Hebrews 9:14 and John Owen

[Notthemama1984]

Reading through Hebrews 9 and John Owen's commentary and I came across this quote.

Through the eternal Spirit. The action of his own eternal Spirit brought about a cleansed conscience, while the action of the Holy Spirit in Christ was the method through which this took place. Without the first, Christ’s offering would not have cleansed our consciences from acts that lead to death. No sacrifice of any mere creature could have produced this effect. So Christ offered himself to God, through or by his own eternal Spirit, the divine nature acting in the person of the Son.

Owen, J. (1998). Hebrews (p. 200). Crossway Books.

I had always read this passage as a reference to the Holy Spirit in a similar way that God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Is it a common view that the eternal Spirit is a reference to Christ's Spirit? I have never heard of it being Christ's but I don't like to quickly dismiss titans of the faith like John Owen.

Thanks in advance,

 

[KMK]

LBC 2:3 "In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him."

 

[Notthemama1984]

Amen.

I apologize if it came across otherwise, but I am not denying the Trinity or the spiration of the Spirit. I am just curious of the referent in Hebrews 9:14 specifically.

 

[py3ak]

That "eternal Spirit" is a reference to Christ's divine nature is not at all an uncommon view, at least among older commentators.

E.g., David Dickson says: "He offered himself as man through the eternal Spirit, that is by the virtue and power of his own Godhead, by which he preached before his incarnation to sinners,1 Pet. iii.19."

 

[CathH]

George Smeaton took the view that for the duration of his humiliation, and especially in the work of atonement on the cross, Christ acted by faith as enabled by the Holy Spirit, not by directly drawing on his own divine resources. My understanding was that Smeaton was following John Owen in holding this view. (Let me know if you want references/quotations - I could look it up but just off the top of my head just now.)