Part 1⤒🔗

In the coming days we hope to remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We confess him as the “third person of the holy Trinity.” But how do we experience that? Do we truly know the Holy Spirit as a person? Or is that impossible? Much is written about the Spirit and we may get the impression that the Spirit is more of a “something” than a “somebody.” In addition, doesn’t the word “third” come across to you as an ordinal number, like “third-rate”?

Do you love the Spirit? Unknown makes unloved…

In a few articles we want to reflect on such questions and together take a look at the answer to the question: “Who is he, the Holy Spirit?” Does this question interest you? Is it important to you to know who he is? Well then, when we meet someone unfamiliar in an environment foreign to us, and this person draws our attention in one way or another, we will ask of someone who is known there, “Who is he?” The best answer that could be given would come from the mouth of the stranger himself. It is wise when someone advises, “Ask him yourself!” Otherwise we run the risk of offending someone, because he or she would say, “The way you talk about me, that’s not like me at all.” Wouldn’t this apply much more when we reflect on God the Holy Spirit?

Is it possible to ask him directly, “Who are you?” Sometimes the text is referenced, “For he will not speak on his own authority” (John 16:13). And does this not give the sense that we cannot get to know the Holy Spirit the way we get to know the Father and the Son? Doesn’t it seem that the Spirit is hiding behind the Father and the Son? It will be clear that we cannot read the text in such a way. In God’s Word we find much that the Holy Spirit himself has written (!) about himself. God’s Word is the revelation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Something?←↰⤒🔗

The first thing we want to explore together is whether the Bible does in fact speak about the Spirit as a Person. In our time this is rather essential, because many people (perhaps unconsciously) have an image of the Holy Spirit as more of an influence or a power that comes from God, rather than that he is God himself. At first sight it may even appear that the Bible gives rise to such reasoning. I am especially thinking of the images that are used for the Holy Spirit. Our minds envision images such as fire and wind. Especially on that day of Pentecost the images used in that context speak to our imagination. The sound as of a heavy windstorm, the tongues of fire – both were the accompanying images of the outpouring of the Spirit. But also in many different places in God’s Word, we meet the imagery of wind for the Holy Spirit. Think of the impressive vision from Ezekiel 37, and the instruction that Nicodemus gets about the need to be born again in John 3. Or think of the fire that Isaiah speaks of to indicate the work of “a Spirit of burning,” who would work in a cleansing manner. Beside this we have the image of water in Isaiah 44 and John 7, and so we can continue.

When we forget that these images are not used to identify the Holy Spirit himself, but used only to make clear to us what kind of work he performs, our thoughts will identify the Spirit more as an “it” rather than a “he.”

For that matter, do you personally recognize the work of the Spirit as shown in these images of fire, wind, and water?

Someone!←↰⤒🔗

It is of extreme importance to take our starting point from the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. The living God consists not of but in three persons. Additionally, the Scriptures point in several different ways to the Holy Spirit as a person. Many nouns and verbs are used that fit only with a “someone” and not with an impersonal “something.” Let me show a few examples that demand our attention. At the same time this is also your “homework” for the coming days: meditate on the nouns and verbs that apply to who the Holy Spirit is as a person.

In John 14 the Spirit is repeatedly called the Comforter, the Paraclete. “Someone whom you call to help,” an Advocate. Jesus himself calls him the other Comforter. He himself is the Comforter and after his ascension he sends a “Successor,” the other Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Further it appears from the Bible that he is a “Searcher” (1 Cor. 2:10), the “Bride-Recruiter” (John 16:14; Rev. 22:17), the “Teacher,” “Helper,” and “Guide” (Ezek. 36:26-27; John 14:26; 16:13), the “One who intercedes” (Rom. 8:27). We see all sorts of nouns, derived from verbs, that are used for the Holy Spirit and point to a “someone,” a person.

I can also point out the fact that he is a person because you can grieve him, oppose him, or slander him.

He Is God!←↰⤒🔗

“The Lord and Giver of life.” That’s what we confess with the Nicene Creed. And that is the answer of faith to what the Bible teaches us concerning the Holy Spirit. In his own person he is God!

It is therefore very vulgar to write, “Hello Holy Spirit, are you still there?” (Youth magazine Kivive). However, we too can minimize the Holy Spirit when we don’t put into practice the part: “Who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified” (Nicene Creed).

