Who the Holy Spirit Is and What He Does

God’s immanence was expressed through the incarnation of Jesus, as God lived among humanity as a fully human being. His immanence is expressed through the Holy Spirit in a different way, as the Spirit takes us residence within the followers of Jesus and mediates God’s active presence in and among his people.

The Holy Spirit Is a Person

The Holy Spirit is not a force but a person. Put simply, the Spirit is not an “it” but a “him.” He possesses all the attributes of personhood. He possesses a mind (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), emotions (Ephesians 4:30) and a will ( 1 Corinthians 12:11). The Holy Spirit performs the actions of a person. He teaches (John 14:26), bears witness (John 15:26), intercedes (Rom 8:26), and sends (Acts 13:4). In the Bible, he is treated as a person. He can be lied to (Acts 5:3), resisted (Hebrews 10:29) and blasphemed (Matthew 12:31).

The Holy Spirit is Divine 

The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. He is equated with God in the Bible. For example, in Acts 5:3-4, Peter equates lying to the Holy Spirit with lying to God. In Acts 7:51, Stephen equates resisting the Holy Spirit with resisting God. The Holy Spirit is consistently spoken of as equivalent with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14) The Holy Spirit has attributes that belong to God alone, including eternity (Hebrews 9:14), omniscience (1 Corinthians 2:10), omnipotence (Luke 1:35; Zechariah 4:6), and omnipresence (Psalm 139:7-10). The Spirit does things that only God can properly do, such as creation (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30), spiritual regeneration (John 3:5-6; Titus 3:5), sanctification (1 Peter 1;2; 2 Corinthians 3:18), conviction of sin (John 16:8), and raising the dead (Romans 8:11).

The Holy Spirit’s Work

Creation

The Holy Spirit was involved in the original creation (Genesis 1:1-2) and continues to renew and give life to the created world (Psalm 104:29-30; Isaiah 32:15).

The Old Testament

The Spirit’s empowering or enabling ministry operated within select individuals on a temporary basis to fulfill a particular task or calling. For example, the Spirit came upon an individual, typically a leader, to impart power and ability to that person for some God-ordained mission (Judges 3:10; 6:34; 14:19; 1 Samuel 11:5-7). For example, he empowered kings to lead (1 Samuel 16:13), prophets to speak truth boldly ((2 Chronicles 15:1-2), and craftsmen to work skillfully (Exodus 31:2-3).

By contrast, after Jesus ascended to heaven, this temporary and provisional ministry of the Spirit ended, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on all of God’s people as a permanent possession (Acts 2:16-18). 

The Spirit and Jesus

Akin to the Old Testament pattern, Jesus was empowered by a unique anointing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18-19). The Spirit provided Jesus with guidance (Matthew 4:1) and power (Matthew 12:28) for his earthly ministry. In turn, Jesus is the one who sent the Holy Spirit upon his church after he was glorified (John 7:37-39; John 14:15-16). Through the Spirit, Jesus equips his people with power to bear witness of him to the world (John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8), as illustrated on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4-7). The Holy Spirit also acts as the agent of Christ’s presence and work in the world, to the extent that he is known as “the Spirit of Christ” (Philippians 1:19) and “the Spirit of the Son” (Galatians 4:6).

Inspiration and Illumination

The Holy Spirit was intimately involved in producing the Bible, working through human authors to bring forth God’s words (2 Peter 1:20-21; John 14:26; Mark 12:36). He also provides the necessary spiritual insight people need to overcome the effects of sin on the human mind and heart, so that we can understand and apply the Bible (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; 2 Corinthians 3:14-17).

Salvation

One of the greatest works of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ (John 16:14). He does this by bearing witness to Jesus and his saving work (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation. He convicts us of our sin and its consequences (John 16:8). He applies the finished work of Christ to us, setting us apart as belonging to God (2 Thessalonians 2:13). The Holy Spirit imparts the new life of Christ to sinners in an act of spiritual birth and renewal (John 3:5-8; Titus 3:4-6) and establishes us as God’s children (Romans 8:14-15).

The Christian Life

Once people enter a saving relationship with God through Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer (Ephesians 1:13). As such he acts as the guarantor of our ultimate, future salvation (Ephesians 1:14). In the present, the Spirit mediates the ongoing presence of Jesus with his people (John 14:16-19), allowing us to experience an intimate relationship with the Father (Romans 8:15), gives us assurance of our standing with him, (Romans 8:16-17). The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and enables us to converse with our Father (Romans 8:26).

A key aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work in the Christian life is to work out the effects of our new identity in a transformed character. For those who follow the Spirit, sin no longer has control in our lives (Romans 8:3-4). We are progressively made holy by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2), as the Holy Spirit wars against and overcomes the old sinful nature within us (Galatians 5:17; Romans 8:12-14). In the end, the Holy Spirit raises our mortal bodies to their glorified, resurrected state (Romans 8:11),

(To learn more about the Christian life, including how followers of Jesus cooperate with the Holy Spirit in our transformation, see Topic 9.)

The Church

The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost inaugurated a new era, the age of the church, as witnessed by the immediate, rapid growth of the church (Acts 2:16-17, 41). The church consists of all of God’s people after the ascension of Jesus, and was created by the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit enfolds all believers into the church and creates out of them one unified body (1 Corinthians 12:13). To these people, he imparts a wide variety of abilities, to be practiced for the benefit of the whole body (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). 

(To learn more about the church, see Topic 11.)

The topic of the Holy Spirit has often been neglected by theologians. Perhaps this is because the Holy Spirit’s role is to draw attention to Jesus and to apply Jesus’ saving work in the lives of his people. But the Spirit’s presence and work permeates the Bible, as it does the lives of Christians. He deserves our attention, appreciation, and worship.