HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST.
We have seen thus far that the Holy Spirit is a Person and a Divine
Person. And now another question arises, Is He as a Person separate and
distinct from the Father and from the Son? One who carefully studies the
New Testament statements cannot but discover that beyond a question He is.
We read in Luke iii. 21, 22, “Now when all the people were baptized, it
came to pass that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was
opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon
Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in
Thee I am well pleased.” Here the clearest possible distinction is drawn
between Jesus Christ, who was on earth, and the Father who spoke to Him
from heaven as one person speaks to another person, and the Holy Spirit
who descended in a bodily form as a dove from the Father, who was
speaking, to the Son, to whom He was speaking, and rested upon the Son as
a Person separate and distinct from Himself. We see a clear distinction
drawn between the name of the Father and that of the Son and that of the
Holy Spirit in Matt, xxviii. 19, where we read, “Go ye therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, _and_ of the
Son, _and_ of the Holy Ghost.” The distinction of the Holy Spirit from the
Father and the Son comes out again with exceeding clearness in John xiv.
16. Here we read, “And _I_ will pray _the Father_, and He shall give you
_another Comforter_, that He may abide with you forever.” Here we see the
one Person, the Son, praying to another Person, the Father, and the Father
to whom He prays giving another Person, another Comforter, in answer to
the prayer of the second Person, the Son. If words mean anything, and
certainly in the Bible they mean what they say, there can be no mistaking
it, that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are three distinct and
separate Persons.
Again in John xvi. 7, a clear distinction is drawn between Jesus who goes
away to the Father and the Holy Spirit who comes from the Father to take
His place. Jesus says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient
for you that I go away: for if I go not away, _the Comforter_ will not
come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” A similar
distinction is drawn in Acts ii. 33, where we read, “Therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and
hear.” In this passage, the clearest possible distinction is drawn between
the Son exalted to the right hand of the Father and the Father to whose
right hand He is exalted, and the Holy Spirit whom the Son receives from
the Father and sheds forth upon the Church.
To sum it all up, again and again the Bible draws the clearest possible
distinction between the three Persons, the Holy Spirit, the Father and the
Son. They are three separate personalities, having mutual relations to one
another, acting upon one another, speaking of or to one another, applying
the pronouns of the second and third persons to one another.