What is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Lord Christ as Savior?

The birth of the Lord Christ according to the flesh opened the door for the Holy Spirit to descend upon us. The life of the Lord Christ witnesses to the work of the Holy Spirit, who is His own Spirit and one with Him in divinity. For example, John the Baptist, the forerunner, the messenger who prepared the way for the Lord Christ was filled by the Spirit, while he was still in the womb (Luke 1:15). The same Spirit descended upon the Virgin St. Mary and overshadowed her like the Shekinah that rested on Mount Sinai to prepare her so that the

811 St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies 3.17.1–2 (ANF 1:444; PG 7:929–30).

812 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 5.2 on John 7:39 (LFHCC 43:547–548) amended.

813 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 5.2 on John 7:39 (LFHCC 43:550, 552) amended.

Holy One born of her would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). When St. Mary visited Elizabeth, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the baby leaped in her womb with joy (Luke 1:41–42). The Holy Spirit inspired the praises of both Mary and Zechariah (Luke 1:46, 68). By the Holy Spirit, Simeon the Elder received the child Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:25–32). And it was the Holy Spirit that led our Lord Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted (Mark 1:12).

The Lord Christ sends the Holy Spirit to us so that He may dwell in us, and so that we may carry Christ in our inner person and He Himself becomes our prayer and worship “by the Spirit,” as our depths cry out to the Father, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).

St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, “Christ is born [or incarnate]; the Spirit is His Forerunner. He is baptized; the Spirit bears witness. He is tempted; the Spirit leads Him up (Luke 4:1, 18). He works miracles; the Spirit accompanies them. He ascends; the Spirit takes His place.”⁸¹⁴ He also says, “The dispensations of the Body of Christ are ended … and that of the Spirit is beginning.”⁸¹⁵

The proper work of the Holy Spirit is to complete our unity with Christ. As St. Cyril the Great says, “For that which knits us together, and, as it were, unites us with God, is the Holy Spirit; Which if we receive, we are proved sharers and partakers in the Divine Nature, and we admit the Father Himself into our hearts, through the Son and in the Son.”⁸¹⁶

“(The Son Himself) forms us according to His glory, and stamps us with the seal of His likeness.”⁸¹⁷

“He who grants us the divine Spirit, the Giver of Life is the Son, begotten of God.”⁸¹⁸

“The fullness given to us by the Father and the Son becomes reality … by the Holy Spirit who fills us with divine gifts, through which He makes us partakers of the ineffable nature.”⁸¹⁹

“Thus, where the Son lives in us in an indescribable way, by His Spirit (Gal. 4:6) we say that we are called to the spirit of being His children.”⁸²⁰

814 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Gregory Nazianzen 31.29 Fifth Theological Oration (NPNF II/7:327; PG 36:159B).

815 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Gregory Nazianzen 41.5 On Pentecost (NPNF II/7:380; PG 36:436B).

816 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 2 11.10 on John 17:18, 19 (LFHCC 48:537; PG 74:544).

817 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Trinity 3 (PG 75:837A).

818 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Trinity 3 (PG 75: 965A).

819 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Trinity 3 (PG 75:800A).

820 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Trinity 3 (PG 75:833A).

“Being thankful for our union with the Son, which comes about through the Spirit working in those who receive Him, that we may fashioned into His children.”⁸²¹

“For the Son Himself is the true and perfect image [of the Father]; but the pure and natural image of the Son is the Spirit, to whom we are conformed through sanctification and conformed to the true image of God.”⁸²²

“We are formed in similitude to Christ and from Him we receive the image; and the image of our spirit is very good, the image of those who resemble Him by nature.”⁸²³

“Due to His power and nature, the Spirit is surely able to conform us to the sublime image.”⁸²⁴