Why Believe The Spirit is God?

Acts 5:3-4

Theme: The Scriptures reveal the Holy Spirit to be God, with all the defining characteristics of a divine being.

Saying that the Holy Spirit is a person does not say that He is God. Yet, there is ample additional evidence in Scripture to verify that He is divine.

A.     The Holy Spirit has Divine Names.

1.       The Spirit is called God in Acts 5:3-4; this is the most direct statement. And this is in opposition to a mere man; Ananias thought he was only talking to Peter.  Two converted Jews, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of land they owned and brought the proceeds of the sale to give to the fledgling church in Jerusalem. Their sin was in claiming to give all, while only giving some. No one had asked or forced them to sell their property. After it was sold, they were not obligated to give everything.  But they pretended a total dedication of all funds, while they actually kept some of the proceeds of the sale of the land for themselves and gave the rest to the apostle Peter and the church. Perhaps they wanted to make themselves look more spiritual, or desired to receive the praise of men for this act of kindness, so they sold the possession and gave a portion of the proceeds to the apostles.

                                                          i.      An Accusation.  Peter learned of their deception and said, “Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4, Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” Peter declares that to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. Can any statement assert Deity more clearly?

                                                        ii.      A Temptation.  About three hours later (5:7), when Sapphira appeared, Peter accused her of collaborating with her husband, Ananias, “to tempt [test] the Spirit of the Lord” (5:9). Here the Spirit is referred to as “Lord”!  To tempt the Holy Spirit is to see how much one can get away with before He judges; it means to presume on Him, to see if He will perform His Word, or to stretch Him to the limits of judgment (Ex. 17:2; Deut. 6:16). They were deliberately disobeying God and seeing how far God would go. Actually they defied God and dared Him to do something about it—and “the Spirit of the Lord” acted, with swiftness and finality.

                                                      iii.      A Retribution.  Obviously the Spirit is portrayed as God in this judgment. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matt. 4:7). This was God’s personal judgment. “The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30–31). Had Ananias and Sapphira judged their own sin, God would not have judged them (1 Cor. 11:31).

                                                      iv.      A Clarification.  We must keep in mind that their sin was not in robbing God of money, but in lying to Him and robbing Him of glory. They were not required to sell the property; and, having sold it, they were not required to give any of the money to the church (Acts 5:4). Their lust for recognition conceived sin in their hearts (Acts 5:4, 9), and that sin eventually produced death (James 1:15). –Wiersbe: The Bible Exposition Commentary

2.       The Spirit is called the Lord in 2 Cor. 3:17-18. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18, But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 

                                                          i.      A Proposition. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  One key result of the New Covenant is liberty.  In Gal. 4:24-31, Paul compared Jews under the Old Covenant to children of slavery and Christians under the New to children of freedom. This freedom is possible because Christ has redeemed us believers from the penalty of the Law so that we have become children of God (Gal. 4:5-7). This freedom as children is confirmed by the Spirit, who enables us Christians to call God Father (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).  Therefore, wherever Jesus Christ is recognized as Lord or Jehovah, there is liberty, that is, freedom from the bondage of the law, freedom from obscurity in reading the Scriptures, and freedom to gaze upon His face without a veil between.

                                                        ii.      A Process.  Christians can experience an ever-increasing Christ-likeness, glory, as a result of the Spirit’s sanctifying work. As we are occupied with the glory of the risen, ascended, exalted Lord Jesus Christ, “we are changed [being transformed] into the same image.” This is the secret of Christian holiness—occupation with Christ. Not by occupation with self; that brings only defeat. Not by occupation with others; that brings disappointment. But by occupation with “the glory of the Lord,” we become more and more like Him. This marvelous, transforming process takes place “from glory to glory,” that is, from one degree of glory to another. It is not a matter of instant change. There is no experience in the Christian life that will reproduce Christ’s image in a moment. It is a process, not a crisis. It is not like the fading glory of the law, but an ever-increasing glory.  

                                                      iii.      A Power.  The power for this wonderful process is the Holy Spirit of God—even as by the Spirit of the Lord. As we behold the Lord of glory, study Him, contemplate Him, gaze on Him adoringly, the Spirit of the Lord works in our life the marvelous miracle of increasing conformity to Christ. Christ-likeness is the goal of the Christian walk (Eph 4:23-24; Col 3:10). The Holy Spirit is the One who produces godlike character in the believer (Gal 5:22-23), because He himself is God.

