Kneeling Man Receiving the Spirit of Christby KandD
14:18John 14:18
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Spoken alone to the eleven in the upper chamber after Judas had left, as farewell counsel to keep them from troubled hearts before going out to the Mount of Olives, the verse promises they will not be left without help in His death and absence. Comfortless means not left as orphans, abandoned or alone without companionship, help and presence, but kept in a relation as close as child to parent with the same loving interest. I will come to you means He Himself comes through another Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth, so that sending the Comforter is His coming and believers are not left comfortless. Through the Spirit He is accessible to all believers wherever they are, nearer than in bodily presence, for the Holy Spirit is Christ Himself divested of humanity and present in all places as the Omnipresent. The promise is conditional on loving Him by keeping His commandments, and to those who love and obey He and the Father manifest themselves and make their home with them, abiding in the heart by faith in living vine-and-branch union.
Setting and Wording
The promise was given to the eleven alone in the upper chamber after Judas had departed, as farewell instruction to keep them from troubled hearts before leading them out through the city to the Mount of Olives where He taught that He is the true vine. It was spoken as He was about to leave them, when they were sorrowing and perplexed over what He had told them about His sufferings and death in Jerusalem, and it belongs to His words of courage and hope near the close of His earthly ministry when a cruel death was just before Him. It is part of His instruction as He prepared to leave them visibly, teaching that their future work depended on divine power working with human effort and that they must build their ministry on Christ. His words gave them instruction and hope as they faced trials and conflicts.
To be left comfortless would be to be left as orphans, alone, abandoned, and without comfort, help, companionship and presence, but the pledge is that they would not be left without comfort or support because He would come to them. Though He was about to die and then be absent after the ascension, their relation to Him remains as close as a child to a parent, with the same loving interest He had while with them. The world would see Him no more, but His followers would still see and know Him by faith, marking the difference between the new birth and the natural man. The promise is a precious assurance of eternal life, fulfilled when He showed Himself alive to them after His resurrection and rolled away doubt and darkness, and continuing afterward as His living presence with them. That coming is also His coming through another Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth who dwells with them and shall be in them.
The saying belongs to the connected discourse of John 13 through 17, which repays deep interest and extended exposition. Together with John 6 and 13 through 17 it is the plain expression of God's will and provision for humanity, holding God's antidote for the sin of the whole world by which He puts His own life in believers, keeps their life hid with Him in God even if they die as He died, gives life more abundantly now, raises them up at the last day, and carries on making them one with Him in this present life to be one with Him through all eternity. The surrounding chapters show what God desires to do for people, and the promise of His coming is connected with the Spirit's work, as at Pentecost the Spirit can open blinded eyes. John 14 gives hope and encouragement and brings comfort in the love of God, and its lessons become clear as the Holy Spirit writes the Word on the heart and applies it, giving spiritual understanding and peace. In a setting where the world can absorb attention and displace love for God, the message calls for keeping heaven in view and responding faithfully, and living this instruction in practical life brings unity with Christ and with one another against the enemy's attacks.
It was spoken with divine love and tenderest sympathy, after first directing their thoughts to the great object of His mission and His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. Though He knew the terrible ordeal awaiting Himself, His thoughts were not of Himself, and though a cruel death was just before Him He spoke words of comfort and consolation for disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried, to strengthen them to endure without failing. He knew the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and His teaching would make them acquainted with His purposes and plans, to be remembered in their work and councils and to strengthen them for trials and temptations ahead. The words are so simple that all, even children, may understand them, yet they were contrary to what the disciples wished, and they are full of encouragement and hope that imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and brings strength and assurance to the true believer who studies them as long as time shall last.
Those who accept Christ as personal Saviour are not left like orphans to face life's trials alone, for He receives them into the heavenly family and gives them the right to call God Father, holding them as dear children in a love more tender than human parents' love. Jesus took human nature for those who had broken God's law, and becoming like His brethren He remains their living Saviour who cares for them, giving peace and assurance, with an Advocate in heaven so they are not left to bear the curse or burden of their sins alone. His abiding presence can be cultivated by faith. God does not leave His work in the trust of any man, but manages it Himself, seeing and understanding every movement made in His cause as a tender, pitiful Father whose every believing child is the object of special care. His death does not abandon them, so they can gain repeated victories and be joyful even while grieving over sin, because His grace revealed in the Word can transform sinners, and keeping Him in view they are to seek out the unconverted and speak to them about Christ in order to win them.
Coming Through the Spirit
"I will come to you" means Christ Himself comes through another Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, and sending the Comforter is His coming so believers are not left without comfort or help after His departure. The Spirit strengthens hope and assurance, illuminates the mind, purifies the heart, guides into truth, teaches, and recalls Christ's words, dwelling with believers and to be in them as a great advantage to be claimed by faith. Through the Spirit Christ is counselor, guide, strength, support and tender friend to every believing, obedient child wherever they are, so they can live with comfort and joy in His presence. He goes to the Father as Advocate and Friend at Court, pleading their cause and placing His virtues to their account so they can ask in His name with assurance, giving comfort in forgiveness, peace not as the world gives, freedom from a troubled and fearful heart, and life because He lives though the world sees Him no more.
The Spirit is His representative, successor and equivalent for being bodily with Him, appointed because cumbered with humanity He could be personally in only one place. It was altogether for their advantage that He should leave, go to the Father and send the Spirit, and losing His physical companionship, though cause for personal mourning, becomes cause for rejoicing. His going to the Father brought out salvation for man, answered the claims of the law as a perfect offering, and let Him ascend to heaven to carry forward the work of atonement begun on earth as Advocate and Intercessor of man with the Father.
