Who Is the Holy Spirit? His Person and Work in Scripture
When someone says the Holy Spirit led him to do something, I want to know whether what he did agrees with Scripture. A confident claim does not settle the question, especially if it is being used to pressure somebody else. Yet seeing that kind of manipulation can make Christians so wary that they hardly speak of the Spirit except to warn about false teaching. We need to know who He is and what He actually does, so we can depend on Him without accepting everything done in His name.
The Holy Spirit Is a Person, Not a Force
By calling the Holy Spirit a Person, I mean that He knows, wills, and acts with understanding. I am not suggesting that He has a human body. Scripture describes Him speaking to people, commissioning servants, and interceding for believers in their weakness. He can also be grieved by their sin. We would have to disregard those personal actions and responses to reduce Him to a force or a religious sensation.
The Hebrew ruach and Greek pneuma, translated spirit, can also refer to wind or breath. We cannot take one of those meanings and impose it on every passage. The surrounding passage tells us how the term is being used. In John 14, the Spirit is the One who teaches the disciples and brings Jesus’ words to their remembrance:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Jesus gave this promise to His apostles before His arrest. After His departure, they would be responsible for teaching others what He had taught them. They would not have to reconstruct His words from fading memories; the Holy Spirit would bring those words to their remembrance. This helps explain why we can trust their witness to Jesus, including the apostolic Scriptures. It does not mean every idea that occurs to a Christian has the same authority.
The word translated “Helper” is parakletos. Other translations use Comforter, Counselor, or Advocate to express His ministry. Through the Spirit’s presence, Christ keeps His promise not to leave His people as orphans. The Spirit bears witness to Jesus and teaches His truth. A supposed work that draws people away from Christ contradicts that ministry.
In Acts 13, the Spirit also directs the church’s missionary work. While the believers at Antioch were ministering to the Lord and fasting, He told them to set apart two men.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Barnabas and Saul had been called by the Spirit Himself. He identified the work as His and instructed the church to release them for it. If I think of Him merely as a power that Christians can use, I have the relationship backward. He was giving the instructions, and they were responsible for obeying Him.
The same Spirit who directed the church could also be grieved by its members’ conduct. Paul warns believers about that responsibility:
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Paul writes this to people who have already been sealed for redemption. They belong to God, but that does not make their behavior inconsequential. The warning appears among instructions about lying, anger, corrupt speech, and forgiveness. If I am nursing a grievance and using my words to tear someone down, I cannot dismiss it as a personality quirk. My conduct grieves the Holy Spirit who lives within me.
Present From the Beginning and Fully God
The Holy Spirit was active long before the church at Antioch existed. Genesis introduces Him before God formed and filled the earth, and before He made the sun and moon to mark days and seasons:
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.
The Spirit was present as God brought the world into order and filled it with life. His work is much broader than spiritual gifts or what takes place during a church service. The psalmist also credits Him with giving and renewing life in creation.
You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.
Giving life in creation and giving new spiritual life to a sinner are different works, but both belong to the same God. The Spirit who gives the new birth was already active long before there was a New Testament church.
Nor was His work among Israel merely an impersonal influence. Isaiah describes their rebellion in language much like Paul’s warning about grieving the Spirit.
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.
Israel rebelled against the God who had dealt with them so graciously, and their rebellion grieved His Holy Spirit. They incurred God’s judgment rather than His approval. The Old Testament already describes Him as personally involved with God’s people and offended by their disobedience.
Being a Person, however, does not by itself establish that He is God. Angels are personal beings too. Peter’s confrontation with Ananias goes further and identifies the Holy Spirit as God. Ananias and Sapphira had sold land and secretly kept part of the proceeds while pretending to give the entire amount.
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
Peter did not reprimand Ananias for making too small a donation. He said the property had been his, and the money remained under his control after the sale. The deception was the offense. Peter first described it as lying to the Holy Spirit and then said Ananias had lied to God. He was speaking about the same lie, identifying the Spirit as God rather than a lesser being acting on God’s behalf.
Paul also describes a knowledge that belongs to God Himself: the Spirit knows the deep things of God.
