The Distinction Of The Holy Spirit From The Father And His Son, Jesus Christ

This chapter explains that the Holy Spirit is not the same as the Father or the Son — He is a separate Person. The Bible shows this clearly in stories like J esus’ baptism and His promise to send the Holy Spirit. All three Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct, yet fully God, and work together in unity.

We have seen thus far that the Holy Spirit is a Person and a Divine Person. And now another question arises, is He as a Person separate and distinct from the Father and the Son? One who carefully studies the New Testament statements cannot but discover that beyond a question He is. We read in Luke 3:21- 22, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Je sus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Here the clearest possible distinction is drawn between Jesus Christ, who was on earth, and the Father who spoke to Him from heaven as one person speaks to another person, and the Holy Spirit who descended in a bodily form as a dove from the Father, who was speaking, to the Son, to whom He was speaking, and rested upon the Son as a Person separate and distinct from Himself. We see a clear distinction drawn between the name of the Father, the Son, and that of the Holy Spirit in Matthew 28:19, where we read, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The distinction of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son comes out again with exceeding clearness in John 14:16, where we read, “And I will ask the Father, and he w ill give you another Helper, to be with you forever,” Here we see the one Person, the Son, praying to another Person, the Father, and the Father to whom He prays giving another Person, another Comforter, in answer to the prayer of the second Person, the Son.

If words mean anything, and certainly in the Bible they mean what they say, there can be no mistaking it that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three distinct and separate Persons. Again, in John 16:7, a clear distinction is drawn between Jesus, who goes away to the Father, and the Holy Spirit, who comes from the Father to take His place. Jesus says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

A similar distinction is drawn in Acts 2:33, where we read, “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are se eing and hearing” In this passage, the clearest possible distinction is drawn between the Son exalted to the right hand of the Father and the Father to whose right hand He is exalted, and the Holy Spirit whom the Son receives from the Father and sheds forth upon the Church.

To sum it all up, the Bible draws the clearest possible distinction between the three Persons: the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son. They are three separate personalities, having mutual relations to one another, acting upon one another, speaking of or to one another, applying the pronouns of the second and third persons to one another.