (5:4). Peter also says that Ananias and Sapphira agreed to test the ‘Spirit of the Lord’ (5:9), which is a common phrase in the Old Testament for the presence of Yahweh by his Spirit (e.g. Judg. 3:10; 2 Sam. 23:2–3). Elsewhere in Acts we are told that the Spirit is living, active and communicates his will: he speaks God’s authoritative word (1:16; 13:2, 26–27; 21:11; 28:25; cf. also 8:29; 10:19), bears witness (5:32), has purposes (13:2; 15:28), sends (13:4; cf. 8:39), prevents (16:6), encourages (9:31) and warns (20:23).
In Acts the unity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is seen in the decision of Paul and his companions to travel over to Macedonia (Acts 16:6–10). First, ‘the Holy Spirit’ prevented them from preaching the word in Asia (16:6). Then ‘the Spirit of Jesus’ would not allow them to enter Bithynia (16:7). This second reference is still to the Holy Spirit, though the designation ‘Spirit of Jesus’ recalls the day of Pentecost when Jesus, in fulfilment of his promise in Luke 24:49, is the one who pours out the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). In this way the more common phrase of the Old Testament, ‘the Spirit of the Lord’, is now applied to Jesus and draws attention to the ongoing reign of the Lord Jesus over the spread of the word by the Holy Spirit. After describing the directing activity of ‘the Holy Spirit’, or ‘the Spirit of Jesus’, and a vision of a Macedonian man calling for help, Luke then notes that the decision to travel to Macedonia is made because they concluded that ‘God had called us to preach the gospel to them’ (16:10). These descriptions of the directing activity of ‘the Holy Spirit’, ‘the Spirit of Jesus’ and ‘God’ in the space of four verses indicate that Luke is able to move seamlessly between references to all three in describing how the spread of the gospel is directed. Luke regularly refers to the Trinity in ways that would suggest a common identity: sometimes Luke can speak of what Jesus does as what God does, a response to Jesus as a response to God, a response to the Spirit as a response to God, or the activity of the Spirit as the activity of the Spirit of Jesus and the activity of God. It is also clear, however, that the three are distinguishable; it is to these distinctions that we now turn.
In many of the same passages where all three, Father, Son and Spirit, are mentioned together, clear distinctions are also made. The Lord Jesus pours out the Spirit from ‘the right hand of God’ (2:33). Here we have the divine authority and co-regency of the Lord Jesus (2:30) with the Father, in a position of power and authority (‘at the right hand’). A distinction is clearly made, however, as the Lord is at the ‘right hand’ of the Father, who is also Lord (2:34). A similar distinction is seen in Stephen’s concluding words: Stephen, full of the Spirit, is enabled to see both ‘the glory of God’ and ‘Jesus standing at the right hand of God’ (7:55). Likewise, in Peter’s association of the events in Cornelius’ house with the events of Pentecost, the three are mentioned together: the gift of the Spirit is given by God to those who believed in the Lord Jesus – just as Jesus, the Lord, had said (11:15–17)! The Spirit, though God (5:4), is also the ‘gift of God’ (8:20; cf. 2:38; 11:17). The three are also mentioned together in Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesian elders to watch out for the church (20:28): the elders have been appointed (or equipped) as overseers of the flock by the Holy Spirit; the flock is the church of God; the church has been purchased by God at the costly price of ‘the blood of his own Son’ (net).49 Thus all three are included in one verse. Clear distinctions, however, are made: the Spirit equips the elders, God owns the church, and the Son was the means by which God acquired the church.
There are only three references to God as ‘Father’ in Acts, all in the first two chapters. In keeping with the pattern we have seen in Luke’s Gospel, the first two references are found in Jesus’ words (1:4, 7). Although Jesus is the Lord who will restore the kingdom to Israel (1:6), and the disciples will be his witnesses (1:8), the timing of this restoration is ultimately set by the Father’s authority (1:6–8).50 The only reference to the Father in Luke-Acts that is not spoken by Jesus is Peter’s statement (which reflects Jesus’ own teaching, Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4) that Jesus received ‘from the Father the promised Holy Spirit’ (2:33 niv). Thus all three are mentioned together; yet they are distinguishable. Ultimately then, although it is as true to say that God sent the Spirit as it is to say that Jesus sent the Spirit (as noted above); more precisely, it is the Father who initiates, promises and grants to the Son, and the Son who sends. The divine authority to judge ‘the living and the dead’ belongs to Jesus, but this is a position to which he has been ‘appointed’ by God the Father (10:42; 17:31; cf. Luke 10:22a). The Father–Son distinction and order that characterized Jesus’ earthly ministry is continued in his post-exaltation position of power at the right hand of the Father.
The overarching emphasis in Luke and Acts is that believers in the Lord Jesus, such as Theophilus, may most certainly be assured that the triune God is the sovereign Saviour; his kingdom, or saving rule, has come! The saving actions and promises of God in the history of Israel culminate in the life, death and resurrection of the incarnate Lord, who accomplishes the saving purposes of his Father by the power of the Spirit. This incarnate Lord Jesus has ascended and now reigns at the right hand of the Father, so that God’s saving rule continues to be accomplished among the nations by the Lord Jesus through the Spirit who was promised by the Father and sent by the Son. The Father directs his saving plan under his authority, according to his timing. The Lord Jesus reigns, answers prayer and opens hearts. The Spirit empowers God’s people – those who believe in the Son – to bear witness to the Son and his salvation. God is one, yet three, and all three act inseparably yet distinctly. The promised salvation of Israel and the nations is the united work of the three-in-one – all glory and praise belong to the triune God . . . alone!
© Alan J. Thompson, 2016