WHAT I’M LEARNING ABOUT THE HOLY
SPIRIT MAY 5, 2020 WITH FEB 17,2024 UPDATE
This learning is a lifetime
process, since we’ll not understand God completely this side of heaven. 1 Corinthians
13:12 reminds us that, “Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am
known.”
Since we can’t
discuss the Holy Spirit without also discussing the Father and the Son, let’s begin with my own quote: “God risked having us think of Him as a Trichotomy so we can better
understand His Totality.”
We can’t know everything
about God, but we can understand a great deal about Him, as we study His Word. The
following points are up to date, but may be subject to change with any new
revelation that God allows to come my way.
God is a spirit, not a person. The Lord Jesus said
in John 4:24 “God is
Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
And we read in Numbers
23:19 "God is
not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.”
Alternatively
a human person is not a spirit. The Trinity first appeared in Church writings
by Hippolitus about 200 A.D. regarding the three “persons” of the Trinity. By
500 A.D. there was a conflict between the Greek and Latin use of the word
“person” – since Greek was a much more detailed and specific language. For
example, Greek had seven words that were translated into our single word
“love.” Some were transliterated in Latin, but were still Greek.
Prosopon, a Greek word for person, came to mean someone’s
outward appearance, and later a mask used in the theater to personify the role
the actor was playing.
Hypostasis is the Greek word for the substance and essence of a
person. The Latin translators in the Roman Church saw no such distinction and
just used the word person for each. Both linguistic camps agreed to disagree,
much to the detriment of the Church.
Literally,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one Hypostasis
– one in substance and essence, which is not the same as three persons in
one. Today “person” means a human being in the common vernacular. Thus we have
the existing confusion of the Trinity in the thinking of many. Other religions
believe we have three Gods.
Our
own church’s Faith and Practice
states it this way, “He exists as
one divine being and yet as a trinity of three distinct persons, identical,
inseparable, and equal in divinity, power, and eternity: God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”
This may be just me, but I
don’t refer to God in three persons. Instead I just use the Biblical
description of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I don’t see the need
to expand upon Scripture with the confusing term “Trinity.” I also don’t sing
the phrase in that great hymn, “Holy,
Holy, Holy” – where it says “God in
three persons; blessed Trinity.” I skip that line. Perhaps I’ll start
singing “God hypostasis; hypostasis He.”
Or maybe I'll sing, "God in One Spirit; blessed God is He."
A better rendition of the Trinity is the “Godhead” as in Colossians 2:9. Here Paul declares that "all the fullness of the Godhead" dwells in Christ "bodily." The phrase "fullness of the Godhead" is an especially emphatic one. It means everything without exception which goes to make up the Godhead, the totality of all that enters into the conception of Godhood.
All this, says Paul, dwells in Christ "bodily," that is after such a fashion as to be manifested in connection with a bodily organism. This is the distinction of Christ: in the Father and in the Spirit the whole plenitude of the Godhead dwells also, but not "bodily"; in them it is not manifested in connection with a bodily life.
It is the incarnation which Paul has in mind; and he tells us that in the incarnate Son, the fullness of the Godhead dwells. The term chosen to express the Godhead here is the strongest and the most unambiguously decisive which the language affords. From: The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
The Lord Jesus was indeed a
person who lived and taught and who called himself the Son of Man. He was
indeed human; a man, even after His resurrection, as we see in Luke 24:39 “Behold My hands and My
feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh
and bones as you see I have."
The Father was never
manifested in a man’s body; never as a person. The Holy Spirit was never
manifested in a man’s body; never as a person. But they were always and are
always and will always be one Hypostasis.
God is one in substance and essence. He is three Hypostases in one Hypostasis.
The Roman church also chose
to describe God in three persons because they saved the term Hypostasis to explain
the dual nature of Christ as fully man and fully God.
The removal of the human
“person” in the equation, allows us to better understand Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD
our God, the LORD is one!” And also Zechariah 14:9 “And
the LORD shall be King over all
the earth. In that day it shall be—‘The LORD
is one,’ and His name one. “
And see what John shares in Revelation 1:7-8 “Behold, He is coming
with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the
tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’"
We see
who the Lord Jesus is in the verses above. But who [not what] is the Holy
Spirit? The Holy Spirit is also God, i.e. a Hypostasis of the Almighty.
The Holy Spirit was there
at Creation, as stated in Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.” This could just as accurately been
stated, “And
God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
Although
the Old Testament contains many verses and much information about the Holy
Spirit, it’s in the New Testament that we learn about His role in our lives as
Christians.
The
Lord Jesus had much to say about the Holy Spirit in His last supper discourse
found in John, chapters 13-17. First, He is the Spirit of Truth and a helper of
believers. Plus He will abide with us forever; He will dwell with us and be in
us.
John 14:16-18 “And I will pray the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know
Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I
will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
So how
is it that the Lord Jesus comes to us? Because the Holy Spirit is in us, the
Lord Jesus is in us. It can be no other way. The Lord Jesus is seated at the
right hand of God. But God is Omnipresent – everywhere. The Holy Spirit is
Omnipresent – everywhere.
In
Isaiah 6:9, the first name given to the coming Messiah is, “Wonderful Counselor” – a distinct reference to the
Holy Spirit.
The
Holy Spirit also assists in our praying, as Paul shares in Romans
8:26-27 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do
not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches
the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
We
learn about God from the moment of our salvation through sermons and lessons,
from reading the Bible and theologies, but most importantly from God Himself.
The Lord Jesus promised this to us. John 16:13-15 “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. He will glorify Me, for He will take
of what is Mine and declare it
to you. All things that the Father has are Mine.
Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
Paul
expands on this in 1
Corinthians 2:9-13 “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But
God has revealed them to us
through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of
God.
“For what man knows the things of a man except
the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God
except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been
freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's
wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things
with spiritual.”
This
vital teaching that we receive is because the Holy Spirt actually abides with
us and dwells within us. We have God Himself with us and in us. The Lord Jesus
Christ is with us and in us. There are several verses that reveal this, so I’ll
simply list them here.
Romans 8:8-11 “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But
you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells
in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if
Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is life because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells
in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:14-17 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons
of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and
if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed
we suffer with Him, that we may
also be glorified together.
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in
you?”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “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? For you were bought
at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are
God's.”
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having
been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief corner stone,
in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in
the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God
in the Spirit.”
Colossians
1:27 “To them God willed to make
known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The Bible
tells us that the Holy Spirit does so much more for us than can be included in
my meager efforts to share what I’m learning. But don’t we all love to learn
and know more about God the Father; about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and
about the Holy Spirit?
As I said
before, “God risked having us think of
Him as a Trichotomy so we can better understand His Totality.”
COPYRIGHT 2020 BY CARL E GUSTAFSON
End notes: Thanks
for reading.
All Scripture is
from the NKJV
Please feel free
to comment at cericgus@gmail.com.
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