The Role of the Holy Spirit in Salvation by Metropolitan John Zizioulas

In very broad terms, everything in Providence begins from the Father and everything returns to the Father. And the Church, as I also mentioned previously, was likewise “willed” by the Father.  The Person that wills in the Holy Trinity – the One Who commenced everything – was the Father.  So, the Father willed the Church. What does this imply? That the Father willed to unite the created to the Uncreated; to unite His world with His self. And not to unite it simply and at random, but to unite it in His Only-begotten Son. This was how the Father favored things to be. The Father favored the world to arrive at an eternal communion, so that it would be able to live, otherwise, Creation would have been unable to live on its own – to arrive at a communion with God Himself, and in His Son.  Therefore, the initiative for the existence of the Church is the Father’s.

Of course the Son and the Holy Spirit are also in favor of this, however, in saying this, we must not lose sight of the delicate distinction that it is one thing to co-favor something, and an entirely different thing, to have the initiative in favoring something. It is a very delicate, but also a very important distinction that exists between the roles –so to speak- of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. In other words, when referring to this “volition”, this “favoring”, we are in fact observing a certain movement taking place in the Holy Trinity: there is nothing static within the Holy Trinity, so that the volitions of the three persons would simultaneously (from the aspect of their eternicity) have to make their appearance, or relate to each other without discrimination. The Father favors; the Son and the Spirit co-favor. In other words, they say “yes”. There is a “yes” inside the Holy Trinity – a dialogue. The Son consents – let’s call it that --; He too favors; He co-favors, to be the one “in Whom” this favoring of the Father (for the union of the created to the Uncreated) will be realized.

The role therefore of the Son, His particular contribution, is: firstly, to acquiesce freely to the favoring of the Father and secondly, to become Himself the focal point, the center, upon which this union of created and Uncreated is to be realized. In other words, the union of the created to the Uncreated will NOT be realized with the Father as the focal point, nor will it be realized “in the Father”.  Creation will not be saved “in the Father”. The salvation of Creation does, of course, eventually end up with the Father; it will report to the Father, but only “in the Son.”

The Holy Spirit likewise has a particular contribution: to ensure that the incorporation of Creation “in the Son” is rendered possible, by offering with His presence the ability for Creation to open up – to open itself – to its incorporation “in the Son”.  Because Creation cannot on its own communicate with God, on account of its natural limitations and not only on account of its Fall, which entails a reaction towards God and hinders the incorporation “in the Son”. Creation has to overcome its boundaries; a finite thing cannot be a part of the infinite, if its boundaries aren’t transcended. Thus, neither is the Holy Spirit the one “in Whom” Creation will be united, nor is the Father. It is only the Son. This is why this entire plan, this whole “Providence” as we call it, is realized “in the Son”, and it is the Providence of the Son, of Christ. Of course the Son does not act without the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit, but we mustn’t confuse the roles of each person.

The Church is located within this Triadic plan, where the Father favors, the Son is the One Who offers Himself so that Creation can become incorporated and be able to have a relationship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the One Who liberates Creation from its limitations, from the restrictions of being created.

Source: http://www.oodegr.com/english/dogmatiki1/F2c.htm