Blessed
is he that readeth, and they that hear the words
of this prophecy, and keep those things which are
written therein: for the time is at hand.
Revelation 1:3
The Holy Spirit is a Coeternal Member of
the Trinity-Christians, Three Gods and the
Trinity (Pt. 8)
You
may have noticed by now that this study on the
Trinity has been more about resolving specific
concepts presented in Scripture than merely
offering a collection of proof texts.
These concepts are encompassing and require more
than a single God in the Godhead. Consider this
axiom: Truth is proven true by the harmony
that comes from the sum of its parts.
This means that what may be considered truth
within six proof texts may not be
true when four more proof texts are
added. Therefore, to resolve many apparent
conflicts, this study on the Trinity includes
several topics that many people do not ordinarily
associate with a study of the Godhead. To
complete this series on the Trinity, we need to
examine the Holy Spirit. Is He an equal,
separate, distinct, coeternal member of the
Godhead or is He aninfluence that
exists between the Father and Jesus? Please
consider the following:
#1
The Holy Spirit Has a Will, He Can Speak, Hear,
Think and Bring Glory to Jesus
Shortly
before His death, Jesus told His disciples,But
when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will
guide you into all truth. He will not speak on
His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He
will tell you what is yet to come. He will
bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and
making it known to you. (John 16:13,14) Clearly, Jesus
described an intelligent being, a third party who
can think, hear, speak on His own and
independently carry out a mission of bringing
glory to Jesus. Consider the breakdown:
He will not speak on His
own . . . This
statement indicates the Holy Spirit has a
will.Hewillnot
. . . He can speak on
His own and for Himself, but Jesus said
the Holy Spirit will not do so.
This is because when the members of the
Godhead formed, each God surrendered
Himself to the other two. They
agreed at that time the role of the Holy
Spirit would be to serve as a faithful
conduit between the Godhead and the
universe. In other words, the God
we now call the Holy Spirit gave up 2/3
of His rights and prerogatives to glorify
the other two Gods!
He will speak only what He
hears . . . This
phrase means the Holy Spirit is the
Revealer of Gods will and truth,
but the Holy Spirit only reveals as the
Father and Jesus allow. He neither
lags behind nor accelerates ahead.
He stays in-sync with the Father and
Jesus at all times.
Like the Father and Jesus, the Holy
Spirit has intelligence and reasoning
powers. Jesus said,He
will bring glory to me . . . The
Holy Spirit loves and exalts Jesus the
same way the Father loves and exalts
Jesus. (John 13:31,32;17:1,5) Each
selfless member of the Godhead exalts the
other two above Himself. The Holy
Spirit delights in bringing glory to
Jesus in the same way the Father was
delighted to give Jesus His throne in
1798.
He will guide you into all
truth. This
authority, which belongs to the Holy
Spirit, shows the Holy Spirit has a work
which the Father and Jesus cannot
do. The Holy Spirit guides the
children of God into all truth as the
Father or Jesus advances truth. The Holy
Spirit is our critical link with the
Godhead and through Him, we advance in
our understanding of truth. In our
first study, we learned that Jesus spoke
the Fathers testimony through Jesus
lips. The Father wanted the Jews to
know that Jesus was His equal.
During the past 2,000 years, the Holy
Spirit has given a greater understanding
of truth and soon, He will convey the
testimony of Jesus through the lips of
the 144,000. The Holy Spirit does
this so that Gods children might
knowwhat is yet to
come.
Given
the specifications inJohn 16:13,14, Jesus indicated the
Holy Spirit is a hearing, thinking, speaking,
member of deity who has His own will. The
Holy Spirit is not an influence or a
sweet fragrance (as some people
suggest) that exists between the Father and
Jesus.
#2
The Holy Spirit Has a Distinct Role and Purpose
The
second verse in the Bible specifically mentions
the Holy Spirit:Now the Earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the
surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2) The
Spirit of God was hovering over the waters prior
to Creation because He was ready toconnect the
forthcoming children of God to the Father and to
Jesus.
The
Holy Spirit serves the whole universe as a
two-way conduit. Through the Holy Spirit,
the Father and Jesussend their
happiness, righteousness, joy, peace, grace, and
power to us (this transfer is also called the
fruits of the Spirit Galatians 5:22,23). Wesend our
prayers, thoughts, fears, feelings, concerns,
praise and whatever else may concern us through
the Holy Spirit back to the Father and
Jesus! This transfer is 100% efficient,
nothing is lost. Paul wrote,The
Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know
what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express. And He who searches our hearts
knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints in accordance with Gods
will. (Romans 8:26,27) Because the
Holy Spirit also is a God, the Father and Jesus
understand the mind of the Spirit
perfectly. When we need comfort, they know
it and send comfort to us through the indwelling
Spirit! When we need faith, the Holy Spirit
immediately informs the Father and Jesus and we
are blessed with it. (CompareJohn 12:49 withMark 13:11.) The
Holy Spirit intimately knows us, our hearts, and
our motives. He never tires of interceding
on behalf of the saints. This is not the
work of aninfluence that
exists between two Gods. It is the work of
an infinitely intelligent and divinely capable
member of deity.