Therefore, in conclusion, a question: what place does the person of the Holy Spirit occupy in you, in your life? That is not only a question when we are unfamiliar with the work of the Holy Spirit in us, but especially also for those who have come to know his work in their lives.

Part 2←⤒🔗

The previous article outlined how Holy Scripture reveals to us the Holy Spirit as a divine person. “For I am convinced that when we pay more attention to the holy divinity and the wonderful Trinity, we will observe more the power of God … May God grant us a ministry that exalts Christ and loves the Spirit; may he grant people who will proclaim the Holy Spirit in all his offices, who will glorify God the Saviour as the Author and Perfector of our faith. May God grant us people who will not ignore the great God and Father of his people. This God who was ere the world existed and who chose us in Christ…” (C.H. Spurgeon).

Our Heidelberg Catechism confesses in one of its goldmines (Lord’s Day 20) concerning the Holy Spirit, “He is, together with the Father and the Son, true and eternal God.” In theology, the reflection on who the Spirit is, we read of him “proceeding” (processia) from the Father and the Son. This “proceeding” typifies the person of the Spirit, just as of the Son it is said that he was “begotten.” Of course it is not as if with the word “proceeding” we are able to fathom this mystery. However, this formulation does justice to the biblical terminology about the Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Christ. I will deal with this later, after we first check into whether the Bible in fact directs us to speak of the Spirit as truly God, as God in person.

He Is God!←↰⤒🔗

I will only provide two illustrations that irrefutably show that the Bible itself is in fact speaking about the Spirit as truly God. In the first place I remind you of Acts 5. In verse 3 we read about Peter saying to Ananias, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” Then we read in verse 4, “You have not lied to man but to God”! Against whom did Ananias sin? Against the Holy Spirit (v. 3), but with equal right we can say against God (v. 4).

Another passage from God’s Word where it becomes clear that the Holy Spirit is true and eternal God together with the Father and the Son is found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” Perhaps you were thinking also of the one Name into which we were baptized: the one Name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or of the blessing that is pronounced over the congregation every Sunday (2 Cor. 13:13).

Is this all just a matter of abstract and theoretical knowledge? Does this have any bearing on our faith life, on the practical life of every day? The answer to these last questions has everything to do with the question of whether you need God the Holy Spirit in your life.

And Therefore He Is…←↰⤒🔗

Because he is God, he also has divine attributes (or if you prefer, “perfections”). Allow me to mention some, to illustrate that the realization that the Spirit is God is of inestimable value.

He is almighty. How do we know? You can think of the work of creation, but no less of the work of recreation. “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Is that not gospel for someone who realizes that he has such a hard heart? It can never be so hard for God the Holy Spirit not to have the power to penetrate it!

He is omnipresent. That is the reason why he can live in so many places, in the hearts of God’s children, and why he can work in his church wherever it may be in the world. You can never be in a place where he cannot come, especially when you are self-conscious about his presence and the consequences in your life.

He is all-knowing. Reflect on the depth of those words of 1 Cor. 2:10, 11: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God … So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” It means that there is no hiding place in your heart or he knows about it (even if it were still hidden for yourself). For that reason it makes sense to pray, “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins” (Ps. 19:13). But it also makes us aware that the true knowledge of God is possible only through him who knows God fully, because he is God!

He is sovereign. Because he is God he does not allow man to compel him, and neither is he dependent on man. It is ultimate foolishness and an insult to the Spirit when we say that if we do not open our heart, the Spirit cannot do anything. “The wind blows where it wishes” (John 3:8).

He is gracious. After all, he is God! Is he not exceedingly gracious when he wants to dwell in a heart that is a well of offences, a murderer’s lair, and a filthy cellar? And that while he is the Holy Spirit!

When it comes to these attributes of the Spirit, check out also the Athanasian Creed; it will be well worth it.

When we touch upon just a few things, do you see how worthwhile it is that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person? No one less than God alone can save you! Have you discovered this for your life, or can you still take care of yourself? In that case it will mean little to you whether the Spirit is God. Then we resist him, even while we may think we may have an open heart for him. But that will just be a phantom of our own imagination, and not something of the Spirit. It is this Spirit, however, who has promised us that he wants to work in us. Did we learn to plead on his promise?

