Sermon Tone Analysis

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit

Chapter 59

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Many people have labeled the twentieth century as the century of the Holy Spirit.

The rise and spread of Pentecostalism, with its major emphasis on the ministries of the Spirit, and the blossoming of dispensationalism’s emphasis on works of the Spirit are distinctive to this age.

The century’s concern for the evangelization of the world also highlighted a need to know the power of the Spirit to accomplish this.

Though this attention on the work of the Spirit has been a good thing, it has not always been scripturally guided; thus there exists an even greater need today for careful attention to the biblical teaching on this subject.

I.

He is a Person

Denial that the Spirit is a person often takes the form of substituting the concept that He is a personification of, say, power—much like claiming that Satan is a personification of evil.

This denial of His personality has occurred throughout church history, first by the Monarchians, the Arians, the Socinians, and today by Unitarians, liberals, and some neo-orthodox theologians.

But there is a great deal of evidence that He is a person.

A. He Possesses and Exhibits the Attributes of a Person

1.

He has intelligence.

He knows and searches the things of God (); He possesses a mind (); and He is able to teach people ().

2.

He shows feelings.

He can be grieved by the sinful actions of believers (—an influence cannot be grieved).

3.

He has a will.

He uses this in distributing gifts to the body of Christ ().

He also directs the activities of Christians ().

Since genuine personality possesses intelligence, feelings, and will, and since the Spirit has these attributes, He must be a person.

B. He Exhibits the Actions of a Person

1.

He guides us into truth by hearing, speaking, and showing ().

2.

He convicts of sin ().

3.

He performs miracles ().

4.

He intercedes ().

These are activities that an influence or personification could not do but that Scripture shows the Holy Spirit can do.

C.

He Receives Ascriptions that Would Be Given Only to a Person

1.

He is One to be obeyed ().

2.

He can be lied to ().

3.

He can be resisted ().

4.

He can be grieved ().

5.

He can be blasphemed ().

6.

He can be insulted ().

To think of acting and reacting to an influence in these ways is incongruous.

D. He Relates as a Person to Other Persons

1.

To the apostles.

He related to the apostles in a manner that shows His own distinct personality ().

He is a person as they are persons; yet He is a distinct and identifiable person.

2. To Jesus.

He relates to the Lord Jesus in such a way that if the Lord has personality one must conclude that the Spirit does also.

Yet He is distinct from Christ ().

3. To other Trinity members.

He relates to the other persons of the Trinity as an equal person (; ).

4. To His own power.

The Spirit is related to His own power yet distinguished from it so that we may not conclude that He is merely a personification of power (; ; ).

E. A Grammatical Consideration

Several times the writers of the New Testament use a masculine pronoun to refer to the Spirit (which is a neuter).

The clearest example of this exception to normal grammatical usage is where the masculine demonstrative pronoun is used twice to refer to the Spirit mentioned in verse 13.

Other references are less clear since the masculine pronouns used may refer to the word “Paraclete” (which is masculine, 15:26; 16:7–8) or to the word “earnest” (which is also masculine, kjv).

Nevertheless, the clear exception to normal accidence in does support the true personality of the Spirit.

Each of these lines of scriptural evidence leads to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit, even though a spirit being, is as real a person as the Father, or the Son, or as we are.

II.

He is God

kjv King James Version

II.

He is God

@book{Ryrie_1999,

Not only is the Spirit a person, but He is a unique person, for He is God.

Proofs of personality are not necessarily proofs of Deity; but proofs of Deity are also proofs of His personality.

If God is a person, and if the Spirit is also God, then He is a person also.

place={Chicago, IL},

A. His Appellations Show Deity

title={Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth},

publisher={Moody Press},

The divine names of the Spirit reveal His Deity.

Sixteen times He is related by name to the other two persons of the Trinity (—“the Spirit of Jesus” and —“the Spirit of our God”).

Further, promise of our Lord to send “another Helper” () uses the word for “another” that means another of the same kind.

In other words, if Christ is God, then the Spirit, the other Helper of the same kind, is also God.

author={Ryrie, Charles Caldwell},

year={1999},

B. His Attributes are Those that Belong to God Alone

pages={393–397}}

As we have seen, the Spirit has attributes that show that He is a genuine person, but He also possesses attributes that only God has, which shows, therefore, that He is Deity.

These attributes are omniscience (; ), omnipresence (), and omnipotence by virtue of His work in Creation (; ).

He is also truth, love, life-giver, but man can be these things in a relative sense as well.

C. His Actions are Those that Only God Can Perform

1.

He was the cause of the Virgin Birth ().

2.

He was the Agent in giving the inspired Scriptures ().

3.

He was involved in the Creation of the world ().

Here as with other uses of the “Spirit of God” in the Old Testament we may ask if the references clearly are to the third person of the Trinity or to God as spirit (which He is).

Leupold, commenting on verse 2, gives a thoughtful answer to the question.

Absolutely none other than the Holy Spirit is here under consideration.…

It may require the full light of New Testament revelation to enable us to discern that the Spirit of God here is the same as He who in the New Testament is seen to be the Holy Spirit; but having that light, we need not hesitate to believe that it sheds clear light back on the Old Testament usage of the expression.…

Does it not seem reasonable that the Spirit of inspiration should have so worded the words that bear upon His activity that, when the full New Testament revelation has come, all statements concerning the Spirit are in perfect harmony with this later revelation?1

D. His Associations with the Other Persons of the Godhead

Demonstrate Deity

1. Spirit as Yahweh.

The New Testament identifies the Spirit as Yahweh of the Old Testament, particularly when quoting an Old Testament passage that God spoke and attributing it to the Spirit (cf. with and with ).

This is strong evidence that the New Testament writers considered the Spirit to be God.

2. Spirit and God.

Blasphemy of and lying to the Spirit are the same as doing these things to God (; ).

3. Equality.

The Spirit is associated on an equal basis with the Father and Son (; ).

In the Matthew reference the use of the singular “name” strengthens the proof.

He is a person and He is God.