#3
The Holy Spirit Did Everything Possible to Bring
the Antediluvians to Repentance
Jesus
spoke to Noah before the flood and said,My
Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he
is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty
years. (Genesis 6:3) After
the 120 years expired, the flood came and washed
them all away. The flood was necessary
because the antediluvians had blasphemed the Holy
Spirit. They shut out His inner voice by
choosing the ways of wickedness instead of
righteousness. They became engrossed and numbed
by sin. They opposed righteousness and when
Jesus saw that He could do nothing further with
such hateful and violent people, He destroyed
them. There is a simple explanation for the
increase of wickedness:The
man without the Spirit does not accept the things
that come from the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him, and he cannot understand
them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
If the Holy Spirit is grieved away by defiance, a
God of love is forced to accept it because He
will not violate a persons free will.
#4
Ananias and Sapphira Lied to the Holy Spirit
Because
the Holy Spirit is an all seeing
member of deity, He recognizes a lie when He
hears it. In fact, the Holy Spirit killed
Ananias and his wife for lying to Him! Then
Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan
has so filled your heart that you have lied to
the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some
of the money you received for the land? Didnt
it belong to you before it was sold? And after it
was sold, wasnt the money at your disposal?
What made you think of doing such a thing? You
have not lied to men but to God. (Acts 5:3,4) Because the Holy
Spirit is a member of deity, He can give life and
He can take life. In fact, the Holy Spirit
resurrected Jesus and gave Him life! And
if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the
dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from
the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
The
Holy Spirit is often mentioned in the Bible in
the possessive case, that is, the Holy Spirit
appears to belong to someone. Remember,
Jesus said inGenesis 6:3,My
Spiritwill not always strive with
man and Paul wrote inRomans 8:11,The
Spirit of Himof who raised Jesus
from the dead The simple
reason for this is the Holy Spirit serves the
Father and Jesus. They tell the Spirit what
to do and He (who hears and intelligently
responds) implements their wishes. The Holy
Spirit is submissive to their commands and this
explains why possessive language is used.
#5
Blaspheming (Insulting) the Holy Spirit Is the
Unpardonable Sin
Jesus
said:And so I tell you, every
sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the
blasphemy against the Spirit will not be
forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against
the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who
speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be
forgiven, either in this age or in the age to
come[throughout eternity]. (Matthew 12:31,32)
The
Holy Spirit is the only member of the Godhead
that is omnipresent. This is why Jesus told
His disciples,But I tell you
the truth: It is for your good that I am going
away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not
come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7) Even
though the Spirit is unseen, He is everywhere,
seeing everything at the same instant.
David wrote,Where can I go[to
hide]from your Spirit? Where can I
flee from your presence? If I go up to the
Heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the
depths, you are there.(Psalm 139:7,8, insertion mine)
The
Holy Spirit is the only member of deity that can
livewithin each child of God
at the same instant. The Father and Jesus
are physically limited but the Spirit is
everywhere! Through the Holy Spirit, the
Father and Jesus know everything occurring
because the Spirit updates the Father and Jesus
constantly. The Holy Spirit is our only
connection with the Father and Jesus. If we
defy the Spirit and shut Him out of our lives, we
cannot connect with God and God cannot connect
with us. If we continue to violate the
efforts of the Holy Spirit by doing evil, He will
leave us alone because He is not permitted to
override a defiant will. People who commit
the unpardonable sin are not drawn to God and
have no interest in serving God, repenting of
their sins, or glorifying God with their
lives. This is why rejecting the Holy
Spirit is eternally fatal, both in this age and
in the age to come!
#6
The Holy Spirit Is A Member of the Trinity
The
Holy Spirit is invisible (like the Father), but
this does not reduce His importance or position
within the Trinity. Remember, it takes
three Gods to function as One unit. Each
God performs functions the other two cannot
do. This explains why Jesus commanded,Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 18:19)
These three Gods are equal, separate, distinct,
coeternal Gods who are eternally united in love.
Mans highest privilege is to enter into
their relationship and become a member of their
family.