Part 3←⤒🔗

The phenomenon of “tele-working” (or telecommuting) is increasing: it means working where you live. That’s a convenient way to put a stop to the tedious travel between your home and workplace. You work “at a distance”! That’s something the Holy Spirit will not do. He has come to live where he is at work! He came to dwell in us. God’s church is the temple of the Spirit of God. The question here is whether he also lives in us, very personally, as the Spirit of Christ. “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9). We have used two expressions that inform us about “who is he?”. He is the “Spirit of God” and he is the “Spirit of Christ.” Is this just some theory, or does it have significance for our faith experience?

I had promised to come back to these two expressions. There is a fair bit of history behind these. In the year 1054 AD the church split into the “Eastern church” and the “Western church,” the so-called Schism. In addition to church-political issues, one of the main reasons for the schism was the difference of opinion regarding the Holy Spirit’s relation to the Father and the Son. The Eastern churches denied that last part, “and the Son.” On the basis of Scripture, the Western churches wanted to maintain the “filioque”: the Spirit as the divine person who proceeded from the Father and the Son. Is this a difference of opinion between theologians and only useful for them? A word struggle? Absolutely not. It has everything to do with our practical life of faith! At stake is the appropriation (i.e., making it your own) of the salvation gained through Christ. Someone might object, “This doctrine is far removed for my experience; I don’t feel it makes any difference, and so it’s of no concern to me.” In that case you need to ask yourself whether our experiences of faith or Scripture is normative to you! For, “I don’t feel moved by it” and similar expressions could well be warning signals for you that your experience, your perception, is not right and your feelings are “floating” instead of being firmly anchored in God’s Word.

The Way to the Father←↰⤒🔗

In many places in the New Testament it becomes apparent that there is a close relationship between God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I’ll mention one place: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father…” (John 15:26). If the Spirit did not proceed from the Son, would he ever be able to send the Spirit? Moreover, in Scripture we meet both expressions: the “Spirit of the Father” (Matt. 10:20) and the “Spirit of the Son” (Gal. 4:6). Many such illustrations could be given to show that Scripture expressly speaks of the Spirit from the Father and the Son.

If the latter is denied, the danger looms of two possible ways to the Father. One via the Spirit of the Father (a mystical way), and one via the Son of the Father (the way of faith). In this line of thought the Spirit gets an independent place beside the Son, with the consequence that the salvation of Christ and the work of the Spirit are separated, taken apart.

The emphasis on the phrase “and of the Son” aims to do justice to God’s revelation of salvation, where the disposition of salvation (through the Father), the acquisition of salvation (through Christ), and the application of salvation (through the Spirit) form a unity. There is a wonderful, praiseworthy unity in the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It shows, for instance, in the names of the church as “the people of God,” “the body of Christ,” and “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Another image of God’s church is the analogy of God as the Architect, the Contractor, and the Builder of his work. And who of us can fathom the depths of this mystery of redemption: “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:18)?

Do We Love Him?←↰⤒🔗

When we are dealing with the person of the Holy Spirit, the most important aspect is that we learn to adore him with the Father and the Son, that we love him with all our heart. That is diametrically opposed to the blaspheming of the Spirit (“the unforgiveable sin”’), where God’s work is deliberately marked as the work of the devil. It has always been stated correctly that for anyone who is concerned that he may have committed this sin, he would not need to worry about having done so, because to commit this sin means you have gone too far and you can’t even feel any remorse any longer. In the meantime, it is a sin that can only be committed by someone who at some time has been familiar with the gospel! Every step we make in the way of unbelief, of hardening ourselves against the gospel, is a step closer to this sin. Repentance may never be postponed!

In the lives of God’s children it must show that they love the Spirit as a person. We don’t want to grieve someone we love. It hurts us and it saddens us when we notice that we have upset a loved one. So likewise, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph. 4:30)! When our love is genuine, we will also be on guard with respect to the sins Paul mentions in that regard (Eph. 4:25-32). Through falsehood, slander, idleness, embitterment, anger, permissiveness and other such sins we grieve him. In such cases his sensitive nearness will be sorely missed. You do notice the difference, don’t you, when the Spirit is present with his expressions of his love for you, and when not!? Oh, what a great marvel it is that he is the eternal ever-present Spirit of God! Then sin becomes indeed sin to you, something to abhor. Through the indwelling of the Spirit in us, Christ will get more and more prominence in our hearts, and the desire for the Father will become stronger and stronger. Do you recognize this? Do you experience this?

These articles were translated by Wim Kanis.