                                                      iv.      A Parallel.  It is “the Spirit of the Lord” who leads Christians from justification through sanctification to glorification.

1.       Paul’s words “the Lord is that Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17, 18) are not meant to confuse these two Persons (Lord Jesus & Holy Spirit) of the Godhead.

a.       Instead, the phrase affirms the deity of the Holy Spirit. He is the personal “Agent” of Christ; He is “the Spirit of the Lord” (Rom. 8:9). Both divine Persons are united in purpose (John 15:26; 16:6-15) and in result (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 5:1).

b.       The meaning of the word “Lord” is “supreme authority, master, or sovereign controller.” For the Spirit to exercise sovereign universal authority, He must be God.

2.       The phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” (2Cor. 3:17, 18) again equates Christ and the Spirit in the cooperative work of salvation (Jn. 7:39; 15:26; 16:6-14).

a.       While this title does not confuse the two Persons of the Godhead, it does verify the divine nature of the Holy Spirit.  Just as Christ is Lord, so is the Spirit!

b.       The Holy Spirit’s names and titles associate Him with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ freely and often, thus revealing the Spirit’s divinity (1Cor. 3:16; Isa. 11:2; 61:1; 2Cor. 3:3; Rom. 8:9; 1Pet. 1:11; Gal. 4:6; Phil. 1:19).

3.       Other Passages in the Old Testament Referring to God are in the New Testament Made to Refer to the Holy Spirit. Compare Isa. 6:8–10 with Acts 28:25–27; and Exod. 16:7 with Heb. 3:7–9.

B.      The Holy Spirit Has Divine Characteristics (Attributes).

These defining characteristics of God are the fact that the Spirit is eternal in his nature, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.   

1.       He is Eternal—Eternity (Heb. 9:14).

                                                          i.      The Holy Spirit is called the Eternal Spirit signifying that He is without beginning or ending—independent of time. His duration is infinite; He is an ever remaining Presence.

                                                        ii.      “One of the deaf and dumb students in the institution of Paris, desired to express his idea of the eternity of the God, said: ‘It is duration, without beginning or end; existence, without bounds or dimension; present, without past or future. His eternity is youth, without infancy or old age; life, without birth or death; today, without yesterday or tomorrow.’”—Evans, William

                                                      iii.      Through the Eternal Spirit Christ offered Himself without blemish to God. Just as the Holy Spirit had a part in the birth of Christ (Luke 1:35), in the same way He also had a part in the sacrificial, all sufficient, atoning death of Christ.

2.       He is all-knowing—Omniscience (1Cor. 2:10–12). Someone other than man must know about God. The spirit of man (the human spirit) knows the things pertaining to humanity; the Holy Spirit knows about God. The Holy Spirit searches the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10); the same term depth (Gk. bathos) is used of the knowledge of God. It is unfathomable to man, but God the Holy Spirit knows the otherwise unsearchable and unfathomable (Rom. 11:33).

3.       He is all-powerful—Omnipotence (Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4; Luke 1:35).

                                                          i.      The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is seen in creation. In Genesis 1:2 the Holy Spirit is seen hovering over creation as a hen over its young; the Holy Spirit gave life to creation. Accordingly, the Spirit participated with God in the creation of the world, implying His omnipotence.

                                                        ii.      The omnipotent Spirit is the answer to Mary’s question, “How shall this be?” (Luke 1:34). How could she bear a child when she had never had relations with a man? The answer was that the Holy Spirit would creatively bring about the physical conception of Jesus (1:35). This miraculous conception and Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ was necessary because of His deity and preexistence (Isa. 7:14; 9:6; Gal. 4:4). The Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the awesome power of God would overshadow her.  To Mary’s problem of “How?”—it seemed impossible to human reasoning—God’s answer is the all powerful “Holy Spirit!”

4.       He is everywhere simultaneously—Omnipresence (Ps. 139:7–10; John 14:17).

                                                          i.      In Psalm 139 David exclaims that He cannot flee from the presence of the Holy Spirit; if he ascends to heaven, He is there; if he descends into the depths of the earth, the Spirit is there also. Even if he could fly away swiftly, he could not escape the presence of the Spirit.

                                                        ii.      The omnipresence of the Spirit is also taught in John 14:17 where Christ taught the disciples that the Spirit would indwell them all, another affirmation of the Spirit’s omnipresence.