Through the Spirit the Saviour is accessible to all believers wherever they are, and in this sense nearer than during His bodily presence. The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent of it, by whom He represents Himself as present in all places as the Omnipresent, even nearer than when He walked visibly among them. After three years of walking and talking with Him daily, hearing His cheer to the weary and heavy-laden and seeing His power for the sick and afflicted, they received grace and power to carry forward His work in His name and to spread the light of His gospel of love and healing.
The Spirit of truth dwells with them and shall be in them and remain with every believing, obedient child. The world cannot receive Him because it neither sees nor knows Him, but disciples know Him by His indwelling presence. This marks the difference between the new birth and the natural man, and though the world will no longer see Christ, His followers will see Him by faith and live because He lives. Loving Christ and keeping His commandments stand joined to this coming, displaying the breadth, height and greatness of His love, with strong consolation for doers and believers of the Word who represent their Redeemer as workers together with God.
His coming is shown in His return to them alive after His humiliation and death, rolling away doubt and darkness, and in His continuing living presence with them afterward. It is shown in His going to the Father and sending the Spirit at ascension and glorification, with God in Christ still ministering to men from heaven with the same ministry He performed on earth, lifting the veil that conceals the invisible world and revealing the power constantly exercised for good. The Spirit was sent at Christ's ascension as a heavenly teacher and guide, making real in hearts and lives what Christ made possible through His death on the cross. The promise was fulfilled when the disciples sought God together in humble prayer and self-examination until their differences were removed and they were filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit is heaven's richest and choicest gift, crowning gift, largest promise and strongest consolation, chosen to do them good after His departure. He is the life and power of the church and the light and life of the world, bringing reconciliation and power to take away sin. His work restores the divine image, molds character, ministers the richest grace and makes it effectual in hearts so the elect may be gathered into one family, which requires quiet, abiding, calm, obedient trust that puts forth the best and highest activities without one false movement. Through the Spirit Christ comes to His followers and fulfills the pledge never to leave nor forsake them.
The Saviour Himself is the Comforter, and the Comforter sent in answer to the prayer of faith in Christ's name and place is a personal presence connected with heaven. He is a heavenly teacher, guide and Guest to be known and welcomed with an opened heart, often coming unrecognized as a stranger while His power is not appreciated, yet when given free course working wonderful transformation, correcting selfishness, molding and refining character, and bringing even the thoughts into captivity to Christ. He stays near in every place and circumstance, supporting, sustaining, upholding and cheering even when earthly friends are absent, so that no distance or circumstance can separate believers from this comfort in sorrow, affliction, uncertainty and helplessness. He teaches all things and brings Christ's words to remembrance and pleads that spiritual power be given to overcome spiritual foes, reinforcing strength and making believers complete in Him.
Seeing Him and Living
Though the world will see Him no more, His disciples still see Him, not by outward sight but by living faith grasping His infinite power as Helper and God through His Word, knowing His indwelling presence even while the world neither sees nor knows Him. That relation remains as close as child to parent with the same loving interest, so followers still see and know Him by faith after His death and absence following ascension. At first the disciples thought only of an outward visible appearing and could not grasp a spiritual unseen manifestation, expecting to see Him as the world sees. The promise is joined to the Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth dwelling with them and in them, and to the Father and Son making home with those who love Him and keep His words, marking the difference between the new birth and the natural man.
Because He lives they shall live also, and His life is the assurance of their life. His showing Himself alive after resurrection rolled away doubt and darkness, and His resurrection life with continuing living agency on high makes certain the future life, life more abundantly, and life and immortality for all who receive Him as personal Saviour. His death and resurrection kept fresh in mind are the assurance of salvation and reason to rejoice, for He is no longer in Joseph's tomb but lives as the source of life. This precious assurance of eternal life continues as His living presence with them afterward, trusted by all who come to Him for pardon.
He goes to the Father and remains their Friend and Advocate with the Father, their Advocate and Friend at Court pleading their cause and placing His virtues to their account, their High Priest and Intercessor pleading His merits and sympathizing with suffering. His going to the Father brought out salvation for man, answered the claims of the law as a perfect offering, and let Him ascend to carry forward in heaven the work of atonement begun on earth, uniting fallen humanity to God. He remembers and keeps His church, and He opens the way for prayer in His name with His righteousness, so they can ask with assurance and approach with full assurance of faith, depending on Him as an ever-present help in time of need including comfort in bereavement. In this way He does not abandon them when His personal presence is taken away but comes to them and sustains them, giving comfort in forgiveness with peace not as the world gives and freedom from a troubled and fearful heart.
He is with them to enlighten their minds and lead them to call upon Him and pray, and as they see Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life they need never be lonely or comfortless. He is ever beside them to strengthen and bless them, and this assurance is reason for joy and fellowship. Unlike the world, which does not see or know Him, His followers see Him and live because He lives, resting alongside the truth that God loves them as He loves His Son.
Loving Obedience and Indwelling
The promise is not unconditional but belongs to those who love Him by keeping His commandments, for love is proved by obedience. Obedience to the commandments is the Bible's test for those who have received light, and the rich promises are joined to keeping truth and God's commandments. Comfort is joined to truth, not to concealing wrong or avoiding trouble, and the pledge to come through the Comforter leaves no excuse for continuing in sin or opposing God, since all must answer for their deeds. It marks the difference between believers who receive Christ and experience the new birth and the world and the natural man who cannot receive or know the Spirit.
