We take up first the question of the Deity of the Holy Spirit. The fact
that the Holy Spirit is a person does not prove that He is divine.
There are spirits who are persons but who are not God. There are five
distinct lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy
Spirit is God.
1. The first line of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit is that
_each of the four distinctively Divine attributes are ascribed to
the Holy Spirit in the Bible_. There are four distinctively divine
attributes; that is to say, there are four attributes which God alone
possesses, and any person who has these attributes must therefore
be God. The four distinctively divine attributes are omnipotence,
omniscience, omnipresence and eternity.
(1) First of all, _omnipotence is ascribed to the Holy Spirit_, for
example, in Luke 1:35: +"And the angel answered and said unto her,
the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the most high
shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that which is to be born shall be
called holy, the Son of God."+ This passage plainly declares that
the Holy Spirit has the power of the Most High, that He is omnipotent.
(2) In the next place, _omniscience is ascribed to the Holy Spirit_.
This is done, for example, in I Corinthians 2:10, 11: +"But unto us
God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the
things of a man, save the Spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so
the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God."+ Here we
are distinctly told that _the Holy Spirit searcheth all things and
knoweth all things_, even the deep things of God. We find the same
thought again in John 14:26: +"But the Comforter, even the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all
things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you."+
Here we are distinctly told that the Holy Spirit teaches all things,
and therefore must know all things. This is stated even more explicitly
in John 16:12-13: +"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He
shall guide you into all the truth."+ In all these passages it is
either directly declared or unmistakably implied that the Holy Spirit
knows all things, that He is omniscient.
(3) In the third place, _omnipresence is ascribed to the Holy Spirit_.
We find this in Psalms 139:7-10: +"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 Sheol, 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."+ Here we are told in the most explicit
and unmistakable way that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is
everywhere; that there is no place in heaven, earth or hades whither we
can go from His presence.
(4) _Eternity is also ascribed to the Holy Spirit._ This we find in
Hebrews 9:14, where we read: +"How much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish
unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God?"+ Here we find the words "the Eternal Spirit" just as elsewhere
we find the words "the Eternal God" (e.g., Deut. 33:27): Putting these
different passages together, we see clearly that each of the four
distinctively divine attributes, the four attributes that no one but
God possesses, are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
2. The second line of proof of the true Deity of the Holy Spirit is
found in the fact that _three distinctively divine works are ascribed
to the Holy Spirit—that is to say, the Holy Spirit is said to do three
things which God alone can do_.
(1) The first of these distinctively divine works that are ascribed
to the Holy Spirit is _the work which we always think of first when
we think of God and His work—that is to say, the work of creation.
We find creation ascribed to the Holy Spirit in Job 33:4_: +"The
Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me
life."+ We find the same thing implied in Psalms 104:30: +"Thou
sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the
face of the ground."+ In these two passages creation, the most
distinctively divine of all works, is ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
(2) The _impartation of life is ascribed to the Holy Spirit_. This we
find, for example, in John 6:63: +"It is the Spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing."+ We find the same thing again in
Romans 8:11: +"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the
dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."+ In
this passage we have not merely impartation of life to the spirit of
man, but the impartation of life to the body in the resurrection of the
body ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Man's creation and the impartation
of life to man are ascribed to the operation of the Holy Spirit in
the first book in the Bible, where we read in Genesis 2:7: +"And
Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."+ Here we
are told that man was created and became a living soul through God's
breathing into him the breath of life. This clearly implies that it was
through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is
the breath of God going out in a personal way.
(3) _The third divine work ascribed to the Holy Spirit is the
authorship of divine prophecies._ We find this, for example, in II
Peter 1:21: +"For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but
men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit."+ Here we are
distinctly told that it was through the operation of the Holy Spirit
that men were made the mouthpiece of God and uttered God's truth. We
find this same thought also in the Old Testament in II Samuel 23:2,
3: +"The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His word was upon my
tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me."+
In this passage, also, the authorship of God's prophecies is ascribed
to the Holy Spirit. Taking these passages together, we see that three
distinctively divine works are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
3. The third line of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit is found in
the fact that _passages which refer to Jehovah in the Old Testament
are taken to refer to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament_. There are
numerous instances of this, not as numerous as in the case of Jesus
Christ, the Son, and yet enough to make it perfectly clear that the
Holy Spirit occupies the same place in New Testament thought which
Jehovah occupies in Old Testament thought.
(1) A striking illustration of this is found in Isaiah 6:8-10; cf.
