Personhood of the HS - SS class

Question: "Is the Holy Spirit a person?"

Answer: Many people find the doctrine of the Holy Spirit confusing. Is the Holy Spirit a force, a person, or something else? What does the Bible tell us?

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What does it mean to be “a person?”

Person definition from Dictionary.com in Philosophy. a self-conscious or rational being or the actual self or individual personality of a being:

“What are the distinctive characteristics, or marks, of personality? Knowledge, feeling or emotion, and will. Any entity that thinks and feels and wills is a person.”
― R.A. Torrey, The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

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I’ve got a couple quotes here that I think are potential conclusions we could land on about the HS if we don’t use the Biblical passages about the HS as guardrails to our beliefs….

Movie paraphrase (Star Wars TFA): Name the movie -

Maz Kanata: I am no Christian (Jedi), but I know the Spirit (Force). It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes... feel it... the light... its always been there... it will guide you. The Spirit (saber), take it!

Name that denomination – This was in an order of worship at an actual big name Church Denomination’s service: The Old Testament reading from the Prophet Joel was printed in Polari the passage was "rend your thumping chest and not your frocks - and turn unto the Duchess your Gloria: for she is bona (good) and merciful". And instead of the traditional "Glory be to the father, and to the son, and the Holy Spirit" the prayer offered was: "Fabeness be to the Auntie, and to the Homie Chavvie, and to the Fantabulosa Fairy".

From BBC article: Church of England 'regret' as trainees hold service in gay slang

While ordained priest trainees had been given permission to hold a service to commemorate LGBT history month. The translation was based on the Polari bible, a work compiled from Brit gay slang, as a project in 2003 by the self-styled Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

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The Bible provides many ways to help us understand that the Holy Spirit is truly a person—that is, He is a personal being, rather than an impersonal thing. First, every pronoun used in reference to the Spirit is “he” not “it.” The original Greek language of the New Testament is explicit in confirming the personhood of the Holy Spirit. The word for “Spirit” (pneuma) is neuter and would naturally take neuter pronouns to have grammatical agreement. Yet, in many cases in John, masculine pronouns are found (e.x., John 15:26; 16:13-14). Grammatically, there is no other way to understand the pronouns of the New Testament related to the Holy Spirit—He is referred to as a “He,” as a person.

Matthew 28:19 teaches us to baptize in the [singular] name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a collective reference to one Triune (3-1) God. Also, we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). The Spirit can be sinned against (Isaiah 63:10) and lied to (Acts 5:3). We are to obey Him (Acts 10:19–21) and honor Him (Psalm 51:11).

What does the HS do?

The personhood of the Holy Spirit is also affirmed by His many works. He was personally involved in creation (Genesis 1:2), empowers God’s people (Zechariah 4:6), guides (Romans 8:14), comforts (John 14:26), convicts (John 16:8), teaches (John 16:13), restrains sin (Isaiah 59:19), and gives commands (Acts 8:29). Each of these works requires the involvement of a person rather than a mere force, thing, or idea.

The Holy Spirit’s attributes also point to His personality. The Holy Spirit has life (Romans 8:2), has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11), is omniscient (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), is eternal (Hebrews 9:14), and is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7). A mere force could not be described as possessing all of these attributes, but the Holy Spirit does.

Read John 3:1-14 on regeneration (conversion) And Acts 5:1-11: ”You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

The Holy Spirit is a person, as Scripture makes clear. As such, He is to be revered as God and serves in perfect unity with Father and Son to lead us in our spiritual lives.

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“It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of experience that we know the Holy Spirit as a person.”
― R.A. Torrey, The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

“We feel the breath of the wind upon our cheeks, we see the dust and the leaves blowing before the wind, we see the vessels at sea driven swiftly towards their ports; but the wind itself remains invisible. Just so with the Spirit; we feel His breath upon our souls, we see the mighty things He does, but Himself we do not see. He is invisible, but He is real and perceptible.”
― R.A. Torrey, The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Deity of Christ

Opening quote - The deity of Christ is the key doctrine of the scriptures. Reject it, and the Bible becomes a jumble of words without any unifying theme. Accept it, and the Bible becomes an intelligible and ordered revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Dr. John Oswald Sanders (October 17, 1902—October 24, 1992) was a general director of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (then known as China Inland Mission) in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Why is the question of the deity of Christ important?

It gives us a better picture or understanding of who God is & what he’s like. And clues us in on the unity of God in Salvation: the Father plans (predestines), the Son atones (substitution), the Holy Spirit applies (regeneration).

