THE HOLY SPIRIT (cont.) sought to define the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. In all too many cases men have come to think of the Holy Spirit as an influence and as an influence only. To be sure, He has an influence upon the lives of all men, but the Bi ble does not limit its description of the Spirit of God by making Him just an influence. In passages where this may seem to be true there is an error on the translator’s part. For example, in Romans 8:16 the King James Version has, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit . . Similarly, in Ro mans 8:26 there is found, “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us . . .” There is no warrant in the original Greek for referring to the Holy Spirit as an impersonal influence in this man ner. These passages should read, “The Spirit Himself." In order to prove the personality of a being, one must demonstrate that He is characterized by three elements: in tellect, sensibility, and will. Can these three qualities be found in relation to the Holy Spirit? In thinking of the intellect the stu dent of the Bible will remember quick ly, not only that the Holy Spirit is the possessor of an intellect, but that His intellect is far beyond anything which can be produced from the hu man race. In dealing with the general topic of wisdom, Paul writes in I Cor inthians 2:10-11, “But God hath re vealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” Not only does the Spirit possess intellectual ability, He possesses all intellectual ability. He is omniscient, and is willing to impart divine wisdom to the believer in Christ. In thinking of the attribute of sensi bility, one’s mind immediately comes to meditate upon the immeasurable compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. A large proportion of His suffering in life was due to His sympathetic feeling towards others in their needs. Partic
ularly, was He burdened with respect to those needs which were spiritual: “When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion bn them, be cause they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). Similarly, the Spirit — whom the Son has sent into the world —is sensitive along these lines. In Ephesians 4:30 following a series of commands which forbid certain speci fic sins which were besetting the Chris tians addressed, Paul writes, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp tion.” The obvious conclusion from this word of admonition is that the Holy Spirit can be grieved; He does have feelings. The other remaining attribute of personality is that of will. Perhaps the most obvious instance in which this characteristic of the Holy Spirit is evi denced is in conjunction with spiritual gifts within the church, the body of Christ. The distribution of these gifts is a sovereign act of God; thus there must be a decision within the Trinity as to who is to receive them. Speci fically, the Scripture relates the Third Person of the Trinity to this distribu tion of gifts; in I Corinthians 12:11 we read, “But all these [specific gifts of the Spirit just listed] worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man as He w ill.” The words “He will” are a translation of a Greek term which denotes a deliberate deci sion. In common language of today, He made up His own mind how He was going to do it. In His omniscience He came to a decision, and gifted men along the lines in which He knew they would be needed in their own particular sphere of responsibility. From the foregoing passages of Scrip ture it becomes obvious that the being, called by the name the Holy Spirit, is a person. Turning to a consideration of the work of the Holy Spirit, we cannot help remembering the statement of the Lord Jesus Christ found in John 15:26. Referring to the Spirit of God, He said, “When the Comforter is come, whom 18
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