THE MISSING PERSON PART SIX

As indicated my last blog on the Holy Spirit, this one focuses on the Holy Spirit’s personality and deity.  The cults typically depersonalise the Holy Spirit and understand Him to be an influence or some kind of force or energy.  It is important to recognise that God's Spirit who indwells the Christian is a person, which means believers are in relationship with Him.   They can know Him and relate to Him despite His invisible and intangible presence. 

Numerous aspects from Scripture testify to His personality.  The first deals with His attributes, which include intelligence (mind), sensibility (emotions) and volition (will).  These are commonly understood to make up genuine personal existence.  With respect to intelligence, the Holy Spirit knows and investigates (1 Corinthian 2:10-11) and has a mind (Romans 8:27).  He is also able to instruct (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:13).  Regarding sensibility, He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30 cf. Isaiah 63:10).  Concerning volition, the Holy Spirit determines the distribution of spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11) and directs the activities of believers (Acts 16:6-11).

The second deals with His activities, which are also personal.  The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin (John 16:8) and guides believers into truth (John 16:13).  He also intercedes for believers in bewildering situations (Romans 8:26).  Thirdly, His ascriptions are personal, including the requirement of obedience (Acts 10:19-21) and the possibility of lying to Him (Acts 5:3).  As noted earlier, He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30) and insulted (Hebrews 10:29).  In a context of relationship, the Holy Spirit can be resisted (Acts 7:51), which may be true of a force but not when dealing with people.  Like God, He can also be blasphemed (Matthew 12:31), which is a personal offence.

Fourthly, His associations are personal.  The Holy Spirit is linked with the apostles as a distinct personality (Acts 15:28).  He is also linked to Christ in several contexts where both are closely identified in personal activity.  In John 14:16, the Holy Spirit is another comforter in place of Jesus and the meaning of another is one of the same kind.  This term is used several more times in John’s gospel, translated “Helper”, and again sent as a replacement for Jesus (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7).  No abstract influence or impersonal force could accomplish this task.  Further, the Spirit's function of glorifying another person in the Godhead, as Christ does (John 16:14 cf. John 17:4), reinforces this personal association.  The Spirit is also linked with the other members of the Trinity in such things as the baptismal formula (Matt 28:19), the benediction (2 Corinthians 13:14), as well as numerous Trinitarian expressions (Jude 20-21; 1 Peter 1:2; Acts 2:33, 38; Galatians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

The Holy Spirit is also described as related to His own power and yet distinct from it, which counters the concept of impersonal force (Luke 4:14; Acts 10:38; 1 Corinthians 2:4).

One final matter is a grammatical consideration.  References to the Holy Spirit by a personal pronoun use the masculine gender (John 16:13-14; Ephesians 1:14), which does not match the neuter gender of pneuma, the Greek word for Spirit.  Grammatically, pronouns ought to match their antecedent nouns in person, number and gender, which in these cases they do not.  It seems both John and Paul are indicating the Holy Spirit is a person by use of these masculine genders to counter any thoughts of understanding the Spirit as an impersonal force or influence.

I hope you can agree that the Holy Spirit is a person and thus enjoy a personal relationship with Him.  In the remaining space, we will briefly consider His deity.  Already, we have seen the close relationship between the Holy Spirit and the other two members of the Godhead, which implies He is co-equal with them, but we have more evidence to consider.

His names reveal His identity as God.  Some sixteen times He is related to the other two persons in the Trinity, including Acts 16:17, “the Spirit of Jesus” and 1 Corinthians 6:11, “the Spirit of our God”.  In Acts 5, the Holy Spirit is interchangeable with God with reference to Ananias and Sapphira’s lie concerning the sale of property.  Lying to the Holy Spirit is equivalent to lying to God, which is a further explanation of the serious nature this deception.  They had not lied to someone less than God, but to God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.  Further interchangeable references are found in 1 Corinthians when Paul writes concerning the temple of God and the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17 cf. 6:19-20).

The Holy Spirit evidences the attributes of deity, such as omniscience (Isaiah 40:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-12), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7) and omnipotence in relation to His work of creation (Job 33:4; Psalm 104:30).  He is also identified as eternal (Hebrews 9:14).  Certain actions are identified with the Holy Spirit that only God can perform, such as the virgin birth (Luke 1:35), the inspiration of Scripture (2 Peter 1:21) and as mentioned previously, creation (Genesis 1:2).  He is the agent of the new birth, another divine work (John 3:5-8 cf. Titus 3:5).

As in the case for His personality, so here, the close identification with the other two members of the Godhead implies His deity with theirs.  This is evident when the New Testament identifies the Holy Spirit as the Old Testament Yahweh in cases where God speaking in an Old Testament passage is attributed to the Spirit (Acts 28:25 cf. Isaiah 6:1-13; Hebrews 10:15-17 cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34).  Finally, the use of a Trinitarian formula for certain Christian rites argues for His deity.  The baptismal declaration in Matthew 28:19 uses the singular name to include all three members of the Godhead equally.  The apostolic benediction presents each member as equal in identity and honour.

In closing, consider four implications of these two truths of personality and deity (courtesy of Millard Erickson). 

Since the Holy Spirit is a person and not a force, Christians can have a personal relationship with Him through an increasing knowledge of His person, awareness of His presence, surrender to His purpose and experience of His power. 

Since the Holy Spirit is equally God, He deserves the same honour and respect that we would give the Father and the Son.  This does not mean He will occupy the same degree of prominence in our prayer or meditation because His ministry points away from Himself. 

Because the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son, no tension exists among their persons and activities.  The purpose and plan of God are cooperatively established and effected.

Since the Holy Spirit possesses the attribute of omnipresence, He is not distant but always present.  He resides in God's people and thus be more intimate in His relationship to us than Jesus was to His disciples.  God is truly with us.

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