The Apostles' Creed

I Believe in the Holy Spirit

The third part of the creed opens by confessing the Holy Spirit, the third person of the one God, fully God with the Father and the Son. The Spirit is not a force or an influence but the Lord and Giver of Life, who spoke through the prophets, who applies to us all that Christ has done, and who dwells in the church. To confess the Spirit is to confess that God himself lives in his people.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.John 14:26 (KJV)

What this line confesses

With this short line the creed moves to the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is true God, together with the Father and the Son, one God in three persons. The Spirit is not a lesser being, nor a symbol for God's energy, but the Lord himself, personal and divine, who is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son.

The Spirit is the one who makes real in us everything Christ has done for us. He convicts, gives new birth, unites us to Jesus, pours the love of God into our hearts, and gives gifts for the good of all. The Father sends the Son, and the Father and the Son send the Spirit, so that the whole life of God reaches all the way down to us. The three articles of the creed are not three gods but the one God met in three persons.

Its biblical basis

Jesus promised the Spirit by name: the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things. He called him the Spirit of truth who would guide the disciples and glorify the Son. At Pentecost the promise was fulfilled, and the Spirit was poured out on the church in wind and fire.

That the Spirit is fully God is woven through Scripture. To lie to the Holy Spirit, Peter tells Ananias, is to lie to God. Believers are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one name for the three. Paul teaches that the Spirit searches the deep things of God, and that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The creed confesses what the Bible reveals: the Spirit is the Lord, God with us and God in us.

Why it mattered: against denying the Spirit's deity

Just as some had denied the full deity of the Son, others in the fourth century denied the full deity of the Spirit, treating him as a creature or a mere power. They were sometimes called the Pneumatomachi, meaning those who fight against the Spirit. If they were right, then the God who lives in believers is not truly God, and our worship of the Spirit is misplaced.

The church answered clearly, most fully at the Council of Constantinople in 381, confessing the Holy Spirit as the Lord and Giver of Life, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified. The Apostles' Creed says it more simply, I believe in the Holy Spirit, placing him alongside the Father and the Son as an object of the same faith and the same worship. To believe in the Spirit is to confess the full mystery of the Trinity, one God in three persons.

The Spirit in the church and the believer

The Spirit the creed confesses is the one poured out at Pentecost, when the frightened disciples were filled with power and the church was born in wind and fire. From that day the Spirit has been the life of the church, gathering people of every language into one body, giving gifts for the good of all, and bearing fruit in changed lives: love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest. Where the Spirit is at work, people begin to look like Jesus.

The Spirit is just as personal to each believer. He gives the new birth Jesus spoke of, assures us that we are children of God, helps us in our weakness, and teaches us to pray. The Christian life is not self-improvement but the fruit of God living within, so that Paul can say it is Christ who lives in me. To confess the Spirit is to know that God is not only over you and for you but with you and in you.

It is honest to note one long-standing difference here. The Western form of the Nicene Creed says the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, the phrase known by its Latin word filioque, while the Eastern churches keep the older wording, that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. This wording was one of the sorrows that divided East and West, yet both confess with one voice the truth the creed exists to guard: the Holy Spirit is fully and eternally God, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son.

How to know the Spirit at work

Because the Spirit is invisible, people sometimes wonder how to recognize his work. The surest sign is not spectacle but a life turned toward Jesus. The Spirit does not draw attention to himself; Jesus said he would glorify the Son, taking what belongs to Christ and making it known. Wherever the Spirit is truly moving, Jesus is exalted, his Word is loved, and people are drawn to trust and obey him.

The Spirit's work also shows in the shape of a changed life. Paul calls it the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These grow slowly, like fruit on a tree, and they are the plainest evidence that God is at work within. John gives a further test, that every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

This guards us from confusion in an age of many voices claiming the Spirit's name. The question is always whether Jesus is honored and whether love is growing. The Holy Spirit and the written Word never contradict each other, for the same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures now opens them to us. To live by the Spirit is not to chase experiences but to walk daily with the God who lives within, becoming, little by little, more like Christ.

What it means for us

To confess the Holy Spirit is to know that the Christian life is not something you must produce by willpower. God himself has come to live in you. The same Spirit who raised Jesus dwells in all who trust him, giving new life, comfort in sorrow, power to change, and the assurance that you are a child of God.

It also means you are never left as an orphan. Jesus did not ascend and abandon his people; he sent another Comforter to be with us forever. When you pray, the Spirit helps you. When you falter, the Spirit strengthens you. When you read the Word, the Spirit opens it. To confess the Spirit is to live in the nearness of God, who is closer than your own breath.

You do not have to live the Christian life on your own strength, because you were never meant to. The same Spirit who raised Jesus and filled the church at Pentecost is given to all who trust him, to comfort, to guide, and to make you new from the inside. To confess the Holy Spirit is to know that God is not far off but near, ready to dwell with you and in you. Ask him, for the God who gives the Spirit to those who ask will not turn you away.

A note for all traditions: the creeds are not a fourth authority above Scripture but a faithful summary of it. Christians hold them in different ways, some reciting them weekly in worship and others rarely, yet the faith they confess is broadly shared across the church. Where believers differ on secondary matters, the creeds mark the ancient center that unites us: one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

Related: He ascended and will come again · The holy catholic Church and the communion of saints · Who is Jesus? · The Christian creeds