The Bible teaches that God is a Trinity – one divine nature and three persons. The three persons are equal but not identical. Much has been said and written about the Son’s place in the Trinity but somewhat less has been said about the Spirit’s place. Let’s take a closer look and see some wonderful truths and correct some dangerous errors.
First, the Holy Spirit is indeed God. He has the nature of deity. He is called “the Spirit of God” in the second verse of the Bible.1 He is included in the baptismal formula of Matthew 28:19: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” That he is God is obvious for Christ would not have included a mere creature on the same level as the Father. The same goes for the Son.
There are numerous other verses which teach the full deity of the Spirit. In Acts 5:3-4, Peter said that Ananias had not lied to men but to God, to the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 3:16 says that our bodies are temples of God while 6:19 says they are temples of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has the attributes of deity such as eternity,2 omnipresence,3 and omniscience.4
Just as Jesus is “God and with God”5 so the Spirit is “God and with God.” Both are with other members of the Trinity. Each is fully God. All members of the Trinity are equal. Just as Jesus is equal to the Father,6 so the Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son. There is no subordination among them. This disproves two errors that arose in the Fourth Century. First, Eunomianism taught that the Father created the Son who in turn created the Spirit. Second, Macedonianism said that the Father and the Son are God but the Spirit is neither God nor personal.
The second person of the Trinity is often called simply “the Spirit.” He does not have a physical body – never has, never will. Angels and demons are spirits that do not have a body.7 However – and this is vital – the Holy Spirit is not in the same class as those spirits. They are created; he is uncreated. They are temporal; he is eternal. Good angels are called “holy angels” but never “holy spirits” lest they be confused with the one and only Holy Spirit. There is only one Holy Spirit.8 He is also included in the Trinity of Revelation 1:4 as “the seven spirits” probably a reference to the sevenfold work of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 11:2. By contrast, there are many unholy spirits – demons.9
We say that God is tri-personal or God in three persons. Each member is a person. The Spirit, therefore, is personal. He is not an impersonal force like electricity as the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim. For example, he has the qualities of personality that rocks and plants do not have. He speaks,10 feels grief,11 has a will,12 knows things,13 etc. Personal pronouns are used of the Spirit – he, his, him. When he spoke in Acts 13:2, he used both “I” and “me” of himself.
You may have wondered why he is so frequently called the “Holy Spirit.” After all, both the Father14 and the Son15 are called holy for God is holy. He is “the Spirit of holiness.”16 Perhaps he is often called holy because he reveals God’s holiness to us by convicting us of sin and sanctifying us. Incidentally, some theologians think that the Trinity is in view in Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8 when the angels cry “Holy, holy, holy.” The Hebrew superlative is usually “the X of X” which in this case would be “Holy of Holies” which rather refers to the special holy place in the Temple. Just something to ponder.
One more important lesson. Since he is the “Holy” Spirit, we are immediately confronted personally with God’s holiness whenever we experience the Holy Spirit in any way. He inspired the “sacred writings.”17 He convicts us of unholiness. Anyone who claims to have an encounter with the Spirit and is not immediately and dramatically confronted with holiness has not met the true Holy Spirit.
We need to study what the Bible says about the Trinity and neither add to or take away from this revelation. On the one hand, our Pentecostal friends frequently over-emphasize the Spirit. One might say they have developed a kind of “Pneumamonism” (cf. the Christomonism of Karl Barth). Their lack of discernment has led them into many errors regarding the Spirit such as Oneness (also known as Modalism or Jesus Only). Wrong ideas lead to wrong living so it is no wonder that the charismatic movement continues to promote all sorts of excessive practical errors regarding the Holy Spirit. John MacArthur has recently exposed much of this in his book Strange Fire.18
On the other hand, non-Pentecostal evangelicals sometimes over-react and ignore the Spirit both in doctrine and in practice. Some preachers decline to preach on the Spirit lest they be identified as charismatics. Some justify this by saying that the Spirit never speaks of himself so neither should we. However, this ignores the obvious fact that the Spirit has told us much about himself in the Spirit-inspired Word of God. We need to study and preach what the Word says about the Spirit.
