“Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God” (vv. 3–4).
The cumulative weight of biblical teaching compels us to conclude that the Son of God is no less God than God the Father. As the Christian faith confesses belief in the Holy Trinity, however, there is one more divine person in the Godhead whose deity we must consider: God the Holy Spirit.
When we look at how Scripture reveals the Holy Spirit, it becomes clear that He, like the Father and the Son, is none other than God Himself. We find the Spirit’s deity presented in several ways. First, we have passages in which the Holy Spirit is directly identified as God. One classic example of this can be found in today’s passage, which records the attempts of Ananias to make his donation to the early church look more generous than it actually was. Confronting Ananias, the Apostle Peter rebuked him for lying to the Holy Spirit and then told Ananias that he had spoken falsehood not to mere men but to God Himself (Acts 5:3–4). Note how Peter uses the terms “God” and “Holy Spirit” interchangeably. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God, and to lie to God is to lie to the Holy Spirit. A monotheistic Jew such as Peter could say such a thing only if the Holy Spirit is God.
The deity of God the Holy Spirit is evident also in how Scripture attributes to the Spirit qualities that can be true only of God. For example, Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2:11 that “no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” We know, of course, that the Lord God is infinite and so His mind must be infinite. His thoughts are not our thoughts and are therefore beyond our full comprehension (Isa. 55:9). Only God can fully and exhaustively know God and all His thoughts. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit knows God’s thoughts fully, the Holy Spirit must be God. Consider also the relationship between texts such as Ezekiel 37:5–6 and John 6:63–65. Ezekiel features the promise of the Lord God to grant new life to His people after the exile, and the text from John has Jesus’ assertion that the “Spirit . . . gives [spiritual] life.” The Spirit does something that only God can do because the Holy Spirit is God.
Many other texts could be cited, for the testimony of the Spirit’s deity is overwhelming. Thus, we conclude that the Belgic Confession is surely correct to state that the Spirit “is the third person of the Trinity—of one and the same essence, and majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son. He is true and eternal God” (art. 11).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The Holy Spirit is not a deity lesser than God the Father or God the Son. Instead, He is truly God, possessing the divine nature in its entirety, just as the Father and Son do. Consequently, the Holy Spirit is fully deserving of our worship and adoration.
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