The two points to be considered in reference to this subject, are,
first the nature, and second the office or work of the Holy Spirit.
With regard to his nature, is He a person or a mere power? and if a
person, is He created or divine, finite or infinite? The personality of
the Spirit has been the faith of the Church from the beginning. It had
few opponents even in the chaotic period of theology; and in modern
times has been denied by none but Socinians, Arians, and Sabellians.
Before considering the direct proof of the Church doctrine that the
Holy Spirit is a person, it may be well to remark, that the terms "The
Spirit," "The Spirit of God," "The Holy Spirit," and when God speaks,
"My Spirit," or, when God is spoken of "His Spirit," occur in all parts
of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation; These and equivalent terms are
evidently to be understood in the same sense throughout the Scriptures.
If the Spirit of God which moved on the face of the waters, which
strove with the antediluvians, which came upon Moses, which gave skill
to artisans, and which inspired the prophets, is the power of God; then
the Spirit which came upon the Apostles, which Christ promised to send
as a comforter and advocate, and to which the instruction,
sanctification, and guidance of the people of God are referred, must
also be the power of God. But if the Spirit is clearly revealed to be a
person in the later parts of Scripture, it is plain that the earlier
portions must be understood in the same way. One part of the Bible, and
much less one or a few passages must not be taken by themselves, and
receive any interpretation which the isolated words may bear, but
Scripture must interpret Scripture. Another obvious remark on this
subject is, that the Spirit of God is equally prominent in all parts of
the word of God. His intervention does not occur on rare occasions, as
the appearance of angels, or the Theophanies, of which mention is made
here and there in the sacred volume; but He is represented as
everywhere present and everywhere operative. We might as well strike
from the Bible the name and doctrine of God, as the name and office of
the Spirit.
In the New Testament alone He is mentioned not far from three hundred
times. It is not only, however, merely the frequency with which the
Spirit is mentioned, and the prominence given to his person and work,
but the multiplied and interesting relations in which He is represented
as standing to the people of God, the importance and number of his
gifts, and the absolute dependence of the believer and of the Church
upon Him for spiritual and eternal life, which render the doctrine of
the Holy Ghost absolutely fundamental to the gospel. The work of the
Spirit in applying the redemption of Christ is represented to be as
essential as that redemption itself. It is therefore indispensable that
we should know what the Bible teaches concerning the Holy Ghost, both
as to his nature and office.
I. Proof of his Personality.
The Scriptures clearly teach that He is a person. Personality includes
intelligence, will, and individual subsistence. If, therefore, it can
be proved that all these are attributed to the Spirit, it is thereby
proved that He is a person. It will not be necessary or advisable to
separate the proofs of these several points, and cite passages which
ascribe to Him intelligence; and then others, which attribute to Him
will; and still others to prove his individual subsistence, because all
these are often included in one and the same passage; and arguments
which prove the one, in many cases prove also the others.
1. The first argument for the personality of the Holy
Spirit is derived from the use of the personal pronouns in relation to
Him. A person is that which, when speaking, says I; when addressed, is
called thou; and when spoken of, is called he, or him. It is indeed
admitted that there is such a rhetorical figure as personification;
that inanimate or irrational beings, or sentiments, or attributes, may
be introduced as speaking, or addressed as persons. But this creates no
difficulty. The cases of personification are such as do not, except in
rare instances, admit of any doubt. The fact that men sometimes
apostrophize the heavens, or the elements, gives no pretext for
explaining as personification all the passages in which God or Christ
is introduced as a person. So also with regard to the Holy Spirit. He
is introduced as a person so often, not merely in poetic or excited
discourse, but in simple narrative, and in didactic instructions; and
his personality is sustained by so many collateral proofs, that to
explain the use of the personal pronouns in relation to Him on the
principle of personification, is to do violence to all the rules of
interpretation. Thus in Acts 13:2, "The Holy Ghost said, Separate me
Barnabas and Saul, for the work where- unto I have called them." Our
Lord says (John 15:26), "When the Comforter is come whom I will send
unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth
from the Father, He shall testify of me." The use of the masculine
pronoun H instead of it, shows that the Spirit is a person. In the
following chapter (John 16:13, 14) It is there said, "When He the
Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He
shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He
speak, and He will show you things to come. Be shall glorify me for He
shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Here there is no
possibility of accounting for the use of the personal pronoun He on any
other ground than the personality of the Spirit.
