Questions:
- Some say the Holy Spirit is a person; others say He is a personality; and still others say He is a power only. How long should this remain a matter of discussion?
- Some say that Christ was both divine and human while on earth; others say, “No, He was only a man, and miracles were performed through Him by the Holy Spirit.” Which is correct?
Answers:
1. The Personality of the Holy Spirit
Controversy concerning the Holy Spirit continues largely because men attempt to define what God has not fully explained. Although Scripture does not reveal everything about the nature of the Holy Spirit, it reveals enough for us to affirm confidently both His personality and His divinity. He is not merely a force or influence; He is the third person of the Godhead.
Scripture sometimes speaks of the Spirit as being poured out. God said, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). The Spirit is also presented throughout Scripture as personally exercising divine power in creation, redemption, and regeneration.
At creation, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Job declared, “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens” (Job 26:13). The psalmist wrote, “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30).
Christ was conceived through the Holy Spirit. The angel told Joseph, “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20). Jesus was also anointed for His earthly ministry by the Spirit. Acts 10:38 tells us:
“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
Through that same Spirit, sinners are regenerated, believers are strengthened, and spiritual gifts are given for the service of God.
At the same time, Scripture does not merely borrow personal language to describe an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit speaks (Acts 13:2), teaches (John 14:26), guides (John 16:13), exercises His own will (1 Corinthians 12:11), has a mind (Romans 8:27), intercedes for believers (Romans 8:26), and may be grieved (Ephesians 4:30).
Paul wrote:
“But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
—1 Corinthians 12:11
A mere force or influence does not speak, teach, guide, choose, intercede, or experience grief. These actions reveal genuine personality. Scripture presents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three distinct divine persons united in the Godhead. The Father is our heavenly Father; Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, is our Savior and elder Brother; and the Holy Spirit is the divine Comforter who regenerates, teaches, empowers, sanctifies, and abides with God’s children.
Nevertheless, affirming the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit does not require us to claim that we fully understand or can precisely define the nature of His being. We must be careful not to force divine realities into ordinary human definitions of personality. We should affirm everything Scripture reveals while refusing to speculate beyond it.
One work of the Holy Spirit is to make the presence of the Father and the Son real to the believer. This ministry does not diminish His distinct personality. Jesus promised His disciples:
“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
—John 14:18
How would He come to them after returning to His Father? He explained:
“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”
—John 14:16
He further declared:
“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
—John 14:23
The Father and the Son make Their abode with the believer through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As the divine Comforter and representative of Christ, the Spirit brings the Father and the Son personally near to every soul who believes.
While Jesus was upon the earth, His visible human presence was limited to one place at a time. Martha said to Him, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (John 11:21). She had not yet grasped that His power was not dependent upon His immediate physical presence.
The Roman centurion demonstrated greater faith. He said:
“Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”
—Matthew 8:8
Jesus responded:
“Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
—Matthew 8:10
The centurion understood that Christ’s power was not limited by distance.
Jesus therefore told His disciples:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”
—John 16:7
When Christ returned to heaven and the Holy Spirit was poured out in a special fullness at Pentecost, the Spirit made Christ’s presence real to every believer wherever that believer might be—with Paul in Athens, Peter in Jerusalem, John on Patmos, and every faithful child of God throughout the earth. The Spirit had been active from creation onward, but at Pentecost He came in a special outpouring to empower the church for its worldwide mission.
The Holy Spirit is not an angel or a human messenger. God works through angels and through His servants by the Spirit, but those messengers are not themselves the Spirit. They may be filled, directed, and empowered by Him, but He is independent of every created agency.
Why not leave the matter where Scripture leaves it? The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, not merely a force, influence, or manifestation of divine power. He is also called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. He proceeds from the Father, is sent in Christ’s name, represents Christ, and continues Christ’s work among believers. We should affirm His personality and divinity without attempting to define what God has not explained.
2. The Divinity and Humanity of Christ
Our Lord was both divine and human while He lived upon the earth. He did not cease to be the Son of God when He became the Son of man, nor did He lose His identity.
Jesus asked His disciples:
“But whom say ye that I am?”
“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
—Matthew 16:15–17
Peter did not say that Jesus had once been the Son of God but had become merely a man. He confessed that the One standing before him in human flesh was still “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus declared that this truth had been revealed by His Father.
It is a perversion of Scripture to teach that the divine Son came to earth, lost His identity, and became only a human being—then returned to heaven, became divine again, and ceased to be human. Scripture presents the same Christ throughout the entire work of redemption.
Philippians 2:5–9 gives the matter plainly:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.”
The same One is present throughout the passage. He was in the form of God. He made Himself of no reputation. He took the form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself. He became obedient unto death. He was then highly exalted by the Father.
His circumstances and form changed, but His identity did not. The divine Son of God became truly human without ceasing to be who He was.
By comparing Scripture with Scripture, we understand Christ to have been revealed before His incarnation in the role of Michael the Archangel—the Chief or Prince of the heavenly host. No single verse states in those exact words that Jesus is Michael; this identification is a conclusion drawn from passages including Daniel 10:21, Daniel 12:1, Jude 9, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, and Revelation 12:7.
This does not mean that Christ was a created angel. Rather, we understand Michael to be a title connected with His role as Commander over the heavenly angels.
The language used concerning the divine Angel who led Israel also contributes to our understanding of Christ’s work before His incarnation. God said:
“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
“Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.”
—Exodus 23:20, 21
Isaiah likewise wrote:
“In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.”
—Isaiah 63:9
We understand Him to have been the One with whom Abraham pleaded concerning Sodom in Genesis 18 and the One with whom Jacob wrestled at the brook Jabbok in Genesis 32. In the fullness of time, that same divine Son entered humanity:
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
“To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
—Galatians 4:4, 5
He died upon the cross, rose from the dead, and afterward declared from glory:
“Fear not; I am the first and the last:
“I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
—Revelation 1:17, 18
The One who lives is the same One who died. The One who died is the same divine Son who came from the Father.
However, possessing a divine nature and independently using divine power are not the same thing. Christ did not use His divine power independently or for His own advantage. He humbled Himself, depended upon His Father, met temptation through faith in the Word of God, and performed His works through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That dependence did not make Him merely a man. Acts 10:38 says that God anointed Him “with the Holy Ghost and with power,” but Peter still confessed Him to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Therefore, the correct answer is that Jesus Christ was truly divine and truly human while upon the earth. He performed His ministry in dependence upon His Father and through the power of the Holy Spirit, yet He never ceased to be the divine Son of God.