To those who so love and obey He loves them in return and manifests Himself to them, and the Father and Son make their home and abode with the one who loves Christ and keeps His words. The obedient may have the illuminating presence of the Father and the Son and commune with God, seeing Him by faith though the world will no longer see Him. Christ abiding in the heart by faith reconciles the human will to God's will and makes believers one as Christ is one with the Father, in living vine-and-branch union. As the branch draws sap, they draw faith, strength and perfection of character, safe against Satan and growing to full stature, with His life the assurance of their life.
Those who meet the condition are doers and believers of the Word who represent the character of their Redeemer as workers together with God. They do the works Christ did and greater works because He goes to the Father, and they receive answers to whatever they ask in His name so the Father is glorified. They have strong consolation in the promises, lay hold on everlasting life in confidence, live because He lives, see Him when the world sees Him no more, and know the union of Christ in the Father and believers in Christ and Christ in them. This coming equips those He has chosen and ordained to go and bring forth remaining fruit to be His witnesses, with courage and assurance of divine help in serving others and sharing the Bread of Life, and with assurance that with Christ God will freely give all things.
To receive His coming they must come out from the world and be separate, for the world without connection with God has no correct judgment of duty and cannot receive the Spirit. Those who sustain false theories, bring themselves into harmony with the world in temporal and religious methods, and take the side of the world have divorced themselves from Christ and closed heaven against themselves, only imagining they are in the narrow road and passing through the strait gate. By their own course they decide whether they remain on false ground or are placed on vantage ground, for the inward spiritual life, fragrant with willing obedience of love, gives the spiritual power needed to receive that unseen presence. They must value God's Word, which is spirit and life, lest they become apostates and without His care, and they are to follow the Spirit rather than worldly counsel or human invention and not resist His work of illumination upon the soul.
The Spirit so received forms Christ within them and brings hope of glory, making fallen people partakers of the divine nature. That indwelling presence is the evidence to the world that God sent His Son, producing love for brethren and a savor of life to all for whom Christ died. The love principle that caused Christ to die begins in home life, bursts its bonds to become a working power in the church, and extends to the neighborhood, the community, and the nations and kingdoms of the world.
Comfort in Trial and Work
His presence and guardianship remain with those who trust in His saving power, giving strength to do God's will and to overcome. The promise comforted the disciples in the disappointment and trial that followed His departure, and it reaches to the present to strengthen hope and faith. It is part of the rich legacy left as He prepared to suffer, assuring believers of care for their weaknesses, needs and griefs, and sustaining them through trial and loss as they show love by keeping His commandments. Although the world will no longer see Him, disciples will see Him, and because He lives they too will live, with comfort and assurance of His continuing presence. In times of trial He is present unseen through the Holy Spirit, giving peace and comfort, driving away darkness and bringing joy in the Lord.
Through the Spirit He draws near when people draw near to God, and His nearness softens and subdues hearts. The Heavenly Comforter is sent in answer to the prayer of faith and stays near in every place and circumstance, supporting, sustaining, upholding and cheering even when earthly friends are absent, so that no distance or circumstance can separate from this comfort. He abides with God's workers and brings comfort to the heart especially in sorrow, affliction, discouragement and helplessness. The Comforter is given in Christ's place to act in His stead, a personal presence connected with heaven, remaining wherever believers are and speaking to the heart in sorrow, affliction, perplexity, loneliness and uncertainty. This promise applies to followers in every time and place, not only to the first disciples, bringing blessing day by day in illness, weariness, separation from children and loved ones, anxiety in watching a loved one suffer, and bereavement.
The verse means His abiding presence every day and at every step, working with believers and dwelling in them by the Spirit of truth. Through the Spirit He is their counselor, guide, strength, support and tender friend, so they can live with comfort and joy and will not face the world's opposition unaided. Believers must therefore not act as though comfortless, without courage or faith or joy, because that dishonors God. Their pilgrimage through the conflicts of life need not be lonely and comfortless, for He is with them to give peace and happiness and to keep them from fretting and worrying out of His arms, and as the wise and faithful Leader He sustains them even when they do not yet understand what lies ahead. It means choosing Christ as Saviour, Redeemer and Sanctifier to control mind and heart, giving self to Him, opening the door to Him with thanksgiving and holding assurance of His presence, rather than opening the door to the enemy, and staying with Him on the narrow path of conflict, trial, tribulation and suffering so the royal way is not dark but brings happiness.
His presence was felt among believers gathered for worship and prayer. When they gather He is present as the heavenly Guest, giving words to speak that surprise even the speaker, and when they gather to hear preaching and bear testimony He is in their very midst bringing liberty and blessing. He walks beside canvassers as chief fellow worker while the Holy Spirit prepares the way and makes the needed impressions. Heavenly angels are sent to aid those fighting the good fight of faith, for He understands individual traits of character, watches over His followers, and when they accept His guidance surrounds them with good influences enabling them to do His will.
The help promised is the Holy Spirit given to abide forever, so the work is not to be done in human strength but with divine assistance for every emergency beyond human resources. The Spirit strengthens hope and assurance, illuminates minds, purifies hearts, guides into all truth, recalls Christ's words, shows things to come, and comforts and sustains. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are pledged to aid every unselfish effort to turn people from unrighteousness to righteousness and from darkness to light, and Christ is with His people in persuading men and women to become His disciples. He leads heaven's forces and fights for His people in the last conflict, joining with human effort and engaging all heaven in preparing a people to stand, giving courage and assurance of divine help in serving others and sharing the Bread of Life and confidence to spread truth through earnest prayer that convicts and leads to Christ. Even while grieving over sin His followers can gain repeated victories and be joyful, keeping Him in view as they seek the unconverted and speak to them about Christ, since His grace revealed in the Word can transform sinners.
