The Holy Spirit: The Deity of the Holy Spirit
Christianity has traditionally taught that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. However, some people say that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force used by God. Is it better to categorize the Holy Spirit as God, or as a power of God?
The Holy Spirit has the characteristics of God, is equated with God, and does work that only God does.
Characteristics of God
- Holy: In more than 90 places, the Bible calls the Spirit “the Holy Spirit.” Insulting the Spirit is just as sinful as trampling on the Son of God (Hebrews 10:29). Speaking evil against the Holy Spirit is a great sin (Matthew 12:32).[1] This indicates that the Spirit is holy by nature, rather than having an assigned holiness, such as the temple had.
- Eternal: The Holy Spirit, the Counselor, will be with us “forever” (John 14:16). The Spirit is “eternal” (Hebrews 9:14).
- Everywhere present: David, praising God’s greatness, asked, “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol [the grave], you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). David uses “your spirit” as a synonym for “your presence.” The Spirit is in heaven and in sheol, in the east and in the west; he is everywhere (verses 8-9). God’s Spirit can be poured out on someone — yet without implying that the Spirit has moved from some other place.[2]
- All-knowing: “The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). The Spirit of God “comprehends what is truly God’s” (verse 11). The Spirit knows everything, and is able to teach all things (John 14:26).
- All-powerful: The works of God, such as creation, are credited to the Holy Spirit (Job 33:4; Psalm 104:30). In Paul’s ministry, the work that “Christ has accomplished” was done “by the power of the Spirit” (Romans 15:18-19). The Spirit does the work or ministry of God.
All these qualities are characteristic of the nature of God. The Holy Spirit has the basic attributes of God.
Verses mentioning Father, Son and Spirit
Several passages discuss the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as equally divine.
- In a discussion of spiritual gifts, Paul puts the Spirit, the Lord, and God in parallel constructions (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).
- He closes another letter with a three-part prayer: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
- Peter begins a letter with a three-part formula: “chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2).
These scriptures do not prove equality,[3] but they support it.
The baptismal formula has a stronger indication of unity — “in the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). This verse indicates that God is both singular and plural. Three names are given, but all three share one name, suggesting one being.
Interchangeable words
Acts 5:3 says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit; verse 4 says that Ananias lied to God. Here, “the Holy Spirit” and “God” are interchangeable terms; this implies that the Holy Spirit is God.[4]
Another word interchange is in 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19. Christians are not only temples of God, they are also temples of the Holy Spirit; the two expressions mean the same thing. A temple is a building where a divine being is worshipped; it is not a monument to an impersonal power. When Paul writes “temple of the Holy Spirit,” he implies that the Holy Spirit is God.
In Acts 13:2, the Holy Spirit speaks with personal pronouns: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” He is speaking as God.
Similarly, the Holy Spirit says that the Israelites “put me to the test”; the Holy Spirit refers to “my anger…. They will not enter my rest” (Hebrews 3:7-11). The Holy Spirit is equated with the God of the Israelites. Similarly, Hebrews 10:15-17 equates the Spirit and the Lord who makes the new covenant.
When the Holy Spirit does something, God is doing it. When the Holy Spirit speaks, God is speaking. But the Holy Spirit is not just another name for God. The Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son, as shown in Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:16-17). The three are distinct, but one.
God’s work
The Holy Spirit does work that only God can do, such as creating (Genesis 1:2; Job 33:4; Psalm 104:30) and casting out demons (Matthew 12:28).
The Spirit was involved in begetting Jesus, the Son of God (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35), and the divinity of the Son (Colossians 1:19) implies the divinity of the Spirit. The Spirit causes the birth of believers, too — they are born of God (John 1:12) and (as another way of saying the same thing) born of the Spirit (John 3:5).
The Holy Spirit is the way God lives in his children (Ephesians 2:22; 1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Holy Spirit “lives” in us (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 3:16) — and because the Spirit lives in us, we are able to say that God lives in us. The Spirit is not a representative or a power that lives in us — God himself lives in us.
Geoffrey Bromiley gives a concise conclusion: “to have dealings with the Spirit, no less than with the Father and the Son, is to have dealings with God” (“The New Holy Spirit,” in The New Life, edited by Millard Erickson, page 23).