Acts 28:25-27. In Isaiah 6:8-10, we read: +"And I heard the voice of
the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I
said, here am I; send me. And he said, go, and tell this people, hear
ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut
their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed."+
Here we are distinctly told it is the "Lord," and the context shows
that the Lord is the Lord Jehovah who is speaking, but when we turn
to Acts 28:25-27, we read these words: +"And when they agreed not
among themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word,
well spake the Holy Spirit through Isaiah the prophet unto your
fathers"+ (notice that in the passage in Isaiah we are told it is
the Lord Jehovah who spoke, and here we are told by Paul that it is the
Holy Spirit who spake through the prophet), +"saying, go thou unto
this people, and say, by hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise
understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: for
this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed; lest haply they should perceive with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and should turn again, and I should heal them."+ In the one place,
the place in the Old Testament, we are told that the Lord Jehovah is
the speaker; in the other place, in the New Testament, we are told
that the Holy Spirit is the speaker; that is to say, the Holy Spirit
occupies the place in New Testament thought that the Lord Jehovah
occupies in Old Testament thought. It is noticeable that this same
passage in another place is applied to Jesus Christ (John 12:39-41).
May it not be that in the _threefold_ "Holy" in the seraphic cry
recorded in this chapter in Isaiah (Isaiah 6:3) we have a hint of the
tri-personality of Jehovah of Hosts, and hence the propriety of the
threefold application of the vision?
(2) Another illustration of a statement, which in the Old Testament is
given as referring to Jehovah, being applied to the Holy Spirit in the
New Testament, is found by a comparison of Exodus 16:7 with Hebrews
3:7-9. In Exodus 16:7 we read: +"And in the morning, then shall ye
see the glory of Jehovah; for that he heareth your murmurings against
Jehovah: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?"+ Here we are
told that the murmuring and provocation of the children of Israel in
the wilderness were against Jehovah, but in Hebrews 3:7-9, we read:
+"Wherefore, even as the Holy Spirit saith, to-day if ye shall hear
his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in
the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by
proving me, and saw my works forty years."+ In this New Testament
passage we are told that it was the Holy Spirit that they provoked in
the wilderness, making it clear that the Holy Spirit occupies here in
New Testament thought the position Jehovah occupied in Old Testament
thought in Exodus 16:7.
To sum up the passages under this head, we see that statements which in
the Old Testament distinctly name the Lord, God or Jehovah, as their
subject, are applied to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. That is
to say, the Holy Spirit occupies the position of Deity in New Testament
thought.
4. The fourth way in which the Deity of the Holy Spirit is clearly
taught in the New Testament is that the _name of the Holy Spirit
is coupled with that of God the Father in a way that it would be
impossible for a reverent and thoughtful mind to couple the name of any
finite being with that of Deity_. There are numerous illustrations of
this. Three will answer for our present purpose.
(1) We read, for example, in I Corinthians 12:4-6: +"Now there are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities
of ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of
workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all."+ In this
passage we see the name of the Holy Spirit coupled with that of God and
of the Lord in a way in which it would be impossible for an intelligent
worshipper of God to couple the name of any finite being with that of
the Deity.
(2) We see the same thing again in Matthew 28:19: +"Go ye therefore,
and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them into the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."+ If the Holy
Spirit is not God, it would be shocking to couple His name in this way
with that of God, the Father, and of the Lord Jesus, His Son.
(3) Another striking illustration of this is found in II Corinthians
13:14: +"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all."+ Here the
name of the Holy Spirit is coupled on a ground of equality with that
of the Father and of the Son. In all these passages, the name of the
Holy Spirit is coupled with that of God in a way in which it would be
impossible for a reverent, thoughtful mind to couple the name of any
finite being with that of Deity.
5. _The fifth_ and last, and, if possible, more decisive way _in which
the Deity of the Holy Spirit is taught in the Bible is that the Holy
Spirit in so many words is called God_. This we find in Acts 5:3, 4:
+"But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to
the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While
it remained, did it not remain thine own? And after it was sold, was
it not in thy power? How is it that thou hast conceived this thing in
thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."+ In the third
verse we are distinctly told that it was to the Holy Spirit to Whom
Ananias lied, and in the fourth verse we are told that it was to God
that Ananias lied. Putting the two statements together, it is evident
that the Holy Spirit is God.
To sum up all that we have said under the head of the Deity of the
Holy Spirit, we see that _by the ascription of all the distinctively
divine attributes, and several distinctively divine works, by referring
statements which in the Old Testament distinctly named Jehovah, the
Lord or God, as their subject, to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament,
by coupling the name of the Holy Spirit with that of God in a way in
which it would be impossible to couple the name of any finite being
with that of Deity, by calling the Holy Spirit "God," in all these
unmistakable ways God in His Word distinctly proclaims that the Holy
Spirit is a Divine Person_. It is absolutely impossible for any one to
go to the Bible to find out what it actually teaches, and not merely
to twist and distort it to fit into his own preconceived notions, and
come to any other conclusion but that the Holy Spirit is a Divine
Person, that He is God.