Westminster Confession

Bible Study

 

Chapter 1 On God and the Holy Trinity, section 3 (part III): The Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit

 

By: Moses Flores

 

 

            Operating with the presupposition that the Father is indeed God and now seeing clearly from the Scriptures that Christ is a distinct person from the Father, yet equally eternal with the Father and equal in dignity, we can only conclude that there are at least two distinct persons who share in the one substance that is God.

            We come now to the point in our study where the distinct personality and the deity of the Holy Spirit will be considered.  Before proceeding, one should note that the explicit Scriptural support for the deity of the Holy Spirit is not as abundant as that for the Father or the Son and there is good reason for this. 

            Recall that the Scriptures are a product of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:19-21).  Recall, also, the words of Jesus Christ concerning the function of the Holy Spirit  in John 16:12-15.  Jesus said,

 

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”  (cf. John 15:26)

 

            The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is to glorify Christ and not Himself.  Thus, the Scriptures, as a product of the Holy Spirit are intended to be Christ-centered and not Spirit-centered.  The Holy Spirit always points us to Christ.  Hence, this is a reason for the lack of much explicit evidence for the deity of the Holy Spirit.

            Nevertheless, the Scriptures do still reveal the distinct personality and deity of the Holy Spirit clearly.  We see His personality in the way that He is spoken of in relation to the Father and the Son and in his functioning as only a person can.  His deity is revealed in His possession of the divine attributes, works and honor that is given to Him. 

 

The Distinct Personality of the Spirit of God

 

            It is supposed by some sects that the Spirit of God is not a person at all but is rather an impersonal force, or power, of God by which the Father accomplishes His will. 

However, the Scriptures speak in no such way of the Holy Spirit.  For instance, in the passage that was shared earlier from John 16:12-15, we see many reference to the Spirit of God as “He” – a personal pronoun.  The use of the personal pronoun is certainly significant in that a “He” is distinguished from an “it” – which would be impersonal.  We should note that this is Jesus Christ speaking here about the Holy Spirit.  Thus, we could say that Jesus himself believed that the Holy Spirit was a person and spoke of the Holy Spirit as a person. 

            Jesus actually does this quite a bit in John 14-16.  Just to note some of the reference in which Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit with the personal pronoun, we can see this in John 14:16:

 

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.”

 

            The first pronoun, “He” has reference to the Father.  Christ will pray to the Father and the Father – He – will send “another Helper”.  The personal pronoun, “He” is referenced to the other Helper.  Thus, this other Helper is another person sent to be our Helper as Christ was.

            Likewise, in John 14:25-26 we read:

 

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” 

 

            In this passage there is the explicit connection between “the Holy Spirit” and the personal pronoun “He”.

            Admittedly, most of the evidence for the personality of the Spirit is this simple.  But its simplicity does not mean that it is wrong in any way.  Rather, the simplicity is simply testimony to the clarity of the teaching in Scripture that there be no excuse. 

The use of personal pronouns is not the only evidence for the personhood of the Holy Spirit.  In Scripture we also see the Holy Spirit doing things that only a person is capable of doing.  For instance, in I Corinthians 2:10-11, the Spirit is said to “search” the deep things of God.  In Acts 15:28 we see the Spirit making judgments.  In John 16:13, the Holy Spirit “hears” of the Father and the Son.  Also we see the Spirit, “speaking” (Acts 13:2; Rev. 2:7; 14:13; 22:17), “willing” (I Cor. 12:11), “teaching” (John 14:26), “interceding” (Rom. 8:27) and even “witnessing” (John 15:26), He can be “grieved” (Isa. 63:10), “lied to” (Acts 5:3).  All these acts are things that only a person can do.  An “it” cannot “will” how do distribute gifts in the Church.  An “it” cannot intercede for us when we don’t know how to pray.  The only sound conclusion from this evidence is to conclude that the Holy Spirit is certainly a person even as much as Christ is a person and we are persons.

            If the Holy Spirit were merely an impersonal force or a power, then language would certainly be meaningless in the use of personal pronouns applied to the Holy Spirit.  But that it may be clear that the Holy Spirit is not merely “power” we read in Zechariah 4:6,

 

“So he answered and said to me:  ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:  ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of host.”

