An Exposition of Article Eleven of the Belgic Confession -- The Deity of the Holy Spirit

Far too often we hear people speak of the Holy Spirit as an “it,” not a “who.” One reason this is the case is that it is the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work to bring glory to Jesus Christ, not to bring glory to himself. This is why one theologian calls the Holy Spirit, the “shy member of the Trinity.” But the self-effacing role the Holy Spirit plays should not cause us to de-emphasize the fact that the Holy Spirit is truly God and that he possesses all of the divine attributes as do the Father and Son. Even as we speak of the Father as God, the Son as God, so too we must speak of the Holy Spirit as God, for he is the third person of the Holy Trinity.

We are in that section of our confession (articles eight through eleven) which deals with the doctrine of the Trinity, the deity of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As we have emphasized when going through these articles, often people erroneously believe that since Christians, Jews, and Muslims are monotheists, we all worship the same God. But this is not the case. Christians worship the Triune God, who reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we have seen, the Koran (the holy book of Islam) directly attacks the doctrine of the Trinity. Jews emphatically deny that God reveals himself as three persons and many regard the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ as one of the leading factors in the rise of Anti-Semitism, since Jews are often blamed for the crucifixion of the Son of God.

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