By Dr. Charles Hodge
If the Spirit of God which moved on the face of the waters, which
strove with the antediluvians, which came upon Moses, which gave skill
to artisans, and which inspired the prophets, is the power of God; then
the Spirit which came upon the Apostles, which Christ promised to send
as a comforter and advocate, and to which the instruction,
sanctification, and guidance of the people of God are referred, must
also be the power of God. But if the Spirit is clearly revealed to be a
person in the later parts of Scripture, it is plain that the earlier
portions must be understood in the same way. One part of the Bible, and
much less one or a few passages must not be taken by themselves, and
receive any interpretation which the isolated words may bear, but
Scripture must interpret Scripture. Another obvious remark on this
subject is, that the Spirit of God is equally prominent in all parts of
the word of God. His intervention does not occur on rare occasions, as
the appearance of angels, or the Theophanies, of which mention is made
here and there in the sacred volume; but He is represented as everywhere
present and everywhere operative. We might as well strike from the
Bible the name and doctrine of God, as the name and office of the
Spirit.
In the New Testament alone He is mentioned not far from three
hundred times. It is not only, however, merely the frequency with which
the Spirit is mentioned, and the prominence given to his person and
work, but the multiplied and interesting relations in which He is
represented as standing to the people of God, the importance and number
of his gifts, and the absolute dependence of the believer and of the
Church upon Him for spiritual and eternal life, which render the
doctrine of the Holy Ghost absolutely fundamental to the gospel. The
work of the Spirit in applying the redemption of Christ is represented
to be as essential as that redemption itself. It is therefore
indispensable that we should know what the Bible teaches concerning the
Holy Ghost, both as to his nature and office.
PROOF OF HIS PERSONALITY. The Scriptures clearly
teach that He is a person. Personality includes intelligence, will, and
individual subsistence. If, therefore, it can be proved that all these
are attributed to the Spirit, it is thereby proved that He is a person.
It will not be necessary or advisable to separate the proofs of these
several points, and cite passages which ascribe to Him intelligence; and
then others, which attribute to Him will; and still others to prove his
individual subsistence, because all these are often included in one and
the same passage; and arguments which prove the one, in many cases
prove also the others.
1. The first argument for the personality of the Holy Spirit is
derived from the use of the personal pronouns in relation to Him. A
person is that which, when speaking, says I; when addressed, is called
thou; and when spoken of, is called he, or him. It is indeed admitted
that there is such a rhetorical figure as personification; that
inanimate or irrational beings, or sentiments, or attributes, may be
introduced as speaking, or addressed as persons. But this creates no
difficulty. The cases of personification are such as do not, except in
rare instances, admit of any doubt. The fact that men sometimes
apostrophize the heavens, or the elements, gives no pretext for
explaining as personification all the passages in which God or Christ is
introduced as a person. So also with regard to the Holy Spirit. He is
introduced as a person so often, not merely in poetic or excited
discourse, but in simple narrative, and in didactic instructions; and
his personality is sustained by so many collateral proofs, that to
explain the use of the personal pronouns in relation to Him on the
principle of personification, is to do violence to all the rules of
interpretation. Thus in Acts 13:2, “The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them.” Our Lord says (John 15:26),
“When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall
testify of me.” The use of the masculine pronoun He instead of it, shows
that the Spirit is a person. In the following chapter (John 16:13, 14)
It is there said, “When He the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide
you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He
shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come.
Be shall glorify me for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto
you.” Here there is no possibility of accounting for the use of the
personal pronoun He on any other ground than the personality of the
Spirit.
2. We stand in relations to the Holy Spirit which we can sustain only
to a person. He is the object of our faith. We believe on the Holy
Ghost. This faith we profess in baptism. We are baptized not only in the
name of the Father and of the Son, but also of the Holy Ghost. The very
association of the Spirit in such a connection, with the Father and the
Son, as they are admitted to be distinct persons, proves that the
Spirit also is a person. Besides the use of the words eiv to onoma, unto
the name, admits of no other explanation. By baptism we profess to
acknowledge the Spirit as we acknowledge the Father and the Son, and we
bind ourselves to the one as well as to the others. If when the Apostle
tells the Corinthians that they were not baptized “in the name of Paul,”
and when he says that the Hebrews were baptized unto Moses, he means
that the Corinthians were not, and that the Hebrews were made the
disciples, the one of Paul and the others of Moses; then when we are
baptized unto the name of the Spirit, the meaning is that in baptism we
profess to be his disciples; we bind ourselves to receive his
instructions, and to submit to his control. We stand in the same
relation to Him as to the Father and to the Son; we acknowledge Him to
be a person as distinctly as we acknowledge the personality of the Son,
or of the Father. Christians not only profess to believe on the Holy
Ghost, but they are also the recipients of his gifts. He is to them an
object of prayer. In the apostolic benediction, the grace of Christ, the
love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, are solemnly
invoked. We pray to the Spirit for the communication of Himself to us,
that He may, according to the promise of our Lord, dwell in us, as we
pray to Christ that we may be the objects of his unmerited love.