2. We stand in relations to the Holy Spirit which we can
sustain only to a person. He is the object of our faith. We believe on
the Holy Ghost. This faith we profess in baptism. We are baptized not
only in the name of the Father and of the Son, but also of the Holy
Ghost. The very association of the Spirit in such a connection, with
the Father and the Son, as they are admitted to be distinct persons,
proves that the Spirit also is a person. Besides the use of the words
eis to onoma, unto the name, admits of no other explanation. By baptism
we profess to acknowledge the Spirit as we acknowledge the Father and
the Son, and we bind ourselves to the one as well as to the others. If
when the Apostle tells the Corinthians that they were not baptized "in
the name of Paul," and when he says that the Hebrews were baptized unto
Moses, he means that the Corinthians were not, and that the Hebrews
were made the disciples, the one of Paul and the others of Moses; then
when we are baptized unto the name of the Spirit, the meaning is that
in baptism we profess to be his disciples; we bind ourselves to receive
his instructions, and to submit to his control. We stand in the same
relation to Him as to the Father and to the Son; we acknowledge Him to
be a person as distinctly as we acknowledge the personality of the Son,
or of the Father. Christians not only profess to believe on the Holy
Ghost, but they are also the recipients of his gifts. He is to them an
object of prayer. In the apostolic benediction, the grace of Christ,
the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, are
solemnly invoked. We pray to the Spirit for the communication of
Himself to us, that He may, according to the promise of our Lord, dwell
in us, as we pray to Christ that we may be the objects of his unmerited
love. Accordingly we are exhorted not "to sin against," "not to
resist," not "to grieve" the Holy Spirit. He is represented, therefore,
as a person who can be the object of our acts; whom we may please or
offend; with whom we may have communion, I. e., personal intercourse;
who can love and be loved; who can say " thou" to us; and whom we can
invoke in every time of" need.
3. The Spirit also sustains relations to us, and performs
offices which none but a person can sustain or perform. He is our
teacher, sanctifier, comforter, and guide. He governs every believer
who is led by the Spirit, and the whole Church. He calls, as He called
Barnabas and Saul, to the work of the ministry, or to some special
field of labor. Pastors or bishops are made overseers by the Holy Ghost.
4. In the exercise of these and other functions, personal
acts are constantly attributed to the Spirit in the Bible; that is,
such acts as imply intelligence, will, and activity or power. The
Spirit searches, selects, reveals, and reproves. We often read that
"The Spirit said." (Acts 13:2; 21:11; 1 Tim. 4:1, etc., etc.) This is
so constantly done, that the Spirit appears as a personal agent from
one end of the Scriptures to the other, so that his personality is
beyond dispute. The only possible question is whether He is a distinct
person from the Father. But of this there can be no reasonable doubt,
as He is said to be the Spirit of God and the Spirit which is of God;
as He is distinguished from the Father in the forms of baptism and
benediction; as He proceeds from the Father; and as He is promised,
sent, and given by the Father. So that to confound the Holy Spirit with
God would be to render the Scriptures unintelligible.
5. All the elements of personality, namely, intelligence,
will, and individual subsistence, are not only involved in all that is
thus revealed concerning the relation in which the Spirit stands to us
and that which we sustain to Him, but they are all distinctly
attributed to Him. The Spirit is said to know, to will, and to act. He
searches, or knows all things, even the deep things of God. No man
knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2:10, 12.) He
distributes "to every man severally as he will." (1 Cor. 12:11.) His
individual subsistence is involved in his being an agent, and in his
being the object on which the activity of others terminates. If He can
be loved, reverenced, and obeyed, or offended and sinned against, He
must be a person.
6. The personal manifestations of the Spirit, when He
descended on Christ after his baptism, and upon the Apostles at the day
of Pentecost, of necessity involve His personal subsistence. It was not
any attribute of God, nor his mere efficiency, but God himself, that
was manifested in the burning bush, in the fire and clouds on Mount
Sinai, in the pillar which guided the Israelites through the
wilderness, and in the glory which dwelt in the Tabernacle and in the
Temple.
7. The people of God have always regarded the Holy Spirit
as a person. They have looked to Him for instruction, sanctification,
direction, and comfort. This is part of their religion. Christianity
(subjectively considered) would not be what it is without this sense of
dependence on the Spirit, and this love and reverence for his person.
All the liturgies, prayers, and praises of the Church, are filled with
appeals and addresses to the Holy Ghost. This is a fact which admits of
no rational solution if the Scriptures do not really teach that the
Spirit is a distinct person. The rule: Quod semper, quod ubique, quod
ab omnibus, is held by Protestants as well as by Romanists. It is not
to the authority of general consent as an evidence of truth, that
Protestants object, but to the applications made of it by the Papal
Church, and to the principle on which that authority is made to rest.
All Protestants admit that true believers in every age and country have
one faith, as well as one God and one Lord.
Divinity of the Holy Spirit.
On this subject there has been little dispute in the Church. The Spirit
is so prominently presented in the Bible as possessing divine
attributes, and exercising divine prerogatives, that since the fourth
century his true divinity has never been denied by those who admit his
personality.
