Putting the pieces together Third Person of the Godhead

Content 7. Third Person of the Godhead

“Putting The Pieces Together” article.

third person of the GodheadThe prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.–Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897) {Evangelism, p. 617}

The “third person of the Godhead” does not mean a third person in the Godhead. The “third person of the Godhead” was understood by Ellen White to be none other than the glorified life of Christ (His very own life), not another individual being different to Christ and the Father. Only this life of Christ can give us victory over sin (no one else in the universe can do it). This she calls the “third person of the Godhead.” When we follow the divine instruction and make use of the key for the Testimonies many misunderstandings will be resolved. The expression “third person of the Godhead” is today explained by many to mean a third individual god-being equal to the Father and Son. Let us allow the prophet (rather than anyone else) to explain to us what she meant by that expression. This is the safest thing to do if we truly desire to know the truth.

Who is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead?

Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, “the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My name.” … This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter. {E. G. White, Manuscript Releases Vol.14, p. 179}

Now let us read a similar statement with more context around it:

The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of man to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fulness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church.{E. G. White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1904 par. 3}

Christ’s spirit is a divine power. It is “His own character” (His own life) not a different person to Him. What is the only power that can break the hold of evil from our hearts?

Our condition through sin has become preternatural, and the power that restores us must be supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. {E. G. White, Testimonies Volume 8, p. 291}

“The divine Spirit that the world’s Redeemer promised to send is the presence and power of God. {E. G. White, Signs of the Times, November 23, 1891}

Therefore, the power of God, which is in Christ, is present in the third person. It is Christ and His power in the third person of the Godhead. It is not another person in the Godhead, no, it is the third person of (not in) the Godhead.

There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness. {E. G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 18}

Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,–the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the worldWith his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin. {E. G. White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1904 par. 1}

Notice now how clearly she says that the life of Christ is what helps us resist temptation. The life of Christ is His spirit (not someone else!). This is the Comforter, this is the Holy Spirit, and this is what is called the “third person of the Godhead.”

“The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness.” {E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 324}

Not until the life of Christ becomes a vitalizing power in our lives can we resist the temptations that assail us from within and from without. {E. G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 130}

This life of Christ is a holy, spotless, blameless life. Since life is the spirit (John 6:63), therefore this holy life of Christ is His Holy Spirit!

Christ is the source of every right impulse. He is the only one who can arouse in the natural heart enmity against sinHe is the source of our power if we would be saved. No soul can repent without the grace of Christ. The sinner may pray that he may know how to repent. God reveals Christ to the sinner, and when he sees the purity of the Son of God, he is not ignorant of the character of sin. By faith in the work and power of Christ, enmity against sin and Satan is created in his heart. {E. G. White, Review and Herald, April 1, 1890 par. 5}

“The Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the only begotten Son of God, binds the human agent, body, soul, and spirit, to the perfect, divine-human nature of Christ. {E. G. White, Review and Herald, April 5, 1906 par. 16}

From the Bible we should have known this fact already from (Acts 3:26).

Therefore, if the power of evil can be held in check only by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, and it is Jesus who turns away every one of us from his iniquities (evil), then it is an obvious conclusion that Jesus aids us in this battle by giving us his very own holy life, his very own Holy Spirit (not another being different to Him). This Holy life of Christ is termed “the third person of the Godhead.”

Book – Putting the Pieces Together 

(1) “the heavenly Trio”
(2) “there never was a time”
(3) “life, original, unborrowed, underived”
(4) “eternal heavenly dignitaries”
(5) “as much a person”
(6) “Holy Spirit is a person”
(7) “third person of the Godhead”
(8) “three highest powers”
(9) “gave themselves”
(10) “three holiest beings”

Appendix I
(Dr. Kellogg & the Trinity)

Appendix II
(How many divine beings?)

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