In this present series, we undertake the doctrine of the Holy Spirit of God. He… and He is referred to in the masculine gender… is not a “thing”, but an “it”, a person. Not only a person but a divine Person and one who is a full-fledged equal member of the Triune Godhead. Because the Holy Spirit is commonly referred to as the third Being of the Trinity, as in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He’s frequently relegated to a role of lesser authority and importance than the Father and the Son, and this is a grievous mistake. When mentioning the members of the Trinity, it is unavoidable that one of them must be mentioned first and another last with the remaining in the middle. Otherwise, the only way of referring to all three members at one time is to simply use the word “Trinity”, which, of course, includes the three. The Holy Spirit is of equal authority, power, and rank as the Father and the Son. Suffice it to say, the Triune God subsists in three distinct Persons while maintaining the essential truth that there is but one God, not three, as Christians are often accused of believing.
Another erroneous idea about the Holy Spirit is His being merely a mystical power, influence, or divine energy. Divine energy He is indeed, but the energy is expressed through His very obvious and distinct Personhood. And, if a Person, we should expect Him to possess the usual qualities and characteristics of personhood. He does! Christ attested to the Person of the Holy Spirit when referring to Him in John 14, saying that “He, the Spirit, will teach you all things, and He will guide you,” the apostles, “into all truth.” “He,” the Spirit, Christ said, “will glorify Me.” It could not be clearer that the frequent use of the masculine pronoun removes all doubt regarding the Spirit’s personality.
In addition, we are told in Ephesians 4 that believers may grieve the Holy Spirit. And 1st Thessalonians 5, we are admonished not to “quench the Spirit,” both negatives being possible only if the Holy Spirit is a personality, not an influence or an impersonal power. Hebrews 9 reminds us of the eternity of the Spirit when the writer states that Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot unto God. And this is followed in 1st Peter 3, when the writer explained that “Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened (or made alive) by the Spirit.”
When the Apostle Peter indicted Ananias and Sapphira for their deceit in Acts, chapter 5. He asked, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, for you have not lied unto men but unto God?” Throughout the Bible, the truth is consistently set forth that the three distinct Persons of the Triune Godhead, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit function in their respective roles with perfect harmony and cooperation. Thus, the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit are verified.
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