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The Holy Spirit in the Bible

The Holy Spirit in the Bible. A Survey of Biblical Teaching. A “He” or an “it”?. His personality is proved

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The Holy Spirit in the Bible

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  1. The Holy Spirit in the Bible A Survey of Biblical Teaching

  2. A “He” or an “it”? • His personality is proved • from the fact that the attributes of personality, as intelligence and volition, are ascribed to him (John 14:17, 26; 15:26; 1 Cor. 2:10, 11; 12:11). He reproves, helps, glorifies, intercedes (John 16:7-13; Rom. 8:26). • He executes the offices of a person. The very nature of these offices involves personal distinction (Luke 12:12; Acts 5:32; 15:28; 16:6; 28:25; 1 Cor. 2:13; Heb. 2:4; 3:7; 2 Pet. 1:21). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  3. Is the Holy Spirit God? • His divinity is established • from the fact that the names of God are ascribed to him (Ex. 17:7; Ps. 95:7; comp. Heb. 3:7-11); and • that divine attributes are also ascribed to him, omnipresence (Ps. 139:7; Eph. 2:17, 18; 1 Cor. 12:13); omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10, 11); omnipotence (Luke 1:35; Rom. 8:11); eternity (Heb. 9:4). • Creation is ascribed to him (Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13; Ps. 104:30), and the working of miracles (Matt. 12:28; 1 Cor. 12:9-11). • Worship is required and ascribed to him (Isa. 6:3; Acts 28:25; Rom. 9:1; Rev. 1:4; Matt. 28:19). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  4. The Spirit in the OT • In the OT the spirit of the Lord (ruah yhwh; LXX, to pneuma kyriou) is generally an expression for God's power, the extension of himself whereby he carries out many of his mighty deeds (e.g., 1 Kings 8:12; Judg. 14:6ff; 1 Sam. 11:6). • As such, "spirit" sometimes finds expression in ways similar to other modes of God's activity, such as "the hand of God" (Ps. 19:1; 102:25); "the word of God" (Ps. 33:6; 147:15, 18); and the "wisdom of God" (Exod. 28:3; 1 Kings 3:28; Job 32:8). The origins of the word in both Hebrew (ruah) and Greek (pneuma) are similar, stemming from "breath" and "wind," connected by ancient cultures to unseen force, hence "spirit" (cf. John 3:8, & the English association with air in"pneumatic," etc.). • God's creative word (Gen. 1:3ff.) is closely akin to God's creative breath (Gen. 2:7). Both ideas are identified elsewhere with God's spirit. As an agent in creation, God's spirit is the life principle of both men and animals (Job 33:4; Gen. 6:17; 7:15). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  5. The spirit of prophecy • The primary function of the spirit of God in the OT is as the spirit of prophecy. God's spirit is the motivating force in the inspiration of the prophets, that power which moved sometimes to ecstasy but always to the revelation of God's message, expressed by the prophets with "thus saith the Lord." Prophets are sometimes referred to as "men of God" (1 Sam. 2:27; 1 Kings 12:22; etc.); in Hos. 9:7 they are "men of the Spirit." The general implication in the OT is that the prophets were inspired by the spirit of God (Num. 11:17; 1 Sam. 16:15; Mic. 3:8; Ezek. 2:2; etc.). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  6. The phrase "Holy Spirit" appears in two contexts in the OT, but is qualified both times as God's holy Spirit (Ps. 51:11; Isa. 63:10-11, 14), such that it is clear that God himself is the referent, not the Holy Spirit which is encountered in the NT. • The OT does not contain an idea of a semi-independent divine entity, the Holy Spirit. God's spirit is holy in the same way his word and his name are holy; they are all forms of his revelation and, as such, are set in antithesis to all things human or material. • The OT, especially the prophets, anticipates a time when God, who is holy (or "other than/separate from" men; cf. Hos. 11:9) will pour out his spirit on men (Joel 2:28ff.; Isa. 11:1ff.; Ezek. 36:14ff.). who will themselves become holy. The Messiah/ Servant of God will be the one upon whom the spirit rests (Isa. 11:1ff.; 42:1ff.; 63:1ff.), and will inaugurate the time of salvation (Ezek. 36:14ff.; cf. Jer. 31:31ff.). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  7. Intertestamental Judaism • Judaism had developed the idea that the spirit of prophecy had ceased within Israel with the last of the biblical prophets (Syriac Bar. 85:3; 1 Macc. 4:46; 14:41; etc.; cf. Ps. 74:9). • Consequently, there arose from time to time a hope of a new age, (cf. Acts 5:34ff.). The Qumran community is illustrative of this, since it understood itself to be involved in the fulfillment of Israel's messianic hope as the "preparers of the way of the Lord" (Isa. 40:3; cf. 1QS 8. 14-16). • The Qumran literature also shows increased identification of the spirit of prophecy with "God's Holy Spirit" (1QS 8. 16; Zadokite Documents II. 12). • The phrase, "the Holy Spirit," occasionally occurs in Judaism (IV Ezra 14:22; Ascension of Isa. 5:14; etc.), but, as in the rabbis, it generally meant "God's spirit of prophecy." Survey of Christian Doctrine

