By Theodore Epp

      Romans 15:30-33

      The Holy Spirit is a Person because He has emotions. He has the ability to love. Romans 15:30 says, "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." This teaches us that the Holy Spirit has the capacity to love. He not only influences us to love, but He also loves us.

      John 3:16 reveals that God the Father loves us. Philippians 2:5-8 describes how the Lord Jesus Christ loved us personally by making Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient to death on the cross. There is no question about His love for us.

      Neither is there any question about the Holy Spirit's love for us. He patiently seeks us when we are in sin and away from God, and when we trust Christ as Saviour, He regenerates us and begins to transform us into the image of God's Son.

      If the Father had not loved the world, if the Son had not loved us and died for us, if the Holy Spirit had not loved us, convicted us and transformed us, where would we be spiritually today? Our salvation depends as much on the love of the Spirit as it does on the love of the Father and of the Son.

      "But the fruit of the Spirit is love" (Gal. 5:22).