“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.
John 14:15-17 NET
Who is the Holy Spirit? And what role does he play in the life of the believer? No one place in the Scripture completely answers those questions. But this passage gives us at least an introduction.
Jesus told his disciples that if we love him, we will obey his commandments (John 13:34), and that is connected to a promise. Jesus would ask the Father to give us another Advocate. The word translated as Advocate in the NET is Paraclete, one who comes alongside. Various translations also render this word as Helper, Counselor, and Comforter.
The Paraclete
Who is this Paraclete? Jesus first identifies him as “another,” a word meaning of the same type. This promised Paraclete was like Jesus. Since John earlier identified Jesus as the Word, who was God (John 1:1-3), that would also identify the Advocate as being God. That makes this a strong statement in support of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Jesus then identified the Paraclete as the Spirit of truth and, in John 14:26, as the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared himself to be the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). So, by identifying the Paraclete as the Spirit of truth, he made another connection with himself.
And Jesus said that when the Paraclete came, he would reside within us forever. Under the old covenant, God was pictured as residing in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and then the Temple. But now, God would reside within those who love Jesus and keep his commandments. Not just occasionally. But always.
Jesus walked among us for a short time and then returned to the Father. But he did not leave us to carry on by ourselves. He has given us the Holy Spirit to enable us to carry on the work he left us with (Matt. 28:18-20).