The Holy Spirit makes people holy (Romans 15:16; 1 Peter 1:2). The Spirit enables people to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). The Spirit “gives [eternal] life” (John 6:63). We are saved “through sanctification by the Spirit” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). In all these, the works of the Spirit are the works of God. Whatever the Spirit does, God is doing.
Do we worship the Spirit?
Scripture talks about praying in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18), the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:13), and baptism in the name of the Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Although baptism, prayer and fellowship are involved in worship, none of these verses shows worship of the Spirit. As an opposite of worship, however, we note that the Spirit can be blasphemed (Matthew 12:31).
Scripture indicates that people can talk to the Spirit (Acts 5:3). If this is done in reverence or request, it is, in effect, praying to the Spirit.
Why does Scripture say nothing about praying to the Spirit? Michael Green explains: “The Holy Spirit does not draw attention to himself. He is sent by the Father to glorify Jesus, to show Jesus’ attractiveness, and not to take the centre of the stage” (I Believe in the Holy Spirit, page 60).
If Christians are unable to put their desires into words and they want the Spirit to help them (Romans 8:26-27), they are praying, directly or indirectly, to the Holy Spirit. When we understand that the Holy Spirit has intelligence and fully represents God, we may ask the Spirit for help — never thinking that the Spirit is a separate being from God, but recognizing that the Spirit is the Person of God interceding for us.
When we worship God, we worship all of what God is, which includes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[5] Whatever we say to the Spirit we are saying to God, and whatever we say to God we are saying to the Spirit.
Summary
Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit has God’s attributes and works, and he is spoken of in the same way that the Father and Son are. The Holy Spirit has intelligence, and speaks and acts like a divine Person. This is part of the evidence that led early Christians to develop the doctrine of the Trinity. Geoffrey Bromiley gives a summary:
Three points that emerge from this survey of the New Testament data are: (1) The Holy Spirit is everywhere regarded as God; (2) He is God in distinction from the Father and the Son; (3) His deity does not infringe upon the divine unity. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the triune Godhead.[6]
Although Scripture does not directly say that “the Holy Spirit is God,” or that God is triune, these conclusions are based on scriptural evidence. We therefore teach that the Holy Spirit is God in the same way that the Father is God and the Son is God.
Endnotes
[1] Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a deliberate rejection of the way that God uses to help people understand the gospel. Some Christians are worried about whether they have committed that sin. It is safe to say that anyone who worries about it, has not committed it. As long as a person wants to be right with God, there is hope and assurance of forgiveness. It is only those who don’t care who might be in danger of cutting themselves off from God.
[2] Thomas Oden observes that “such statements are grounded in the premises of omni-presence and eternality — attributes ascribed properly only to God” (Life in the Spirit, page 18).
[3] For example, Ephesians 4:5 puts unequal elements in parallel construction: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
[4] Some people try to explain this by saying that Ananias lied to God only indirectly, because the Holy Spirit “represented” God. Peter told Ananias that he lied not to humans, but to God. The point that Peter was trying to make is that Ananias has lied not merely to God’s representatives, but to God himself, and the Holy Spirit is God to whom Ananias lied.
[5] A fourth-century theologian explained it this way: “The Spirit is jointly worshipped in God, when God is worshipped in the Spirit” (Ambrose of Milan, Of the Holy Spirit Book 3, chapter 11, section 82, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, volume 10, Ambrose: Selected Works and Letters, translated by H. de Romestin, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf210.iv.ii.iv.xi.html).
[6] “The New Holy Spirit,” in The New Life: Readings in Christian Theology, edited by Millard Erickson (Baker Book House, 1979), pages 24-25. In more technical language, Bromiley writes, “The divine unity cannot be subjected to mathematical ideas of unity. The fourth century learned to speak of three hypostases or persons within the deity, not in the tri-theistic sense of three centers of consciousness, but also not in the weaker sense of three economic manifestations. From Nicaea and Constantinople on, the creeds sought to do justice to the essential biblical data along these lines.”
Author: Michael Morrison, edited 2026
