The Third Person of the Godhead

It is always said that the Holy Spirit is a Person and that Person is the third Person of the Godhead. Why is He the third Person? Is He less important than the other two Persons of the Godhead? What is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus and Father God?

There is a very important verse in the Gospel according to John which will give some light to the above questions:

Jesus said, "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me" (John 15:26, NKJV).

Here are some statements of truth:

1. The 'Helper' and the 'Spirit of truth' are two of the Names of the Holy Spirit. We shall talk more about this as we go on.

2. Notice that Jesus said that "the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father", and He did not say that "the Spirit of truth who proceeds from Himself".

3. Church history tells us that this verse caused a serious division between the Christian Churches - the West and the East. Western Christianity teaches that the Holy Spirit proceed from the Son as well as from the Father. But the Eastern(Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches) Christianity refuses to say "and from the Son". In other words, it says "from the Father".

I believe Western Christianity is somewhat influenced by the deity of the Son (Christ). They think that since the Bible mentions 'Spirit of Christ' twice in the New King James version (Romans 8:9 and 1 Peter 1:11) it must have come from both the Father and the Son. Notice that the very verse (John 15:26) Jesus said He is going to send the Spirit (though it proceeds from the Father). This shows that Jesus associates Himself with the Father, and He tells us that He Himself will operate through the Spirit, exactly as He Father does.

Furthermore, the Scripture shows that wherever the Spirit is, the Father and the Son are there also.

Jesus said, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He abide in you forever" (John 14:16).

The Father and the Son will abide (dwell) within us in the form of the Holy Spirit - the three are always working together. The relationship between the Son and the Spirit is exactly the same as the relationship between the Father and the Spirit.

Names or descriptive Titles given to the Holy Spirit

In the Bible you can find two groups of names or descriptive titles given to the Holy Spirit - one, names that relate Him to the Father and second, names that relate Him to the Son. The following are some examples:

1. Names that relate the Holy Spirit to the Father:

His is called the Spirit of God (Gen 1:2); the Spirit of the Lord (Luke 4:18); the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11); the Spirit of the Lord God (Isaiah 61:1); the Spirit of your Father (Matt. 10:20 - spoken by Jesus); the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3); and the Spirit of Him (God the Father) (Romans 8:11).

2. Names that relate the Holy Spirit to the Son:


He is called the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9); the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19); the Spirit of His Son (Gal. 4:6); and the Spirit of the Lord (Acts 5:9).


A question we need to ask is - Why the Spirit is called holy? Well, His objective is to produce holiness and He does that in nature and creation, as well as in human beings. But His ultimate work is to make us holy people, holy as the children of God. It is also probable that He is described as the Holy Spirit in order to differentiate Him from the other spirits - the evil spirits. That is why we are told to test the spirits and to prove them, and to know whether they are of God or not (1 John 4:1).


The Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Father and to the Son


Jesus said, "The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works" (John 14:10).


In other words, the works that Jesus did were not His own. The Father gave Him the works; the Father told Him what to do.


Jesus said further, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come" (John 16:13).


In other words, the Holy Spirit does not speak from Himself, just like the Son, He is given what to speak. And, indeed, His work, we are told, is to glorify Christ (John 16:14). The Spirit does not glorify Himself; He glorify the Son.


I hope you see the subordination here. Here is the division of the work. The Son says that He has come to glorify the Father, and the Spirit's work is to glorify the Son. Each one reflects the glory of the other. This is the mystery of the amazing doctrine of the Trinity! It is also one of the most amazing and remarkable things about the Biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit.


The Holy Spirit seems to hide Himself and to conceal Himself. He is always, as it were, putting the focus on the Son. I believe the best test of all as to whether we have received the baptism of the Spirit is to ask ourselves - what do we think of, and what do we know about the Son? Is the Son real to us? That is the work of the Spirit. He is glorified indirectly; He is always pointing us to the Son.


The amazing wisdom of God


Let us put it more specifically, the division of work betwee the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.


1. The Father - is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible.


Paul said, ".... who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power, Amen" (1 Tim. 6:16).


2. The Son - is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested visibly.


Paul said, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:9).


3. The Holy Spirit - is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible, acting immediately and directly upon us.


So, thus we can say that the Spirit by His power makes manifest the Father in the image of the Son. God has become visible, and through the Spirit the Son is made real to me. So I go to the Father with confidence and with assurance. God the Son is the revealed God - God is known. God the Spirit is that divine Person who exercises His power immediately upon me. Or, you can think of the Spirit is God the giver of life, the Lord.


