In the last article, we established from Scripture the personhood of the Holy Spirit through the demonstration of four tests: pronouns, intellect, will, and affections. Scripture provides an abundance of evidence that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or power, but a person like God the Father and God the Son. However, the Holy Spirit is not only a person but also God.
You Lied to God
One of the most explicit passages in Scripture that teaches the full divinity of the Holy Spirit is found in the book of Acts:
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God” (Acts 5:1-4)
Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was that they were not honest about their donations to the church. They pretended that their donation of money to the church was greater than what it really was. But while Ananias and Sapphira tried to deceive the church, Peter concludes that they lied to the Holy Spirit. More importantly, in the next verse, Peter declares to them, “You have not lied to man but to God.” No distinctions are made between God and the Holy Spirit. R.C Sproul writes, “The clear implication is that the Holy Spirit is God.”[1]
“Negatively, we can completely remove the belief that the Holy Spirit is a vague, cold, impersonal force or power. Positively, from the Scriptural evidence provided, we can affirm with full confidence that the Holy Spirit is fully God and therefore considered the third person of the Godhead.”
– Julio Rodriguez
Attributes of God
Moreover, Scripture describes the Holy Spirit with characteristics and qualities that are essential to the very being of God. More specifically, the New Testament describes the Holy Spirit with God’s incommunicable attributes. That is, attributes of God that no other creature can have but God alone, such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence eternality, aseity, and perfection.[2]
Eternality
For example, we read in Hebrews 9:14: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” The adjective used to describe the Holy Spirit is eternal, that is, everlasting and forever. The attribute is only for God.
Omniscience
In addition, “These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is him? (1 Cor. 2:10-11). The passage attributes the Holy Spirit with omniscience, which is the ability to know all things, events, and circumstances in an immediate and perfect way. Like the attribute of eternality, omniscience is an attribute that belongs to God and Him alone.
Omnipotent
Furthermore, Scripture attributes omnipotence to the Holy Spirit. Omnipotence means all-powerful. We can read this in the first two verses of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and the darkness over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen.1:2). The Spirit of God hovering over the newly formed earth implies that He was not only part of creation but about bringing order and life to what was dark and void.
Omnipresence
And lastly, Scripture attributes omnipresence to the Holy Spirit. Omnipresence is a term that describes God as infinite and present everywhere in creation. “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me” (Ps. 139:7-10).
Conclusion
Like the personhood of the Holy Spirit, Scripture provides sufficient evidence, explicitly and implicitly, from Genesis to Revelation, that the Holy Spirit is God.
Negatively, we can completely remove the belief that the Holy Spirit is a vague, cold, impersonal force or power. Positively, from the Scriptural evidence provided, we can affirm with full confidence that the Holy Spirit is fully God and therefore considered the third person of the Godhead.
[1] R. C. Sproul, Who Is the Holy Spirit?, vol. 13, The Crucial Questions Series (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2012), 11.
[2] Westminster Theological Dictionary