He presents Himself as Restorer of mind and body, and those who trust and cooperate with Him by obeying health principles and resisting harmful appetites receive His life. As they look to Him and draw knowledge, strength and grace from Him, they can share His consolation with others, especially the sick, suffering and dying. Through receiving truth they receive His grace and devote sanctified abilities to the work He did, while the Spirit moves upon minds as His presence to mold character and restore the divine image. The Spirit reinforces strength and abides with believers as His actual representative, transforming so wonderfully that angels look on with astonishment and joy. This heavenly Guest must be known and welcomed with opened heart, for He restores the image of God, brings even the thoughts into harmony with God's will and into captivity to Christ, keeps a living connection between heaven and earth, corrects selfishness, and molds and refines character, though often coming unrecognized as stranger and intruder whose power is not appreciated.
His presence through the Spirit is the source of safe peace, and that peace is bound to the cross rather than achieved by withholding or laying aside present truth. There is no safe peace without the presence of the Spirit, and no real peace except that which flows from Calvary. The comfort promised is the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and the measure of that love is found in Christ, who is the medium through which knowledge of God's love is imparted and who becomes not merely theory in the mind but Prince of Peace in the heart. Comfort is joined to truth, not to concealing wrong or avoiding trouble, and follows the faithful telling and living of the truth, with obedience to His commandments as practical evidence of love. Unkind talk and passing judgment fail to heed His words, calling for the Holy Spirit to cleanse harmful speech. He gives grace to bear affliction, with sustaining presence and strength in bodily suffering and severe pain enabling endurance and continued labor despite weakness, watches over His followers so they can overcome in His strength, and supplies a sufficient helper in time of need even when physical strength is weak.
Trusting and Sharing Promise
This is one of the richest promises in John 13-17, of deep import to be studied, committed to memory, and searched word by word. It is to be read from John 14 at family worship and presented to family members, with its wonderful truths put in words young minds can comprehend. Fathers, mothers, and children are to study it through the week and live it out by glorifying God in every way possible, and its fulfillment brings God's great peace into the mind, enabling even children to speak of the kindness and love of Jesus.
The assurance can be claimed personally by faith, trusting the word and promises rather than yielding to doubt about forgiveness and care. That trust does not depend on feelings, for though He is not seen in person He is beheld by faith. Accepting the words and looking to Him brings comfort and blessing, giving comfort, hope, courage, and assurance of presence, guardianship, and help in every need. His presence and guardianship remain with those who trust His saving power, giving strength to do God's will and overcome, with reason for confidence as His disciples. The promise stands with the assurance that the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, will abide with believers and dwell in them, a great advantage to be claimed by faith, so they can know His presence even when the world no longer sees Him. He is ready to receive those who come to Him and pardon their sins.
In trouble, discouragement, and perplexity, when hardly knowing what to do, those in trouble are to turn to God's Word and trust the promise rather than depend on other people for comfort, counsel, or support. They are to know with sanctified certainty that Christ abides in them and they in Christ, and to go directly to the Word for help instead of leaning on finite man to lift them up. As they follow duty in saving perishing souls and laboring in towns and cities to teach others to serve and glorify God, heaven's light comes into their own souls and Christ stands close beside them to impress and convince the minds of those for whom they labor.
The promise is to be cherished, believed, repeated by day and meditated on in the night season. Gathered with every other promise, repeated by day and meditated on by night, it brings peace, happiness, and rejoicing on the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage through the conflicts of this life on the narrow, inconvenient path to heaven — a path of conflict, trial, tribulation, and suffering — will not be lonely and comfortless because He is with them, and without Him it would be lonely and painful with discouraging darkness, but the royal way cast up for the ransomed is not dark. It keeps from fretting and worrying out of His arms. It gives confidence to come expecting help and blessing, because God proves His words true and precious, and those who take hold of it in this way receive peace and hope and rejoicing and prove in experience that God does just as He said.
Instead of sadness and discouragement, lives and countenances are to show His love and goodness, praising Him for bringing them from darkness into light. Followers are not orphans and need not carry themselves with sorrow and sadness, for the promise that He will come gives assurance and reason for cheerfulness. Faces, words, thoughts, and lives should express love, peace, hope, joy, goodness, kindness, patience, compassion, and forbearance in cheerfulness and gratitude, resting in present assurance to be rejoiced over together. He is ever with His people now to own and to bless them, while the Father loves them today as He loves His own Son. His abiding presence as daily companion and familiar friend fills the heart, and those who live in close communion with God reflect the glory of Christ and are prepared to see Him face to face and for heaven. His love brings happiness and makes even a dreary place like paradise, while without its light the world is cold and cheerless.
The promise stands with answered prayer as assurance while seeking strength for faithful service. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is given to those who ask, bringing hope and courage amid suffering and trouble. It is pledged with the Father and the Son to those who keep their baptismal vows and unite with God, who are therefore to represent Christ's character and trust His help through trouble, since He has given His life for them and they can take hold of Him by faith. Living this instruction in practical life brings unity with Christ and with one another, which strengthens believers against the enemy's attacks.
Kept in the mind as a storehouse of truth, it produces real, genuine piety and makes the soul like a watered garden refreshing all around. It gives richest consolation for the oppressed, the sorrowful, the afflicted, and those ready to perish, to be spoken in season with Thus saith the Lord and It is written, and to be freely presented with blessing. His promise to come as Comforter and bless is to be believed and trusted.
