A.K.A... the most insightful thing I've ever written, ever.
Note: I have to thank my buddy Chad for helping me find scripture that has lead to these conclusions and his father Chip for posing the question to me in the first place.
“Is the Holy Spirit a person,” I was asked tonight. It is an interesting question if you think about it. Go past your immediate response and consider the options. First we must define what it means to be a person. To me, in context with being a human being, a person is defined by a three-fold combination of body (our physical selves), soul (our mind, will, and emotions), and spirit (that metaphysical quality that is beyond the mind’s full comprehension because it is not a part of it). My faith obviously dictates this belief. Our being made in God’s image (see Gen 1:26) is reflected, in part, by our three part identity. Just as God himself is a combination of three entities (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), he made us to function as a whole composed three separate, yet dependant members.
Of course this philosophy of humanness raises many questions, some of which I don’t have answers for. Such as, “is an individual handicapped by mental retardation or comatose not considered a human person?” A legitimate concern for another time, as my purpose is to discuss the character of God, not of man.
If our three-part being is a reflection of our Creator, then mustn’t our Creator also be of three parts? Scripture is clear in its explanation of God as a three-part being. And it is no more evident and beautifully revealed than in Matt. 3:16-17:
Return to Genesis 1:26. God is hinting at this truth from the very beginning. Notice how, when Moses writes about us being created in God’s image, the Lord declares, “Let Us make man in Our image.” The first time I ever read that verse my mind went racing. What is this Us about?! Who is this Our? I thought Christianity was monotheistic. There is only one God, right?
This is why the question of the Holy Spirit as a person becomes so important. If the Holy Spirit is a person, then Jesus is a person and so then the Heavenly Father. That’s three persons, not one. And that is not how the Bible describes God. The concept of God as 3-in-1 is essential to our faith, possibly its most fundamental concept. If this were not true, the whole concept (that’s a bad term here) of Christianity would unravel.
In the early days of the Church, in order to reverently present the image of God, painters used icons and symbols to express the concept of the trinity. An angel from heaven (representative of the Father) would be looking down upon the Christ-child Jesus who is reaching for a dove (the Holy Spirit). We’ve all seen the image of the three equal-sized circles interlocking with each other. Early disciples understood the relevance of this concept of a triune God, and we would fare well to do likewise.
Let’s talk about this triune God. We associate different aspects of our God with each part of God, and that is because each part serves a different function. Often we view the Father in Heaven as a mighty disciplinarian. He is who we think of when we hear, “Fear the Lord your God!” This part of God is active throughout the Old Testament; leading, judging, and guiding the people of Israel. We encounter this part of God with Moses at the burning bush and, in the new testament, Paul on the road to Damascus. Then there is the Holy Spirit. Its grand entrance (literally) can be found in Acts 2:1-4. The disciples are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do with work of the Lord. Christ referred to the Holy Spirit as the great comforter and empowerer. Then there is Jesus Christ himself, existing before the dawn of time (Prov. 8:22-31), coming to Earth as a baby, living, dieing, then raising again. But they are all a part of one ultimate supreme being, the 3-in-1, as it were.
I remember being a kid and thinking how dangerously silly God was for coming to earth as a baby. I pictured Him jumping down from heaven, into Mary’s womb, and then popping out as close to Christmas as He could, all the while leaving the great heavenly war against the Devil practically unattended, save Michael and Gabriel, who could hardly be expected to handle everything on their own (especially since I ordered them to watch over me as I slept every night). I was always afraid that things were going to run amuck in the heavenlies while Jesus was waiting to grow up in human form for He only knows what reason. It didn’t make since to me and now I understand why. When Mom told me Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Big Papa were all the same person my little kid brain couldn’t processes the whole idea if the 3-in-1.
Next to consider is the fact that each part of God is equally important. This creates a balance to God that allows righteousness, forgiveness and freedom to become the central qualities in the lives of believers. The righteousness of the Father is upheld by the forgiveness afforded by the Son to pave the way for freedom and power in the Holy Spirit. Think again of the three interlocking circles to better make my point. Scripture is full of Jesus exalting His Father. And He is endlessly explaining to the disciples that He must leave so the Spirit can come. The Father’s heart for his Son is sung throughout scripture and the Holy Spirit is the great glorifier of the Lord. This is beautiful to me. Not just as a concept but as an actuality. It is the greatest expression of unity imaginable (if you can even wrap your mind around it) and reveals the origin of God’s love. The unity among His members is its source, which is why that unity can never be broken and most always be remembered.
