Jesus as the Holy Spirit

I have been studying the trinity lately. One thing that I think I understand in the doctrine itself is that each person of the trinity cannot be another person. For example, The Father is not the Son; the Son is not the Father; Neither are the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither of the previous Two. If I am wrong on this, please correct me.

My question is rooted in John 14:16-18
"16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

It would seem to me that Jesus is directly identifying himself AS the comforter that was to be IN them, namely the Holy Spirit. Obviously not in a form of flesh, but in spiritual form. When I study comfortless in verse 18, I see that the greek word means orphans. So Jesus is saying that I will not leave you as Orphans, I will come to you. Meaning that He will adopt us and be a Father to us.

Romans 8:15 shows that we are adopted by the Spirit, and makes us cry out to our Father. But if Christ adopts us, then He is our Father.
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

I also see in Corinthians that Paul says.."Now Christ is THAT Spirit."

I am having a hard time reconciling this passage and seeing the three persons each as their own individual and not as the same person. Can someone please help me understand this from a Trinitarian perspective?

Thank you in advance!

Hi Veritas238,

Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, but He is our Advocate. The Son declares that the Holy Spirit is ANOTHER Advocate. Thus showing that there is indeed a Third Person of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.

When Jesus says that "I will come to you" ... this is true of the Father as well. For by the Divine Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Father AND the Son also come to dwell in our hearts by what is called SANCTIFYING GRACE (which we receive in Holy Baptism).[Not only the Holy Spirit]

Also it is helpful to understand what is called CIRCUMINCESSION.
This simply means that the Father is wholly in the Son and the Son is wholly in the Father and that the Father and the Son are wholly in the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father AND the Son.

Another important thing to understand about the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity is that each of the THREE Divine Persons have a UNITY of OPERATION. All that the Father does the Son does AND the Holy Spirit does. The THREE Divine Persons have ONE NATURE and also they have ONE WILL (as God) ... ONE DIVINE WILL.

Jesus, being both God and Man, possessing 2 Natures, possesses 2 Wills.

This is the Orthodox Catholic Teaching of Christ.

God bless you.

I like this response. Even if it came from a Roman Catholic.

I don't agree that grace comes by way of baptism, but therein lies a distinction between Roman Catholics and protestants anyways.

Oh, and the two wills part, I hope you do not believe that there are two persons in the hypostatic union. I think there was one person, and therefore only one will in Jesus Christ. However, I'm open to correction from the Scriptures or plain reason.

No there are not two Persons in Jesus Christ. Jesus is One Person, the Second Person of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity, that is, God the Son. Jesus is a Divine Person, Eternal and Uncreated as to his Divinity.

In assuming a real Human Nature, Jesus has a real human rational soul with a real human free will.

Since Jesus is both Divine and Human, Jesus has a Divine Will and a Human Will and He loved with a real Human Heart (which we call the Sacred Heart of Jesus).

To underscore everything, ... people are not used to hearing this but Jesus is not, never was, and never will be a Human Person. He is God the Son, a Divine Person. This is why the bottom line question of the Gospels is "WHO do you say that I am?"

God bless you, bsd058.

... Jesus was a divine person only before the incarnation. He became a human person at the incarnation without ceasing to be a divine person as well. He merely added to himself humanness. ...

The problem with this, bsd058, is that you are in effect saying that in the Son, there are 2 Persons.

Jesus can have a human nature, but He is not a Human Person. His Personhood is Divine. He is God the Son.

This is why we can say that Mary is the Mother of God. Because she is the Mother of the Person of Jesus Christ ... God the Son, Immanuel.

God bless you.