1. In the Old Testament, all that is said of Jehovah is
said of the Spirit of Jehovah; and therefore, if the latter is not a
mere periphrase for the former, he must of necessity be divine. The
expressions, Jehovah said, and, the Spirit said, are constantly
interchanged; and the acts of the Spirit are said to be acts of God.
2. In the New Testament, the language of Jehovah is quoted
as the language of the Spirit. In Is. 6:9, it is written, Jehovah said,
"Go and tell this people," etc. This passage is thus quoted by Paul,
Acts 28:25, "Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet," etc. In
Jeremiah 31:31, 33, 34, it is said, "Behold the days come, saith
Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel;"
which is quoted by the Apostle in Heb. 10:15, saying, " Whereof the
Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before,
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts," etc. Thus constantly
the language of God is quoted as the language of the Holy Ghost. The
prophets were the messengers of God; they uttered his words, delivered
his commands, pronounced his threatenings, and announced his promises,
because they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were the
organs of God, because they were the organs of the Spirit. The Spirit,
therefore, must be God.
3. In the New Testament the same mode of representation is
continued. Believers are the temple of God, because the Spirit dwells
in them. Eph. 2:22: Ye are "a habitation of God through the Spirit." 1
Cor. 6:19: "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God?" In Rom. 8:9, 10, the indwelling
of Christ is said to be the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, and
that is said to be the indwelling of the Spirit of God. In Acts 5:1--4,
Ananias is said to have lied unto God because he lied against the Holy
Ghost.
4. Our Lord and his Apostles constantly speak of the Holy
Spirit as possessing all divine perfections. Christ says, "All manner
of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." (Matt. 12:31.)
The unpardonable sin, then, is speaking against the Holy Ghost. This
could not be unless the Holy Ghost were God. The Apostle, in 1 Cor.
2:10, 11, says that the Spirit knows all things, even the deep things
(the most secret purposes) of God. His knowledge is commensurate with
the knowledge of God. He knows the things of God as the spirit of a man
knows the things of a man. The consciousness of God is the
consciousness of' the Spirit. The Psalmist teaches us that the Spirit
is omnipresent and everywhere efficient. "Whither," he asks, "shall I
go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" (Ps.
139:7.) The presence of the Spirit is the presence of God. The same
idea is expressed by the prophet when he says, "Can any hide himself in
secret places that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill
heaven and earth? saith Jehovah." (Jer. 23:24.)
5. The works of the Spirit are the works of God. He
fashioned the world. (Gen. 1:2.) He regenerates the soul: to be born of
the Spirit is to be born of God. He is the source of all knowledge; the
giver of inspiration; the teacher, the guide, the sanctifier, and the
comforter of the Church in all ages. He fashions our bodies; He formed
the body of Christ, as a fit habitation for the fulness of the Godhead;
and He is to quicken our mortal bodies. (Rom. 8:11.)
6. He is therefore presented in the Scriptures as the
proper object of worship, not only in the formula of baptism and in the
apostolic benediction, which bring the doctrine of the Trinity into
constant remembrance as the fundamental truth of our religion, but
also-- in the constant requirement that we look to Him and depend upon
Him for all spiritual good, and reverence and obey Him as our divine
teacher and sanctifier.
Relation of the Spirit to the Father and to the Son.
The relation of the Spirit to the other persons of the Trinity has been
stated before.
1. He is the same in substance and equal in power and
glory.
2. He is subordinate to the Father and Son, as to his mode
of subsistence and operation, as He is said to be of the Father and of
the Son; He is sent by them, and they operate through Him.
3. He bears the same relation to the Father as to the Son;
as He is said to be of the one as well as of the other, and He is given
by the Son as well as by the Father.
4. His eternal relation to the other persons of the
Trinity is indicated by the word Spirit, and by its being said that he
is out of God, I. e., God is the source whence the Spirit is said to
proceed.
II. The Office of the Holy Spirit.
In Nature.
The general doctrine of the Scriptures on this subject is that the
Spirit is the executive of the Godhead. Whatever God does, He does by
the Spirit. He is the immediate source of all life. Even in the
external world the Spirit is everywhere present and everywhere active.
Matter is not intelligent. It has its peculiar properties, which act
blindly according to established laws. The intelligence, therefore,
manifested in vegetable and animal structures, is not to be referred to
matter, but to the omnipresent Spirit of God. It was He who brooded
over the waters and reduced chaos into order. It was He who garnished
the heavens. It is He that causes the grass to grow. The Psalmist says
of all living creatures, " Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled:
thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou
sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face
of the earth." (Ps. 104:29, 30.) Compare Is. 32:14, 15. Job, speaking
of his corporeal frame, says, "The Spirit of God hath made me." (Job
33:4.) And the Psalmist, after describing the omnipresence of the
Spirit, refers to his agency the wonderful mechanism of the human body.
