The reason God is good to us is he is holy. Every good thing we experience and enjoy in life comes from God’s holiness. This is evident in the good works of the Holy Spirit to us.

I resume now the crucial theme that holy means good. We saw two posts back that Jesus was called the Holy One, and he did good to people in his public ministry. Let’s see how that pattern plays out in another member of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, so he is fully God and fully a person, not just an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is his name, so the word holy is in his very name. He is holy just as the Father and the Son are holy. Therefore he, too, is the Holy One.

And what sort of effect does the Holy Spirit have on people? He brings good to us, just as Jesus did during his earthly ministry. In fact, it was through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit that Jesus did all his good works of healing, deliverance, and teaching. Every miracle Jesus performed was a miracle from the Holy Spirit.

Good works of the Holy Spirit through Jesus

Jesus made this clear at the beginning, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19). That’s good!

Jesus said he delivered people from the torment of demons by the Holy Spirit: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). That is good.

Jesus healed through the power of the Holy Spirit. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). That’s good.

At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, it was the Holy Spirit who descended upon him at his baptism in the form of a dove to empower him for the work (Luke 3:21–23). That was good!

It was the Holy Spirit who brought us the goodness of Jesus in the flesh. When Mary asked how she could conceive a child as a virgin, the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). That was good!

Good works of the Holy Spirit in us

Jesus specifically called the gift of the Holy Spirit to us a good gift from his good Father. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). That’s good!

All through the Scripture it is the Holy Spirit who reveals divine secrets and directs God’s people in his good ways. For example, the holy man Simeon:

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation’” (Luke 2:25–30).

That is good! That is the kind of thing the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit.

Jesus said it would be the Holy Spirit who would help and teach us. “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). That is good.

Good gifts of the Holy Spirit

Scripture says all the gifts Christians have to help each other in ways both natural and supernatural are from the Holy Spirit.

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:4–11)

That’s good.

Good character from the Holy Spirit

When we become Christians, it is the Holy Spirit who cleanses us from a bad and evil heart and gives us a good heart and good conduct.

“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:16, 22, 23).

“You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

That’s good!

The Holy Spirit brings goodness of every kind to weak, fallen, broken people. Thus, holy means good.

Our ways versus God’s ways

OUR WAY: We do not typically associate God’s holiness with his goodness to us.

GOD’S WAY: But the reason God is good to us is he is holy. Every good thing we experience and enjoy in life comes from God’s holiness. This is evident in the goodness of the Holy Spirit to us.

LIFE PRINCIPLE: We should yearn for the Holy One and yearn for his holiness, for the more that the Holy Spirit fills and controls our lives, the greater will be the good we experience. Holy means good, for the Holy Spirit always brings good into our lives.