 

            Notice that the LORD Himself makes the distinction between mere power and the Holy Spirit.  If the Holy Spirit was an impersonal force or power, then we would have to acknowledge the contradictory understanding of the text as saying, “Not by might or by power, but by power”!  Such an understanding is absurd.  The same problem occurs elsewhere in Scripture.  For instance, in Acts 10:38 we see that God anointed Jesus with “the Holy Spirit and with power.”  If the Spirit were an impersonal power then we would understand that Jesus was anointed “with power and with power.”  In Romans 15:13 we read,

 

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

 

            Notice the distinction between the power and the Holy Spirit.  “Power” is here something that the Spirit possesses for it is of Him; It is the power OF the Holy Spirit.  Again, imagine the understanding “that you may abound in hope by the power of the power.”  Absolutely absurd.

            The Holy Spirit is clearly a person in the text of Scripture.  He is not a power or an impersonal force.  He is clearly a person.  Though the evidence might seem so simple, it is not insignificant in any way.  It should be noted that the word for “spirit” in the Bible is in the neuter gender, which denotes that the noun is neither male nor female and is often used of impersonal objects.  However, the writers of Scripture go beyond the conventional pronoun usage for a neuter gender (“it”) and use a personal pronoun, in particular a masculine pronoun (“He”), in reference to the Spirit. 

            Clearly the Holy Spirit is a person.       

We should also note that in the texts Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, not only as a person but also, as a distinct person from himself.  That is, Jesus does not say that He is the Holy Spirit in a different form, or role – which clearly rules out the Sabellian, or Modalist understanding of God.  Rather Jesus is clearly to be understood as saying, for instance, in John 14:26 that the “Holy Spirit” who is sent by the “Father” will be sent to teach all things that He (Jesus) has said and taught.  Now, obviously the one being sent is not the one sending, therefore, a distinction between the person of the Father and the person of the Holy Spirit.  Neither is the one who is sent the one who gave the knowledge to be remembered.  Thus, the distinction between the person of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ is evidently clear.

 

The Deity of the Holy Spirit

 

            After having proved from the Scriptures the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, we come now to the crucial question:  Is the Holy Spirit equally of the same substance with the Father and the Son?  In answering this question, we must keep in mind again that the evidence is not a abundant as the deity of Jesus Christ, but nevertheless the evidence that is there is very clear and undeniable.  There are a few instances in which the connection between the covenant LORD of the Old Testament is identified as the distinct person of the Holy Spirit, however much of the evidence for the deity of the Holy Spirit is implicit from the attributes of ascribed to the Holy Spirit that are qualities and attributes of God alone.  We will begin with the attributes and then move on to the more explicit statements in Scripture that identify the Holy Spirit as God equally with the Father and the Son.

 

            Eternal, Omniscience, Omnipresence and Sovereignty are attributes that properly belong to God alone.  That is, they are incommunicable attributes, which is to say that they are not shared with any creature.  Thus, possession of these attributes would necessarily make the one who possesses them to be God, or equal with God.

            In the Bible, the Spirit is attributed with each of these particular attributes of God.  For instance, in Hebrews 9:14 we read,

 

“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

 

            Here, the attribute of eternity is attributed to the Holy Spirit.  Now, if only God is eternal, then it should be clear enough that the Holy Spirit is equally God with the Father and the Son.  That there be no misunderstanding of the meaning of the word here or of its application to the Spirit being the same kind of eternity with the Father, Romans 16:26 uses the same word for eternal in reference to God, calling him “the eternal God.” 

            In Psalm 139, we see the omnipresence of the Spirit of God.  We read,

 

“Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the morning,

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there Your hand shall lead me,

And Your right hand shall hold me.”

 

            The obvious implication of the rhetorical question, “where can I go from Your Spirit” is that there is no place that one can go that God’s Spirit cannot be escaped.  From the top of creation to the very bottom, the Spirit of God is inescapable and can only lead to the conclusion that He is omnipresent. 

