THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY
Ask any Christian about Jesus Christ, and you will get a full answer. Likewise, if you ask about God the Father! However, ask about the Holy Spirit, and many will be hard pressed to explain much; let alone witness to any experience of his presence in their lives – though he is most certainly there!
This should not be!
A careful reading of the Acts of the Apostles and the letters, reveals what a pivotal role the Spirit played in the life of the Early Church; in the lives of the early Christians, and in the spread of the Gospel.
There is therefore every reason for us all generally, to strive to know him and to understand his role in our lives – to seek to be filled with the Spirit, and to discover and be zealous for his gifts!
In this blog I want to give the briefest of introductions to the topic of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, and then in the next to consider what John says about the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit in John chs. 14-16.
THE SPIRIT IN THE BIBLE
To start with: The Old Testament word for spirit, the Hebrew word ruach, and the New Testament word, the Greek word πνεύμα/pneuma, both have three meanings, breath, wind and spirit.
OLD TESTAMENT
The very first mention of the Spirit in the Bible, is in Genesis 1,2; he is there at creation. The Spirit of God gives breath to living creatures; both physically and spiritually. And throughout the Old Testament he equips/anoints certain people for service, for a specific time and purpose. These are leaders (see Judges; e.g. Gideon and Samson), prophets (2 Kings 2,9) and kings (1 Sam. 10,1; 16, etc.)
NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament something new happens. After the resurrection when the Spirit was given at Pentecost (Acts 2/see Joel’s prophecy which Peter alludes to here, verse 16ff), all believers receive the Spirit permanently, and are enjoined to be filled with him (Eph 518). As followers of Christ, the Anointed One, we are an anointed people: that’s why believers were called Christians, χριστιανοί/christianoi, at Antioch (Acts 11,26)
The three great witnesses of the New Testament, Paul, John and Luke all see the time after Jesus’ ascension, and until his second coming – the age of the Church – as also the Age of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2,1ff). This is the Age of the New Covenant (see Jer. 31,31-34, and Ezekiel 36,26-27, Joel 2,28-32a), following the abrogation of the Old (see Heb. 8).
Thus:
In Luke’s narrative (διήγησις/diēgēsis -Lk. 1,1) theology of Salvation in Luke-Acts, the Holy Spirit is the prime mover of events.
In Paul, references to the Spirit are scattered throughout his letters (see esp. Romans 8; 1 Cor. 12 and 14 – gifts of the Spirit, and Gal. 5 – fruit of the Spirit; Eph. 1,13-14 and 2 Cor. 1,21-22 – the seal, guarantee of our salvation).
In John there are references to the Spirit in ch. 3 – the new birth; ch 4 – eternal life; and ch. 7 – the rivers flowing out of the heart of the believer in Jesus, and lastly, the One who comes to inhabit the life of the believer – the Paraclete in chs. 14-16. (This list in John is not exhaustive!)
PERSON OR IMPERSONAL FORCE?
Sometimes in Scripture the Spirit is visualised as an impersonal force, with such references to wind (or mighty wind – see Acts 2) or water, or fire- the Spirit can be quenched (1 Thess. 5,18). But taken as a whole the Spirit has all the characteristics of personhood; e.g. he witnesses (Rom. 8,16), he can speak (Acts 13,2), he can be grieved (Eph. 4,30), and supremely in John, he is the Paraclete, the One called to our side to help us when Jesus goes to the Father. Here the pronoun used for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, is the masculine pronoun αυτός/autos – he (not it) – despite the fact that spirit is a neuter noun in Greek!
KNOW HIM!
I remember sitting with the minister in the church I went to as a student, talking about the Holy Spirit. The question I was asking was, “How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?” I’ll never forget his answer: “The Holy Spirit is not lost Karl, he is there, on the inside of you. You don’t have to strive either to find him, or to be filled by him. He is there! Just simply ask to be filled by him.” That was the turning point for me!
Know him! He is there!
WHY BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT?
If you ask: “What is the difference between a Christian who is filled with the Spirit, and a Christian who is not filled with the Spirit?” I think the answer has to be this: It is the difference between having rivers of living waters flowing out of your life (John 7,38), and merely having the well, welling up to eternal life (John 4,14). The waters are the SAME! The source is the SAME, but there is a difference in the abundance of water!
When we have rivers of water (ministry to others), the life of God is flowing out of our lives in a different way than when we just have the well, welling up to eternal life (salvation). What I am saying here is very important; it is not that there are two sorts of Christian; an A team and a B team. We are all on the A team because it is all about Jesus and not about us – it is his righteousness we are clothed in and not our own. We are saved by his grace, and we serve by his grace!
But there are two sorts of usefulness. Simply because it is the Holy Spirit in us that has power to affect the lives of people around us, those who have more of him flowing out of their lives, are going to see more fruit of their labour.
So, in conclusion under this point: If you have received Jesus by faith, just believe that you already have the Spirit. Everything is fine – just ask to/seek to be filled by him – and know that this is not just a once for all experience – the Greek verb “be filled” in Eph. 5,18 is present imperative, which means “be filled, and continue to be filled!”
THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD!
Know this: You have a person on the inside of you – he is the third person in the Trinity, the mighty Holy Spirit! He is to be worshipped with the Father and the Son as One true God! He will speak to you about Jesus – he has a voice which you need to learn to recognise!
Having said this, I realise that I have to be very careful about what I say! The last blog I wrote was about the Father, the blog before that about the Son, and now this one is about the Holy Spirit. The impression I might be giving is that there are in fact three gods.
Not so!
It is necessary to talk about each person in the Trinity separately, in order to emphasise the different role of each. But the three are one! We never worship the Holy Spirit apart from the Father and the Son. We never worship the Son apart from the Father and the Spirit and we never worship the Father apart from the Son and the Spirit. The three are one Godhead. They have one will! The voice of the Spirit is the voice of Jesus our Lord and Shepherd, which is the voice of the Father – because there is one will in the Godhead – not three! Not even two! There is only one!
When I pray, I fellowship with all three persons, many times intermingled in the same prayer. I will start with worship and thanksgiving – worshipping Father, Son and Spirit. “Oh thank you Father for letting me be your child. Thank you Lord Jesus for dying in my stead. Thank you so much Holy Spirit for making all this real to me. If I have petitions or needs, I bring them before the Father, because that is what Jesus told me to do. I ask in Jesus’ name. For the same reason, I don’t bring my needs before the Holy Spirit, because that is not what Jesus told me to do!
WE ARE MEMBERS OF ONE BODY!
Having said all this, there is another thing I want to make abundantly clear: This blog, and the ones preceding it are about the believers relationship with God. One might therefore get the impression that it is alright for Christians to live solo lives, without the fellowship of the Church.
It is not alright!
To use Paul’s language, we are each of us members of the body of Christ. We need each other. We need each other’s encouragement, loving correction and teaching, among other things. If I think God has revealed something to me, I ought to be able to share that with other Christians. If they say, “That was great Karl, thank you for sharing that with us”, wonderful! But if they say, “We are sorry Karl, we have problems seeing that God could be saying that to you, or to us!” I am being helped to see that perhaps that wasn’t God speaking to me at all. We all make mistakes! All of us do! Get used to it! That’s why we need the brothers and sisters!
Now lets turn to the next blog, which is about the Paraclete sayings in John’s gospel, ch. 14-16.
BE BLESSED!😀👌👍