Is the Holy Spirit a person?
Christians speak of the Holy Spirit as "He," yet many people picture the Spirit as a force, an atmosphere, or a power radiating from God. The question matters, because how you answer it decides whether you are dealing with something God sends or with God Himself present with you.
Influence or Person?
The first thing the writers do is test the popular idea on its own terms. An influence has to come from somewhere, and one commentator presses that simple point:
A J PollockSome theologians would have us believe that the Holy Spirit is an influence and not a Person. There cannot be an influence apart from a Person... We may talk about the influence of the prevailing winds and such like and come to the conclusion that there can be influence apart from a Person. But on reflection this cannot be so. Agur, the son of Jakeh, knew better when he asked the question, "Who has gathered the wind in His fists?" (Proverbs 30:4). He knew that behind the wind was a Person. To try to make out there can be an influence apart from a Person is the ruin of common sense.
He speaks, chooses and sends
The clearest evidence is what the Spirit is recorded as doing. He is lied to, He gives orders, and He distributes gifts by His own choice:
Samuel Ridout"Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? ... You have not lied to man but to God" (Acts 5:3-4). Men cannot lie to an influence, or deceive what is not a person. A divine being had taken up His abode in the Church, which He formed at Pentecost, and it was to Him that Ananias had lied. So in the same way, when the saints were waiting on God at Antioch... it was the Holy Spirit who said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:1-2). This illustrates the personal oversight and direction of the sovereign Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12:11, "All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills."
He can be wronged
Only a person can be treated badly, and Scripture says the Spirit is treated badly in several ways:
W. W. FeredayCould the following be said of anything but a person? "I will send Him to you." "When He is come" (John 16:7-8). "He will bear witness about me" (John 15:26). "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4:6). He is also represented as striving with man (Genesis 6:3), revealing things to the saints (1 Corinthians 2:10; Luke 2:26), and it was He who sent out Barnabas and Saul from Antioch to evangelise the Gentile world (Acts 13:2). Can any of these things be said of a mere influence? Moreover, He can be resisted (Acts 7:51), vexed (Isaiah 63:10), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), lied to (Acts 5:3), and, solemn to say, blasphemed (Matthew 12:31).
A Person who is God
Being a person is not the whole answer. The writers press further, to rank within the Godhead:
J T MawsonWe often hear Him spoken of as an influence or a power, but this is certainly not the teaching of Scripture. It is true that He exercises an influence, and is the power by which God operates in the souls of men; but He is a Person, and not only a Person but the third Person in the Godhead.
That claim rests on qualities Scripture gives Him which belong to no creature. Having gone through passages on His presence everywhere, His eternity, His knowledge and His creating work, one writer sums it up in a sentence:
Samuel RidoutSo the Spirit is omnipresent, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent. He is God.
"Another Comforter"
Jesus' own promise settles the matter by comparison. He described the coming One as a replacement for Himself:
A J PollockBy the use of the word "another," our Lord indicated He would not stop being our Comforter and Advocate in heaven, but that He would send a Successor to earth, putting the One to be sent on the same level as Himself, even a Divine Person in the unity of the Godhead — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If the One sent were only an influence, an emanation from God, as some falsely teach, our Lord would not have put the One to be sent on a level with Himself.
What it changes
If this is true, it is not a point of theory. It changes how a believer behaves, both alone and with others:
C. H. MackintoshThere is a divine Person on this earth, yes, in our midst, doing all the work that is really done. This is most precious, most comforting, most assuring to the heart... If it is true that God the Spirit is in our midst, saving souls and ministering to the saints, is it not our solemn duty to ask how we are behaving towards this majestic Person? Are we grieving Him by our ways, or quenching Him by our church systems, or our congregational arrangements?
Summary
- Not an it. An influence cannot exist on its own; behind every influence stands someone exercising it.
- He acts. He speaks, calls, sends out workers, and gives gifts to each one as He wills — the language of a will, not of a force.
- He feels. He can be resisted, grieved, lied to and blasphemed; you cannot wrong an atmosphere.
- He is God. Present everywhere, eternal, all-knowing, almighty — the third Person of the Godhead, sent as "another Comforter" on the same level as Christ Himself.
- So live with Him. A divine Person is here, in the believer and among the saints; the practical question is whether our ways grieve Him or leave Him free to work.