And here is where the trouble starts. Just like me as a little kid, a lot of folks’ brains haven’t grown up to where they can understand this essential quality of who God is. Whenever we hear the terms Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, or Heavenly Father, we separate these parts of who God is into individual identities. We conceptualize the different parts of our God without bearing in mind the other two. This is a dangerous game to play. We focus on Christ too often with out considering the Father. We teach about the Spirit while forgetting Christ. And, worst yet, we consider the Father without the Son or the Spirit! Why is this a problem? Anytime we take a part of God out of context with the whole we run the risk of drifting too far to the right or to the left theologically and practically with the way we live out or faith day-to-day. We fall guilty of overemphasizing one aspect of God and over looking another. Instead of a holistic faith we end up with shabby religion and TBN, prosperity gospels and bigitrous attitudes towards those that are different from us. Apply the thought throughout history and it becomes all too clear. The Catholic church just seems corrupt from the every beginning so they don’t count. But think about the Puritans. They focused on the righteousness of God and forgot about the love of Jesus. Conversely, hippy-Christians forgot about His righteousness. Then there are the Charismatics that are so obsessed with the Holy Spirit they are sometimes like, “Jesus Who?” Scariest of all are the Baptist (or we could even say “the moral majority”), who slightly resemble the Puritans, enacting the judgment of God upon heathen persons themselves only more oblivious to what they profess to believe in. Disbanding the trinity in our thinking neuters the gospel because it makes it impossible for the full purpose and work of God to flow through our lives.
I see this in my life everyday. I claim to understand what Jesus was all about and how we should be loving everybody and forgivin’ folks and all that kind of stuff. But sometimes I forget the place of the Father’s discipline and the need for righteousness. Thus, I end up screwing the whole thing up because I get mad at other Christians for not shifting their focus to centralize on Christ like I do. The Holy Spirit I just don’t get so I leave Him out of the picture completely. So I walk around most of the time powerless and without freedom. See how this works (err… doesn’t work)?
My senior quote was Isaiah 6:8, “And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, And who will go for US.'” God knows Isaiah is listening, isn’t it funny that in calling His servant He reminds him that God is a trinity? There is another truth to be uncovered here also; to do God’s work effectively we must do it while considering the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because you’re going to need all three of them to chip in if you want to be successful. The next time some starts to spout off about one of the parts (I wish I knew a better word) of God, ask them how it relates to the other two. It will be revolutionizing at best, eye opening at worst.
But back to the original question, “is the Holy Spirit a person?” Good question…
Note: I have to thank my buddy Chad for helping me find scripture that has lead to these conclusions and his father Chip for posing the question to me in the first place.
“Is the Holy Spirit a person,” I was asked tonight. It is an interesting question if you think about it. Go past your immediate response and consider the options. First we must define what it means to be a person. To me, in context with being a human being, a person is defined by a three-fold combination of body (our physical selves), soul (our mind, will, and emotions), and spirit (that metaphysical quality that is beyond the mind’s full comprehension because it is not a part of it). My faith obviously dictates this belief. Our being made in God’s image (see Gen 1:26) is reflected, in part, by our three part identity. Just as God himself is a combination of three entities (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), he made us to function as a whole composed three separate, yet dependant members.
Of course this philosophy of humanness raises many questions, some of which I don’t have answers for. Such as, “is an individual handicapped by mental retardation or comatose not considered a human person?” A legitimate concern for another time, as my purpose is to discuss the character of God, not of man.
If our three-part being is a reflection of our Creator, then mustn’t our Creator also be of three parts? Scripture is clear in its explanation of God as a three-part being. And it is no more evident and beautifully revealed than in Matt. 3:16-17:
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Return to Genesis 1:26. God is hinting at this truth from the very beginning. Notice how, when Moses writes about us being created in God’s image, the Lord declares, “Let Us make man in Our image.” The first time I ever read that verse my mind went racing. What is this Us about?! Who is this Our? I thought Christianity was monotheistic. There is only one God, right?
This is why the question of the Holy Spirit as a person becomes so important. If the Holy Spirit is a person, then Jesus is a person and so then the Heavenly Father. That’s three persons, not one. And that is not how the Bible describes God. The concept of God as 3-in-1 is essential to our faith, possibly its most fundamental concept. If this were not true, the whole concept (that’s a bad term here) of Christianity would unravel.
