Language of the Holy Spirit: Signs
(An excerpt from the book The Ikon of God)
One key to understanding Scripture is to know the language of the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine (AD 354-430), a bishop in Northern Africa, taught that the interpretation of Scripture as a process of dividing its elements into “things” and “signs.”
For a sign is a thing which, over and above the impression it makes on the senses, causes something else to come into the mind as a consequence of itself: as when we see a footprint, we conclude that an animal whose footprint this is has passed by; and when we see smoke, we know there is fire beneath; and when we hear the voice of a living man, we think of the feeling in his mind; and when the trumpet sounds, soldiers know that they are to advance or retreat, or do whatever else the state of the battle requires.[i]
“Signs” are references in Scripture that point to something else by having a different (and higher) dimension of meaning than just what is indicated on the surface, e.g. footprints tell us that an animal has left them. “Things” are items in Scripture that are to be taken at face value.[ii] Properly interpreting
Scripture can be described as reading the “signs” employed by the Holy Spirit. It is that simple. Reading Scripture is not like reading the periodic table: it is more than numbers and values. It is about many voices of meaning; it is the metanarrative of God’s dream. It is important to understand this presupposition because we will be interpreting signs— the meaning of figures and types— in this study on Man and his relationship to God. Reading Scripture is a treasure hunt!
Augustine goes on to say:
For among men words have obtained far and away the chief place as a means of indicating the thought of the mind. Our Lord, it is true, gave a sign through the odor of the ointment which was poured upon His feet; and in the sacrament of His body and blood He signified His will through the sense of taste; and when by touching the hem of His garment the woman was made whole, the act was not wanting in significance. But the countless multitude of the signs through which men express their thoughts consist of words. For I have been able to put into words all of these signs, the various classes of which I have briefly touched upon, but I could by no effort express words of those signs.[iii]
Think about what Augustine is saying: that all words are signs because they point to a meaning. All communication is based on signs (words) that have meaning. Take for example the word “dog.” The word “dog” is not the dog itself, but it points the individual toward the actual object. The word “dog” is a sign that points us to the object (the golden retriever chewing on your rug). Hence, communication is inherently a signed based action, and without signs, communication would be impossible. Scripture takes this same principle a level further: that objects in Scripture have more meaning that what is suggested at face value.
Jesus refers to Himself as the “Good Shepherd.” (John 10) Was Jesus talking about His occupational skills related to getting a job looking after somebody’s livestock? No, He was speaking about how He relates to His followers. “Good Shepherd” is a word picture to communicate something very meaningful about Himself. Jesus could have spent a lot of time explaining how you can trust Him with your life , but the picture communicates clearly what He is saying, particularly to an agricultural people. Entire books have been written expounding the depth of meaning to the believer regarding the Good Shepherd as we know Him.
Another way to describe Augustine’s thinking about signs is to see that Scripture is laden with symbolism, or hidden messages and meaning. The Holy Spirit speaks, very often, through symbols that go beyond the words employed. If you are familiar with liturgical worship, you know it is more meaningful when you understand what all of the items and actions are saying. Understanding both Scripture and Liturgy involves the proper handling and understanding of the symbolism or signs employed.
Symbols (signs) provide word pictures for the believer’s understanding, but the symbols employed can have multiple meanings. This makes it possible for Scripture to have so much meaning in a short volume: no other book on earth works like this.
Let us consider Christianity’s most basic symbol, the cross. It is the faith’s universal sign, symbol, and even motif. But, what does the cross mean? It means many things that are all related to Christ, His passion, and the Church. From a theological point of view, among other things, the cross means that a price was paid so that my sins could be remitted and not counted against me in my relationship with God. From a devotional point of view, one may wear a cross or bow before a cross as an act of devotion to Christ. From a personal point of view, we can see the cross as referring to a lifestyle. After all, Jesus said we are to take up our own cross and follow Him. Here the meaning becomes even more personal: it suggests something about my own actions and attitudes. No symbol has received such universal proliferation throughout human history.
Very few things speak so much about the Christian faith, but to the common Roman soldier of Jesus day, the cross was an instrument of execution, the ultimate humiliation, and a demonstration of Roman supremacy. To him, all crosses upon which criminals hung were the same; there was no other meaning for him. For the believer, the cross upon which Christ hung is the epicenter of meaning. It is humanity’s only ticket to freedom out of bondage and into regeneration, into right relationship with God.