5.       He is Living—Life (Rom. 8:2). Life is an attribute of deity in contrast to dead idols (Josh. 3:10; John 1:4; 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:15). As the Father and the Son have life in themselves, so the Holy Spirit has life in Himself.

6.       He is Holy—Holiness (Matt. 12:32).

                                                          i.      One important aspect of deity is that God is holy, entirely set apart and separated from sin and sinners. The most common name for the Spirit is Holy Spirit, indicating the third person of the Trinity also possesses this transcendent attribute of deity.

                                                        ii.      It is His holiness by which He desires to be remembered as that is the attribute which most glorifies Him. Let us bear this fact in mind as we study this attribute of the divine nature. It is just this vision of God that we need today when the tendency to deny the reality or the awfulness of sin is so prevalent. Our view of the necessity of the atonement will depend very largely upon our view of the holiness of God. Light views of God and His holiness will produce light views of sin and the atonement. –Evans: The Great Doctrines of the Bible

7.       He is Loving—Love (Gal. 5:22). The Holy Spirit is love and produces love in the child of God. If He did not possess love as a primary attribute He could not produce love in the believer.

8.       He is True—Truth (John 14:17). The Holy Spirit is termed the “Spirit of truth” in John 14:17 and 15:26. Just as Christ is the truth (John 14:6) so the Spirit is the truth and leads people into the truth through the Scriptures.

C.     The Holy Spirit Performs Divine Works.

The Holy Spirit was responsible for the miraculous conception of Jesus, restrains sin in the world, and gives spiritual gifts to Christians. The complete evidence from Scripture leaves little doubt that the Holy Spirit is a divine person.

1.       Creation (Gen. 1:2). Several Scripture passages affirm that the Holy Spirit was involved in the work of creation. Genesis 1:2 indicates that the Spirit hovered over creation, bringing it to life. In Psalm 104:24–26 the psalmist describes the creation, and in v. 30 he indicates how God created: “Thou dost send forth Thy Spirit, they are created.” Job 26:13 expands the creation of God to the heavens; the Holy Spirit created not only the earth but also the heavens.

2.       Generating Christ (Matt. 1:20). The overshadowing of Mary by the Holy Spirit guaranteed the sinless humanity of Christ. Christ in His deity is eternal, but the Holy Spirit begat the sinless human nature of Christ. He brought the humanity of Christ into being. It is too often assumed that Mary the mother of Christ contributed His humanity and that the Holy Spirit contributed His deity; but a moment’s reflection would disclose that the deity of Christ was His own from all eternity, and therefore was not originated at the time of His birth. He became incarnate when His eternal Person took on the human form.  The Spirit caused the humanity of Christ to originate and that is His act of generation.

3.       Inspiration of Scripture (2 Peter 1:21).

                                                          i.      There is an analogy between the Holy Spirit’s generating Christ’s humanity and the Spirit’s superintending the writers of Scripture; just as the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, guaranteeing the sinlessness of Christ’s humanity, so the Holy Spirit superintended the human writers to guarantee an inerrant Scripture. By analogy, a denial of one necessitates a denial of the other.

                                                        ii.      The writers of Scripture were carried along by the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing the inspiration of the books of Scripture. The Spirit’s work in inspiration is synonymous with the Father’s activity who breathed the Scriptures (2Tim. 3:16).

4.       Regeneration (Titus 3:5). To regenerate means to give life. The Holy Spirit causes the new birth; He is its author. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is the spiritual counterpart of human reproduction in the physical realm. Human generation produces human life; spiritual regeneration produces spiritual life. The Holy Spirit produces the new birth, but He does it through the instrumentality of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). The same truth is taught in John 3:6 where Jesus indicates the Holy Spirit produces the new birth in that He regenerates the person.

Clearly, based on all of this biblical evidence, we can conclude the Holy Spirit is indeed God very God. By His holy names, all the defining characteristics of a divine being, and common activities with the other members of the Godhead, we can correctly view Him as distinctively God. I have a friend, Missionary-Pastor Woody serving in Germany, who would periodically say, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like duck, flies like a duck, and swims like a duck, then it is safe to conclude it is indeed a duck." I also learned in one of my first theology courses years ago that "things that are different are not the same." I'd like to suggest that the opposite is also true..."things that are NOT different are the same!" Beloved, just as the Father and the Son are indeed God very God, so it is with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is wonderfully deity like the other members of the Godhead. Again, all of the evidence in Scripture verifies that He is divine. Will you then relate to Him and treat Him like God?