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.
“Searches” does not mean the Spirit is trying to discover things about God that He did not previously know. Paul compares His knowledge with a person’s knowledge of his own thoughts. The Spirit knows the things of God from within, with divine understanding. What the apostles received through Him was therefore God’s revelation, far beyond what human investigation or speculation could produce.
David also speaks of the Spirit when describing God’s omnipresence, meaning His presence everywhere.
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
No journey could take David beyond the Spirit’s presence. As David continues in Psalm 139:7–10, even the most distant place he can imagine would still be within God’s reach. A created messenger cannot be everywhere. Read alongside Peter’s words in Acts and Paul’s explanation of His knowledge, this passage gives us substantial biblical grounds for confessing the Holy Spirit’s deity.
The Spirit Within the Trinity and the Truth of Scripture
Confessing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as God does not mean we worship three gods. Scripture teaches one God who eternally exists as three co-equal Persons. The Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct from one another, yet they share the one divine nature. They are not three identities adopted by a single Person. Jesus names all three when He commands His followers to baptize those who become disciples.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that Jesus says “the name,” singular, while naming the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His command holds together God’s unity and the distinction of the Persons. Trinity is the term we use for this biblical teaching; it does not mean that Christians worship three separate gods.
Paul’s blessing to the Corinthians likewise includes the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
The church shares in the grace of Christ, the love of God, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Paul is not putting a created servant on equal terms with God. His blessing reflects the church’s relationship with the triune God. For a fuller examination of these relationships, see A Complete Bible Study on the Trinity.
Jesus explains these relationships more fully in John 14–16. The Son asks the Father to give another Helper, who will remain with believers and testify about Christ. Father, Son, and Spirit are distinguishable in what Jesus says, and their work is in complete agreement. Jesus calls the Helper the Spirit of truth, which also tells us what to expect from the Spirit’s teaching:
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.
Like the promise about remembrance, these words prepared the apostles for their work after Jesus left them. They would not have to devise doctrine from their own opinions. The Spirit would guide them into truth and reveal what they needed as Christ’s appointed witnesses, including things to come. We can trust the apostolic Scriptures because their teaching rests on His revelation.
As we read those Scriptures today, we depend on the Spirit to help us understand and obey what God has said. He brings the Word to bear on our conscience, exposing sin we have rationalized and giving us courage to obey. Jesus prayed for His disciples to be changed through that truth.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Sanctification is God’s work of setting His people apart and making them holy. Sometimes that requires correction we would rather avoid. If I mislead someone to secure a business deal, saying that I prayed about it and felt at peace does not make the deception right. I need to deal honestly with that person, even if it costs me the agreement. The Spirit who inspired the Word will not contradict it.
The Spirit Gives Life, Indwells, Seals, and Helps
Before we can grow in holiness, we need the spiritual life that only God can give. Nicodemus had religious standing and knowledge, but Jesus told him he needed to be born again.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Paul calls this regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, placing salvation in God’s mercy rather than our righteous works (Titus 3:5). Regeneration means that someone has genuinely been born again. Calling myself a Christian cannot accomplish that, and improving my outward behavior cannot produce the spiritual life I lack.
The Spirit gives that life by applying the saving work of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son who is fully God and fully man. Jesus was virgin-born and completely sinless. He willingly offered Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, and He shed His innocent blood and died for us. His sacrifice was complete through His shed blood and death before He was buried and rose bodily from the grave. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son were united in providing our redemption.
Christ died for the whole world, and His offer of salvation is genuine, although people can resist and reject it. The Spirit convicts the world concerning Christ and gives new life to everyone who repents and believes. Those who trust Christ are forgiven and justified, meaning declared righteous before God. The Spirit lives within them. He does not offer another way of salvation; He applies what Christ has already accomplished.
That indwelling belongs to every true believer. It is not a later achievement reserved for unusually mature Christians.
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.
Paul says that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. A believer may still be immature and need serious correction, but that is different from being without the Spirit. We should address the immaturity without teaching Christians that God will only dwell within them once they have performed well enough.
