With this question, we officially dive into the third and final section of the New City Catechism, which focuses upon the Spirit, our restoration, and our growing in grace. We, therefore, begin with this very fitting question: What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God.

That is the short answer, although clearly more needs to be said.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is God, together with the Father and the Son, yet together they make one God, not three. But even though the Spirit is God with the Father and the Son, He is not the Father nor the Son. He is a distinct Person within the triune Godhead.

“Person” is a crucial word here. The proper pronoun to use for the Holy Spirit is He, not it. The Spirit is not an impersonal force of God. He is not a metaphorical way of understanding God’s power throughout the universe. Instead, the Holy Spirit is a Person. He teaches and reminds (John 14:26). He guides and speaks (John 16:3). He bears witness to Jesus (John 15:26). He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). He empowers (Acts 1:8). These are the characteristics of personhood, not an ethereal energy.

But the Spirit is also God. The Nicene Creed further describes the Third Person of the Trinity as such: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.” Many people think of the Nicene Creed as clarifying the church’s belief in Jesus’ divinity, yet it also clearly affirms the deity of the Holy Spirit as well.

Three texts directly affirm this. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus instructed us to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Next, in Acts 5, Peter confronts Ananias and Sapphira about lying about their offering amount. In verse 3, Peter says that they lied to the Holy Spirit, while verse 4 says it was to God. Finally, we have the closing benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14, which says: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The testimony of Scripture, therefore, is that the Holy Spirit is God.

During His last supper with His disciples, Jesus gives what many call the Upper Room Discourse, which is found in John 13-17. With Jesus’ crucifixion only hours away, Jesus gave many words of comfort and instruction to His disciples for the future. One of the great promises that He makes three times (John 14:16-26, 15:26, 16:7-15) in this discourse regards the sending of the Holy Spirit, Whom He calls the Helper.

The word parakletos is translated in the ESV, NASB, and NKJV as Helper. The KJV renders it Comforter. The RSV and CSB call Him the Counselor, while the NIV, NLT, and NET use Advocate. In light of these varied options, some choose to anglicize parakletos as the Paraclete.

So which translation works best?

The word describes someone who comes along beside another, so none of these translations are incorrect. In fact, keeping all of them in mind will likely help us stay nearer to what is meant by the original word in Greek. Although if we were to use one primarily, I agree with the ESV, NASB, and NKJV’s usage of Helper, since helper can easily include the functions of counselor, advocate, and comforter.

The KJV’s translation of Comforter, however, requires a bit of an explanation today. According to the Oxford Dictionary, comfort being used in “the sense [of] ‘something producing physical ease’ arose in the mid 17th century.” But the KJV, of course, was originally published in 1611, and its subsequent revisions kept much of its original wording. Comforter is one such example, which means that comfort did not mean producing physical ease when the KJV was published. At that time, comfort instead meant to strengthen or to give support. Thus, the KJV is not declaring that the Holy Spirit’s role is to give us ease but rather to give us strength, to be our Helper.

Leaning into this title, Jesus told His disciples: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7).

Consider that statement for a moment.

Jesus’ physical presence on the earth was gloriously good news. It was light shining into the darkness (John 1:5). It was the invisible God providing us with His exact image, the radiance of His glory (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3).

Furthermore, as our Savior, Jesus is our great helper. We could not save ourselves from the righteous judgment of God for our sins, but Jesus paid our penalty in full. We have no right to approach the Father in prayer, yet Christ clothes us in His righteousness and continues to petition before the throne as our great High Priest. Jesus gladly acknowledged His role as our helper when He speaks of the Holy Spirit as being “another Helper” (John 14:16) to be with us forever.

Jesus’ physical presence on earth was good, but the giving of the Holy Spirit is now, because of the work of Jesus, even better for us. Jesus’ earthly ministry was done through the power of the Spirit (Acts 1:2). Upon receiving the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ followers received the same power to continue Jesus’ work on earth. Through the Spirit, Jesus made disciples, then He gave them the Spirit and sent them into the world to make more disciples. The Holy Spirit makes us into Christians, little Christs. We become His representatives, His ambassadors, His body, His church. This is the help that the Holy Spirit gives. He gives us strength to follow Christ and to teach others to follow Christ, to walk in discipleship with Jesus as we also disciple others.