#7
The Holy Spirit Will Soon Separate the Sheep From
the Goats
The
Bible points forward to a time when the whole
world will experience a great display of Holy
Spirit power. The prophet Joel gives us an
Old Testament parallel of this phenomenon:And
afterward, I will pour out my Spirit onall
people.Your sons and
daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream
dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on
my servants, both men and women, I will pour out
my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28,29, italics mine)
This coming manifestation of the Holy Spirit is
necessary because before Jesus returns, the sheep
and the goats must be separated. Jesus
described the difference between the sheep and
goats by saying,My sheep
listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow
me. (John 10:27) Paul wrote,those
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:14) Currently,
there are more than seven billion people living
on Earth and those who are led by the Holy Spirit
are sons of God. They listen to Jesus
voice even though many of His sheep currently do
not know that they are following Jesus.
During the Great Tribulation, the 144,000 will
proclaim Jesus voice (testimony) and the
sheep will discover that they have been following
Jesus all along! These people will worship
the Creator and observe His Sabbath rest because
they know the voice of the Holy Spirit! The
interesting outcome of this process is that the
Holy Sprit will decisively separate the goats
from the sheep.
I
could write more about the nature of the Holy
Spirit, but I think the best way for anyone to
determine the identity of the Holy Spirit is to
open your Bible and study the topic of the
Trinity. Allow the Spirit to show you from
Scripture the nature of the Godhead. If you
consider the topics presented in this series and
are willing to let the Spirit guide you intoall
truth, you have nothing to fear.
Summary:
In the first segment, we learned:
Jewish Monotheism teaches there is one God
(Jehovah) and all other gods are false or
imaginary.
The Father sent Jesus to Earth so the Father
could speak through Jesus lips. The
Father wanted to confront the Jews with the fact
that they did not actually know Him.
Jesus was crucified for blasphemy, speaking the
exact words which the Father gave Him to speak.
The Father confirmed that Jesus was His Son (His
equal) on four occasions. 1) At Jesus
baptism. 2) On the mount of
transfiguration. 3) In the temple, shortly
before Jesus was crucified. 4) By tearing
the temple veil from top to bottom. In addition
to these manifestations, the Father worked many
miracles through Jesus.
In the second segment we learned:
The Father releases knowledge over time.
Therefore, truth is always unfolding.
New light can either supplement or
abolish doctrines that were once thought to beabsolute truth.
The Father attempted to terminate the Jewish
doctrine of monotheism through Jesus, but the
Jews would not accept it. The Father wanted
Israel to know the truth about Him, but the Jews
would not accept it.
The Father validated the deity of Jesus with many
miracles, even His virgin birth. However, the
miracles only hardened the hearts of the
Jews. When the mind is unwilling to let go
of idolatry and tradition, miracles do not
matter.
When the Father speaks, He either speaks through
Jesus, to Jesus, or He exalts Jesus. He
does not otherwise speak.
The Father is invisible. No one has ever seen Him
except Jesus (and the Holy Spirit). The
Father lives in unapproachable light.
In the third segment we learned:
Jesus is called The Word because the
Fathers testimony comes through Jesus
lips.
The Father follows a predictable process.
On or about the time of a prophetic fulfillment,
the Father reveals His plans to people searching
for truth.
After Paul opened his mind to the deity of Jesus,
he understood that God reveals mysteries over
time and what he once thought was absolute truth
had to be unlearned because of new light.
Jesus is the Creator of everything that
exists. Everything He makes belongs to the
Father with one exceptioneveryone that
Jesus redeems belongs to Him.
Jesus spoke to Israel in Old Testament times
within the context of monotheism because He was
the only God they knew. Therefore, Jesus
used a singular personal pronoun in many
statements such as, Thou shalt have no
other gods before me.
In the fourth segment we learned:
Because Jesus is a member of deity and He died on
the cross, we know that the price to save sinners
required the death of a deity.
If a perfect man could have saved sinners, Jesus
the Creator, would have created someone to
satisfy the Plan of Salvation.
The Father requireda donor who
had these powers within Himself to legitimately
transfer the powers of righteousness and eternal
life to sinners.
The Plan of Salvation is built on the premise
that guilt and righteousness are
transferable. Jesus had to successfully
overcome every possible temptation before the
Father would accept His sacrifice. Because
Jesus overcame the world, the guilt of sinners
can be legitimately transferred to Jesus and His
righteousness can be transferred to sinners.
Advocates for a created Jesus or
a perfect man infinitely diminish the
price paid for our salvation.
In the fifth segment we learned:
The Father did not create Jesus.
Jesus became a subject of the Father (the Son of
God) when He voluntarily accepted the Fathers
plan to save sinners.
Jesus did not come to Earth on His own. The
Father sent Jesus.
