The Paraclete - Our Divine Helper

 

In the new Testament, Jesus referred to the Spirit in three ways. He spoke of Him as the Comforter, he spoke of him as the Spirit of truth, and as the Holy Spirit. Instead of "Comforter" The Greek word for Holy Spirit is Paraclete. Paraclete simply means "One called to the side of." It is a word quite common in all Greek literature in the sense of an advocate, in other words, one who takes up the cause of another and defends it. Paraclete is also used as the word Comforter, this implies that the great sense of value in our Lord's use of the word was not only that the Holy Spirit was to come as an Advocate, but also to console, and in this sense, to comfort the souls of the disciples.
 
Noticed when Jesus used the word he said, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you Another Comforter. The word another here refers to another of particular nature and character, but yet, of a similar quality and distinction of Person. The purpose of the use of the word another is that it presupposes a previous Comforter. By this, Jesus suggested that by his own work he displayed himself to be a comforter, a Paraclete to the disciples.

He had been the One summoned to their side. He had been with them and they had been with Him. They fellowshipped with Him and saw more deeply into the things of God. They had heard the voices with which they had been unfamiliar until He came and spoke to them. It was in His presence that they had known courage and strength, but then, were troubled by the fact that He was going away.

It was under these circumstances that He said, I will send you another Paraclete; another to stand by your side, another to take exactly the same place that I have filled in your lives during these past three years, another to be the Advocate of God with you. If we compare the way in which Jesus used the word paraclete it may help us to understand the value of the Holy Spirit.

We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. So, we can say, Christ stands as our Advocate with God in the heavenly realm and the Spirit dwells with us as His Advocate in the life and service of the earth. As Christ pleads the cause of man in heaven, so the Spirit pleads the cause of God on earth. He is the Advocate.