Uungu wa Roho: Yeye Ni MunguThe Deity of the Spirit: He Is God
Kosa la tatu linasahihishwa: Roho si kiumbe bali ni Mungu — anaitwa Mungu, anakaa ndani kama Mungu, ana sifa za Mungu na anafanya kazi za MunguThe third misunderstanding corrected: the Spirit is not a creature but God — called God, indwelling as God, bearing the attributes and doing the works of God
1. Roho Ni Nafsi Ipi?1. Which Person Is the Spirit?
Katika sehemu iliyopita tulithibitisha kwamba Roho Mtakatifu ni Nafsi na si nguvu. Lakini hilo linamaliza nusu tu ya jambo hili na kuibua swali kali zaidi: yeye ni Nafsi ipi? Je, yeye ni kiumbe fulani duni, aliyeumbwa, labda malaika aliyeinuliwa, anayesimama chini ya Mungu na kumtumikia kwa shughuli zake? Au yeye mwenyewe ni Mungu? Biblia haiachi nafasi ya shaka. Roho si kiumbe, hata kama ni kiumbe mkuu na mtakatifu kiasi gani; yeye ni Mungu, Nafsi ya tatu ya Uungu mmoja, sawa na Baba na Mwana. Yeye si nguvu inayotoka kwa Mungu, wala si mtumishi ambaye Mungu alimuumba. Yeye ni Mungu. Hii ndiyo kweli inayokamilisha ile iliyotangulia: Nafsi tuliyekutana naye katika sehemu iliyopita si mwingine ila Mungu mwenyewe, aliyekuja kukaa kati ya watu wake na ndani yao. Kanisa la kwanza lililazimika kulitetea jambo hili hasa, kwa maana walitokea baadhi waliosema kwamba Roho alikuwa kiumbe tu, wa kwanza na mkuu kuliko kazi zote za Mungu lakini bado ni kazi tu. Kanisa liliyachunguza Maandiko na kukiri vinginevyo, na lilikuwa sahihi. Hebu tuone jinsi Maandiko yanavyolisisitiza jambo hili.In the last unit we proved that the Holy Spirit is a Person and not a force. But that settles only half the matter and raises a sharper question: which Person is He? Is He some lesser, created being, an exalted angel perhaps, who stands below God and runs His errands? Or is He Himself God? The Bible leaves no room for doubt. The Spirit is not a creature, however high and holy; He is God, the third Person of the one Godhead, equal with the Father and the Son. He is not a force that flows out from God, and He is not a servant whom God made. He is God. This is the truth that completes the one before it: the Person we met in the last unit is none other than God Himself, come to dwell among His people and within them. The early church had to defend this very point, for some rose up to say that the Spirit was only a creature, the first and highest of God's works but a work all the same. The church searched the Scriptures and confessed otherwise, and rightly so. Let us see how the Scriptures press this home.
2. Anaitwa Mungu2. He Is Called God
Uthibitisho ulio wazi kuliko yote ni kwamba Biblia inamwita Mungu waziwazi. Kitabu cha Matendo kinaeleza dhambi ya Anania na Safira, waliouza kiwanja na kujifanya kuweka thamani yote miguuni pa mitume huku kwa siri wakizuia sehemu yake. Petro aliuona uongo huo akauliza, "Anania, kwa nini Shetani amekujaza moyo wako hata kumwambia uongo Roho Mtakatifu?" (Matendo 5:3). Kisha mara hiyo hiyo akasema, "Hukuwaambia uongo wanadamu, bali Mungu" (Matendo 5:4). Soma sentensi hizo mbili pamoja. Kumwambia uongo Roho Mtakatifu, Petro anasema, ni kumwambia uongo Mungu, kwa maana Roho Mtakatifu ni Mungu. Mtume anatoka kwenye jina moja kwenda kwenye jingine bila kusita, kwa sababu akilini mwake majina hayo yanamtaja Nafsi yule yule wa kimungu. Wala Paulo hasiti kumwita kwa jina lile jingine kuu, kwa maana anaandika, "Basi Bwana ndiye Roho; na alipo Roho wa Bwana, hapo ndipo penye uhuru" (2 Wakorintho 3:17). Mungu na Bwana ndiyo majina makuu kuliko yote yaliyopo, na Roho anayavaa yote mawili. Huu ndio uungu wa Roho ukielezwa waziwazi kadiri maneno yanavyoweza kueleza.The plainest proof is that the Bible simply calls Him God. The book of Acts records the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, who sold a piece of property and pretended to lay the whole price at the apostles' feet while secretly holding part of it back. Peter saw through the lie and asked, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" (Acts 5:3). Then in the very next breath he said, "You have not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:4). Read those two sentences together. To lie to the Holy Spirit, Peter says, is to lie to God, for the Holy Spirit is God. The apostle moves from one name to the other without a pause, because in his mind they name the same divine Person. Nor does Paul hesitate to call Him by the other great name, for he writes, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). God and Lord are the highest names there are, and the Spirit wears them both. Here is the deity of the Spirit stated as plainly as words can state it.
