Christian Higher Education in the Baptist Tradition
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 62, No. 2 – Spring 2020
Editor: David S. Dockery
By Malcolm B. Yarnell III. Hobbs College Library. Nashville: B&H, 2019, xviii+137pp., $19.99
Malcolm Yarnell provides a foundational study on the person of the Holy Spirit. Surveying “six grand vistas of Biblical revelation” (p. 1), Yarnell equips pastors and Bible teachers to worship the Spirit for who he is. In so doing, Yarnell not only equips pastors and teachers to worship the One who gives life, but also prepares them to equip churches for the same.
Let me begin with a brief overview, which will be followed by further reflections. The first scriptural vista, or chapter, Yarnell surveys is Genesis 1. Rejecting arguments that depersonalize the reference to the Spirit in 1:2, Yarnell argues that the Spirit is mysterious, the mover, and mighty. Mysteriously, the Spirit “simply is when nothing else is” (p. 7). Similiar to the eagle in Deuteronomy 32, who hovers over his nest, the Spirit is the mover in creation who hovers over the waters “guiding his creation and protecting it” (p. 10). Third, Yarnell focuses on the Spirit’s might over all of life through other Scripture references that build upon the wording of Genesis 1:2.
Next, Yarnell explores the sovereignty of the Spirit in his interaction with the first kings of Israel. Studying 1 Samuel 10-19, Yarnell highlights the Spirit’s deity, sovereignty, and lordship. In the anointing of Saul, the activity of the Spirit is tightly related to the activity of God; there is an “essential unity of the Spirit with God” for the author of 1 Samuel (p. 23). Sovereignly, the Spirit freely chooses to empower and depart from individuals, as he does with Saul after his sinful actions and unwillingness to repent. In chapter 19, the Lord and the Spirit are used interchangeably, demonstrating the Spirit’s lordship.
Third, Yarnell explores why the Spirit is called holy through an examination of Psalm 51. Noting the context of David’s adulterous and murderous wickedness, Yarnell explains how the holiness, or pure otherness, of the Spirit means that the sinner “can appeal to nothing within himself” to be made right with God but must instead confess his sin and God’s holy character (p. 43). When David describes the holiness of the Spirit, he speaks of the Spirit’s “deity as well as an indicator of divine transcendence and of moral purity” (p. 45). The holiness of the Spirit “changes those he loves by breaking their hearts and coming to live in them” (p. 54).
Turning from the OT, Yarnell examines the person of the Spirit through three aspects of NT teaching. First, in relationship to Christ, Matthew’s Gospel presents the Spirit as the conceiver of Christ in the incarnation, the commissioner of Christ who anoints Christ for ministry at Christ’s baptism, the companion of Christ who empowers Christ for his ministry of teaching, healing, and exorcism, and the equal of Christ in that both are fully God. To encounter Christ (and also the Father) is to also encounter the Spirit. The convert is only converted to confess Christ as Lord by the work of the Spirit (pp. 75-76).
Second, John’s Gospel presents the Spirit in his relationship with others. Tracing the Spirit’s relation to the Son and the Father, Yarnell demonstrates the Spirit’s sovereignty, transcendence, and eternality. He explores the person of the Spirit in light of the language of paraclete and concludes, “[T]he personal nature of the Spirit means that he is concerned with you, not merely from the frightening perspective of his transcendent otherness, but from the comforting perspective of his intimate nearness” (p. 95).
Yarnell’s final chapter surveys who the Spirit is to believers through an exegesis of Romans 8. For believers, the Spirit brings salvation and adoption into a “familial relation to Christ with God” (p. 112). Yarnell’s focus on worship stands as the culmination of the chapter: that the Spirit “indwells us and unites us with the Son and with the Father ought to drive us to worship God. [He] takes us out of our fallen state and places us in the family of God” (p. 113).
As Yarnell acknowledges, his approach to studying the Spirit is rare (p. xv). Contemporary controversies over the Spirit’s work in soteriology, Spirit baptism, and the Spirit’s gifting have resulted in scholars addressing the Spirit’s activity more than his actual person. While Yarnell acknowledges these controversies (pp. 24, 61-62, 98-99, 110-112), he carefully notes that such does not diminish the person of the Spirit. For example, regarding Spirit baptism, he notes that various understandings of the timing of Spirit baptism come from “equally fervent believers” (p. 61). Instead of rehashing the debate, he chooses to exegete Scripture and seeks consensus where controversy exists. Specifically, Spirit baptism points to the importance “for all orthodox believers that life with Trinity—the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—remains necessarily an indivisible event” (p. 62).
