THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE THIRD PERSON IN THE GODHEAD, PART I.

My view on the topic of the Holy Spirit is that He is a Person who makes up the third person in the Godhead. According to Millard J. Erickson, “there are several reasons why the study of the Holy Spirit is of special significance to us. One is that the Holy Spirit is the point at which the Trinity becomes personal to the believer. We generally think of the Father as transcendent and far off in heaven; similarly, the Son seems far removed in history and thus also relatively unknowable. But the Holy Spirit is active within the lives of believers; He is resident within us.”1

As for the Holy Spirit being a Person, not just a force, Jesus says in John 14: 16 that when He is gone, He will send ‘another’ to replace Him and will carry the same role. So like Jesus, the Holy Spirit must be a Person. And that He is masculine is seen in John 16: 13-14 where Jesus uses a masculine pronoun ‘he’ to describe the Holy Spirit’s ministry.

His deity is shown clearly in Acts 5: 3-4 where it shows that if you have sinned against the Holy Spirit you have sinned against God! So here it makes Holy Spirit = God! So we have seen that the Holy Spirit is a Person, is one of the God-heads, and He is a masculine Person. He is the One throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, that breathed of His Spirit to its writers. And He is the One who empowers us when He baptizes and refills us with His Spirit.

And as a Person, He has intelligence, a will and emotions, according to Scriptures: His intelligence is seen in John 14: 26 where Jesus says “ the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” As for His will, we see in 1 Corinthians 12: 11 where it mentions that the Holy Spirit distributes various spiritual gifts to us, and are “the work of One and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one just as He determines.” In other words, His gifts are given by Him, according to His will. It is His choice! And the fact that He has emotions, Paul, in Ephesians 4: 30, warns against grieving the Spirit, who is very sensitive and grieves when we purposely choose our own way.

NOTES
1Millard J Erickson, Christian Theology, ( Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006),862.