More significantly, other dangerous errors regarding the Spirit and the Trinity have arisen that need to be answered and refuted. One popular error is that the Spirit is feminine. This error arose from liberalism but sadly many evangelicals are latching on to it. They sometimes reason: “The Trinity is the divine family unit: Father, Mother and Child.” This sounds very nice and pro-family but is seriously wrong and unbiblical. It implies that the Spirit is the wife of God the Father which the Bible never claims.19
They also argue that the Hebrew word for Spirit is ruach, which is feminine. But this is a non sequitor argument. Anyone who has studied Spanish or French, let alone Hebrew, knows there is no direct correlation between gender of nouns and the subject. On the other hand, it is indeed significant that both Hebrew and Greek masculine personal pronouns are used of the Spirit – he, his, him and never she, her, or hers. These are pronominal markers that indicate gender in the subject. Linguists have long recognized this.
Both the Father and Son are male, despite political and cultural notions to the contrary (as seen in some “gender-neutral” Bible translations). God is not “gender neutral.” Each divine person is masculine. God is not sexual in a physical sense for God as God does not have a body. But, so far as personality goes, each person is specifically and repeatedly referred to as masculine not feminine or neuter. In this sense, angels are like God. Angels have masculine names,20 are called he, his, him, appear as men and not women, and so forth. One could say they are all bachelors for they do not reproduce.
Further, like Jesus we pray “Abba, Father.”21 We do not cry “Mama, Mother.” Some people think it is cool and profound to pray: “Our Mother, who art in Heaven” but this is worse than nonsense. It is heresy. Others will argue that Isaiah 66:13 says God is like a mother. But this is merely an anthropomorphism. Paul compared himself with a mother in First Thessalonians 2:7 and was clearly a male. Others argue that the Spirit begat Jesus in his incarnation and give us the new birth and, therefore, is a mother. We reply that Mary, not the Spirit, was Christ’s mother. The Spirit was the agent of the Father in conception just as with the new birth. Also, as we shall see shortly, the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, whereas if the Spirit were mother, one would expect the Son to proceed from the Spirit.
This error is more dangerous than some evangelicals realize. It strikes at the very heart of the Trinity. It tries to import pagan ideas of deity which some even admit. It attempts to make the Spirit “The Queen of Heaven,” a pagan title for the mother goddess.22 And they do in fact claim that God is the Mother Goddess, be it Gaia, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Isis, Asherah, or whomever. Yes pagan polytheism frequently had a supreme triad of father-mother-son as in the Egyptian triad of Osiris-Isis-Horus. But the pagan gods are demons, not the one true God.23 One can see the Satanic origins of this heresy.
Some, such as Mary Daly, even admit their agenda is to abolish the patriarchal masculine Judeo-Christian God and replace him with a female goddess. This leads to Wicca or witchcraft. They would de-masculinize God the Father. Some have de-masculinized Christ and replaced him with “Christa.” To advocates of this heresy, everything masculine is evil and defective. Female is good and male is bad. Part of this agenda is to legitimize lesbianism. Others, such as Jurgen Moltmann, have explicitly rejected the Biblical teaching on the Trinity in order to promote an androgynous bisexual hermaphrodite “god” of their own making. They thus remake God in their own sinful image as per Romans 1.
Let’s move on to one last important aspect about the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. What is the distinctive quality of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity? How is he different from the Father and the Son? The answer is what orthodox theologians call the “Procession of the Holy Spirit.” This is a deep mystery, little revealed in Scripture, and sadly often ignored by evangelicals. It is hard to describe and even harder to define. But at least we can say some things based on what the Spirit himself says in his inspired Bible.
It is not the same thing as the eternal generation of the Son which is what differentiates the second person from the first and third persons of the Trinity. The Father has one Son, not two. The Spirit is not the brother of Jesus. Nor is the Spirit the son of the Son, let alone the grandson of the Father.24 This would be to fall back into Eunomianism.