While evangelicals have often hesitated to build their pneumatologies on the OT for fear of reading more into the OT than is there, fully one half of Who Is the Holy Spirit? is dedicated to exegeting his person in the OT. Because of higher critical methodologies, biblical scholars often hesitate to claim that various OT passages directly refer to the work of the Holy Spirt. In contrast, Yarnell is unafraid to assert that the reader catches a glimpse of the movement of the mysterious Holy Spirit in Genesis 1 because of the larger canonical context (pp. 8, 9, 11). He argues effectively that references to the Spirit in 1 Samuel (p. 23) and Psalms (p. 49) are references to the third person of the Trinity and thus that they should inform any canonical understanding of the Spirit’s person.
Such readings are unsurprising given Yarnell’s presuppositions. Both the divine authorship of the Scriptures in their entirety and the larger witness of Scripture and of the church inform the interpretation of each passage (pp. 1-2). For those who accept these presuppositions, Yarnell’s work will prove particularly valuable in informing why the Spirit is worthy of worship. For those who are more skeptical of Yarnell’s high view of Scripture or of such theological readings of OT passages, Yarnell’s method is worthy of consideration. His demonstration of the consistency of Scripture regarding the person of the Holy Spirit provides an apologetic for both his methodology and his assumptions.
Foundationally, Yarnell’s book successfully advances his goal “to encourage worship … of God as Spirit” (p. 3). Yarnell’s exploration of the person of the Spirit in the life of David is particularly instructive. Contrasting David with Saul, Yarnell notes how the Spirit did not depart from David yet abandoned Saul despite both having sinned. The reason? While “Saul engaged in a long, drawn-out attempt to justify himself … David was driven by a passion to be right with God once again” (p. 42). The chapter in question culminates with Yarnell asking the reader:
Consider your personal confession and your personal petition. First, do you understand how great the Lord God is? Unless you see that God is the source of all that is good and right and holy, of all that is perfect, you will not perceive anything else correctly. … [D]o you really know how horrible of a person you truly are? Will you beg God to place his Holy Spirit in your life such that he will never leave you?
Yarnell’s desire for readers to know, respond to, and rightly worship God through the Holy Spirit informs the entire project and equips each pastor and teacher for worship.
Bruce Ashford describes Yarnell as “perhaps the greatest living Baptist theologian” (p. i). I agree. His previous volumes on theological method, the royal priesthood, and the Trinity have substantively advanced the academic and theological discussion of each of the respective subdisciplines. Yarnell’s thinking is characterized by a relentless textual focus that more speculative theologians would be wise to consider. In this work, Yarnell seeks to apply his text-driven method to a new audience: pastors and Bible teachers (p. 2). While Yarnell does address theological controversies regarding the Spirit, he largely sidesteps such disputes in favor of attempting to equip pastors and teachers to worship the Spirit. Toward that end, he is largely successful. Yarnell has the rare gift of being a true theological academic who also knows how to equip pastors.
Still, minor weaknesses in Yarnell’s work can be noted as he addresses this audience. Specifically, while the well-educated pastor or Bible teacher will rejoice and worship with Yarnell in the Spirit’s glory, Yarnell’s significant use of Greek and Hebrew transliteration will prove an obstacle to some. Providing additional resources such as discussion questions to accompany each chapter would have further equipped readers to lead classes and congregations to worship the Spirit. Additionally, given that Yarnell elsewhere has described the book of Acts as the Acts of the Holy Spirit, the limited engagement of Acts in this text is surprising. Finally, slightly more interaction with some of the debates regarding the Spirit’s activities (especially as it relates to the gifts, the timing of Spirit baptism, and the irresistibility of the Spirit’s work in salvation) would no doubt prove helpful to church leaders as they wrestle with such questions. However, given the concise nature of books of this type, it is understandable that Yarnell did not have room to address these additional matters.
Because of its focus on Christian worship and the Spirit’s person, Who Is the Holy Spirit? should be required reading for pastors and teachers. This book will strengthen their love for the Spirit and help them to better understand his work. Yarnell successfully moves our discussion of the Spirit beyond simply what the Spirt does and helps each reader to understand who the Holy Spirit is in light of the canonical teaching. Yarnell rightly closes challenging the reader to consider “who is the Holy Spirit to you?” so that each may worship the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