3. Yeye Ni Mungu Akaaye Ndani Yako3. He Is God Dwelling in You
Kweli hiyo hiyo inatukabili kutoka upande mwingine Paulo anaposema juu ya muumini kama hekalu. "Je! Hamjui ya kuwa ninyi ni hekalu la Mungu, na ya kuwa Roho wa Mungu anakaa ndani yenu?" (1 Wakorintho 3:16). Hekalu ni nyumba ya mungu, mahali ambapo uungu hupendezwa kukaa. Na sisi ni hekalu la nani? Hekalu la Mungu, anasema Paulo, kisha katika sentensi ile ile anatuambia ni nani anayekaa humo: Roho wa Mungu. Baadaye analisema tena kuhusu mwili wa kila muumini: "mwili wenu ni hekalu la Roho Mtakatifu aliye ndani yenu" (1 Wakorintho 6:19). Weka hayo mawili pamoja na hoja haiwezi kujibiwa. Hekalu ni la Mungu, na Yule anayekaa katika hekalu hilo ni Roho Mtakatifu; kwa hiyo Roho Mtakatifu ni Mungu. Fikiri maana ya jambo hili. Mungu wa mbinguni hakutuletea tu zawadi au nguvu. Amekuja kuishi ndani yetu kwa Roho wake, akimfanya muumini kuwa makao yake mwenyewe.The same truth meets us from another direction when Paul speaks of the believer as a temple. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). A temple is the house of a god, the place where deity is pleased to dwell. And whose temple are we? God's temple, says Paul, and then in the same sentence he tells us who lives there: the Spirit of God. Later he says it again of the body of each believer: "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Put the two together and the logic is unanswerable. The temple belongs to God, and the One who dwells in that temple is the Holy Spirit; therefore the Holy Spirit is God. Think of what this means. The God of heaven has not merely sent us a gift or a power. He has come to live in us by His Spirit, making the believer His own dwelling place.
4. Ana Sifa za Mungu4. He Has the Attributes of God
Kuna mambo fulani yaliyo kweli kuhusu Mungu na si kuhusu mwingine yeyote. Hakuna kiumbe aliye mjuzi wa yote, mwenyezi, aliye kila mahali kwa wakati mmoja, au asiye na mwanzo wala mwisho; mambo haya ni ya Mungu peke yake. Hata hivyo Biblia inampa Roho Mtakatifu kila moja ya hayo. Yeye ni mjuzi wa yote, kwa maana Paulo anaandika kwamba "Roho huchunguza yote, hata mafumbo ya Mungu," na kwamba hakuna aijuaye mambo ya Mungu ila Roho wa Mungu (1 Wakorintho 2:10–11). Yeye ni mwenyezi, kwa maana malaika alimwambia Mariamu, "Roho Mtakatifu atakujilia juu yako, na nguvu zake Aliye juu zitakufunika kama kivuli" (Luka 1:35); kazi kuu kuliko zote, kuchukuliwa mimba kwa Mwana wa Mungu, ilikuwa kazi ya Roho. Yeye yuko kila mahali, kama Daudi alivyokiri alipolia, "Niende wapi nijiepushe na Roho wako? Niende wapi niukimbie uso wako?" (Zaburi 139:7); kama angepanda mbinguni au kujitandikia kitanda kuzimuni, angemkuta Roho tayari yuko huko (Zaburi 139:8). Tena yeye ni wa milele, kwa maana Maandiko yanamtaja "Roho wa milele" ambaye kwa yeye Kristo alijitoa mwenyewe kwa Mungu (Waebrania 9:14). Kilicho cha Mungu peke yake ni cha Roho pia; kwa hiyo Roho ni Mungu. Hakuna kiumbe ambaye angeweza kupewa hata moja ya haya, sembuse yote manne kwa pamoja.There are certain things that are true of God and of no one else. No creature is all-knowing, all-powerful, present everywhere at once, or without beginning and end; these belong to God alone. Yet the Bible hands every one of them to the Holy Spirit. He is all-knowing, for Paul writes that "the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God," and that no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10–11). He is all-powerful, for the angel told Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35); the mightiest work of all, the conception of the Son of God, was the Spirit's doing. He is everywhere present, as David confessed when he cried, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7); whether he climbed to heaven or made his bed in the depths, he found the Spirit already there (Psalm 139:8). And He is eternal, for the Scripture speaks of "the eternal Spirit" through whom Christ offered Himself to God (Hebrews 9:14). What belongs to God alone belongs also to the Spirit; therefore the Spirit is God. No creature could be handed even one of these, much less all four at once.
