But now we come to the question, Is the Holy Spirit a distinct
personality from the Father and from the Son? He might be a person, as
we have clearly seen that He is, and He might be a divine person, as
we have just seen that He is, and at the same time He might be only
the same person who manifested Himself at times as the Father and at
other times as the Son, and in that case there would not be three
divine Persons in the Godhead, but one divine Person, who variously
manifested Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So the question that
now confronts us is, Is the Holy Spirit a distinct personality separate
and distinct from the Father and from the Son? This question is plainly
answered in various passages in the New Testament.
1. _We find this question answered in the first place in John 14:26
and John 15:26._ In John 14:26 we read: +"But the Comforter, even
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach
you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto
you."+ In John 15:26 we read: +"But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me."+ In
both of these passages we are told that the Holy Spirit is an entirely
distinct personality from the Father and the Son, that He is sent from
the Father by the Son. We are elsewhere taught that Jesus Christ was
sent by the Father (John 6:29; 8:29, 42). It is as clear as language
can make it in these passages that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not
one and the same Person manifesting Himself in three different forms,
but that they are three distinct personalities.
2. _We find clear proof that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three
distinct personalities_ in John 16:13, where we read: +"Howbeit when
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the
truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He
shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the
things that are to come."+ In this passage the clearest possible
distinction is drawn between the Holy Spirit who speaks and the One
from whom He speaks, and we are told in so many words that this One
from whom He speaks is _not Himself, but another_.
3. In the next verse the same thought is brought out in still another
way. In this verse, John 16:14, we read: +"He shall glorify me: for
He shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you."+ Here the
clearest distinction is drawn between _He_, the Holy Spirit, and _Me_,
Jesus Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit not to glorify Himself,
but another, and this Other is Jesus Christ, and He takes what belongs
to another; that is, to Christ, and declares it unto believers. It
would be impossible to express in human language a distinction between
two personalities more plainly than the distinction between the Son and
the Holy Ghost is expressed in this verse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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