Week 36 Question:

What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?

Week 36 Answer:

That he is God, coeternal with the Father and the Son, and that God grants him irrevocably to all who believe.

Week 36 Verse:

John 14:16-17

Commentary

Wherefore, when our Lord breathed on His disciples, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” He certainly wished it to be understood that the Holy Ghost was not only the Spirit of the Father, but of the only begotten Son Himself. For the same Spirit is, indeed, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, making with them the trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit, not a creature, but the Creator.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430). Bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa, philosopher, and theologian, Augustine is considered a saint and Doctor of the Church by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He wrote an account of his conversion in his Confessions, his most known work, but he is also one of the most prolific Latin authors in terms of surviving works with hundreds of separate titles (including apologetic works, texts on Christian doctrine, and commentaries) and more than 350 preserved sermons.

From The City of God, translated by Marcus Dods (Digireads, 2009), 329–330.

Video Commentary

NCC Q36: What do we believe about the Holy Spirit? from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

 

Supporting Scriptures

Genesis 1:1-2; Isaiah 48:16; Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13; Galatians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:2

Prayer

We desire to thank you heavenly Father for the marvelous resources that you have given to us through the Holy Spirit. We thank you that each of us who has come to put our trust in Jesus Christ has the privilege of the indwelling Spirit. We pray that he may so fill us as to show Christ to us and to form Christ in us from day to day. We ask these things for ourselves and for one another for the glory of your great name.

John Stott (1921–2011). An English Anglican preacher who for many years served as rector of All Souls Church in London, Stott was one of the principal framers of the Lausanne Covenant (1974). His numerous books include Why I Am a Christian and The Cross of Christ.

From the end of the sermon “The Work of the Spirit” on John 16:5–15, recorded 18th August 2002, available from www.allsouls.org.