We don’t sing a lot of songs about the Holy Spirit. It’s not because the Holy Spirit doesn’t deserve praise. He’s God! Of course he does! In fact, that was one of the early arguments for the Holy Spirit’s divinity. As Gregory of Nazianzus essentially said, “We’re all worshiping him, and he definitely deserves it. He must be God.”
The main reason is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t draw attention to himself. Usually in the New Testament he is either pointing us to Jesus (John 16:15), reminding us what God has given (Rom. 8:16), or praying for us (Rom. 8:26-27). Like we said this Sunday, he actually joins us to Jesus, so we can receive his righteousness, holiness, and resurrection life. We can even say that the Holy Spirit, by joining us to Jesus, makes us “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). We may not sing songs TO the Spirit as much as we do to Jesus, but we can legitimately say that there is no worship without the Spirit’s work.
Still, even though the Spirit is always pointing away from himself, it is also entirely appropriate for the Spirit to be worshiped, prayed to, and sung about. In fact, we need to sing about him. We need to be reminded of who he is, and we need solid, biblically orthodox language about the Spirit to settle into our hearts. There is a lot of confusion about who the Spirit is and what he does, so having this language in our hearts will help us to rightly discern his work and presence.
The song we introduced on Sunday (“God the Spirit”) is a good example of this. In verse 1 we see that he is the one who inspired the writing of the scriptures; he has been at work revealing God’s nature and character for millennia. In verse 2 he is the one who replaces our death with Jesus’ resurrection life, and who works in our hearts to make our character like Jesus’. In verse 3 he teaches and guides us as we wait for Christ’s return. The refrain that ties these verses together reminds us that the Spirit is way more than our conscience, or God’s invisible messenger who gives us nudges and hunches when we don’t know what to do. He is united with the Father and the Son; he is God, and he deserves our love and worship.
There is so much that we could say about the gift of the Spirit. God has chosen to dwell with and in us, and to join us to himself. That is both astounding and confusing, and the mystery only grows as we learn and understand more. Don’t let that discourage you, though. Let this language seek into your heart so you can learn to recognize him. He is with us and in us; he is present with us. Let’s give thanks for that and learn to recognize his leading together.
Listen here: "God the Spirit"
Justin+