            Likewise, omniscience is attributed to the Holy Spirit as well.  In I Corinthians 2:10 we read,

 

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.  For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

 

            The verb here for “searches” is in the present tense, and here indicates what is called the “gnomic present” signifying that which is always true.  The significance of this is that the Spirit knows all things at all times.  There is not a time when He has to go and seek out knowledge so as to learn it.  If so, He would not be eternal for He would be changing.  The Spirit is as omniscient as the Father and the Son.  He knows all things, even the “deep things of God.”

            Interestingly enough, the word for “deep” was “a nautical term denoting unfathomable depths of the ocean (Luke 5:4).[1]”  Hence, the Spirit is said to know not only all things – in reference to creation and redemption – but even the very inmost being of God.  The only being that can fully know God, even the deep things of God, must be God Himself for it takes an infinite and eternal being to know an infinite and eternal being.  Therefore, the Spirit omniscience is most clearly displayed here in this text of Scripture.

            Finally, the attribute of sovereignty is attributed to the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures as well.  In John 3:8, concerning the new birth, Jesus says,

 

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

 

            In personifying the wind as blowing where ever it wills, Jesus reveals to us that it is the Spirit in His sovereignty, in accordance with the will of the Father, who causes men and women to be born again, not being under the disposal or direction of the any creature.  Also, in I Corinthians 12:11 we see the sovereignty of the Spirit in the distribution of gifts within the Church.  He gives the gifts “as He wills” and not as any creature wants or would like.

            While these Scriptures are not exhaustive in revealing the attributes of God present in the person of the Holy Spirit, they can only lead us to conclude that the Holy Spirit must necessarily be God if He possesses any of these incommunicable attributes of God.  However, that our faith may not rest on inductive inferences of Scripture, there are some passages of Scripture that are very explicit in referring to the Holy Spirit as God.

            One classic text comes from Acts 5 in the story of Ananias and his wife Saphira.  After withholding a promised amount of money from the Apostles, Ananias is told by the Apostle Peter that Satan has filled his heart to “lie to the Holy Spirit.”  After reasoning with Ananias momentarily, Peter then reveals to Him, “you have not lied to men, but to God.”  Peter, thus, makes the connection that the person of the Holy Spirit is God.

            The most explicit text is found in II Corinthians 3:15-18.  Here we read,

 

“yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.  But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

 

            Here, the word “Lord” (which is kurios in the Greek from the Hebrew Tetragrammaton YHWH in the OT) is directly applied to the Spirit.  Thus, there is no mistaking that the Holy Spirit is the same covenant LORD in the Old Testament, and the one true God.

            Some final passage to prove that the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit is God come from I and II Cor.  In Corinthians 3:16 we read,

 

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

 

            Compared with 6:19

 

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”

 

            Understanding that the Scriptures are entirely consistent within themselves, we see in I Corinthians 3:16 that we are the “temple of God”.  However, in 6:19 we read that we are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.”  Is there an inconsistency here?  Hardly!  Rather, it is clear that the name “God” can be applied to the “Holy Spirit” and be used interchangeably.  Thus, we have here yet another example of the Holy Spirit being called “God” in the Bible.

 

Conclusion

 

            Certainly the evidence for the distinct personality and deity of the Holy Spirit has not been exhausted by any means.  Indeed, such a task is well beyond the scope of this work but what has been presented is certainly sufficient to believe that the Bible teaches the distinct personality and deity of the Spirit of God.  However, the evidence that has been presented is extremely clear.  It’s so clear that it is often overlooked.  Simple personal pronouns that are easily taken for granted can have rich meaning if we follow their implication sometimes – namely that they are describing a person, even a distinct person from other persons in the same sentence –  and are even used to reveal one of the highest of all the Christian doctrines, the very doctrine of God Himself!   

            What is the significance of the distinct personality and deity of the Holy Spirit?  What this means for Christians is that we can all experience the blessings which were bought by Christ Jesus.  Because the Holy Spirit is God, He can distribute the blessings of redemption like regeneration (John 3:3), adoption (Romans 8:15), etc… The Holy Spirit must Himself be God if He is going to be able to sustain the Church of God through out the ages spread all throughout the world.  If the Holy Spirit were not God, He could not be with us all at all times, for he would then be limited by space and time.