How does the Truth of the deity of Christ effect us?

Well if Christ is God & he died for our sins then we can have assurance of both the length God will go to rescue us & trust that Jesus’ atonement for our sins was a sufficient substitution.

What are some ways Jesus claimed to be divine himself?

What are some reasons the disciples give for believing Jesus is YHWH? – Unknowable knowledge, control over nature, sovereignty over the animal kingdom, miracles & specifically the resurrection.

Answer: In addition to Jesus’ specific claims about Himself, His disciples also acknowledged the deity of Christ. They claimed that Jesus had the right to forgive sins—something only God can do; as God is the grieved party in sin (Acts 5:31; Colossians 3:13). Jesus is also said to be the one who will “judge the living and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:1). After his resurrection is proven; Thomas cried out to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). After his dramatic conversion Paul calls Jesus his “great God and Savior” (Titus 2:11-13) and points out that prior to Jesus’ life on Earth Jesus existed in the “form of God” (Philippians 2:5-8). And John (IMO Jesus’ closest friend) states that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word [referring to Jesus] was God” (John 1:1).

**We were talking last week about some names or roles of God.**

Jesus is also given titles that are unique to YHWH (the formal name of God) in the Old Testament. The Old Testament title “redeemer” (Psalm 130:7) is used of Jesus in the New Testament (Revelation 5:9). Jesus is called Immanuel—“God with us”—in Matthew 1. In Zechariah 12:10, it is YHWH who says, “They will look on me, the one they have pierced.” But John in the New Testament applies this to Jesus’ crucifixion (John 19:37; Revelation 1:7). If it is YHWH who is pierced and looked upon, and Jesus was the one pierced and looked upon, then Jesus is YHWH. Further, Jesus’ name is used alongside God’s in prayer “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:2). This would be blasphemy if Christ was not deity. The name of Jesus appears with God's in Jesus' commanded to baptize “in the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19; see also 2 Corinthians 13:14).

What miracles did Christ do to prove he was God? - Now, it is one thing to claim to be God or to fool someone into believing it is true, and something else entirely to prove it to be so. Christ offered many miracles as proof of His claim to deity. Just a few of Jesus' miracles include turning water to wine (John 2:7), walking on water (Matthew 14:25), multiplying physical objects (John 6:11), healing the blind (John 9:7), the lame (Mark 2:3), and the sick (Matthew 9:35; Mark 1:40-42), and even raising people from the dead (John 11:43-44; Luke 7:11-15; Mark 5:35). Moreover, Christ Himself rose from the dead. Far from the so-called dying and rising gods of pagan mythology, nothing like the resurrection is seriously claimed as true historical & verifiable in a particular place & time by other religions, and no other claim has as much extra-scriptural confirmation.

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Why is the deity of Christ important?

1^st a person who denies Jesus as deity ought not to worship him; worship belongs to God alone – or Soli deo Gloria, as the Reformers would say.

(ME) 2^nd a person who denies Jesus as deity will have to come up with some explanation why early Christians within Jesus’ lifetime & the lifetime of the disciples treated him as God. The anti-Christian orator Celsus, in On the True Doctrine (by which he meant a common Roman quasi-religion that mixed Stoicism and Platonism) ridiculed second century Christians in the Roman Empire for worshiping a man as God. To be sure some religious scholars have posited explanations for this, but others have pointed out how difficult that would have been (to elevate a mere man to divine status) so quickly and in such a cultural milieu (synagogues and Roman culture).

3^rd a person who denies Jesus as deity needs to invent a new way to explain the resurrection or deny it. As theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg so famously put it, the resurrection was God’s confirmation of the claims of Jesus Christ which amounted to deity (e.g., ability to forgive sins not on someone else’s behalf but by his own authority). If a person denies the resurrection, then Jesus is still dead and/or a ghost. Almost no one denies that the resurrection, including the empty tomb, was the cause of the rise of Christianity among the disciples (a category here not restricted to 11 or 12 but including all the first generation Christians in Palestine). If the empty tomb was a myth or legend it is difficult to explain the rise of the Christian church and the martyrdoms of the disciples. **ancient Jewish answer to this question

4^th a person who denies the deity of Jesus Christ will have to re-define “salvation” away from any recognizably orthodox Christian notion of it toward & to some new idea. Died as an example to us that oppressive forms of Government or selfishness are bad.

Finally, a person who denies the deity of Jesus Christ will have to also deny the Trinity (and most that reject Christ already see this point and do deny the Trinity).