Spoken alone to the eleven in the upper chamber after Judas had left, as farewell counsel to keep them from troubled hearts before going out to the Mount of Olives, the verse promises they will not be left without help in His death and absence. Comfortless means not left as orphans, abandoned or alone without companionship, help and presence, but kept in a relation as close as child to parent with the same loving interest. I will come to you means He Himself comes through another Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth, so that sending the Comforter is His coming and believers are not left comfortless. Through the Spirit He is accessible to all believers wherever they are, nearer than in bodily presence, for the Holy Spirit is Christ Himself divested of humanity and present in all places as the Omnipresent. The promise is conditional on loving Him by keeping His commandments, and to those who love and obey He and the Father manifest themselves and make their home with them, abiding in the heart by faith in living vine-and-branch union.
Setting and Wording
The promise was given to the eleven alone in the upper chamber after Judas had departed, as farewell instruction to keep them from troubled hearts before leading them out through the city to the Mount of Olives where He taught that He is the true vine. It was spoken as He was about to leave them, when they were sorrowing and perplexed over what He had told them about His sufferings and death in Jerusalem, and it belongs to His words of courage and hope near the close of His earthly ministry when a cruel death was just before Him. It is part of His instruction as He prepared to leave them visibly, teaching that their future work depended on divine power working with human effort and that they must build their ministry on Christ. His words gave them instruction and hope as they faced trials and conflicts.
To be left comfortless would be to be left as orphans, alone, abandoned, and without comfort, help, companionship and presence, but the pledge is that they would not be left without comfort or support because He would come to them. Though He was about to die and then be absent after the ascension, their relation to Him remains as close as a child to a parent, with the same loving interest He had while with them. The world would see Him no more, but His followers would still see and know Him by faith, marking the difference between the new birth and the natural man. The promise is a precious assurance of eternal life, fulfilled when He showed Himself alive to them after His resurrection and rolled away doubt and darkness, and continuing afterward as His living presence with them. That coming is also His coming through another Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth who dwells with them and shall be in them.
The saying belongs to the connected discourse of John 13 through 17, which repays deep interest and extended exposition. Together with John 6 and 13 through 17 it is the plain expression of God's will and provision for humanity, holding God's antidote for the sin of the whole world by which He puts His own life in believers, keeps their life hid with Him in God even if they die as He died, gives life more abundantly now, raises them up at the last day, and carries on making them one with Him in this present life to be one with Him through all eternity. The surrounding chapters show what God desires to do for people, and the promise of His coming is connected with the Spirit's work, as at Pentecost the Spirit can open blinded eyes. John 14 gives hope and encouragement and brings comfort in the love of God, and its lessons become clear as the Holy Spirit writes the Word on the heart and applies it, giving spiritual understanding and peace. In a setting where the world can absorb attention and displace love for God, the message calls for keeping heaven in view and responding faithfully, and living this instruction in practical life brings unity with Christ and with one another against the enemy's attacks.
It was spoken with divine love and tenderest sympathy, after first directing their thoughts to the great object of His mission and His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. Though He knew the terrible ordeal awaiting Himself, His thoughts were not of Himself, and though a cruel death was just before Him He spoke words of comfort and consolation for disciples whose faith and courage would be severely tried, to strengthen them to endure without failing. He knew the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and His teaching would make them acquainted with His purposes and plans, to be remembered in their work and councils and to strengthen them for trials and temptations ahead. The words are so simple that all, even children, may understand them, yet they were contrary to what the disciples wished, and they are full of encouragement and hope that imparts courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and brings strength and assurance to the true believer who studies them as long as time shall last.
Those who accept Christ as personal Saviour are not left like orphans to face life's trials alone, for He receives them into the heavenly family and gives them the right to call God Father, holding them as dear children in a love more tender than human parents' love. Jesus took human nature for those who had broken God's law, and becoming like His brethren He remains their living Saviour who cares for them, giving peace and assurance, with an Advocate in heaven so they are not left to bear the curse or burden of their sins alone. His abiding presence can be cultivated by faith. God does not leave His work in the trust of any man, but manages it Himself, seeing and understanding every movement made in His cause as a tender, pitiful Father whose every believing child is the object of special care. His death does not abandon them, so they can gain repeated victories and be joyful even while grieving over sin, because His grace revealed in the Word can transform sinners, and keeping Him in view they are to seek out the unconverted and speak to them about Christ in order to win them.
Coming Through the Spirit
"I will come to you" means Christ Himself comes through another Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, and sending the Comforter is His coming so believers are not left without comfort or help after His departure. The Spirit strengthens hope and assurance, illuminates the mind, purifies the heart, guides into truth, teaches, and recalls Christ's words, dwelling with believers and to be in them as a great advantage to be claimed by faith. Through the Spirit Christ is counselor, guide, strength, support and tender friend to every believing, obedient child wherever they are, so they can live with comfort and joy in His presence. He goes to the Father as Advocate and Friend at Court, pleading their cause and placing His virtues to their account so they can ask in His name with assurance, giving comfort in forgiveness, peace not as the world gives, freedom from a troubled and fearful heart, and life because He lives though the world sees Him no more.
The Spirit is His representative, successor and equivalent for being bodily with Him, appointed because cumbered with humanity He could be personally in only one place. It was altogether for their advantage that He should leave, go to the Father and send the Spirit, and losing His physical companionship, though cause for personal mourning, becomes cause for rejoicing. His going to the Father brought out salvation for man, answered the claims of the law as a perfect offering, and let Him ascend to heaven to carry forward the work of atonement begun on earth as Advocate and Intercessor of man with the Father.