5. Anafanya Kazi za Mungu5. He Does the Works of God
Tunaweza kufikiri kwa namna ile ile kuhusu kazi zake, kwa maana Roho anafanya kile ambacho ni Mungu pekee anayeweza kufanya. Anashiriki katika kazi ya uumbaji. "Roho wa Mungu ameniumba, Na pumzi za Mwenyezi hunipa uhai," alisema Ayubu (Ayubu 33:4), na mtunga zaburi alimwimbia Bwana, "Wewe hupeleka Roho wako, vinaumbwa" (Zaburi 104:30). Pia yeye ndiye Mwandishi wa Maandiko. Petro anatuambia kwamba manabii hawakunena kwa nafsi zao, bali "watakatifu wa Mungu walinena wakiongozwa na Roho Mtakatifu" (2 Petro 1:21), na Paulo anaita kila andiko kuwa lenye pumzi ya Mungu (2 Timotheo 3:16). Pumzi iliyolipulizia nje Neno la Mungu ni pumzi ya Roho. Hata anatoa uzima wa ufufuo, kwa maana Paulo anaahidi kwamba "yeye aliyemfufua Kristo katika wafu ataihuisha na miili yenu iliyo katika hali ya kufa, kwa Roho wake anayekaa ndani yenu" (Warumi 8:11). Kufufua wafu ni kazi ya Mungu kama kuna kazi yoyote iliyo yake. Kuumba uhai, kutoa Neno lenyewe la Mungu, na kufufua wafu si kazi za kiumbe; ni kazi za Mungu, na Roho anazifanya.We may reason the same way from His works, for the Spirit does what only God can do. He shares in the work of creation. "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life," said Job (Job 33:4), and the psalmist sang to the Lord, "You send forth Your Spirit, they are created" (Psalm 104:30). He is also the Author of Scripture. Peter tells us that the prophets did not speak on their own, but "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21), and Paul calls all Scripture God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). The breath that breathed out the Word of God is the breath of the Spirit. He even gives resurrection life, for Paul promises that "He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11). To raise the dead is the work of God if anything is. To create life, to give the very Word of God, and to raise the dead are not the labors of a creature; they are the works of God, and the Spirit does them.
6. Yeye Ni Kama Upepo6. He Is Like the Wind
Tutamwonyeshaje kwa picha Yule aliye juu sana kuliko sisi? Yesu mwenyewe alichukua picha kutoka katika maumbile. Akizungumza na Nikodemo usiku, alisema, "Upepo huvuma upendapo, na sauti yake waisikia, lakini hujui unakotoka wala unakokwenda; kadhalika na kila mtu aliyezaliwa kwa Roho" (Yohana 3:8). Upepo hauonekani, lakini hakuna anayekana kwamba ni halisi; unahisi nguvu yake na kusikia sauti yake ingawa huuoni kamwe. Huenda unakotaka na haumjibu mtu yeyote. Na bado, ingawa hakuna baharia anayeuamuru upepo, kila baharia mzuri amejifunza kuutumia. Hutandaza matanga yake na kuyarekebisha, hukimbia mbele ya upepo au huenda kwa mshazari dhidi yake, akiinama mbele ya nguvu asiyoweza kuitawala lakini kwa furaha akiitumia kazini. Ndivyo ilivyo kwa Roho wa Mungu. Hatumwamuru, na hatuwezi kuzifuatilia njia zake kikamilifu, lakini tunainama mbele ya uhuru wake wenye enzi na tunatandaza matanga yetu kwa nguvu zake.How shall we picture One so far above us? Jesus Himself reached for a picture from nature. Speaking to Nicodemus by night, He said, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). The wind is invisible, yet no one denies that it is real; you feel its force and hear its voice though you never see it. It goes where it pleases and answers to no man. And yet, while no sailor commands the wind, every good sailor has learned to use it. He sets his sails and trims them, he runs before the wind or tacks against it, bowing to a power he cannot control but gladly putting it to work. So it is with the Spirit of God. We do not command Him, and we cannot fully trace His ways, but we bow to His sovereign freedom and we spread our sails to His power.
