Intro
Welcome to the third part of the Trinity Trilogy! In this final part of the trilogy, I am reviewing the third member of the Trinity: God the Holy Spirit. If you haven’t read the others, I encourage you to catch up on God the Father and God the Son.
Who is The Holy Spirit?
God the Holy Spirit generates more controversy and confusion within the church than the other members of the Trinity. But He is a very real and very important member. God sent Holy Spirit for a reason – well, multiple reasons. I aim to address a few of those reasons here. And as you’ll see, His primary job is to point to Jesus and God. Secondary, He works in and through us to build the church.
Him or It?
The first thing that to address about Holy Spirit is “Him vs It.” Some people believe that Holy Spirit is just “the spirit of God” and not a distinct person of the Godhead. According to these people, rather than a Trinity, we have a Dualinity (Dunity? Duonity? 🤷♂️). However, the Bible is pretty clear that Holy Spirit is a “Him”, not an “It.” How can you tell? One: masculine pronouns are used to refer to Him throughout the New Testament (including the original Greek). Two: various verses refer to Him as a separate person. Verses like Matthew 28:19 that teaches us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Or Ephesians 4:30 that tells us not grieve Him.
From these verses and more, I believe Holy Spirit to be a distinct person within the Trinity. Given that, I choose to refer to Him as “Holy Spirit”, rather than “the Holy Spirit”. It might be semantics, but it makes Holy Spirit sound more like a true name rather than a title or description.
The Advocate
Jesus declares that He will “ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17 NIV). Later in this chapter, Jesus says the Advocate (Holy Spirit) will “teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” So, Holy Spirit helps us by reminding us of all Jesus’ said and teaching us the truth of it, as well as helping us to understand it. Later on, Jesus states that when Holy Spirit comes, He will “prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8 NIV).
Other translations say “convicts” rather than “prove”. And since that’s the more familiar phrasing, I’ll use that in my explanations of what each of them mean.
Convicts of Sin
Convicting of sin is probably the most obvious of Holy Spirit’s jobs. So, this doesn’t warrant much explanation other than stating that feeling of guilt that we get after sinning is the Holy Spirit leading us to repentance.
It is worth mentioning that verse 9 states, “about sin, because people do not believe in me”. When I read this, I interpret it to mean that people cannot fully grasp the concept of sin if they don’t believe in God. If God doesn’t exist, then there is no moral standard and therefore no sin.
Convicts of Righteousness
Convicting of Righteousness is a bit trickier to understand. Verse 10 states “about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer.” I admit to not fully understanding this one until I wrote this post. The short version of what I found is that Jesus is the standard for righteousness. And no one can measure up to that standard – no matter how hard we try. What I get out of that is that Holy Spirit reminds us that without Jesus, we have no righteousness. So, conviction of righteousness becomes a conviction of our pride.
Convicts of Judgment
Jesus’ explains conviction of judgment in verse 11, “about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” When Jesus died and rose again, He defeated Satan – the prince of this world. His defeat was his condemnation. And all who stand opposed to God and reject Him face the same condemnation. And Holy Spirit convicts, or reminds, people of this truth.
God’s love for us resulted in Him sending Holy Spirit to help us. To remind us of Jesus words, to draw us closer to God, to convict us where we need it. All of it to bring us into relationship and to give us a fulfilling life.
The Deposit
Paul writes in Ephesians 1:13-14 that “you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.” Now, what exactly does it mean that Holy Spirit is a deposit? Think of it like you would a down payment. When buying a house, there is an initial payment made – the down payment. Just think of the indwelling of Holy Spirit as that first payment. God promises that we will receive our inheritance when we cross over. And Holy Spirit dwelling in us guarantees that God will keep His promise to give us the rest.
The Distributer of Gifts
1 Corinthians 12 says that Holy Spirit distributes gifts to people. Spiritual gifts are probably the most controversial aspect of Holy Spirit, at least some of them are. And some people forget that some of these gifts are actually spiritual gifts. So, what exactly are spiritual gifts? Simply put, Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to people to enable them to minister to others in some way. They’re a way to encourage people, to point people to God and His love, and to point people to Jesus and His sacrifice.
Spiritual gifts can be broken down into 3 main categories: Motivation, Ministry, and Manifestation. I’m not going deep on any of them, but I will give a brief description of each.
Motivational Gifts
In Romans 12:6-8, Paul lists the 7 motivational gifts as prophesying, serving, teaching, encourage, giving, leading, and showing mercy. As we look at the greater context of Romans 12, it becomes clear that the purpose of these gifts is in service to God and to the Body of Christ. These people motivate other members of the body to step out and exercise their own gifts and do what God called them into.
Ministry Gifts
Ephesians 4:11 tells of the ministry gifts, “So Christ gave himself the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers.” And the purpose of these gifts is helpfully stated in the next verse “to equip his people for works of service.” When reading these gifts, many people think that people with these gifts bear the responsibility for leading people to salvation, bringing people to church, praying for everyone and everything, etc. But according to this passage, their only job is to equip His people, the church, to do the works. We as individual members of the body hold responsibility for reaching the lost and ministering to the people of the world. It’s impossible for the pastoral staff of any (or all) churches to do that.
Manifestation Gifts
The category of manifestation Gifts is the category that has people most confused and up in arms about. They’re referred to as “manifestation” because they are the obviously supernatural ones. And people tend to fear the supernatural or not believe in it all. Or they believe in it, but fear of man prevents them from talking about them or displaying support for them. Some believe that these gifts (at least some of them) ended with the deaths of the apostles.
Paul lists these gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by means of the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.” (NIV). Paul lists out 9 gifts here, message of wisdom, message of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
The primary purpose of these gifts is for edifying and building up the church. We see that as we continue reading through chapters 12-14. Sure, we can use them as part of outreach and witnessing to people, but it’s also clear that God intended many of these gifts to be used on a regular basis within the church. And as these happen more frequently within the church, they will naturally happen outside the church as our faith and boldness grow.
Emphasis
It’s dangerous to downplay Holy Spirit because He’s the one who empowers you to work out your faith and do what God calls you to. By ignoring Him, you stifle yourself and make yourself virtually ineffective in serving God. On the other hand, over-emphasizing Him is also dangerous. When you over-emphasize Holy Spirit, you run the risk of becoming like those who believe that continuing revelation from Holy Spirit (a result of the Manifestation gifts) nullifies the need to have an adequate knowledge of the Bible. This leads to buying into false doctrines and a lot of deception.
Wrapping Up
The misconceptions of the Holy Spirit cause a lot of people to either downplay Him or over-emphasize Him. I hope and pray that this post gives you some clarity so that you don’t swing to far one way or the other.
Well, that’s all for this post. Join me next time as I wrap up my discussion on the Trinity by doing my best to explain the concept of the Trinity itself.