Through the Spirit the Saviour is accessible to all believers wherever they are, and in this sense nearer than during His bodily presence. The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent of it, by whom He represents Himself as present in all places as the Omnipresent, even nearer than when He walked visibly among them. After three years of walking and talking with Him daily, hearing His cheer to the weary and heavy-laden and seeing His power for the sick and afflicted, they received grace and power to carry forward His work in His name and to spread the light of His gospel of love and healing.
The Spirit of truth dwells with them and shall be in them and remain with every believing, obedient child. The world cannot receive Him because it neither sees nor knows Him, but disciples know Him by His indwelling presence. This marks the difference between the new birth and the natural man, and though the world will no longer see Christ, His followers will see Him by faith and live because He lives. Loving Christ and keeping His commandments stand joined to this coming, displaying the breadth, height and greatness of His love, with strong consolation for doers and believers of the Word who represent their Redeemer as workers together with God.
His coming is shown in His return to them alive after His humiliation and death, rolling away doubt and darkness, and in His continuing living presence with them afterward. It is shown in His going to the Father and sending the Spirit at ascension and glorification, with God in Christ still ministering to men from heaven with the same ministry He performed on earth, lifting the veil that conceals the invisible world and revealing the power constantly exercised for good. The Spirit was sent at Christ's ascension as a heavenly teacher and guide, making real in hearts and lives what Christ made possible through His death on the cross. The promise was fulfilled when the disciples sought God together in humble prayer and self-examination until their differences were removed and they were filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit is heaven's richest and choicest gift, crowning gift, largest promise and strongest consolation, chosen to do them good after His departure. He is the life and power of the church and the light and life of the world, bringing reconciliation and power to take away sin. His work restores the divine image, molds character, ministers the richest grace and makes it effectual in hearts so the elect may be gathered into one family, which requires quiet, abiding, calm, obedient trust that puts forth the best and highest activities without one false movement. Through the Spirit Christ comes to His followers and fulfills the pledge never to leave nor forsake them.
The Saviour Himself is the Comforter, and the Comforter sent in answer to the prayer of faith in Christ's name and place is a personal presence connected with heaven. He is a heavenly teacher, guide and Guest to be known and welcomed with an opened heart, often coming unrecognized as a stranger while His power is not appreciated, yet when given free course working wonderful transformation, correcting selfishness, molding and refining character, and bringing even the thoughts into captivity to Christ. He stays near in every place and circumstance, supporting, sustaining, upholding and cheering even when earthly friends are absent, so that no distance or circumstance can separate believers from this comfort in sorrow, affliction, uncertainty and helplessness. He teaches all things and brings Christ's words to remembrance and pleads that spiritual power be given to overcome spiritual foes, reinforcing strength and making believers complete in Him.
Seeing Him and Living
Though the world will see Him no more, His disciples still see Him, not by outward sight but by living faith grasping His infinite power as Helper and God through His Word, knowing His indwelling presence even while the world neither sees nor knows Him. That relation remains as close as child to parent with the same loving interest, so followers still see and know Him by faith after His death and absence following ascension. At first the disciples thought only of an outward visible appearing and could not grasp a spiritual unseen manifestation, expecting to see Him as the world sees. The promise is joined to the Comforter abiding forever, even the Spirit of truth dwelling with them and in them, and to the Father and Son making home with those who love Him and keep His words, marking the difference between the new birth and the natural man.
Because He lives they shall live also, and His life is the assurance of their life. His showing Himself alive after resurrection rolled away doubt and darkness, and His resurrection life with continuing living agency on high makes certain the future life, life more abundantly, and life and immortality for all who receive Him as personal Saviour. His death and resurrection kept fresh in mind are the assurance of salvation and reason to rejoice, for He is no longer in Joseph's tomb but lives as the source of life. This precious assurance of eternal life continues as His living presence with them afterward, trusted by all who come to Him for pardon.
He goes to the Father and remains their Friend and Advocate with the Father, their Advocate and Friend at Court pleading their cause and placing His virtues to their account, their High Priest and Intercessor pleading His merits and sympathizing with suffering. His going to the Father brought out salvation for man, answered the claims of the law as a perfect offering, and let Him ascend to carry forward in heaven the work of atonement begun on earth, uniting fallen humanity to God. He remembers and keeps His church, and He opens the way for prayer in His name with His righteousness, so they can ask with assurance and approach with full assurance of faith, depending on Him as an ever-present help in time of need including comfort in bereavement. In this way He does not abandon them when His personal presence is taken away but comes to them and sustains them, giving comfort in forgiveness with peace not as the world gives and freedom from a troubled and fearful heart.
He is with them to enlighten their minds and lead them to call upon Him and pray, and as they see Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life they need never be lonely or comfortless. He is ever beside them to strengthen and bless them, and this assurance is reason for joy and fellowship. Unlike the world, which does not see or know Him, His followers see Him and live because He lives, resting alongside the truth that God loves them as He loves His Son.
Loving Obedience and Indwelling
The promise is not unconditional but belongs to those who love Him by keeping His commandments, for love is proved by obedience. Obedience to the commandments is the Bible's test for those who have received light, and the rich promises are joined to keeping truth and God's commandments. Comfort is joined to truth, not to concealing wrong or avoiding trouble, and the pledge to come through the Comforter leaves no excuse for continuing in sin or opposing God, since all must answer for their deeds. It marks the difference between believers who receive Christ and experience the new birth and the world and the natural man who cannot receive or know the Spirit.