7. Yeye Ni Kama Umeme7. He Is Like Electricity
Picha ya kisasa zaidi inasema karibu jambo lile lile. Hadi leo hakuna anayeweza kutoa maelezo kamili ya umeme. Hatuwezi kusema hasa ni nini kinachopita kwenye waya, wala hata kama "kupita" ni neno sahihi kabisa. Na bado hakuna mtu anayesimama akisita katika chumba chenye giza, akikataa kuwasha swichi mpaka fumbo litatuliwe. Tunatumia nguvu hiyo kwa uhuru ingawa ufahamu wetu uko mbali sana nayo. Vivyo hivyo tunaweza kuitegemea nguvu ya Roho Mtakatifu bila kwanza kumwelewa kikamilifu. Hatutafika kamwe chini kabisa ya yeye ni nani, kwa maana yeye ni Mungu, na Mungu hachunguziki. Lakini hatuombwi kumweleza kabla hatujamwamini. Tunaombwa kujitoa kwake na kuenenda katika nguvu zake siku kwa siku.A more modern picture says nearly the same thing. To this day no one can give a complete account of electricity. We cannot say exactly what it is that runs along the wire, or even whether "runs" is the right word at all. And yet no one stands hesitating in a dark room, refusing to flip the switch until the mystery is solved. We use the power freely though our understanding falls far short of it. In just this way we may lean upon the power of the Holy Spirit without first comprehending Him. We will never reach the bottom of who He is, for He is God, and God is past finding out. But we are not asked to explain Him before we trust Him. We are asked to yield to Him and to walk in His power day by day.
8. Mungu Mmoja, na Nafsi Huyu Ni Mungu8. One God, and This Person Is God
Hebu tukusanye yote pamoja. Tunamwabudu Mungu mmoja, na hatutaweza kamwe kulipima kikamilifu fumbo la kwamba Mungu huyu mmoja ni Nafsi tatu, Baba, Mwana, na Roho Mtakatifu. Lakini fumbo halifuti kweli; linaivika taji. Roho si mshiriki wa daraja la pili katika Uungu, si nguvu ya kuazimwa, si malaika wa cheo cha juu. Anaitwa Mungu, anaabudiwa kama Mungu akaaye katika hekalu lake, ana sifa za Mungu, na anafanya kazi za Mungu. Na hili ndilo ajabu la injili kwetu: Mungu aliye mjuzi wa yote, mwenyezi, aliye kila mahali, na wa milele amekuja kwa Roho wake kuishi ndani ya watu wa kawaida wanaomwamini Mwanawe. Kuwa na Roho ni kuwa na Mungu mwenyewe. Jambo hilo na litusukume kuabudu, kwa maana Mgeni aliye ndani yetu anastahili ibada yote tunayompa Baba na Mwana. Na lituimarishe, kwa maana Mungu anayeutegemeza ulimwengu wote ameahidi uwepo wake mwenyewe kwetu na hatashindwa. Na litufundishe tusimhuzunishe kamwe Mgeni mkuu namna hii, bali tuegemee kwa uzito wetu wote juu ya nguvu zake, nguvu yenyewe ya Mungu ikifanya kazi ndani yetu.Let us gather it up. We worship one God, and we will never fully fathom the mystery that this one God is three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But the mystery does not cancel the truth; it crowns it. The Spirit is not a second-rate member of the Godhead, not a power on loan, not an angel of high rank. He is called God, He is worshiped as God dwelling in His temple, He bears the attributes of God, and He does the works of God. And this is the wonder of the gospel for us: the God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present, and eternal has come by His Spirit to live inside ordinary people who trust His Son. To have the Spirit is to have God Himself. Let that drive us to worship, for the Guest within us is worthy of all the adoration we give the Father and the Son. Let it steady us, for the God who upholds the universe has pledged His own presence to us and will not fail. And let it teach us never to grieve so great a Guest, but to lean with all our weight upon His power, the very power of God at work within us.