Demonstrated In His Work

Accordingly, we ought to seek from the same source proof of the deity of the Spirit.  Indeed, that testimony of Moses in the history of the Creation is very clear, that “the Spirit of God was spread over the deeps” [Genesis 1:2, cf. Vg.], or formless matter; for it shows not only that the beauty of the universe (which we now perceive) owes its strength and preservation to the power of the Spirit but that, before this adornment was added, even then the Spirit was occupied with tending that confused mass.

And men cannot subtly explain away Isaiah’s utterance, “And now Jehovah has sent me, and his Spirit” [Isaiah 48:16], for in sending the prophets, he shares the highest power with the Holy Spirit.  From this, his divine majesty shines forth.  But the best confirmation for us, as I have said, will be from familiar use.  For what Scripture attributes to him and we ourselves learn by the sure experience of godliness is far removed from the creatures.  For it is the Spirit who, everywhere diffused, sustains all things, causes them to grow, and quickens them in heaven and in earth.  Because he is circumscribed by no limits, he is excepted from the category of creatures; but in transfusing into all things his energy, and breathing into them essence, life, and movement, he is indeed plainly divine.

Again, if regeneration into incorruptible life is higher and much more excellent than any present growth, what ought we to think of him from whose power it proceeds?  Now, Scripture teaches in many places that he is the author of regeneration not by borrowing but by his very own energy; and not of this only, but of future immortality as well.

In short, upon him, as upon the Son, are conferred functions that especially belong to divinity.  “For the Spirit searches…even the depths of God” [1 Corinthians 2:10], who has no counselor among the creatures [Romans 11:34].  He bestows wisdom and the faculty of speaking [1 Corinthians 12:10], although the Lord declares to Moses that it is his work alone [Exodus 4:11].  Thus, through him, we come into communion with God, so that we in a way feel his life-giving power toward us.

Our justification is his work; from him is power, sanctification [1 Corinthians 6:11], truth, grace, and every good thing that can be conceived, since there is but one Spirit from whom flows every sort of gift [1 Corinthians 12:11].

Especially worth noting is this saying of Paul’s: “Although there are divers gifts” [1 Corinthians 12:4] and manifold and varied distribution [cf. Hebrews 2:4], “but the same Spirit” [1 Corinthians 12:4]; because this makes him not only the beginning or source, but also the author.  This Paul also more clearly expresses a little later in these words: “One and the same Spirit apportions all things as he will” [1 Corinthians 12:11].  For if the Spirit were not an entity subsisting in God, choice and will would by no means be conceded to him.  Paul, therefore, very clearly attributes to the Spirit divine power, and shows that He resides hypostatically in God.

Demonstrated in the Testimony of Scripture

Nor, indeed, does Scripture in speaking of him refrain from the designation “God.”  For Paul concludes that we are the temple of God from the fact that his Spirit dwells in us [1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16].  We are not lightly to pass over this fact.  For, while God indeed frequently promises that he will choose us as a temple for himself, this promise is not otherwise fulfilled than by his Spirit dwelling in us.

Certainly, as Augustine very clearly states: “If we are bidden to make a temple for the Spirit out of wood and stone, because this honor is due to God alone, such a command would be a clear proof of the Spirit’s divinity.  Now, then, how much clearer is it that we ought not to make a temple for him, but ought ourselves to be that temple?  And the apostle himself sometimes writes that “we are God’s temple” [1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16], at other times, in the same sense, “the temple of the Holy Spirit” [1 Corinthians 6:19].  Indeed, Peter, rebuking Ananias for lying to the Holy Spirit, says that he has lied not to men but to God [Acts 5:3-4].  And where Isaiah introduces the Lord of Hosts speaking, Paul teaches that it is the Holy Spirit who speaks [Isaiah 6:9; Acts 28:25-26].

Indeed, where the prophets usually say that the words they utter are those of the Lord of Hosts, Christ and the apostles refer them to the Holy Spirit [cf. 2 Peter 1:21].  It therefore follows that he who is pre-eminently the author of prophecies is truly Jehovah.  Again, where God complains that he was provoked to anger by the stubbornness of his people, Isaiah writes that “his Holy Spirit was grieved” [Isaiah 63:10].

Finally, if blasphemy against the Spirit is remitted neither in this age nor in the age to come, although he who has blasphemed against the Son may obtain pardon [Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10], by this his divine majesty, to injure or diminish which is an inexpiable crime, is openly declared.  I deliberately omit many testimonies that the church fathers used.  They thought it justifiable to cite from David, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth” [Psalm 33:6], to prove that the universe was no less the work of the Holy Spirit than of the Son.  But since it is common practice in The Psalms to repeat the same thing twice, and since in Isaiah “spirit of the mouth” means the same thing as “the word” [Isaiah 11:4], that was a weak reason.  Thus I have chosen to touch only a few things upon which godly minds may securely rest.

From The Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 13, Sections 14-15.