In conclusion, Christ claimed He was YHWH, that He was deity (not just “a god” but the one true God); His followers (Jews who would have been terrified of idolatry) believed Him and referred to Him as God. Christ proved His claims to deity through miracles, including the world-altering resurrection. No other hypothesis can explain these facts. Yes, the deity of Christ is biblical.

This brings us to 1 of the best books a Christian can own (or give away).

C.S. Lewis was an Oxford medieval Literature scholar, popular writer, Christian apologist, and former atheist. He used the argument outlined below in a series of BBC radio talks later published as the book Mere Christianity.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him (Jesus): I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.^”

The God*Father SS class

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The right way to approach God is to stretch out our hands & ask of the One…who we know…has the heart of a Father (a Father that listens).

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In Scripture there are many different names used to describe God. While all the names of God are important in various ways, the name “Abba Father” is one of the most significant names of God in understanding how He relates to His people.

Some names of God:

El – mighty, Eloah(s)/Elohim(pl) – creator, El Shaddai – power over all, Elyon – most high, Adonai – Lord, YHWH (Yahweh) – I am who I am, YHWH-jireh – provider, YHWH-rapha – healer & about 12 dozen others……

Question: What do you think it means for us that God is our “Abba” Father?

So what benefits come from being able to call God our “father”? Effects our worship, confidence, describes a new relationship, shows how He deals with us differently, gives us trust that He hears us, etc…. 

Answer: The word Abba is an Aramaic word that would most closely be translated as “Father or Daddy”, as some people stress. It was a common term that young children would use to address their father. It signifies that close, intimate relationship of a father to his child, as well as the childlike trust (or faith) that a young child puts in their “dad.”

While many people would claim that all people are the “children of God,” the Bible reveals quite a different truth. Its true we are all His creations and under His authority and will all be judged by Him, but being a child of God and having the right to truly call Him “Abba Father” is something that only born-again Christian is able to do (read: John 1:12-13).

Understanding that not all people are children of God and that becoming a child of God only happens when you are adopted by God through faith in Christ Jesus is important for understanding **how and why God deals with people differently** (Galatians 3:26). If we are born again, we have been adopted into the family of God, redeemed from the curse of sin and are now “joint-heirs with Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:17). Part of this new relationship is that God now deals with us differently, which includes His chastisement of us when we sin (so says Hebrews 12:3-11).

 
This idea of Abba Father ties into two other Theological doctrines: Adoption & Election.

In the OT Adoption is pictured in the life of Moses being adopted into the family of pharaoh’s daughter & Esther who’s adopted by her cousin after her parent’s death; who are both used by God to rescue God’s people during dangerous times & in the NT Jesus himself is adopted by Mary’s husband Joseph, who took Jesus as his own child. Likewise the Christian life is one of being Adopted into God’s family.  

Regarding Election - The misguided but popular concept that all people are children of God and can truthfully call Him “Abba Father” is simply not true. Just as children do not choose to be adopted or choose who will adopt them, neither do Christians choose to become children of God. Instead, God chooses them. Scripture says He predestines them “to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” & having been chosen by God from “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

It is life-changing to understand the full force of what it means to be able to call the one true God our “Father” and what it means to be joint-heirs with Christ. Because of our relationship with God, we know He no longer deals with us as enemies; instead, we can approach a holy God as our heavenly Father with “boldness” and “full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19 &22). We have that confidence because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who “bears witness with our spirit that we [truly] are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.”

The benefits of being adopted children of God are many. Becoming a child of God is the highest privilege and honor that can be imagined. Because of it we have a new relationship with God and a new standing before Him. He deals with His children differently than He deals with the rest of the world. Being a child of God, adopted “through faith in Christ Jesus” is the source for our hope, the security of our future and the motivation to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” Being children of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords calls us to a higher standard, a different way of life and a greater hope.

Once we give our hearts to Christ, believing and trusting in Him alone for salvation, God says we become part of His family—not through the natural process of human conception, but through adoption. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship [adoption]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). Similarly, bringing a person into a family by means of adoption is done by choice and out of love. “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5). As God adopts those who receive Christ as Savior into His spiritual family.

As we come to understand the true nature of God as revealed in the Bible we should be amazed that He not only allows us, but even encourages us, to call Him “Abba Father.” It is amazing that a holy and righteous God, who created and sustains all things, who is the only all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God, would allow sinful humans to call Him “Daddy.” As we come to understand who God really is and how sinful we are, the privilege of being able to call Him “Abba Father” will take on a whole new meaning for us and help us understand the extent God’s amazing grace.