Summary
God the Verb: A Grammar Lesson on the Holy Spirit's Work
Grammar gives us a useful way to talk about who God is and what He does. A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea; a verb denotes action. God is certainly the noun—one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, in particular, acts so much like a verb. He calls, He gathers, He enlightens. Each is an action, and each is His action toward us.
The need for this enlightening work is plain. By nature there is not the tiniest spark of inclination toward God in us. Scripture is stark: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him" 1 Corinthians 2:14; "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God" Romans 8:7; "at one time you were darkness" Ephesians 5:8. The Lutheran Confessions echo this: we are born like a rock toward God. If there is to be faith, that faith must be wholly God's work in us.
That is exactly what Paul describes: "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" 2 Corinthians 4:6. The same Word that pierced the primordial darkness pierces the darkness of unbelief. The Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see how much God loves us, dispels the darkness, and works the conviction that the promise of the gospel is for me. Though all three persons of the Trinity act together, Scripture especially associates the Father with creation, the Son with redemption, and the Holy Spirit with sanctification—and enlightenment is part of that sanctifying work.
Our temptation is to flip the grammar. We confess God as the noun and then quietly cast ourselves as the verb. When challenges come, when emotions tear us in two, when problems perplex, we turn inward—"if it's going to be, it's up to me"—relying on our own ingenuity rather than on God. The danger reaches even into our faith life. We hear that "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved," or read in the Small Catechism that Baptism is "water used together with God's Word and our trust in this," and we conclude: there's the catch—my faith is my contribution. But Scripture refuses that move: "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" Ephesians 2:8. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope" Romans 15:13. The Holy Spirit is the verb. We are not.
How does the Spirit do this verb-like work? Through the Word and the Sacraments. God does not say to us, "Let there be faith," in the abstract; He keeps coming with concrete words: In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. You have been claimed in the waters of Baptism. You are mine. Faith is born as that promise keeps arriving. "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:5. At the font, God washes us in His Word; at the rail, He places the Word of forgiveness directly in our mouths and tells us to swallow it. A rock cannot turn itself into a lover of Jesus Christ; only the Word spoken by the Spirit can do that.
Which brings us back to grammar—and one last term. The direct object is the recipient of the action. God is the noun. God is the verb. And we, by His grace, are the direct objects: the ones called, gathered, enlightened, washed, fed, forgiven, and kept by Him.
Video citations
- "Grammar Lesson" 5-8-22 — Would you open your Bibles, please, with me to second Corinthians the fourth chapter for our study today if you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you'll find that in the New Testament on…