The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 35

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

which are not seen are eternal,’’ 2 Cor. 4, 17. 18.
‘*We know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called ac-
cording to His purpose,’’ Rom. 8, 28.

Let Christians receive in simple and unques-
tioning faith these and such like promises and as-
surances, and they will realize that the voice of the
rod is the voice of infinite love, and that the stroke
under which they smart has been inflicted by un-
erring wisdom.

“Dear Lord, I cannot see
Why Thou hast wounded me,
But this I know, —
This cross must needed be,
Thou dost not willingly
Afilict me so.

“(In trial or in loss,
In toil or heavy cross,
Whate’er my way,
Lord, I would walk with Thee
Until Thy face I see
In cloudless day.”’

ee

The Third Article.

“T BELIEVE IN THE Hoty Guost.”’

The Second Article has taught us that Jesus
Christ is our Saviour and Redeemer, that there is
salvation in none other: ‘‘for there is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we
must be saved.’’ Only he that believes in Christ
will not perish, but have everlasting life; only he

that comes to Christ will not be cast out of heaven. ~

Now it is quite easy to talk about ‘‘believing in
Christ,’’ or ‘‘coming to Him,’’ but. utterly impos-
sible for any man to do this by his own power or
strength. We cannot give this faith in Christ to our-
selyes. No mancan say by himself ‘‘that Jesus is the
Lord,” that is to say, by his own power no man in his
heart can trust in Jesus as his Saviour. This faith,
this trust must be given to him, and He that works
this faith in man is the Holy Ghost. ‘‘No man can

_ say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”’

Who is the Holy Ghost? In the Third Article we
confess, ‘‘I believe in the Holy Ghost.’? We say
that we believe and trust in Him, and in saying this
we declare Him to be true God with the Father and
the Son. We confess Him to be the equal of the
Father and the Son in divine majesty and glory,
and therefore give Him equal honor and worship.

And in doing so we build upon God’s infallible
Word, for the Holy Scriptures again and again as-
sert that the Holy Ghost is true God. Christ com-
mands His disciples to baptize all nations ‘‘in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost.’? What else can this mean than that

35

the Holy Ghost is true God with the Father and the
Son? St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: ‘‘Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1Cor.3,16. The
Corinthians are called temples of God, and such
temples are they because the Spirit of God, the
Holy Ghost, dwells in them. If, however, the in-
dwelling of the Holy Ghost made them and makes
us the temples of God, it necessarily follows that
the Holy Ghost is true God. Acts 5, 3. 4 Peter ac-
cuses Ananias of having lied to the Holy Ghost, and
then adds: ‘‘Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto
God.’’ Peter, then, also asserts that the Holy Ghost
is true God. These are only a few of the many
passages in which the Holy Ghost is called God.

The Bible also ascribes divine works to the Holy
Ghost. No one will deny that the creation of heaven
and earth is a divine work. But in this divine work
the Holy Ghost took part, for Ps. 33, 6 we read:
‘‘By the word of the Lord were the heavens made;
and all the host of them by the breath (Spirit) of His
mouth.’? Here the psalmist declares that the host
of the heavens were made by the Spirit of God, the
Holy Ghost.

Likewise does the Word of God ascribe divine
attributes to the Holy Ghost. When the psalmist
exclaims, Ps. 139, 7: ‘‘Whither shall I go from Thy
Spirit?”’ he declares the Holy Ghost to be omni-
present. And when the apostle says, 1 Cor. 2, 10:
“The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God,’’ he ascribes omniscience to the Holy Ghost.
But, now, omnipresence and omniscience are attri-
butes that belong to God only. If, therefore, the
Holy Ghost is present everywhere and knows all
things, He must be true God.

Our faith in the Holy Ghost consequently is well
founded, and we do not commit idolatry when we
put our trust in Him. He is very God, the third
person in the Holy Trinity, and the equal of the
Father and the Son.

Now yet a few remarks as to the name we usually
give the Third Person of the Godhead. We generally
speak of Him as the Holy Ghost. This name is given
Him not so much because He is holy, which He is,
of course, but rather because of His peculiar office
and work. The particular work of the Holy Ghost
is to make us holy, that is, to lead us to Christ,
work faith in us, and appropriate to us Christ and
His salvation. His desire is

To speak His pardoning grace to me,
To set me burdened sinner free;

To lead me to the Lamb of God,
And wash me in His precious blood.

F.J.L.

tate Oe, *