In the early days of the Church, in order to reverently present the image of God, painters used icons and symbols to express the concept of the trinity. An angel from heaven (representative of the Father) would be looking down upon the Christ-child Jesus who is reaching for a dove (the Holy Spirit). We’ve all seen the image of the three equal-sized circles interlocking with each other. Early disciples understood the relevance of this concept of a triune God, and we would fare well to do likewise.Let’s talk about this triune God. We associate different aspects of our God with each part of God, and that is because each part serves a different function. Often we view the Father in Heaven as a mighty disciplinarian. He is who we think of when we hear, “Fear the Lord your God!” This part of God is active throughout the Old Testament; leading, judging, and guiding the people of Israel. We encounter this part of God with Moses at the burning bush and, in the new testament, Paul on the road to Damascus. Then there is the Holy Spirit. Its grand entrance (literally) can be found in Acts 2:1-4. The disciples are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do with work of the Lord. Christ referred to the Holy Spirit as the great comforter and empowerer. Then there is Jesus Christ himself, existing before the dawn of time (Prov. 8:22-31), coming to Earth as a baby, living, dieing, then raising again. But they are all a part of one ultimate supreme being, the 3-in-1, as it were.
I remember being a kid and thinking how dangerously silly God was for coming to earth as a baby. I pictured Him jumping down from heaven, into Mary’s womb, and then popping out as close to Christmas as He could, all the while leaving the great heavenly war against the Devil practically unattended, save Michael and Gabriel, who could hardly be expected to handle everything on their own (especially since I ordered them to watch over me as I slept every night). I was always afraid that things were going to run amuck in the heavenlies while Jesus was waiting to grow up in human form for He only knows what reason. It didn’t make since to me and now I understand why. When Mom told me Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Big Papa were all the same person my little kid brain couldn’t processes the whole idea if the 3-in-1.
Next to consider is the fact that each part of God is equally important. This creates a balance to God that allows righteousness, forgiveness and freedom to become the central qualities in the lives of believers. The righteousness of the Father is upheld by the forgiveness afforded by the Son to pave the way for freedom and power in the Holy Spirit. Think again of the three interlocking circles to better make my point. Scripture is full of Jesus exalting His Father. And He is endlessly explaining to the disciples that He must leave so the Spirit can come. The Father’s heart for his Son is sung throughout scripture and the Holy Spirit is the great glorifier of the Lord. This is beautiful to me. Not just as a concept but as an actuality. It is the greatest expression of unity imaginable (if you can even wrap your mind around it) and reveals the origin of God’s love. The unity among His members is its source, which is why that unity can never be broken and most always be remembered.
And here is where the trouble starts. Just like me as a little kid, a lot of folks’ brains haven’t grown up to where they can understand this essential quality of who God is. Whenever we hear the terms Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, or Heavenly Father, we separate these parts of who God is into individual identities. We conceptualize the different parts of our God without bearing in mind the other two. This is a dangerous game to play. We focus on Christ too often with out considering the Father. We teach about the Spirit while forgetting Christ. And, worst yet, we consider the Father without the Son or the Spirit! Why is this a problem? Anytime we take a part of God out of context with the whole we run the risk of drifting too far to the right or to the left theologically and practically with the way we live out or faith day-to-day. We fall guilty of overemphasizing one aspect of God and over looking another. Instead of a holistic faith we end up with shabby religion and TBN, prosperity gospels and bigitrous attitudes towards those that are different from us. Apply the thought throughout history and it becomes all too clear. The Catholic church just seems corrupt from the every beginning so they don’t count. But think about the Puritans. They focused on the righteousness of God and forgot about the love of Jesus. Conversely, hippy-Christians forgot about His righteousness. Then there are the Charismatics that are so obsessed with the Holy Spirit they are sometimes like, “Jesus Who?” Scariest of all are the Baptist (or we could even say “the moral majority”), who slightly resemble the Puritans, enacting the judgment of God upon heathen persons themselves only more oblivious to what they profess to believe in. Disbanding the trinity in our thinking neuters the gospel because it makes it impossible for the full purpose and work of God to flow through our lives.
I see this in my life everyday. I claim to understand what Jesus was all about and how we should be loving everybody and forgivin’ folks and all that kind of stuff. But sometimes I forget the place of the Father’s discipline and the need for righteousness. Thus, I end up screwing the whole thing up because I get mad at other Christians for not shifting their focus to centralize on Christ like I do. The Holy Spirit I just don’t get so I leave Him out of the picture completely. So I walk around most of the time powerless and without freedom. See how this works (err… doesn’t work)?
My senior quote was Isaiah 6:8, “And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, And who will go for US.'” God knows Isaiah is listening, isn’t it funny that in calling His servant He reminds him that God is a trinity? There is another truth to be uncovered here also; to do God’s work effectively we must do it while considering the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because you’re going to need all three of them to chip in if you want to be successful. The next time some starts to spout off about one of the parts (I wish I knew a better word) of God, ask them how it relates to the other two. It will be revolutionizing at best, eye opening at worst.
But back to the original question, “is the Holy Spirit a person?” Good question…
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