To those who so love and obey He loves them in return and manifests Himself to them, and the Father and Son make their home and abode with the one who loves Christ and keeps His words. The obedient may have the illuminating presence of the Father and the Son and commune with God, seeing Him by faith though the world will no longer see Him. Christ abiding in the heart by faith reconciles the human will to God's will and makes believers one as Christ is one with the Father, in living vine-and-branch union. As the branch draws sap, they draw faith, strength and perfection of character, safe against Satan and growing to full stature, with His life the assurance of their life.
Those who meet the condition are doers and believers of the Word who represent the character of their Redeemer as workers together with God. They do the works Christ did and greater works because He goes to the Father, and they receive answers to whatever they ask in His name so the Father is glorified. They have strong consolation in the promises, lay hold on everlasting life in confidence, live because He lives, see Him when the world sees Him no more, and know the union of Christ in the Father and believers in Christ and Christ in them. This coming equips those He has chosen and ordained to go and bring forth remaining fruit to be His witnesses, with courage and assurance of divine help in serving others and sharing the Bread of Life, and with assurance that with Christ God will freely give all things.
To receive His coming they must come out from the world and be separate, for the world without connection with God has no correct judgment of duty and cannot receive the Spirit. Those who sustain false theories, bring themselves into harmony with the world in temporal and religious methods, and take the side of the world have divorced themselves from Christ and closed heaven against themselves, only imagining they are in the narrow road and passing through the strait gate. By their own course they decide whether they remain on false ground or are placed on vantage ground, for the inward spiritual life, fragrant with willing obedience of love, gives the spiritual power needed to receive that unseen presence. They must value God's Word, which is spirit and life, lest they become apostates and without His care, and they are to follow the Spirit rather than worldly counsel or human invention and not resist His work of illumination upon the soul.
The Spirit so received forms Christ within them and brings hope of glory, making fallen people partakers of the divine nature. That indwelling presence is the evidence to the world that God sent His Son, producing love for brethren and a savor of life to all for whom Christ died. The love principle that caused Christ to die begins in home life, bursts its bonds to become a working power in the church, and extends to the neighborhood, the community, and the nations and kingdoms of the world.
Comfort in Trial and Work
His presence and guardianship remain with those who trust in His saving power, giving strength to do God's will and to overcome. The promise comforted the disciples in the disappointment and trial that followed His departure, and it reaches to the present to strengthen hope and faith. It is part of the rich legacy left as He prepared to suffer, assuring believers of care for their weaknesses, needs and griefs, and sustaining them through trial and loss as they show love by keeping His commandments. Although the world will no longer see Him, disciples will see Him, and because He lives they too will live, with comfort and assurance of His continuing presence. In times of trial He is present unseen through the Holy Spirit, giving peace and comfort, driving away darkness and bringing joy in the Lord.
Through the Spirit He draws near when people draw near to God, and His nearness softens and subdues hearts. The Heavenly Comforter is sent in answer to the prayer of faith and stays near in every place and circumstance, supporting, sustaining, upholding and cheering even when earthly friends are absent, so that no distance or circumstance can separate from this comfort. He abides with God's workers and brings comfort to the heart especially in sorrow, affliction, discouragement and helplessness. The Comforter is given in Christ's place to act in His stead, a personal presence connected with heaven, remaining wherever believers are and speaking to the heart in sorrow, affliction, perplexity, loneliness and uncertainty. This promise applies to followers in every time and place, not only to the first disciples, bringing blessing day by day in illness, weariness, separation from children and loved ones, anxiety in watching a loved one suffer, and bereavement.
The verse means His abiding presence every day and at every step, working with believers and dwelling in them by the Spirit of truth. Through the Spirit He is their counselor, guide, strength, support and tender friend, so they can live with comfort and joy and will not face the world's opposition unaided. Believers must therefore not act as though comfortless, without courage or faith or joy, because that dishonors God. Their pilgrimage through the conflicts of life need not be lonely and comfortless, for He is with them to give peace and happiness and to keep them from fretting and worrying out of His arms, and as the wise and faithful Leader He sustains them even when they do not yet understand what lies ahead. It means choosing Christ as Saviour, Redeemer and Sanctifier to control mind and heart, giving self to Him, opening the door to Him with thanksgiving and holding assurance of His presence, rather than opening the door to the enemy, and staying with Him on the narrow path of conflict, trial, tribulation and suffering so the royal way is not dark but brings happiness.
His presence was felt among believers gathered for worship and prayer. When they gather He is present as the heavenly Guest, giving words to speak that surprise even the speaker, and when they gather to hear preaching and bear testimony He is in their very midst bringing liberty and blessing. He walks beside canvassers as chief fellow worker while the Holy Spirit prepares the way and makes the needed impressions. Heavenly angels are sent to aid those fighting the good fight of faith, for He understands individual traits of character, watches over His followers, and when they accept His guidance surrounds them with good influences enabling them to do His will.
The help promised is the Holy Spirit given to abide forever, so the work is not to be done in human strength but with divine assistance for every emergency beyond human resources. The Spirit strengthens hope and assurance, illuminates minds, purifies hearts, guides into all truth, recalls Christ's words, shows things to come, and comforts and sustains. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are pledged to aid every unselfish effort to turn people from unrighteousness to righteousness and from darkness to light, and Christ is with His people in persuading men and women to become His disciples. He leads heaven's forces and fights for His people in the last conflict, joining with human effort and engaging all heaven in preparing a people to stand, giving courage and assurance of divine help in serving others and sharing the Bread of Life and confidence to spread truth through earnest prayer that convicts and leads to Christ. Even while grieving over sin His followers can gain repeated victories and be joyful, keeping Him in view as they seek the unconverted and speak to them about Christ, since His grace revealed in the Word can transform sinners.