"I am fearfully and wonderfully made.... my substance was not hid from
thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowliest
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being
unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in
continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." (Ps.
139:14-16.)
The Spirit the Source of all
Intellectual Life.
The Spirit is also represented as the source of all intellectual life.
When man was created it is said God "breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. 2:7.) Job 32:8,
says, The inspiration of the Almighty giveth men understanding, i. e.,
a rational nature, for it is explained by saying, He "teacheth us more
than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of
heaven." (Job 35:11.) The Scriptures ascribe in like manner to Him all
special or extraordinary gifts. Thus it is said of Bezaleel, " I have
called " him, " and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in
wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of
workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver,
and in brass." (Ex. 31:2, 3, 4.) By his Spirit God gave Moses the
wisdom requisite for his high duties, and when he was commanded to
devolve part of his burden upon the seventy elders, it was said, "I
will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them."
(Num. 11: 17.) Joshua was appointed to succeed Moses, because in him
was the Spirit. (Num. 27:18.) In like manner the Judges, who from time
to time were raised up, as emergency demanded, were qualified by the
Spirit for their peculiar work, whether as rulers or as warriors. Of
Othniel it is said, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he
judged Israel and went out to war." (Judges 3: 10.) So the Spirit of
the Lord is said to have come upon Gideon and on Jephthah and on
Samson. When Saul offended God, the Spirit of the Lord is said to have
departed from him. (1 Sam. 16: 14.) When Samuel anointed David, "The
Spirit of the Lord came upon' him "from that day forward." (1 Sam.
16:13.)
In like manner under the new dispensation the Spirit is represented as
not only the author of miraculous gifts, but also as the giver of the
qualifications to teach and rule in the Church. All these operations
are independent of the sanctifying influences of the Spirit. When the.
Spirit came on Samson or upon Saul, it was not to render them holy, but
to endue them with extraordinary physical and intellectual power; and
when He is said to have departed from them, it means that those
extraordinary endowments were withdrawn.
The Spirit's Office in the Work of
Redemption.
With regard to the office of the Spirit in the work of redemption, the
Scriptures teach,
1. That He fashioned the body, and endued the human soul
of Christ with every qualification for his work. To the Virgin Mary it
was said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which
shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35.)
The prophet Isaiah predicted that the Messiah should be replenished
with all spiritual gifts. "Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect
in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." (Is. 42:1.) " There shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots: and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit
of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD." (Is. 11:1, 2.) When
our Lord appeared on earth, it is said that the Spirit without measure
was given unto Him. (John 3:34.) "And John bare record, saying, I saw
the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him."
(John 1:32.) He was, therefore, said to have been full of the Holy
Ghost.
2. That the Spirit is the revealer of all divine truth.
The doctrines of the Bible are called the things of the Spirit. With
regard to the writers of the Old Testament, it is said they spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The language of Micah is applicable
to all the prophets, "Truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the
LORD and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his
transgression and to Israel his sin." (Micah 3:8.) What David said, the
Holy Ghost is declared to have said. The New Testament writers were in
like manner the organs of the Spirit. The doctrines which Paul preached
he did not receive from men, " but God," he says, "hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit." (1 Cor. 2:10.) The Spirit also guided the
utterance of those truths; for he adds, "Which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth; communicating the things of the Spirit in the words of the
Spirit" , The whole Bible, therefore, is to be referred to the Spirit
as its author.
3. The Spirit not only thus reveals divine truth, having
guided infallibly holy men of old in recording it, but He everywhere
attends it by his power. All truth is enforced on the heart and
conscience with more or less power by the Holy Spirit, wherever that
truth is known. To this all-pervading influence we are indebted for all
there is of morality and order in the world. But besides this general
influence, which is usually called common grace, the Spirit specially
illuminates the minds of the children of God, that they may know the
things freely given (or revealed to them) by God. The natural man does
not receive them, neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned. All believers are therefore called spiritual,
because thus enlightened and guided by the Spirit.
4. It is the special office of the Spirit to convince the
world of sin; to reveal Christ, to regenerate the soul, to lead men to
the exercise of faith and repentance; to dwell in those whom He thus
renews, as a principle of a new and divine life. By this indwelling of
the Spirit, believers are united to Christ, and to one another, so that
they form one body. This is the foundation of the communion of saints,
making them one in faith, one in love, one in their inward life, and
one in their hopes and final destiny.
5. The Spirit also calls men to office in the Church, and
endows them with the qualifications necessary for the successful
discharge of its duties. The office of the Church, in this matter, is
simply to ascertain and authenticate the call of the Spirit. Thus the
Holy Ghost is the immediate author of all truth, of all holiness, of
all consolation, of all authority, and of all efficiency in the
children of God individually, and in the Church collectively.