Symbols are like love letters passing through the mail system to be opened by certain people, obscured from public view. They are like arrows passing through time and space, landing on their intended targets, bringing tremendous import to the heart. This is how God speaks: the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with signs in communicating Grace to His people.
This phenomenon of many (more than one) but related meanings is also evident in other symbols: water is a symbol of Life (God’s presence) as in, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38-39), but it also symbolizes death, as in, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3) The symbolism of water in Scripture is both life and death, and— in each case— the context makes it obvious as to which is the correct interpretation for that passage. But as we mentioned, both interpretations of the sign, “water,” have to be connected, and they are: Christian life is all about Life out of death or, we could say, Life that passes through death (which we call resurrection Life). The Life God gives to the believer is resurrection life, life that endures death to live again. Being filled with God’s life is about “dying daily.” While we are always living out the death of Christ by self-sacrifice, we are being filled with Life, God’s Life.
There is another way in which the sign of water is used in Scripture, but, in this case, it is set opposed to fire. Both water and fire are used to refer to purification or cleansing.
But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:2-3)
In this one verse, the Spirit of God is speaking of how God will purify His people. Two analogies are employed: that of fire (as it relates to purifying silver), and fullers’ soap (which— with water— cleans many things). Before, we mentioned how water refers to either life or death, but here it refers to cleaning and purifying, and it is coupled with fire which cleanses things in a different way: by burning up the undesirable elements in silver and gold. Searching other places in Scripture, we see two different ways in which God purifies His people. First is water, as in:
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. (Titus 3:5)
Many theologians believe this points to baptism. Washing speaks of cleansing, and regeneration speaks of rejuvenating with Life: both are meanings of water.
The Bible also refers to a cleansing experience in the believer’s life that is brought about by fire:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:7, emphasis added)
Fire here speaks of a purifying effect in the believer’s life, but it should never be confused with the eternal fire that the unregenerate will suffer in for eternity. So, the sign “fire” also has multiple uses.
By using signs to communicate multiple meanings, the whole of Scripture is packed full of significance and expanded meaning. The sign always implies the natural understanding of a thing, like fire or water, as a spiritual application: this is how signs work. Things of a physical nature point out and describe spiritual Truths.
The Holy Spirit’s usage of signs in Scripture shows us that Truth is very often parallel: water speaks of life because it is, in fact, the essence of all created earthly life (plant, animal, or human). It is irreplaceable. The truth of water being essential to all of life is parallel to the fact that God’s Life giving power (His living water) is also essential to our spiritual life and relationship with Him. Water in Scripture is also used for the cleansing that a spiritual Truth provides for us (as every housewife knows how essential water is to house cleaning). For this reason, God’s use of signs shows us that Truth is parallel.
Another example of a sign used in Scripture (that is distinctly present in Creation) is that of gender. Reading what the Bible has to say about gender, we immediately see God created Man male and female; this would be what St. Augustine called a “sign,” something that has much greater importance than just the mechanisms of procreation. We would miss something divine, something wonderful, and something foundational if we just take gender at “face value.” Divine and eternal Truths are impressed into God’s image, Man, through gender. We will go into this in great detail later.
If we do not grasp these principles as they relate to signs, much of Scripture will be closed to us, locked up in types and shadows. Understanding this shows us that all of God’s workings can be described as three-dimensional in nature; by using word pictures, God gives us a fuller understanding of what He is saying. By using signs, His intention is to create a desire within us to seek out the things of God. This use of signs also hides things from the unregenerate; knowing of God’s communications would create abuses by those who are against God and make their sin against God even more egregious. Signs (as well as parables) serve as a form of encryption of what God gives to His people and withholds from the unregenerate (Matthew 13:11).
However, even though God communicates through multi-dimensional signs, our human comprehension, for the most part, only works in one-dimensional concepts; therefore we have to break it down into bites of information that make it chewable and digestible to us. Even though we are limited in this fashion, God’s desire is that we have a broad understanding of His ways:
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
When gazing into the things of God, we must not limit our observation to our linear thinking but behold the wonder there is in a manifold revelation of Christ in all His glory. As we go through this study, we will be identifying signs (as St. Augustine explained) in Scripture. These signs serve as word-pictures to communicate God’s realities to us.
[i] Saint Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, trans. J. F. Shaw, (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2009), p. 32.
