You Are The Temple Of The Holy Spirit Who Is God

…how much more shall the blood of Christ,

Who through the eternal Spirit offered

Himself without spot to God,

cleanse your conscience form dead works

to serve the living God?

Hebrews 9:14

Where can I go from Your Spirit?

or where can I flee from your presence?

Psalm 139:7

            The Holy Spirit is God! What I have attempted and believe have done with success is that fact that the Holy Spirit is a person. This done by grammar, and by the very words of Scripture that those terms are applied to the Holy Spirit and are clear that the Holy Spirit is a Person. This should then, with little trouble aid us to arrive at the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is God. The following arguments should establish this truth. I established that in the Great Commission the Holy Spirit is equally included with the Father and the Son and in the name into our baptism. Now, if the Holy Spirit is not God then when we devote and venerate the Holy Spirit and He is not God, then we have devoted ourselves to an idol and are guilty. Paul in writing to the Corinthian Church uses an analogy: “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1Corinthians 10:2). There is no affirmation that the baptism of the Hebrews were baptized in the name of Moses, this is not what this analogy intends. This analogy exhibits the course of a believer who dedicates himself to Jesus Christ in baptism, and with the course of the Hebrews who left Egypt, and followed the guidance of Moses, from Egypt, through the Red Sea to the promised land, all that is intended is an analogy. The Corinthians believers were not baptized in the name of Paul, yet, the Corinthians had a duty to follow Paul as Paul followed Jesus Christ; this is also true of the Hebrews for they were not baptized in the name of Moses though they followed him as their leader. If you remember the narrative of the Hebrews leaving Egypt you will remember that there was an Angel, and this Angel in whom was the name of God went before them in the pillars of cloud and fire: “And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went before them and stood behind them” (Exodus 14:19). Not only was just the people of Israel led by the Angel of God, so too was Moses, and they followed the Angel’s guidance and acknowledged His authority, as well as Moses’.

            Looking back at the benediction, the Spirit is named equally with the Father and the Son, and we are to regard that by naming the Spirit with the Father and the Son, the words may be considered to be a prayer to the Holy Spirit for the blessing to come from and be bestowed. Are not Christians called the temple of God? Yes! and are not Christians called the temple of the Holy Spirit? Yes! “Or do you not know that you body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God, and you are not your own” (1Corinthians 6:19)? When we recognize this fact that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit Who is from God the deity of the Holy Spirit is affirmed. Paul does not leave us in doubt: “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Corinthians 6:20). Further Paul adds to this fact: “in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1Corinthians 3:16)? How important is this that we recognize who we are and whose we are and the fact that we are the temple of God, not the building in which we meet, or a home, or any other place; we are the temple of God and we must care for this temple: “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1Corinthians 6:17). Is this true? Will God destroy a liar, the one who says that he is a Christian and is the temple of God only to not hold true to his words? Yes! “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was old, was it not in your won control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’ Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things” (Acts 5:3–5. This narrative should cause us to fear as well. Notice that the lie was to the Holy Spirit, and then the conjoining of this hideous act of lying to God. This makes both the Holy Spirit and God equal. Matthew adds to this: “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgive him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32). If the Holy Spirit not God sin committed against Him would not carry an unpardonable blasphemy.

            The Holy Spirit is God and we now in the next blogs examine the office of the Holy Spirit. Take time to examine yourself and you association with the Holy Spirit and how your lives exemplify the Holy Spirit in all that you do, and act. We are, and have the duty to present to the world: Jesus Christ, and Christianity as a true religion.

Now He who has prepared us

            For this very thing is God,

Who also has given us the Spirit

            As a guarantee.

                                    2Corinthians 5:5

Be Confident: You are the Temple of God

Richard L. Crumb