It has generally always been recognised by all professing the Christian name that the Holy Spirit is at least a divine influence, but it has not always been acknowledged that He is a Divine Person within the God-head. There is a great danger at the present time in the fact that, although much is said about the Holy Spirit, many deny His personality.
Professor Smeaton puts the position very clearly in his book on The Holy Spirit:—
“The Scriptures distinctly recognise the Spirit as a Person. We have only to recall the language used in reference to THE COMFORTER to be convinced of this. To compensate for the loss incurred by the departure of the Lord Jesus to the Father, He promised that He would send another Comforter, who should take His place as their immediate Teacher, Helper and Protector, and thus supply the want of His own presence, the anticipated loss of which filled them with trouble and dismay. When we look at the Persons referred to in that promise, it would be a perversion of language to suppose that a mere quality or influence is meant in any of the personal allusions. The sender is certainly different from the person who is sent: for we do not speak of sending a quality on an errand. Nor does ANYONE SEND HIMSELF FROM HIMSELF, as the Sabellian must put it when he interprets the words: “When THE COMFORTER is come, whom I WILL send to you from the Father ” (John xv. 26). Whether we accept one rendering or another of the word Comforter, whether we make it TEACHER with Ernesti, or HELPER, or ADVOCATE, or PATRON with others, it is obvious to every mind that He who was to compensate the disciples and the Church, of which they were the first-fruits, for the loss of Christ’s visible presence, was certainly a Person. The refusal to accept the Spirit’s personality in that text compels the interpreter, if consistent with himself, to DENY THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST in whose room He came. That is the alternative before him which no ingenuity can evade. And the absurdity is not less obvious of identifying the title Comforter or Paraclete with the impersonal gifts which the apostles subsequently received. That such a comment is untenable, is clear from the explicit announcements that the Spirit should teach them all things (John xix. 26); guide them into all truth (xvi. 13); bring all things to their remembrance (xiv. 26); glorify Christ by receiving of His, and showing it to His disciples (xvi. 14). It is not possible more explicitly to distinguish a person from the works which he performs. Nor ought we to omit a noteworthy peculiarity in the THREE passages which refer to the Comforter. A change of gender in the use of the masculine demonstrative pronoun (‘ekeinos) forestalls the possibility of putting any other sense than a personal reference upon the words. Thus it is said: ” The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He (‘ekeinos) shall teach you all things ” (John xiv. 26); ” When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father, He (‘ekeinos) shall testify of me “; ” Howbeit, when He (‘ekeinos), the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: For He shall not speak of (better: from) Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He (‘ekeinos) shall glorify me ” (xvi. 13: 14).
The unbiassed sense of unlettered men, who are beyond the influence of the theological currents, is alive to the fact that the meaning of many passages is lost, unless we think of the Holy Ghost as a Person, and not a mere influence or energy. To lie to the Holy Ghost (Acts v. 3), to grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Eph. iv. 30), are expressions which, as every reflecting mind perceives, imply a Person who is pleased or displeased; and they cannot, with any propriety or fitness, be referred to what is impersonal.
The Book of Acts, specially prepared, as we have seen, to exhibit historically the Spirit’s operations in the Church after the Lord’s ascension, contains allusions to the personal leading of the Spirit on the mind of all Christ’s servants, and in the formation of the various Churches. Thus He said to Philip, who had been directed to the way along which the chamberlain of the Ethiopian Queen was returning home: “Go near and join thyself to this chariot” (viii. 29); and after that mission was successfully accomplished, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip (viii. 39). To Peter, when the deputation for Cornelius arrived at Joppa, the Spirit said: “Behold, three men seek thee” (x. 19). When Saul of Tarsus was set apart to his great Gentile commission, which made him in a peculiar sense the apostle of the Gentiles, the Holy Ghost said to the prophets and teachers who were ministering to the Lord in the Church at Antioch: “Separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” (xiii. 2). When Paul and Timothy attempted to go into Bithynia, the Spirit suffered them not (xvi. 7). When the members constituting the council at Jerusalem gave forth the result of their deliberations for the guidance of the Churches in reference to the observance of the Jewish rites, they said: “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us” (xv. 28)—language which could not have been used if the Holy Spirit were nothing but an influence. When He commissioned the apostles, and either directed or forbade them to do this or that according to His will, the language attests a free and sovereign agent, unless we are prepared to abandon the literal sense of words and the style of historic narrative. Fritzsche, in his learned treatise on the Spirit, correctly maintains—though the treatise is unsatisfactory as a statement of ecclesiastical doctrine—that it is clear as noonday that Scripture speaks of a Person or subsistence, not of a divine influence or energy; and the Christian Church from the beginning, notwithstanding the deflections of individuals, may be said to have asserted the Spirit’s personality, and to have based it on the Scriptures. Collecting the evidence supplied by the survey of Scripture, we may put the arguments for the personality of the Spirit under the six following heads:—
- The personal actions ascribed to Him abundantly prove it. (John xiv. 26; 1 Cor. xii. 11).
- His distinction from the Father and the Son, and His mission from both, prove it. (John xv. 26).
- The co-ordinate rank and power which belong to Him equally with the Father and the Son prove it. (Matt. xxviii. 19; 2 Cor. xiii. 14).
- His appearance under a visible form at the baptism of Christ and on the day of Pentecost proves it.
- The sin against the Holy Ghost implying a Person proves it.
- The way in which He is distinguished from His gifts proves it. (1 Cor. xii. 11).
The glorification of the Holy Ghost in connection with the Church is still future. Passage after passage might be adduced to show that He occupies a co-ordinate rank with the other Persons. But the completion of the Church opens a vista into the future. The appearance of Christ among men ushered in a full historical revelation of the Son in word and deed; and the abasement to which He stooped was followed by an equally conspicuous exaltation. With the Holy Ghost it is not so yet. He dwells in redeemed hearts bought with a price. He occupies a co-ordinate rank. But His work is still unseen. The personality and Deity of the Spirit are, however, one day to be displayed in conspicuous glory in connection with His work upon the Church, when He shall have completed the marvellous transformation. The final issue in the glory reflected from every redeemed and perfected saint, and from the entire body of Christ now scattered over every country, and visited from hour to hour with new communications of wisdom, grace, and power, but then seen to be united to their glorious Head, will be worthy of the divine workman who is carrying on His transforming work, and raising up a temple in which the Godhead shall dwell forever. At present the divine personality of the Spirit is less perceptible, because it is not beheld in connection with the accomplished work. The redeemed are not yet perfect; the Church is not yet complete. There is still another stage of revelation, when the Spirit shall be glorified in connection with the work which He shall have finished and brought to its destined completeness.”
Note.—The aforesaid article is the last of a series of twelve sent in by Rev. D. MacLean, Glasgow. Thanks is due to Mr MacLean.—Editor.