Jesus is called the Fathers only
begotten son to indicate the Father could
not pay a higher price for sinners.
There could be no greater anguish on the Fathers
part than requiring Jesus to suffer all that was
necessary for the salvation of sinners.
Before Jesus could die for sinners, He had to be
tempted as sinners are tempted. In
addition, He had to reject the severe temptation
of using divine power for safety or personal
advantage.
While Jesus was on the cross, the Father
surprised Jesus. He caused Jesus to be
crushed when the curse of sin was applied.
Jesus cried out,My God, my
God,whyhave
you forsaken me. The
Father removed from Jesus any hope of
resurrection to see (a) if Jesus loved sinners
enough to donate His eternal life to them and
cease to exist forever and (b) to see if Jesus
would doubt the Fathers promise to
resurrect Jesus and use His own divine power to
prevent His death.
In the sixth segment we learned:
The Jewish and Christian doctrine of monotheism
(one God or one God manifesting Himself in three
different persons) puts the Bible in a state of
internal conflict. This is evident in
Revelation 5.
It makes no sense for the Father to write a book,
seal it with seven seals, conduct a search
throughout the universe for someone worthy to
receive the book, only to find Himself worthy to
receive the book He wrote.
Jesus was found worthy to receive the book sealed
with seven seals because He:
Came to Earth and overcame every temptation.
Lived a life that was in perfect
compliance with the Fathers will.
Was willing to die for sinners even when
there was no hope of resurrection.
Could have used divine authority at any
time to end the cruel treatment that He suffered.
He could have come down off the cross if
He wanted, but He chose to die without any hope
of living again so that sinners could be given
His power of righteousness and His eternal life.
When the search was conducted, in the entire
universe only Jesus was found worthy to sit on
the throne and receive sovereign power.
Jesus was found worthy because He has shown the
universe the depth of the Fathers love for
sinners.
In 1798, the Father put everything in Heaven and
on Earth under Jesus so that He could complete
the sin problem in a way that no deficiencies
could be found throughout eternity.
In the seventh segment we examined the
following:
If the Fathers death for sinners would have
achieved the best possible outcome, the Father
would have certainly come to Earth and died for
sinners. He has the same love for sinners
that Jesus has.
If the Father had come to Earth and died for
sinners, what response would He have a billion
years from now if someone sinned? How could
the Father implement His sudden death
law and avoid the accusation of being
unfair? How could the Father avoid the
criticism, He gave His life to save sinners
long ago, why not now?
The Father, according to infinite wisdom and
sovereign authority created a plan of salvation
that would only need to be implemented
once. This plan includes many new
revelations about the nature of Gods love
and government. It also includes hundreds
of object lessons that will endure for all
eternity.
To function as one God, three Gods gave up 2/3 of
themselves. Their selfless behavior each
day will be an eternal example of what love is
and how it functions.
The commandment Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, mind and soul
can only be fulfilled through selflessness,
living with the Trinity as they live in the
Trinity.
Even though Jesus and the Holy Spirit direct us
to worship the Father, the Father does not
consider it blasphemy when/if we worship all
three together because they are equals and they
function as one God.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have made a
covenant of love with each other for all
eternity. Their covenant guarantees that
eternal life will be happy and safe, free from
the power of sin.
In the final segment on the Holy Spirit,
we examined the following:
The Holy Spirit is a member of deity, He is an
equal, distinct, separate, coeternal member of
the Godhead.
The work of the Holy Spirit is that of a two-way
conduit from the Father and Jesusto all
creation andfrom all
creation.
If it were not for the ministry of the Holy
Spirit, no one could know God, walk with God, or
enjoy the love of God.
If we continually insult (blaspheme) the Holy
Spirit and continue to defy the Holy Spirit, He
will give up because He will not violate our free
will.
Jesus commanded that His disciples be baptized in
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
because these three make up the Godhead and it is
the privilege of every believer to enter into
their happiness, joy, and eternal goodness!
The Trinity consists of three eternal, wonderful,
selfless Gods perfectly united in purpose, plan,
and action. They function as one God to
benefit their children and it is their selfless
surrender to each other that defines what love is
and is not!
I
know this study has been a long winded
one, but the topic is huge. I believe this topic
has been controversial for centuries because it
was not time for the truth about the Trinity to
be revealed. A few proof texts will not
resolve the many issues that are involved.
A proper understanding of the Trinity requires a
comprehensive understanding of many topics. We
have only examined a few of them.
I
hope you will now read the Bible with a new
set of eyes and that you will also find a
much greater appreciation for the phrase, God
is love. In the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three equal,
distinct, separate, coeternal Gods, this study is
concluded.