What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity?
The Bible names God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and the third name in that list is the one people most often reduce to a force, a feeling, or a power rather than a "who." Calling the Holy Spirit the third Person of the Trinity is a way of saying He is God as truly as the Father and the Son are, yet the word "third" has to be handled carefully so it never suggests a lesser God.
A Person, not a power
The clearest test is simple: read what Scripture says the Spirit does and ask whether it could be said of a mere influence.
W. W. FeredayOn this occasion I will do little more than gather some of the Scriptures which plainly assert His personality and deity. We will let Scripture speak for itself to our souls. Could the following be said of anything but a person? "I will send Him to you." "When He comes." (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). He is also shown striving with man (Gen. 6:3), revealing things to the saints (1 Cor. 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? What is more, He can be resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Eph. 4:30), lied to (Acts 5:3), and — solemn to say — blasphemed (Matt. 12:31).
One of those verbs settles the matter on its own, and it comes with a practical warning attached.
F. A. HughesA look at Ephesians 4:30 may help — "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." The Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Third Person of the Trinity, but we must be careful to avoid any thought of inequality in the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is God — a blessed Person. We must not think of Him merely as an influence (great as His influence certainly is) — you cannot grieve an influence!
He is God
Peter's words to Ananias, who held back part of the money from a sale he claimed to have given in full, move from one name to the other in a single breath.
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.
The company He is placed in points the same way — He is named alongside the Father and the Son in baptism and in blessing.
W. W. FeredayAre these not links formed by God Himself? Who would dare to join with the Father and the Son one who was not divine? Faith may therefore rest assured that the Holy Spirit, of whom we speak, is a person, and properly and essentially divine.
"Third" is order, not rank
Counting the Persons is useful for speech, but the number carries no ranking with it.
A J PollockSo we must be careful, in using the terms first, second and third Persons in the Trinity, not to think there is any difference in importance. The Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God — the Spirit equal in nature and substance to the Father and the Son. If the three Persons of the Godhead are each of them God, it does not follow that there are three Gods. That would be impossible. There can be only one God, supreme and unique.
Some writers would rather drop the numbering altogether, and explain the only sense in which any subordination is true.
William KellyI do not, however, admire the expression "second" or "third" person, and for this reason: it tends to bring in a subordination in the Godhead where Scripture does not. You cannot have a secondary God... Subordination in respect of Deity is only a way of undermining the proper Godhead of the Son and the Spirit. The idea of subordination is true only when we look at the place of manhood the Son was pleased to take, or at the office the blessed Holy Spirit is now filling to the glory of the Son.
A divine Person who has come
His coming was not a vague arrival of power but the movement of a Person, sent and also willing.
A J PollockIn this present time, since the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, as sent of the Father (John 14:16), as sent of the Son (John 15:26), as coming of His own will (John 16:7), the Holy Spirit has been pleased to live in all believers on the Lord Jesus Christ who have received the gospel of their salvation (Eph. 1:13), as the Seal, the Anointing, the Earnest, and as forming the one body of Christ on earth.
That He has already come changes how we pray.
W. T. P. WolstonI believe in the wonderful fact that the Spirit of God, the third Person of the Trinity, is upon the earth. I never pray to God to send Him; I hope you do not either. I never ask the Lord to send the Spirit. Why? Because He is here.
He turns attention to Christ
Being fully God, He could be worshipped; yet the pattern of the New Testament shows Him taking a quieter place.
Samuel RidoutWe would not hint at the blasphemy of denying that the blessed Third Person of the Trinity is divine. He is God as absolutely as, and equal with, the Father and the Son; and as God He is surely entitled to worship. But in Scripture the Holy Spirit is presented as the One who gives power for worship... He does not present Himself, but takes, so to speak, a subordinate place... He is upon earth, in contrast with Christ who is in heaven with the Father, the object of worship.
Summary
- Person. He speaks, sends, wills, testifies, and can be grieved, resisted and lied to — none of which can be done to an influence.
- God. Lying to the Holy Spirit is called lying to God, and He is named with the Father and the Son in baptism.
- Equal. "Third" is an order of speech, not of rank; writers differ on whether the numbering is even wise, since it can suggest a subordination Scripture does not teach.
- Here. He came at Pentecost — sent by the Father, sent by the Son, and coming of His own will — and now lives in every believer, so we do not ask for Him to be sent.
- Christ-centred. He does not put Himself forward; He gives power for worship and turns hearts toward the Christ who is in heaven.