Accordingly we are exhorted not “to sin against,” “not to resist,” not
“to grieve” the Holy Spirit. He is represented, therefore, as a person
who can be the object of our acts; whom we may please or offend; with
whom we may have communion, i.e., personal intercourse; who can love and
be loved; who can say “thou” to us; and whom we can invoke in every
time of” need.
3. The Spirit also sustains relations to us, and performs offices
which none but a person can sustain or perform. He is our teacher,
sanctifier, comforter, and guide. He governs every believer who is led
by the Spirit, and the whole Church. He calls, as He called Barnabas and
Saul, to the work of the ministry, or to some special field of labor.
Pastors or bishops are made overseers by the Holy Ghost.
4. In the exercise of these and other functions, personal acts are
constantly attributed to the Spirit in the Bible; that is, such acts as
imply intelligence, will, and activity or power. The Spirit searches,
selects, reveals, and reproves. We often read that “The Spirit said.” (Acts 13:2; 21:11; 1 Timothy 4:1,
etc., etc.) This is so constantly done, that the Spirit appears as a
personal agent from one end of the Scriptures to the other, so that his
personality is beyond dispute. The only possible question is whether He
is a distinct person from the Father. But of this there can be no
reasonable doubt, as He is said to be the Spirit of God and the Spirit
which is of God; as He is distinguished from the Father in the forms of
baptism and benediction; as He proceeds from the Father; and as He is
promised, sent, and given by the Father. So that to confound the Holy
Spirit with God would be to render the Scriptures unintelligible.
5. All the elements of personality, namely, intelligence, will, and
individual subsistence, are not only involved in all that is thus
revealed concerning the relation in which the Spirit stands to us and
that which we sustain to Him, but they are all distinctly attributed to
Him. The Spirit is said to know, to will, and to act. He searches, or
knows all things, even the deep things of God. No man knoweth the things
of God, but the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12.) He distributes “to every man severally as he will.” (1 Corinthians 12:11.)
His individual subsistence is involved in his being an agent, and in
his being the object on which the activity of others terminates. If He
can be loved, reverenced, and obeyed, or offended and sinned against, He
must be a person.
6. The personal manifestations of the Spirit, when He descended on
Christ after his baptism, and upon the Apostles at the day of Pentecost,
of necessity involve His personal subsistence. It was not any attribute
of God, nor his mere efficiency, but God himself, that was manifested
in the burning bush, in the fire and clouds on Mount Sinai, in the
pillar which guided the Israelites through the wilderness, and in the
glory which dwelt in the Tabernacle and in the Temple.
7. The people of God have always regarded the Holy Spirit as a
person. They have looked to Him for instruction, sanctification,
direction, and comfort. This is part of their religion. Christianity
(subjectively considered) would not be what it is without this sense of
dependence on the Spirit, and this love and reverence for his person.
All the liturgies, prayers, and praises of the Church, are filled with
appeals and addresses to the Holy Ghost. This is a fact which admits of
no rational solution if the Scriptures do not really teach that the
Spirit is a distinct person. The rule: Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab
omnibus, is held by Protestants as well as by Romanists. It is not to
the authority of general consent as an evidence of truth, that
Protestants object, but to the applications made of it by the Papal
Church, and to the principle on which that authority is made to rest.
All Protestants admit that true believers in every age and country have
one faith, as well as one God and one Lord.
DIVINITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
On this subject there has been little dispute in the Church. The
Spirit is so prominently presented in the Bible as possessing divine
attributes, and exercising divine prerogatives, that since the fourth
century his true divinity has never been denied by those who admit his
personality.
1. In the Old Testament, all that is said of Jehovah is said of the
Spirit of Jehovah; and therefore, if the latter is not a mere periphrase
for the former, he must of necessity be divine. The expressions,
Jehovah said, and, the Spirit said, are constantly interchanged; and the
acts of the Spirit are said to be acts of God.
