The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity. Along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is the one true and living God. The Bible has a great deal to say about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Here we will summarize just some of the key points:
The Holy Spirit is YHWH
First and foremost, we must be clear that the Holy Spirit is YHWH (Yahweh, Jehovah, the LORD). He is the true and living God. YHWH (the personal name of the one and only God in all of existence) exists in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For most people, it is uncontroversial that the Father is YHWH (though passages like Psalm 110 make this explicit for those who doubt). The New Testament likewise makes it repeatedly clear that the Son is YHWH. Yet, there are passages that also identify the Holy Spirit as YHWH. For example:
“Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’” (Hebrews 3:7-11).
The author of Hebrews is quite explicit that the person speaking these words was the Holy Spirit. Yet, these are the words of Israel’s God whom they tested in the wilderness and who did not let them enter His rest. In other words, these are the words of the LORD, of Jehovah, of YHWH. Thus, the Holy Spirit is the LORD! Paul explicitly says the same:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Likewise, the Holy Spirit is identified with the one and only God in many other ways. For example, lying to the Holy Spirit is used as a synonym for lying to God:
“But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4).
Thus, when we ask “who is the Holy Spirit?”, the answer is that He is the LORD God! He is YHWH! He is the third person of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is Personal
Many people speak of the Holy Spirit as “it” and think of Him more as a power or force that extends from God rather than as a conscious person. Yet, in the passages cited above, we have already seen that the Spirit speaks, can be tested, does works, get’s angry, etc., (see Hebrews 3:7-11), which are all inherently personal qualities. We’ve likewise read that the Holy Spirit can be lied to (see Acts 5:3). One cannot lie to an impersonal force like gravity or electricity, nor to some God-given inner motivation or enthusiasm. You don’t lie to an “it,” you lie to a “who”. Thus, many of the same texts that show us that the Holy Spirit is the one true God also make clear that the Holy Spirit is a person. Other texts confirm this, such as Jesus’ discussion of the Holy Spirit as our helper sent to teach us (John 14:16-17, 26, 16:13), or places where the Holy Spirit is said to experience personal emotions like grief (Isaiah 63:10, Ephesians 4:30).
The Spirit is Creator
We often think about God the Father as Creator, and so He is! We likewise remember texts like John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:16 that tell us that God the Son created all things, and so He did! Yet, from the very beginning, the Scriptures also tell us of the Holy Spirit’s role in Creation:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters,” (Genesis 1:1-2).
The Psalms praise God for the Holy Spirits creative acts:
“O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions…You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the ground,” (Psalm 104:24, 30).
Creation was an act of the Triune God such that all three persons of the Trinity can rightly be called “creator.”
He is God present with His people
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to be our Helper. That, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, God dwells with those who are His people. Jesus said:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you,” (John 14:16-20).
In the person of the Holy Spirit, God teaches and guides us into all truth:
“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 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 that I said to you.” (John 14:25-26).
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and testifies of the Son:
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,” (John 15:26).
Thus, we know the Triune God directly through the person of the Holy Spirit who is present with and in all who believe the gospel.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin
Yet, the Spirit also acts on those who do not believe. He has come not only to help God’s people, but also to convict the world of sin:
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;” (John 16:7-8).
The Holy Spirit is the giver of God’s gifts
It is likewise the Holy Spirit who gives spiritual gifts to God’s people, distributing them to each believer as He sees fit for the unity and edification of all:
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills,” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
The Holy Spirit is the seal of God’s promises
Lastly, the Holy Spirit dwells with us now as a sign and seal of the promise of the Triune God to dwell with us more fully in the age to come. He serves as the pledge of God’s future promises. Our communion with the Holy Spirit now as a precious proof and foretaste of what is to come. Paul writes:
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory,” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
He echoes this later in the same letter:
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption,” (Ephesians 4:30).
Paul likewise wrote to the Corinthians:
“For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge,” (2 Corinthians 1:20-22).
Elaborating on these promises, he wrote:
“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2).
And then noted:
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge,” (2 Corinthians 5:5).
Thus, by dwelling with us now in the person of the Holy Spirit, God seals and guarantees all His promises regarding our living with Him forever in the age to come.
