Is the Holy Spirit God?
The question is not a puzzle Scripture leaves open: the same passages that show the Spirit acting, speaking and being lied to also call Him by God's own name. Commentators in this collection treat His deity and His personality as one truth, and warn that denying either one strikes at God Himself.
Scripture Names Him God
The clearest single case is the incident where Ananias held back part of the money from a sale and pretended he had given it all. Peter's two sentences settle the matter by simple substitution:
Michael HardtActs 5 gives a further proof: Peter charges Ananias with having lied to the Holy Spirit and, in the next verse, says: "You have not lied to man but to God" (verses 3 and 4). So the Spirit is God.
What made the sin so serious was not only who was offended but where He was. One writer ties Peter's words to the Spirit's presence among the gathered believers:
J. N. DarbyThe presence of the Holy Spirit was so truly the presence of God in the Church, His tabernacle, that when Ananias and Sapphira tried to deceive the disciples, the apostle said, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to man but to God." And God, as we know, carried out judgment as in His own house, and both the man and his wife, who had planned this together, fell down dead.
A Person, Not an Influence
You cannot lie to a force. The Spirit is described throughout Scripture doing what only a person can do, and having done to Him what can only be done to a person:
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!'" (Gal. 4:6)… And He can be resisted (Acts 7:51), vexed (Isa. 63:10), grieved (Eph. 4:30), lied to (Acts 5:3), and — solemn to say — blasphemed (Matt. 12:31).
One writer adds that the gifts distributed in the church are handed out by a will, and a will belongs to someone:
VariousIt is, of course, an immense thing to grasp the truth that the Holy Spirit is a person, just as much a person as the Father or the Son. He really is God… This comes out in the part of the chapter where it says in verse 11, "apportioning to each one individually as he wills." An influence could not do that. Only a divine person could, one who has a will of His own.
The Attributes Belong to God Alone
Beyond the personal actions, Scripture assigns the Spirit qualities no creature can share:
Michael Hardtthe Holy Spirit is eternal (Heb. 9:14); the Holy Spirit is coequal (on one level) with the Father and the Son (Matt. 28:19); the Holy Spirit is omnipresent (Ps. 139:7); the Holy Spirit is omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10–11); the Holy Spirit is omnipotent (only God can create (Job 33:4) or raise up (1 Pet. 3:18)).
That first title carries unusual weight, because of how rarely it is applied:
A. J. PollockThis adjective, ETERNAL, is an assertion of the deity of the Holy Spirit, for God alone is ETERNAL. It is remarkable that this adjective is used only of the Spirit, and not of the Father and the Son, though the deity of these is fully stated in the Scriptures.
Joined With the Father and the Son
Jesus' command to baptize places the three together under a single name. The reasoning drawn from it is straightforward:
W. W. FeredayAre these not divinely formed links? Who would dare to join with the Father and the Son someone who was not divine? Faith may therefore rest assured that the Holy Spirit we are speaking of is a person, and properly and essentially divine.
The three are not three Gods, and none of them ranks above the others:
H. J. VineThe Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; yet there are not three Gods, but one God, "God is one" (Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:5)… This shows us the trinity of Persons in the Godhead, all of whom share in that supreme glory.
What Is at Stake
This is not a technical detail for specialists. To take away one Person is to take away God:
Samuel RidoutThis question involves a denial of the very being of God… A denial of any of these divine Persons is a denial of God. If it is shocking for a person to deny the divinity of Christ, it is no less so for him to deny the personality of the Holy Spirit. In fact, you will often find these two forms of unbelief together.
The Difference It Makes
Believing this changes how you live and how believers meet together:
C. H. MackintoshIf it is true that God the Spirit is among us, saving souls and ministering to the saints, is it not our solemn duty to ask how we are behaving toward this majestic Person? Are we grieving Him by our ways, or quenching Him by our systems and our arrangements?
Summary
- Named — Peter calls Him the Holy Spirit in one breath and God in the next; Acts 5 answers the question outright.
- Personal — He sends, testifies, wills and distributes; He can be resisted, grieved, lied to and blasphemed. No influence can be treated that way.
- Eternal — omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, eternal. These belong to God alone, and Scripture gives them all to Him.
- Equal — baptism is into the one name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Nobody less than God could be linked there.
- Present — He is a divine Person here now, so the question turns practical: are we honouring Him, or grieving Him?