2. In the New Testament, the language of Jehovah is quoted as the language of the Spirit. In Isaiah 6:9, it is written, Jehovah said, “Go and tell this people,” etc. This passage is thus quoted by Paul, Acts 28:25, “Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet,” etc. In Jeremiah 31:31, 33, 34,
it is said, “Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel;” which is quoted by the Apostle
in Hebrews 10:15,
saying, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that
He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts,”
etc. Thus constantly the language of God is quoted as the language of
the Holy Ghost. The prophets were the messengers of God; they uttered
his words, delivered his commands, pronounced his threatenings, and
announced his promises, because they spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. They were the organs of God, because they were the organs of
the Spirit. The Spirit, therefore, must be God.
3. In the New Testament the same mode of representation is continued.
Believers are the temple of God, because the Spirit dwells in them. Ephesians 2:22: Ye are “a habitation of God through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” In Romans 8:9, 10,
the indwelling of Christ is said to be the indwelling of the Spirit of
Christ, and that is said to be the indwelling of the Spirit of God. In Acts 5:1–4, Ananias is said to have lied unto God because he lied against the Holy Ghost.
4. Our Lord and his Apostles constantly speak of the Holy Spirit as
possessing all divine perfections. Christ says, “All manner of sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” (Matthew 12:31.)
The unpardonable sin, then, is speaking against the Holy Ghost. This
could not be unless the Holy Ghost were God. The Apostle, in 1 Corinthians 2:10, 11,
says that the Spirit knows all things, even the deep things (the most
secret purposes) of God. His knowledge is commensurate with the
knowledge of God. He knows the things of God as the spirit of a man
knows the things of a man. The consciousness of God is the consciousness
of’ the Spirit. The Psalmist teaches us that the Spirit is omnipresent
and everywhere efficient. “Whither,” he asks, “shall I go from thy
Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (<19D907>Psalm 139:7.)
The presence of the Spirit is the presence of God. The same idea is
expressed by the prophet when he says, “Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and
earth? saith Jehovah.” (Jeremiah 23:24.)
5. The works of the Spirit are the works of God. He fashioned the world. (Genesis 1:2.)
He regenerates the soul: to be born of the Spirit is to be born of God.
He is the source of all knowledge; the giver of inspiration; the
teacher, the guide, the sanctifier, and the comforter of the Church in
all ages. He fashions our bodies; He formed the body of Christ, as a fit
habitation for the fullness of the Godhead; and He is to quicken our
mortal bodies. (Romans 8:11.)
6. He is therefore presented in the Scriptures as the proper object
of worship, not only in the formula of baptism and in the apostolic
benediction, which bring the doctrine of the Trinity into constant
remembrance as the fundamental truth of our religion, but also– in the
constant requirement that we look to Him and depend upon Him for all
spiritual good, and reverence and obey Him as our divine teacher and
sanctifier.
RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND TO THE SON
The relation of the Spirit to the other persons of the Trinity has
been stated before. (1.) He is the same in substance and equal in power
and glory. (2.) He is subordinate to the Father and Son, as to his mode
of subsistence and operation, as He is said to be of the Father and of
the Son; He is sent by them, and they operate through Him. (3.) He bears
the same relation to the Father as to the Son; as He is said to be of
the one as well as of the other, and He is given by the Son as well as
by the Father. (4.) His eternal relation to the other persons of the
Trinity is indicated by the word Spirit, and by its being said that he
is out of God, i.e., God is the source whence the Spirit is said to
proceed.
THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN NATURE
The general doctrine of the Scriptures on this subject is that the
Spirit is the executive of the Godhead. Whatever God does, He does by
the Spirit. He is the immediate source of all life. Even in the external
world the Spirit is everywhere present and everywhere active. Matter is
not intelligent. It has its peculiar properties, which act blindly
according to established laws. The intelligence, therefore, manifested
in vegetable and animal structures, is not to be referred to matter, but
to the omnipresent Spirit of God. It was He who brooded over the waters
and reduced chaos into order. It was He who garnished the heavens. It
is He that causes the grass to grow. The Psalmist says of all living
creatures, “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away
their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy
Spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:29, 30.) Compare Isaiah 32:14, 15. Job, speaking of his corporeal frame, says, “The Spirit of God hath made me.” (Job 33:4.)
And the Psalmist, after describing the omnipresence of the Spirit,
refers to his agency the wonderful mechanism of the human body. “I am
fearfully and wonderfully made…. my substance was not hid from thee,
when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowliest parts
of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and
in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were
fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:14-16.)