  8. Wisdom Literature • The concept of the Holy Spirit was broadened through the Wisdom Literature, especially in the personification of wisdom. As early as Prov. 8:22ff. and Job 28:25ff. wisdom is presented as a more or less independent aspect of God's power. • Wisdom proceeded from the mouth of God and covered the earth as a mist at creation (Sir. 24:3); she is the breath of God (Wisd. Solomon 7:25); and this means God formed man (Wisd. Sol. 9:2). • The Jews of NT times were familiar with the background of these ideas as they are variously expressed in the NT. • Indeed, Jesus taught that his messiahship was firmly rooted in OT understanding (Luke 4:18ff., citing Isa. 61:1-2), and understood the messianic Spirit of the Lord to be the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:32). Jesus developed the idea of the Holy Spirit as a personality (Jn 14-17). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  9. The Spirit in the Gospels (1) • The NT teaching of the Holy Spirit is rooted in the idea of both the spirit of God as the manifestation of God's power and the spirit of prophecy. Jesus, and the church after him, brought these ideas together in predicating them of the Holy Spirit, God's eschatological gift to man. • When Mary is "overshadowed" by the power of the Most High, a phrase standing in parallel construction to "the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:35; cf. 9:35), we find echoes of the OT idea of God's spirit in the divine cloud which "overshadowed" the tabernacle so that the tent was filled with the glory of the Lord (Exod. 40:35; Isa. 63:11ff. identifies God's presence in this instance as "God's Holy Spirit"). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  10. The Spirit in the Gospels (2) • Luke records Jesus' power to cast out demons "by the finger of God," an OT phrase for God's power (Luke 11:20; Exod. 8:19; Ps. 8:3). This power is identified as the "Spirit of God" (Matt. 12:28), i.e., the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:32). • At Jesus' baptism the spirit came upon him (Mark 1:10; "the spirit of God," Matt. 3:16 "the Holy Spirit," Luke 3:21), and he received God's confirmation of his divine sonship and messianic mission (Matt. 3:13ff., par.). • Jesus went up from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), and after the temptation began his ministry "in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). • Taking up the message of John the Baptist, Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God (Matt. 4:17; cf. 3:1), a coming marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:28ff., par.) as the sign of the messianic age of salvation (Luke 4:18ff.; Acts 10:38; etc.). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  11. The Spirit in John’s Gospel • Jesus understood the Holy Spirit as a personality. This comes out especially in John's Gospel, where the Spirit is called the "Paraclete," i.e., the Comforter (Counselor, Advocate). Jesus himself was the first Counselor (Paraclete, John 14:16), and he will send the disciples another Counselor after he is gone, i.e., the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit (14:26; 15:26; 16:5). • The Holy Spirit will dwell in the believers (John 7:38; cf. 14:17), and will guide the disciples into all truth (16:13), teaching them "all things" and bringing them "to remembrance of all that [Jesus] said" to them (14:26). The Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus (John 15:26-27). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  12. The Spirit in Acts • In Acts 2:14ff. Peter interpreted Pentecost as the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy of the outpouring of the spirit upon all flesh in the messianic age (Joel 2:28ff.). • The outpouring of the spirit upon all flesh was accomplished across racial boundaries (Acts 10:45; 11:15ff.), and believers had access to this gift of the age of salvation through repentance and baptism into the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). • The apostles carried out their ministries "full of the Holy Spirit" (4:31; 6:5; 7:54; etc.), and the Holy Spirit, identified in Acts 16:7 as the Spirit of Jesus, directed the mission of the church (Acts 9:31; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6-7). • The salvific aspects of the new age practiced by Jesus were carried out by the early church through the power of the Holy Spirit. Visions and prophecies occurred within the young church (Acts 9:10; 10:3; 10:ff.; 11:27-28; 13:1; 15:32) in keeping with the Acts 2 citation of Joel 2:28ff. Survey of Christian Doctrine

  13. The Spirit in the Letters of Paul • Paul taught that the Holy Spirit, poured out in the new age, is the creator of new life in the believer and that unifying force by which God in Christ is "building together" the Christians into the body of Christ (Rom. 5:5; II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:22; cf. I Cor. 6:19). Romans 8 shows that Paul identified the spirit, the spirit of God, and the spirit of Christ with the Holy Spirit (cf. the spirit of Christ as the spirit of prophecy in I Pet. 1:10ff.), and that these terms are generally interchangeable. • If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ (Rom. 8:9); but those who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God (Rom. 8:14). We all have our access to the Father through one spirit (Eph.2:18), and there is one body and one spirit (Eph. 4:4). We were all baptized by one spirit into one body, and we were all given the one spirit to drink (I Cor.12:13). The believer receives the spirit of adoption or "sonship" (Rom. 8:15), indeed, the spirit of God's own Son (Gal. 4:6), by whom we cry, "Abba, Father," that intimate address of filial relationship to God pioneered by Jesus, the unique Son of God (Mark 14:36). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  14. Paul’s theology of the Spirit (1) • The believers are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the spirit (Eph. 4:22). • To each one was apportioned grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph. 4:7; cf. Rom. 12:3), and Christ has given different ones to be prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Eph. 4:11) for the edification of the body. • Similarly, the Spirit gives different kinds of spiritual gifts for different kinds of service (I Cor. 12:4-5;7), all for the common good. The way of love is to be followed in all things; indeed, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, etc. (Gal. 5:22ff.). Survey of Christian Doctrine

  15. Paul’s Theology of the Spirit (2) • All of this is because God has initiated the new covenant (Jer. 31:31ff.; Ezek. 36:14ff.;26) in the hearts of men by means of his eschatological spirit (II Cor. 3:6ff.). In this new age the spirit is the earnest of our inheritance (II Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14), a "firstfruits," the seal of God (II Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30). • These phrases point out the "already vs. the not yet" tension of the new age: the new age has dawned, and the eschatological spirit has been poured out, yet all of creation awaits the final consummation. • Even though the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God (Rom. 8:16) and we truly have the firstfruits of the spirit (Rom. 8:23), we await the adoption as sons (8:23) at the final consummation. • Until that time Christians have the Comforter, the Spirit who intercedes on behalf of the saints according to the will of the Father (Rom. 8:27). Survey of Christian Doctrine

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