The difference between His indwelling and other aspects of His ministry receives fuller attention in The Holy Spirit Indwelling vs Coming Upon.
Paul also explains when believers receive the Spirit’s seal and what that seal assures them.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
These Christians were sealed when they heard the gospel and trusted Christ. Paul calls the Spirit Himself the guarantee of their inheritance, assuring them that God will complete their redemption. A genuinely born-again believer is eternally secure in Christ, even on a day when he feels discouraged and his faith seems weak. Our assurance rests on God’s promise, not our ability to maintain a particular feeling.
This is the same Spirit Paul warns us not to grieve in Ephesians 4:30. Eternal security does not excuse lawlessness, and a Christian label alone does not demonstrate regeneration. We should see evidence of the new creation in a person’s conduct. That does not mean obedience earns salvation or that believers reach sinless perfection; it means the life God gives has an effect on how we live.
Paul makes the responsibility especially personal when he addresses sexual purity.
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?
My body belongs to God, so I cannot dismiss sexual sin as my own business. The Holy Spirit is present when nobody else sees what I am doing. A respectable appearance at church cannot make secret disobedience acceptable to Him. His indwelling brings a responsibility to honor God in private as well as in public.
His presence also means we are not left to cope with weakness on our own. In Romans 8, believers groan as they await final redemption, and sometimes they do not even know what they ought to pray for.
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.
I am grateful that the Spirit’s help does not depend on our ability to explain everything clearly. We may know we need God’s help without knowing what to ask Him for in a painful situation. The Spirit intercedes according to God’s will where our understanding fails. He does not promise to remove every hardship, but our uncertainty is no reason to stop praying.
The Spirit Gives Gifts and Calls for Discernment
The Spirit who lives within believers also equips them to serve one another. Paul explains the purpose of spiritual gifts before discussing who receives them.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.
A gift is given for the church’s benefit. Whatever ability someone has received, its use should help the people he serves. Paul then lists different gifts and identifies who decides how they are distributed.
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
The words “as He wills” leave the distribution with the Spirit. We do not get to dictate His choices or demand the same gift from everyone as proof of salvation. I understand biblical tongues to be actual human languages, and I do not regard speaking in tongues as the normal pattern of Christian life. Every believer has the Spirit, whether or not he has spoken in tongues. Nor does an impressive gift establish spiritual maturity. Someone can draw a crowd and still need substantial correction, while another believer quietly strengthens the congregation without attracting much attention.
I am neither hyper-charismatic nor cessationist: I do not accept every claimed manifestation as genuine, and I do not believe the miraculous gifts ceased with the apostles. Abuses need to be confronted, but they do not give us grounds to deny the Spirit’s present work. Discernment requires us to examine a claim rather than accept or reject it simply because of how extraordinary it sounds.
Does the claimed work agree with Scripture and confess the truth about Christ? What fruit is it producing, and how is it affecting the church? If someone uses a supposed message from God to intimidate others or excuse his own misconduct, we should challenge it. A private impression does not acquire the authority of Scripture because the person expressing it is confident, popular, or difficult to confront.
We also need to examine our own expectations. If I prize a spectacular experience more than faithful service, I may overlook the very people whose work is helping the church. Gifts belong under Christ’s lordship and must be used in truth and love, according to His order. When worship becomes a performance designed to make one person look powerful, we have departed from the purpose Paul gives for the gifts.
For a more detailed examination, see A Complete Bible Study on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
My Final Thoughts
I do not want us to become so preoccupied with exposing false claims that we grow reluctant to depend on the Holy Spirit. We have good biblical reasons to recognize Him as fully God and to worship Him with the Father and Son. His ministry glorifies Christ, and we should expect it to deepen our regard for Jesus and the blood by which we were redeemed.
For those who have been born again, His presence reaches into the decisions we make every day. We cannot deceive Him or make disobedience acceptable by dressing it in religious language. But when His Word exposes our sin, we can accept the correction and obey with His help. And when hardship leaves us unsure what to pray, we can still come to the Father, knowing the Spirit intercedes for us. I want to rely on the help God has actually promised, with the assurance that the One who sealed us for redemption remains with His people.