Reflecting on Truth #36
Q: What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?
A: That he is God, coeternal with the Father and the Son, and that God grants him irrevocably to all who believe.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)
Why does this matter?
Understanding the Holy Spirit is crucial for us because we are living in a Christian world where many of the more “traditional” groups avoid talking about the Holy Spirit and many of the more “adventurous” groups talk primarily about the Holy Spirit based on their experiences and feelings. Consequently, the latter group often talks about the Holy Spirit as a “force”. It is then important that we are willing to search what our only sufficient rule, the Scripture, teaches about the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God. Rather than being a “force”, the Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person of Triune God (John 14:26 uses a masculine demonstrative pronoun ekeinos when referring to the Holy Spirit). Coeternal means that He, being God, has no beginning and is not created. Again, being God, He is ontologically coequal with the Father and the Son, which means that He is not subordinate to either the Father or the Son.
The greatest gift that sinners like us can receive is the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself, who transformed and is transforming us into Christlikeness. The Holy Spirit is our seal until the great day of Christ’s return (Eph 1:13-14). And Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit will be with Christians forever (Jn 14:16). As such, we know that this gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells with us and is in us, by God’s infinite wisdom, will irrevocably stay with us.
What does this mean for us?
Because the Holy Spirit is God, and not a “force”, He is the object of our worship, not a means to achieve something else. We worship Him by relying on Him in our everyday lives. Because the Holy Spirit is a person, and not a “force”, we refer to Him as “He”, not “it”. And because He is a person, He is indeed personal, just from the fact that He indwells every Christian. He does not come and go as how a “force” works. Because He is a person, He can be grieved if we choose to resist Him and pursue wickedness. But because He is a person, He can be relied upon to enable us to lead a godly life.
Because the Holy Spirit is irrevocable, we can have assurance of our salvation. When we stray, He convicts us to repent. When we are weak, He strengthens us. When we are down, He comforts us. And when we are doing God’s work, He enables us to do what is humanly impossible, that is the work of salvation and possibly other miracles. Him convicting us, comforting us, strengthening us, and empowering us to do the impossible is the proof that He has been given to us, is living in us, and is never going to leave us.
Because this same Holy Spirit lives in each church member, we collectively are united as one, as He is growing us into the same likeness. He is a reason for why we must be united as one people.
Let us, as God’s chosen people, increase in our reliance on God the Holy Spirit in our sanctification towards Christlikeness.