He presents Himself as Restorer of mind and body, and those who trust and cooperate with Him by obeying health principles and resisting harmful appetites receive His life. As they look to Him and draw knowledge, strength and grace from Him, they can share His consolation with others, especially the sick, suffering and dying. Through receiving truth they receive His grace and devote sanctified abilities to the work He did, while the Spirit moves upon minds as His presence to mold character and restore the divine image. The Spirit reinforces strength and abides with believers as His actual representative, transforming so wonderfully that angels look on with astonishment and joy. This heavenly Guest must be known and welcomed with opened heart, for He restores the image of God, brings even the thoughts into harmony with God's will and into captivity to Christ, keeps a living connection between heaven and earth, corrects selfishness, and molds and refines character, though often coming unrecognized as stranger and intruder whose power is not appreciated.
His presence through the Spirit is the source of safe peace, and that peace is bound to the cross rather than achieved by withholding or laying aside present truth. There is no safe peace without the presence of the Spirit, and no real peace except that which flows from Calvary. The comfort promised is the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and the measure of that love is found in Christ, who is the medium through which knowledge of God's love is imparted and who becomes not merely theory in the mind but Prince of Peace in the heart. Comfort is joined to truth, not to concealing wrong or avoiding trouble, and follows the faithful telling and living of the truth, with obedience to His commandments as practical evidence of love. Unkind talk and passing judgment fail to heed His words, calling for the Holy Spirit to cleanse harmful speech. He gives grace to bear affliction, with sustaining presence and strength in bodily suffering and severe pain enabling endurance and continued labor despite weakness, watches over His followers so they can overcome in His strength, and supplies a sufficient helper in time of need even when physical strength is weak.
Trusting and Sharing Promise
This is one of the richest promises in John 13-17, of deep import to be studied, committed to memory, and searched word by word. It is to be read from John 14 at family worship and presented to family members, with its wonderful truths put in words young minds can comprehend. Fathers, mothers, and children are to study it through the week and live it out by glorifying God in every way possible, and its fulfillment brings God's great peace into the mind, enabling even children to speak of the kindness and love of Jesus.
The assurance can be claimed personally by faith, trusting the word and promises rather than yielding to doubt about forgiveness and care. That trust does not depend on feelings, for though He is not seen in person He is beheld by faith. Accepting the words and looking to Him brings comfort and blessing, giving comfort, hope, courage, and assurance of presence, guardianship, and help in every need. His presence and guardianship remain with those who trust His saving power, giving strength to do God's will and overcome, with reason for confidence as His disciples. The promise stands with the assurance that the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, will abide with believers and dwell in them, a great advantage to be claimed by faith, so they can know His presence even when the world no longer sees Him. He is ready to receive those who come to Him and pardon their sins.
In trouble, discouragement, and perplexity, when hardly knowing what to do, those in trouble are to turn to God's Word and trust the promise rather than depend on other people for comfort, counsel, or support. They are to know with sanctified certainty that Christ abides in them and they in Christ, and to go directly to the Word for help instead of leaning on finite man to lift them up. As they follow duty in saving perishing souls and laboring in towns and cities to teach others to serve and glorify God, heaven's light comes into their own souls and Christ stands close beside them to impress and convince the minds of those for whom they labor.
The promise is to be cherished, believed, repeated by day and meditated on in the night season. Gathered with every other promise, repeated by day and meditated on by night, it brings peace, happiness, and rejoicing on the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage through the conflicts of this life on the narrow, inconvenient path to heaven — a path of conflict, trial, tribulation, and suffering — will not be lonely and comfortless because He is with them, and without Him it would be lonely and painful with discouraging darkness, but the royal way cast up for the ransomed is not dark. It keeps from fretting and worrying out of His arms. It gives confidence to come expecting help and blessing, because God proves His words true and precious, and those who take hold of it in this way receive peace and hope and rejoicing and prove in experience that God does just as He said.
Instead of sadness and discouragement, lives and countenances are to show His love and goodness, praising Him for bringing them from darkness into light. Followers are not orphans and need not carry themselves with sorrow and sadness, for the promise that He will come gives assurance and reason for cheerfulness. Faces, words, thoughts, and lives should express love, peace, hope, joy, goodness, kindness, patience, compassion, and forbearance in cheerfulness and gratitude, resting in present assurance to be rejoiced over together. He is ever with His people now to own and to bless them, while the Father loves them today as He loves His own Son. His abiding presence as daily companion and familiar friend fills the heart, and those who live in close communion with God reflect the glory of Christ and are prepared to see Him face to face and for heaven. His love brings happiness and makes even a dreary place like paradise, while without its light the world is cold and cheerless.
The promise stands with answered prayer as assurance while seeking strength for faithful service. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is given to those who ask, bringing hope and courage amid suffering and trouble. It is pledged with the Father and the Son to those who keep their baptismal vows and unite with God, who are therefore to represent Christ's character and trust His help through trouble, since He has given His life for them and they can take hold of Him by faith. Living this instruction in practical life brings unity with Christ and with one another, which strengthens believers against the enemy's attacks.
Kept in the mind as a storehouse of truth, it produces real, genuine piety and makes the soul like a watered garden refreshing all around. It gives richest consolation for the oppressed, the sorrowful, the afflicted, and those ready to perish, to be spoken in season with Thus saith the Lord and It is written, and to be freely presented with blessing. His promise to come as Comforter and bless is to be believed and trusted.