Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
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We hear people talk about the Spirit as a force, an influence, or a vague spiritual energy, and we get why that happens. The Greek word pneuma is a neuter noun, and some take that grammar to mean the Spirit must be impersonal. But that is poor hermeneutics to believe so.
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
And we want to talk about the Holy Spirit being a person. Remember, some people say he's just a force. I don't know, may the force be with you? Something like that. Other people think he's like an impersonal, mystical work of God. It's the same thing as saying like an influence or a force. Very similar idea. But why do they make these types of claims?
Well, because this word spirit, pneuma, is a neuter term. It's not masculine nor feminine. It's neuter. And that is interesting. It is an observation in the text. Why did God choose to use a neuter term to describe or name the third person of the Trinity? This neuter term. And so this has led some, of course, to think that the Spirit is an it and therefore not a he. And so he must be a force or influence. Others have said, well, the descriptions of him as a person are simply just personifications. So whenever you see that, again, the person is saying he's not a really a person, but he does get ascribed certain human attributes. We do that sometimes with personification. Like if you're standing under a rock, you may say the rock's terrifying grimace overshadowed us. You're attributing to the rock some human attribute, like a terrifying grimace, as you stand in its shadow. So some people say the Holy Spirit is just a personification, he personification. He's not really a person, but human attributes do get ascribed to him. I don't think that's the case, from what as we'll see. But so we want to avoid that. But that is one observation, at least, that the Holy Spirit is, that word spirit is neuter. Here, the other thing, the other side of this, though, is that the spirit is often referred to by masculine pronouns.
So let's turn to John 16. Masculine pronouns. So pronouns replace what? Let's do a little English class. Pronouns are substitutes for nouns, right? So of course you don't want to always say Jeremy Thomas' birthday was on Friday. And Jeremy Thomas, you know, he's the greatest guy in the world. And Jeremy Thomas, you know, you don't want to do that. You want to say he, right? He, he, he. After you've said my name, you can just say he, right? You don't have to repeat my name over and over. So we have pronouns. And the same thing is happening here in John 16, 7. Jesus said, I tell you the truth, it's 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. Now we find out, of course, later that the helper is the Spirit. He says, But if I go, I will send who to you? There's the pronoun. Him. Him. And it is a masculine pronoun. Verse 8, and he, masculine pronoun. When he, masculine pronoun, comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment and so forth. Notice verse 13. But when he, the spirit of truth, so there's both the masculine pronoun he and the neuter spirit in the same sentence. Now usually you have agreement. You wouldn't say Jeremy Thomas, she, unless you lived in 2024 or 20. What year are we in? Now it's all confusing. You could even say they, Jeremy Thomas, you know. No, you can't actually do that. It's not accurate. And it's just it's just a story. You're just making stuff up. But there you can see he, masculine, the spirit neuter, and you then begin to ask yourself, okay, why does the text use spirit neuter and disagreement with in the pronoun by using masculine? Why does it do that?
I mean, this is only speculation because nowhere does it tell us why the text does this. But it is interesting that who is the member of the Trinity, which one, Father, Son, or Spirit, that we who gets the spotlight when it comes to inspiration? Inspiration of the Scripture. The Spirit gets the gets the spotlight in this work of inspiration of the Scripture. And so what did the Spirit choose to do when he was revealing himself in the Scripture? See? He chose to use a neuter noun with a masculine pronoun. And he chose that himself. And perhaps it's because what he's doing is trying to stay in the background with the neuter. You know? Like stay out of the spotlight. And the reason would be because he came to exalt Christ, not to exalt himself. And so that's a speculation, it's just a guess. But there seems to be some reason that he chose to have this disagreement between masculine and neuter. So he's a very interesting behind the scenes player.
Let's look at some of the things that indicate that the Holy Spirit is in fact a person. Romans 8, 14. Well, we're in one right now, John 16. Notice there in verse 9 and 10, he's gonna, in verse 8, he's gonna convict the world. Do its convict or do people convict? See, it's don't convict, but people do. He's gonna convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Notice there the three members of the Trinity, by the way. You've got the Spirit, who's the helper, you've got the Son, Christ, who's speaking this, and the Father in verse 10. We call this uh association. The association between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all in one text, showing Trinity, right? We'll talk about this concept of association a bit later in more detail. Verse 12, he says, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come. So is he a person? He speaks, he guides, okay, he discloses in verse 14, he glorifies. And who does he glorify? Himself or Christ? He will glorify me, said Christ. Or he will take a mine and will disclose it to you. So again, he's the best behind the scenes, but you can you can see that he's a person because it's people who do these things. People speak, people guide, people disclose. And so he is, in fact, a real person, and teacher.
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