The astounding thing that you and I know is that "the Word (the eternal Son) became flesh and dwell among us" (John 1:14). We know that is true. We know that God did come, that the fullness of the Godhead was in Christ, that He died for our sins and blotted them out and bore their punishment and that in Him we are just before God and clothed with His righteousness.


What the Holy Spirit does


The Holy Spirit is often called the 'executor'. The Holy Spirit makes the peace of Jesus ours. What the Father wills and the Son makes possible, the Holy Spirit does. The following are some of the works of the Holy Spirit:


1. Creation


The creation of the world is a perfect example of this. The Father willed and ordered it - "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3); the son was involved - "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:3); but the Holy Spirit hatched it out - "The Spirit of God was hoving over the face of the water" (Gen. 1:2).


As we look at what God has made we see wonder, order and beauty, and those are the hall-marks of the creative Spirit. He is a Being of infinite variety, always creatively active, never simply doing the same things over and over again but making everything new.


We need the freshness of the Holy Spirit in the Church today. We need His creativity to do something new, rather than endlessly repeat what was done in our grandparents' day. it is a mark of the Holy Spirit when the Church is creatively involved in doing a new thing in a new way.


2. Israel


It was the Holy Spirit who brought Israel into being and maintained her existence against all odds. And He usually did it by taking ordinary men and women and making them extraordinary.


Solomon was known for his wisdom, but actually he was foolish. That was obvious from his behavior when he was left to his own devices. Only when the Spirit was upon him did he show that wisdom for which he was justly famous.


And the same could be said for so many great figures of the Old Testament: Abraham, the Judges, Elijah, Elisha, David, Moses, Amos, Jeremiah and so on. The one thing they had in common was that they were ordinary men filled with God's Spirit. "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him" was the sign in the Bible that extraordinary accomplishments were about to ensure.


3. The Bible


The Holy Spirit gave us the Bible - "Holy men of God spoke (or wrote) as they were move by the Holy Spirit" (1 Peter 1:21); "All Scripture is given by inspirition of God" (2 Tim. 3:16). Not one of its authors knew he was writing part of the Bible at that time, yet there is a consistent unity throughout which testifies to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the whole operation.


That is why those who read the Bible need the Holy Spirit's aid to interpret it. After all, He is the Author, and so is also the best interpreter.


4. Christ


Every part of Christ's ministry on earth was done in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus became man as the Son of Mary through the Holy Spirit - "That which is conveived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 1:20). Every stage in Christ's ministry was touched by the Holy Spirit's influence. At His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended visibly in the form of a dove. He began His first sermon shortly afterwards with these words: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, ..." (Luke 4:18). His miracles were the work of the Spirit - "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, ..." (Matt. 12:28). And at every phase of His life, death and resurrection (Acts 13:30), the third Person of the Trinity was involved.


5. The Church


The Holy Spirit gave us the Church. After the resurrection, Christ's disciples, the embryonic Church and His sole representatives on earch, were a frightened, subdued group of men. It took the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to get them going and send them out. Subsequently, every aspect of the life of the Church has been marked by the work of the Spirit - its worship, ministry, evangelism and service.


Without Him a Church is merely a club. it can raise money, recruit members, erect building, and perform rituals. But without the Holy Spirit it will not be a Church (Please refer to my earlier postings - "Churches that are merely storehouses" and "The Holy Spirit and the Church").


Someone has said, "If God were to take the Holy Spirit out of our midst today, about 95% of what we are doing in our Local Churches would go on, and we would not know the difference". I fear that may well be true, and if it is, it is simply because human beings have been trying to do 'in the flesh' what can only properly be done 'in the Spirit'.


Pentecost came when our Lord had finished the work for His people and risen and He became the Head of the Church. The Church became His body and the Spirit was given to fill the body.


We need to understant that Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that each individual member of the Church is also the temple of the Holy Spirit:


Paul said, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God (the Church), God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Cor. 3:16, 17, NKJV).


Paul was talking about the Church as the temple of the Holy Spirit.


Paul also said, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own" (1 Cor. 6:19).


In this case, Paul was talking about each individual member of the Church as the temple of the Holy Spirit!

Imagine the act of humiliation for the third Person of the Godhead to come and to dwell in you and me! But there is a price for us to pay - we can grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).