The Deity Of The Holy Spirit

[Jason]

From Pastoral Musings. 

“I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18  ) KJV

God Is Spirit

As we study the person of the Holy Spirit we must, at the outset, remember the truth that God is spirit.  It is imperative that we recall the fact that God does not of necessity have a body. With this in mind it will not be difficult for us to conceive of a person in the Godhead who is God the Spirit. The questions we must ask of the Scriptures are: who is the Spirit, what is His nature, and how is He related to the Father and the Son?

 

One With Father and Son As Shown in The Creation

First of all, we find that the Spirit of God is one with the Father and the Son. We see this from the account of the creation of the worlds. The Word of God tells us that “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.” (Gen 1:1) KJV We also read that “ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” (Heb 1:1,2) KJVThese two passages of Scripture tell us that the Father and the Son are one, and that both of them were active in the creation of the worlds. In the same place where we find that God created the heavens and the earth we also find that the Spirit was present and active. “ And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Gen 1:2) KJV In fact, the power of life that belongs only to God is said to also be the power of the Spirit. “It is the spirit that quickeneth…” (John 6:63) KJV We also find that Job attributed creative power to the Holy Spirit (See Job 26:13;27:3;33:4). All of these show us that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son.

 

Spoken of As Having The Divine, Incommunicable Attributes

Another thing that leads us to understand that the Holy Spirit is more than just an influence or ethereal willow-the-wisp is the fact that He is spoken of as having the divine incommunicable attributes. That is, the Holy Spirit has attributes that belong only to God.

He is eternal as God is eternal. “ Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” (Ps 90:1,2) KJV “If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:13,14) KJV

The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as being omniscient. All knowledge belongs to God and no one else. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:12,13) KJV This attribute also belongs to the Spirit of God. “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Cor 2:10) KJV

The Spirit of God is also spoken of as being omnipresent, which is also a divine attribute. “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.” (Jer 23:23,24) KJV “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” (Ps 139:7-12) KJV

We also find that to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God (Compare Acts 5:3 with Acts 5:4).

Finally, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as being omnipotent just as God is omnipotent. “I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” (Rev 19:6) KJV “The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:35-37) KJV

[David Armstrong]

Things I agree with:

• God is by substance Spirit
• The Holy Spirit--the Spirit that dwells in our hearts--is God
• The Holy Spirit thus shares divine attributes

Things I disagree with:

• The Holy Spirit's status as God requires a hypostatic or otherwise Trinitarian view of His being. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 clarifies that the Lord (Jesus) is the Holy Spirit.
  • Jesus promised to return to His brethren out of the heavens; whatever your eschatological views, it's clear that that happened in some form at Pentecost. I find it inherently unneccesary to see the Holy Spirit as being anyone other than the Spirit of Christ, and thus Christ Himself in spirit-form (that title, Spirit of Christ, is in fact used twice in the Bible, once in Romans and once in 1 Peter. While I'm not one to make grand theological arguments out of scattered verses, I would venture that Paul's theology paints a clear enough picture in 2 Corinthians to say that He didn't find it necessary to equate the Spirit with anyone but the Lord, either--especially when we look at Ephesians 4, when Paul stresses the fact that there is One Lord and One Spirit.)
  • In John 4:24, Jesus emphatically differentiates God from any locality by describing Him as being Spirit. This teaching is about the substance of God, something commonly left unreconciled in Jewish theology: namely, if God was a Spirit, did that mean that we could sincerely say that He was just in the Jewish Temple? This statement is significant because Jesus doesn't say, "God the Holy Spirit is a Spirit," and I think the reason we have to admit is that it's because Jesus didn't think of God (His Father) that way. The ruach ha kodesh and shekinah were considered in Jewish spirituality to be the presence of God Himself, that the presence of the Holy Spirit was the presence of Yahweh and thus of the Father Himself.
  • God is mentioned as the Father of spirits in the scriptures (Hebrews 12:9), connecting the Fatherhood of God (God the Father) to His status as a Spirit. Thus making unnecessary the distinction of God's Personality as Father and His Personality as Spirit.

[Jason]

David,

Thanks for your comments.

Jesus and the Spirit are of the same essence, but they are not the same person. The Spirit is not only the Spirit of Christ, but the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead, and the Spirit of God.

To put it another way, the Spirit is not simply Christ. They are of the same essence, but they are not the same person.

Jesus asked the Father to send the Spirit, if you will recall. That statement in itself differentiates between Jesus and the Spirit. Sure, Jesus said, "I will come to you." He also said that He would not leave us fatherless, yet Jesus nor the Spirit are the Father; they are one with the Father in essence. They are not the same person, however.

[Jason]

David,

Another thing to notice is that Scripture definitely shows us the Father, Son, and Spirit all being active at the same time in Creation, as I mentioned. They cannot be one and the same person while all three working at the same time. They can be the same in nature and in being, but not in person.

[Harry]

You are dabbling in the ancient hersey of Monarchism. The Creeds settled the issue of the Holy Trinity. It is a mystery and no one can fully explain it. If we try to use philosophy and reason, we come to the wrong conclusions. Luther called reason an old whore.

[Jason]

Harry, 

I assume that you are speaking to David. :-)

[David Armstrong]

Jason:

I don't see how the mention of "Father, Son, Holy Spirit" nor of how their references to being present at creation necessitates their being separate persons, you still haven't explained that to me.

Harry:

I'm not a Monarchist, by any means. However, I would be cautious about taking the Creeds as ways of separating truth from falsehood. I do hold to the Apostles' Creed as being true; however, the Apostles' Creed is pretty open in regards to how you view the Godhead working specifically (Trinitarianism, Binitarianism, and Modalism). That being said, the Creeds are not always purely theological in motive. What I mean by that is that later on--and especially as the Church and the State started holding hands and being a lot closer friends, were often designed more as a way to consolidate power in the church than they were necessarily to pan out what the Bible was saying. NOW, certainly, many of the bishops present at the councils that decided these creeds were Truth-lovers who wanted to see the real Truth decided on. But it's undeniable that many of the bishops involved in those councils--and often the ones who won the votes, so to speak--were in it for the power that comes with the official standing being that you're right.

So overall, I totally agree with the Deity of the Holy Spirit, definitely believe the Holy Spirit is God. Don't believe that that requires that the Holy Spirit be one of a community of persons within God.

[Jason]

David,

I believe that it is very obvious that Father, Son, and Spirit were simultaneously active in creation. That means that they are not one and the same person.

Furthermore, when we read that the Son is the beloved of the Father, that shows a distinction in the persons.

When we read of the Jesus, the Son, being anointed with the Spirit we again see a distinction in the persons.

[Jason]

Lisa,

I have a feeling that Luther and Harry both would recognize the truth in what you said about reason. 

The big issue is that mere human reasoning, not sanctified by the Spirit nor submitted to the Lordship of Christ and His Word is indeed unclean. It is simply the carnal mind at work.

Of course, I'm putting words in their mouths, but that is a sanctified guess :-)

[David Armstrong]

I assume, Danny, that you are again referring to myself when you say "human reasoning not sanctified by the Spirit," seeing as you have already done so before.