Revelation 22:1 points to this eternal procession. God showed John God as God – a river of water of life proceeding from the Father and the Lamb. This water is the Spirit.25 Note the word “proceeding.” This procession refers to his personhood, not his divine nature, as suggested by some.26
Next, this procession is also indicated by the most common word for the third person of the Trinity: “Spirit.” Both the Hebrew word ruach and the Greek word pneuma mean spirit, breath or wind. He is “spirated” or “breathed.” This is seen in how he “in-spires”the Scriptures. Literally, he breathes them out.27 Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 that every word of Scripture “proceeds from the mouth of God.” We sing several hymns on this theme such as “Breathe on me, breath of God.” The Spirit is both wind and breath in Ezekiel 37 and John 3. He is the means by which God breathes spiritual life into a dead sinner when he regenerates him. In Britain, artificial respiration is called “the kiss of life.” The Spirit gives us the spiritual kiss of life.
If the Son is eternally generated by the Father, from whom does the Spirit eternally proceed? Who does the breathing – the Father, the Son, or both? Eastern Orthodox churches argue: “The Father alone.” Western churches, both Roman Catholic and almost all Protestant churches,28 say “both the Father and the Son.” To be precise, the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.29 This may refer to the sending of the Spirit on Pentecost but what God does in time as Trinity is a reflection of what God is within the Trinity in eternity. Again, Revelation 22:1 indicates a dual procession. It may be stretching the analogy a bit but one could reverently say that the Spirit is breathed out from the two divine nostrils of the Father and the Son.
God always acts as Trinity in all that he does. The Son was incarnated by the Father by means of the Spirit.30 On the other hand, in the Trinity the Son is generated by the Father not the Spirit. To be specific, the generation of the Son by the Father logically (but not chronologically) preceded the eternal procession of the Spirit. Thus both the Father and the Son breathed the Spirit.
Great theologians have tried in vain to explain this further, sometimes by using analogies from creation. Some say the Son is the Father’s mind and the Spirit is the Father’s will. Others, using John 1:1 and First Corinthians 2:10-11 suggest that the Son is the Word and the Spirit is the self-consciousness of the father. Maybe, maybe not.
We note five stages of the procession of the Spirit: (1) Within the Trinity in eternity, (2) breathed into the world at the point of creation in time, (3) descended on Christ at his baptism, (4) sent to the church on the day of Pentecost, (5) sent into the hearts of the elect at the moment of their regeneration. If we look deeply at this mystery, we see that just as it was the eternal Son that was the appropriate one to become Son of God in time, so it was the Spirit who was the appropriate member of the Trinity to proceed in stages 2-5 in time. According to John 7:40, Acts 1:4, and 2:33, the Spirit could not proceed on Pentecost until the Son had died, rose, ascended, and been glorified. This also has bearing on the question of the dispensationally distinct work of the Spirit in the New Covenant above that of the Old Covenant. But that is another issue.
This is a very deep mystery. Sadly, many evangelicals ignore it and preachers do not preach or teach on it. Ignorance opens the door to heresy. We must study the Word to see what God himself says about the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. This wonderful truth is cause for meditation and praise. Let us ponder, wonder, and worship. Amen.
- Gen 1:2. [↩]
- Heb 9:14. [↩]
- Ps 139:7. [↩]
- 1 Cor 2:11. [↩]
- Jn 1:1. [↩]
- Phil 2:6. [↩]
- Lk 24:39. [↩]
- Eph 4:4. [↩]
- 1 Jn 4:2-3. [↩]
- Acts 13:1. [↩]
- Eph 4:30. [↩]
- Jn 3:8. [↩]
- 1 Cor 2:10-11. [↩]
- Jn 17:11 [↩]
- Lk 1:35. [↩]
- Rom 1:4. [↩]
- 2 Tim 3:15-16. [↩]
- Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship (Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Books, 2013). [↩]
- I suppose someone will one day suggest the Spirit is the Father’s sister but this would make Jesus the nephew of the Spirit. [↩]
- Michael, Gabriel, etc. [↩]
- Mk 14:36; Gal 4:6. [↩]
- Jer 7:18. [↩]
- 1 Cor 10:10. [↩]
- One expects someone to come along some day and think he is profound by suggesting this. [↩]
- Jn 4:10; 7:38-39. [↩]
- Editor’s Note: Other authors at JTST do not hold to this interpretation of Revelation 22. They believe that this river is a literal river. [↩]
- 2 Tim 3:16. [↩]
- Definitely the Reformed and Evangelical ones. [↩]
- See Jn 14:26; 15:26. [↩]
- Lk 1:35. [↩]