Last week we looked at the third person of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit. While he only gets one line in the Apostle’s Creed, the Spirit is important to what Christians believe. Yet sadly he is often misunderstood in the church today.
To begin with, referring to the Spirit as a ‘thing’, an ‘it’ is heresy, as is referring to Him as ‘part’ of the Trinity. He is one of the three ‘persons’ of the Trinity. If you have made this mistake in the past though, as I have, remember God is always ready to forgive.
Second, the Spirit fulfils various roles according to the Bible, such as (i) help with creation (Gen 1:2), (ii) empower people for great acts (e.g. Judges 11:29), (iii) reveal God’s word to the prophets ( 2 Peter 1:21), (iv) inspire the writers of the Bible (2 Tim 3:16), (v) lead Jesus in his ministry (e.g. Matt 4:1), (vi) inspire Christians for ministry (2 Cor 12:1-11), and (vii) bring new birth to believers (John 3:5).
Yet his most important job is to point people to Jesus (John 15:26). Famous Canadian theologian J. I. Packer refers to the Spirit as a floodlight, because he doesn’t call attention to himself, rather he lights up the majesty and beauty of Jesus.
This helps with arguably his most important job for Christians; to help us grow in maturity (Eph 3:14-21). He does this firstly by reminding us of what Jesus taught, and why it is the best way to live (John 14:26). As Christians grow in age, we also grow in our realisation that things go better when we obey Jesus’ teaching, and go horribly wrong when we don’t.
Yet even more important, the Spirit gives us power to love Jesus more. He does this by applying the gospel of grace to our hearts; i.e. God cannot punish us for our sins anymore, as his perfect righteousness cannot demand 2 punishments for the one crime. It is when we see the love of Christ more clearly, we love Him more dearly, and in turn follow him more nearly. How good it is to believe in the Holy Spirit.