THE SPIRIT THE SOURCE OF ALL INTELLECTUAL LIFE
The Spirit is also represented as the source of all intellectual
life. When man was created it is said God “breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7.) Job 32:8,
says, The inspiration of the Almighty giveth men understanding, i.e., a
rational nature, for it is explained by saying, He “teacheth us more
than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of
heaven.” (Job 35:11.)
The Scriptures ascribe in like manner to Him all special or
extraordinary gifts. Thus it is said of Bezaleel, “I have called” him,
“and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in
understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to
devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass.” (Exodus 31:2, 3, 4.)
By his Spirit God gave Moses the wisdom requisite for his high duties,
and when he was commanded to devolve part of his burden upon the seventy
elders, it was said, “I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and
will put it upon them.” (Numbers 11:17.) Joshua was appointed to succeed Moses, because in him was the Spirit. (Numbers 27:18.)
In like manner the Judges, who from time to time were raised up, as
emergency demanded, were qualified by the Spirit for their peculiar
work, whether as rulers or as warriors. Of Othniel it is said, “The
Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel and went out to
war.” (Judges 3:10.)
So the Spirit of the Lord is said to have come upon Gideon and on
Jephthah and on Samson. When Saul offended God, the Spirit of the Lord
is said to have departed from him. (1 Samuel 16:14.) When Samuel anointed David, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him “from that day forward.” (1 Samuel 16:13.)
In like manner under the new dispensation the Spirit is represented
as not only the author of miraculous gifts, but also as the giver of the
qualifications to teach and rule in the Church. All these operations
are independent of the sanctifying influences of the Spirit. When the.
Spirit came on Samson or upon Saul, it was not to render them holy, but
to endue them with extraordinary physical and intellectual power; and
when He is said to have departed from them, it means that those
extraordinary endowments were withdrawn.
THE SPIRIT’S OFFICE IN THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
With regard to the office of the Spirit in the work of redemption, the Scriptures teach, –
1. That He fashioned the body, and endued the human soul of Christ
with every qualification for his work. To the Virgin Mary it was said,
“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee, shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35.)
The prophet Isaiah predicted that the Messiah should be replenished
with all spiritual gifts. “Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect
in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1.)
“There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon
him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:1, 2.) When our Lord appeared on earth, it is said that the Spirit without measure was given unto Him. (John 3:34.) “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” (John 1:32.) He was, therefore, said to have been full of the Holy Ghost.
2. That the Spirit is the revealer of all divine truth. The doctrines
of the Bible are called the things of the Spirit. With regard to the
writers of the Old Testament, it is said they spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. The language of Micah is applicable to all the
prophets, “Truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD and of
judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to
Israel his sin.” (Micah 3:8.)
What David said, the Holy Ghost is declared to have said. The New
Testament writers were in like manner the organs of the Spirit. The
doctrines which Paul preached he did not receive from men, “but God,” he
says, “hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:10.)
The Spirit also guided the utterance of those truths; for he adds,
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; communicating the things of
the Spirit in the words of the Spirit”, The whole Bible, therefore, is
to be referred to the Spirit as its author.
3. The Spirit not only thus reveals divine truth, having guided
infallibly holy men of old in recording it, but He everywhere attends it
by his power. All truth is enforced on the heart and conscience with
more or less power by the Holy Spirit, wherever that truth is known. To
this allpervading influence we are indebted for all there is of morality
and order in the world. But besides this general influence, which is
usually called common grace, the Spirit specially illuminates the minds
of the children of God, that they may know the things freely given (or
revealed to them) by God. The natural man does not receive them, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. All believers
are therefore called spiritual, because thus enlightened and guided by
the Spirit.
4. It is the special office of the Spirit to convince the world of
sin; to reveal Christ, to regenerate the soul, to lead men to the
exercise of faith and repentance; to dwell in those whom He thus renews,
as a principle of a new and divine life. By this indwelling of the
Spirit, believers are united to Christ, and to one another, so that they
form one body. This is the foundation of the communion of saints,
making them one in faith, one in love, one in their inward life, and one
in their hopes and final destiny.
5. The Spirit also calls men to office in the Church, and endows them
with the qualifications necessary for the successful discharge of its
duties. The office of the Church, in this matter, is simply to ascertain
and authenticate the call of the Spirit. Thus the Holy Ghost is the
immediate author of all truth, of all holiness, of all consolation, of
all authority, and of all efficiency in the children of God
individually, and in the Church collectively.
