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Holiness is separation, or so we are told. Let's accept what we're told. How then is God eternally and unchangeably holy? From what is He separated? If we say "the world," then prior to the world's existence God was potentially but not really holy. Of course, this can be resolved only in a Trinitarian frame: To say God is eternally holy is to say that there is eternal "distance" between the persons of the Trinity. The Father is holy in that He stands "over against" the Son.
And yet, holiness is also consecration by indwelling - the tent is holy by the presence of the glory. Holiness is distance, and also the overcoming of distance. God is eternally holy, so He eternally overcome the "distance" of the persons in a thorough perichoretic union.
Since the Spirit is the glory of God, it is the Spirit - the Holy Spirit - by which the Trinity is consecrated. The Father consecrates the Son through His indwelling Spirit, and the Son consecrates the Father through the indwelling Spirit that also proceeds from Him. The Spirit arrives from the Father to the Son indwelt by the Father, and is indwelt by the Son in His return to the Father, and so the Spirit Holy Spirit, distanced from and indwelling the Father and Son.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 at 08:07 AM
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