I. What is being confessed in this article?⤒🔗

1. The Holy Spirit is not made or created. He was not even begotten, as the previous article confessed of the Son. We can only say that from eternity he proceeds from the Father and the Son.
2. Because the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, he is the third Person in the Trinity according to this order. But at the same time he is essentially equal to the Father and the Son and possesses the same royal glory as they do. Therefore, he is indeed truly and eternally God. That is what the Scriptures teach us.

II. The Holy Spirit is indeed God←⤒🔗

1. One thing is certain: From its very beginning the Christian church has professed the deity of the Holy Spirit. The baptismal formula used by the church in which the Spirit is completely equated with the Father and the Son proves this.
2. In the beginning there was still a certain vagueness in speaking about the Spirit. But that should not surprise us when we consider a few things:
   a. What is a father or a son is clearer to us than what is a spirit. In addition, the Greek word for spirit (pneuma) can also mean breath and wind.
   b. The  Holy Spirit is called a gift, (Acts 2:38); or a power (Luke 1:35); or a fire that should not be quenched,1 (Thessalonians 5:19). Because of these characterizations, people had some difficulty in recognizing a Person (a Someone) in the Spirit.
   So while the deity of the Spirit was confessed, there was still a light veil about his Person. It took time to achieve the necessary clarity.
3. This clarity came through the great controversy of the fourth century. We remember how Arius had denied the deity of the Son. He said nothing about the Holy Spirit. But his followers continued the line of reasoning: They also denied the deity of the Spirit. The church rejected this new error in the Council of Constantinople (381 AD).
4. The Scriptures clearly teach that the Holy Spirit is God:
   a. Peter calls deceiving the Spirit lying to God, Acts 5:3-4.
   b. Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Only God dwells in a temple.
   c. In the baptismal formula, the Holy Spirit is clearly next to the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19).
   d. The sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven (Matthew 12:31). Therefore he must be God in any case.
5. The Holy Spirit is more than a gift or an impersonal power, as shown in point 2b above. He is a living Person, a Someone  – because we may even grieve him (Ephesians 4:30).      

III. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son←⤒🔗

1. First we note that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from" the Father. So in a way hidden from us he proceeds from the Father. But of the Son the church confesses something similar: that he is “begotten” by the Father from eternity.
   Both the Spirit and the Son emanate, as it were, from the Father. Yet they both do not have the same relationship to the Father. And that is why the church chose two different words: The Son is begotten of the Father, but the Spirit proceeds from the Father. This article says with some emphasis that the Spirit was “not begotten.”
   We do not know what exactly is the difference between "begotten" and "proceeding". God is incomprehensible to us. Yet the Scriptures clearly teach us that there are distinctions. Therefore we are obliged to use two different words, out of respect for the Scriptures. But at the same time we recognize our inability to explore in depth what the difference is. God has not revealed this to us.
   We do note, however, that the expression "begotten by" (or "born of") fits well with the name "Son". And likewise that the word "proceeds" also fits well with the word "Spirit", which means "breath" (see also Psalm 33:6).
2. However, the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also from the Son. He is called both the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20) and the Spirit of the Son (Galatians 4:6). In one of his sayings Jesus teaches that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, and that the Son will send the Spirit. Therefore it is clear that the Spirit also proceeds from the Son (John 15:26).
3. Why is it so important to confess that the Spirit also proceeds from the Son? In order to discover this, we need to look at the development of the Eastern (Orthodox) Church, which believes that the Spirit proceeds from the Father but not from the Son. In fact it places the Son and the Spirit side by side, but in such a way that the two are more or less below the Father. The Son and the Spirit are then not directly connected with each other, for they proceed individually from the Father.
   This erroneous teaching had serious practical consequences. After all, two ways are then open to man to come into contact with God the Father: the way of the Son and, separately from this, the way of the Spirit. The Son leads us to God through pure sermons. But the Spirit does this by working directly in our hearts; as a consequence, religion becomes a matter of feelings. Actually, the way of the Spirit was considered the more beautiful in the Eastern Church. And that is why it was no longer considered so important whether the gospel was preached purely and whether one had a Scriptural confession, because all of this was only on the outside. It was considered much more important whether you had a pious feeling deep in your heart. It is no wonder that there the sects were able to flourish quite early.
4. We do not believe in two distinct ways to God the Father. There is one way, and that is the way of pure preaching. This proclamation is charged as much with the power of the Spirit as it is with the treasures of Christ.
   When preaching occurs, the Spirit is at work, but he takes everything from Christ (John 16:14-15).
5. This battleground is indicated by the Latin expression "filioque" (which means, “and the Son”—in other words, who also proceeds from the Son). This refers to the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Church, as noted above, denied this and for that reason a rift with the Western Church arose in 1054, which has never been healed.

IV. The Holy Spirit in the third Person←⤒🔗

With a third person we may easily think of someone who ranks after a first and second person. He is then the lowest, the last or the youngest. This article excludes any such thought in that direction by stating next that the Spirit is “of one and the same essence, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son.”

The Spirit is called the third Person, not because he is lower or younger than the Father and the Son, but because he proceeds from both of them.

V. The Holy Spirit and the Pentecostal movement←⤒🔗

1. The Pentecostal movement focuses all attention on the gifts of the Spirit. However, it mainly looks for these in the so-called speaking in tongues, special revelations and miraculous healings. It is triumphantly pointed out that these gifts were present on and after Pentecost and therefore need to be present in a living church today. Meanwhile, the value of the preaching of the gospel is misunderstood. People complain that the gospel always remains the same. There is nothing new that gets added. According to the people of the Pentecostal movement, a church that wants to make do with this will become rigid, and that is why there is so much dead orthodoxy in the church.–.
2. We have the following arguments against this:
   a. Paul writes to those who highly valued speaking in tongues: “I would rather speak five words with my mind ... than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19). And when, in Galatians 5:22, a broad enumeration of the fruits of the Spirit is given, then it does not include anything that the Pentecostal movement considers to be essential.
   b. More importantly, Jesus does not send out his disciples to teach the people to speak in tongues and to heal the sick. Another matter is on his agenda: “Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19). The full emphasis is on the disciples passing on in full the teaching they received from Jesus. The main task of the church is to preach this gospel.

VI. The sin against the Holy Spirit ←⤒🔗

1. Scripture speaks more than once of an unforgivable sin (Matthew 12:31-32; Hebrews 6:4-6; 1 John 5:16). Jesus calls it "the blasphemy against the Spirit."
2. This sin can only be committed by those who have thoroughly understood the gospel and who yet reject it against their better judgement.
3. Jesus sharply distinguishes between sin against the Son and sin against the Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32). The former will be forgiven, the latter will not. That is by no means because the Spirit would be more important than the Son. Jesus means this: As long as I am on earth as a humbled Son of Man, a veil will still hang over my glory. Whoever rejects me at this moment (= commits sin against the Son) is not yet lost. But soon the Spirit will be poured out. He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). But anyone who even then resists and rejects the gospel, against better judgment (= commits sin against the Spirit) will not be forgiven.
4. We may never be able to accuse anyone of this sin. Why, then, should we know that this sin is possible? We are thus earnestly warned not to stubbornly oppose the gospel, because we may then reach a point after which there is no turning back. Repentance should not be delayed for a day; any procrastination is life-threatening!

Points to discuss←↰⤒🔗

1. “For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). What does this mean?
2. Did the Holy Spirit also work among people during the old dispensation? If so, what is the difference between then and today?
3. Can the Holy Spirit also work outside the church?
4. How does our Form for Baptism connect the work of the Spirit and that of the Son?