He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
The promise was spoken by Christ on the night before His death to comfort His disciples when He would leave them. Its plain meaning is that the Holy Spirit would not act or speak on His own, but would take what belongs to Christ and make it known to His followers. His crowning work is to glorify Christ rather than Himself, making Christ the center of supreme love and delight and revealing His character, righteousness and salvation in believers. He does this as the only effectual teacher of divine truth, bringing Christ's words to remembrance, opening Scripture, and guiding obedient hearts into all truth and holiness. As Christ is thus beheld, the Spirit convicts of sin, draws hearts to Calvary, transforms selfish hearts into Christ's likeness, and empowers the church to preach Christ from Pentecost to the final worldwide proclamation.
Farewell Words and Setting
The verse belongs to Christ's final instruction given to His disciples in the upper chamber before His separation from them, before His trial and crucifixion, spoken as words of comfort, counsel and prayer so they would not be left helpless when He departed. Their appointed work would fail unless divine power worked with their human effort, and in their ministry they had to depend on a divine Christ. Those words stayed with them through disappointment and trial, yet the truths taught in the upper chamber were not fully understood or appreciated until after the resurrection, when the Spirit's work would make them clear and strengthen the disciples to carry Christ's message. The farewell teaching spans John 13:31-38 and John 14-17, spoken as comfort that their hearts not be troubled.
The disciples could not yet bear all the truth; after Christ's resurrection they understood more, and after His ascension they discerned His words still more fully. After His departure they recognized their need for the Spirit's guidance and came to value and understand His lessons more fully, for the Spirit of truth receives what belongs to Christ, guides into truth, and brings Christ's teaching to their minds. At Pentecost that work revealed the Father and the Son through the disciples' witness, which their adversaries could not gainsay. Afterward their testimony carried those upper-chamber words throughout the world as words of comfort and hope for believers in trouble.
The chapters around the verse, John 14-16, stand among words of encouragement Christ spoke knowing the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, full of encouragement and hope, giving courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. John 16 belongs to Jesus' plain talk with His disciples about the difficulties and hatred they would meet in the world, for He knew every phase of experience and every conflict and affliction they would face and the great temptation to lose faith. He prepared them by mingling bright hopeful lines about the future, including the coming Comforter, with the dark prospect of trial, and the chapter is of highest value for every soul consecrating life to the service of God. This chapter, along with John 13-15 and 17, and more broadly with John 6 and John 13-17, calls for careful study and earnest practice of Christ's teachings and duties, expressing God's plainly expressed will meant to cure dissension and to lead believers to live Christ's prayer for unity and love with one another and with Christ, giving strength to stand the test. Its message is needed by everyone and belongs in every home as a message from God showing how to receive Christ's grace, while those who refuse Christ's conditions will be unworthy to stand among His people when He comes in glory.
How Spirit Glorifies Christ
The crowning and office work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ, not to speak of Himself, exalt Himself, or flatter people. He guides into truth, speaks what He hears, shows things to come, testifies of Christ, receives what belongs to Christ and makes it known to the disciples. Through Him the disciples' words enter hearts and convince the world of sin, so that even those who had opposed Christ can be converted and become united workers carrying the message of Christ the Creator and Redeemer throughout the world. True disciples follow the same pattern by becoming so assimilated to Christ that His great love to the world and their oneness in and through Christ are made manifest in them.
To glorify Christ means to make Him the object of supreme regard, so that the Saviour becomes the delight and the rejoicing of the human agent in whose heart this transformation is wrought. Christ, not the human worker, is to be the center of attention, lifted up and hidden in, that the fullness of His grace and character may attract and hold minds so people may see Christ and live. The Spirit asserts Christ's rights and claims, writes Christ's name on human hearts, enters the heart and enlightens the understanding. He reveals God's character to His people, makes God the object of their supreme love, manifests His character in them, and shows that all righteousness and excellence in the world come from God. Through the Spirit Christ lives in His representatives, so that the holy thoughts, pure desires and godly purposes in them come from Christ, and at Pentecost the church was filled with light from Christ its source, a pattern to be seen again when the angel with great power lights the whole earth with God's glory.
As Christ came to glorify the Father by demonstrating the Father's infinite love in all His works, so the Spirit comes to glorify Christ. He glorifies Christ by revealing what belongs to Him and by demonstrating that Christ and the Father are one.
The Spirit glorifies Christ by presenting Christ Himself, the purity of His righteousness, and the great salvation received through Him, serving as the only effectual teacher of divine truth and continual guide. His work is to display the glory of Jesus, God in human form, His divinity and glory, His character and grace, and to reveal the things God freely gives. To the repentant sinner who hungers and thirsts for righteousness He takes what belongs to Christ and makes it known, revealing the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As regenerating agency He makes effectual the salvation accomplished by the death of the Redeemer, constantly drawing attention to the offering made on Calvary, unfolding the love of God, and opening the precious things of Scripture to the convicted soul. As Christ glorified the Father by demonstrating His love, the Spirit makes Christ's character and grace known to the world and works to reproduce God's image in people, with the honor of God and Christ bound up with the perfection of His people's character.
Receiving and Revealing Christ's Things
The Spirit does not speak or act on His own but receives what belongs to Christ and makes it known to the disciples and followers. In doing so He glorifies Christ, guiding into all truth, speaking what He hears, and showing things to come, without exalting Himself or flattering people. This receiving and revealing was promised before trial and crucifixion so the disciples would not be left helpless when Christ departed. The Spirit's teaching therefore presents Christ and His truth rather than elevating human theories, and it works in those who open their hearts to Him.
Since all that the Father has belongs to Christ, the Spirit communicates the Father's possessions and Christ's truth to the church. More broadly He takes the things of God and shows them to men, and to the obedient heart they come as living power. He fills the mind with glorious conceptions of God, knits life by hidden links to the life of Jesus, shines in the heart to give the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and leads to the threshold of the Infinite where glory beyond the veil can be beheld and the sufficiency of the ever-living Intercessor revealed to others. He draws sinners to Christ, enlightens minds to recognize truth and reject false representations of Jesus, and reveals Christ's power and majesty so that people may trust Him. Believers in turn glorify God when they use entrusted gifts rightly and accept the grace Christ gives, extending the knowledge and influence He desires His church to have.
This work was seen in fullness and power reaching every heart after Christ's ascension upon the waiting, praying, believing disciples, and it is to be repeated with no dearth of the Spirit when God refreshes His people by baptizing them anew in love. Then a holy influence goes forth from those sanctified through the truth, the earth is lightened with God's glory and encircled with an atmosphere of grace, and the message of salvation is carried worldwide to those in darkness, rebuking indolence, selfishness and weakness and calling the church to earnest effort. This glorified Christ among the early disciples and will glorify Him again in the closing gospel work when the latter rain accompanies a more abundant proclamation of the Saviour.
He takes the very words that fell from Christ's lips and presents them in rich assurance, conveying them with living power into the soul that is obedient and emptied of self. That revealing shows human littleness and incompetence and the perfection, purity, righteousness, dignity and glory of Jesus, creating desire to become like Him and hunger and thirst to possess His righteousness. By bringing self-importance into submission to Christ and producing self-surrender of the will, He admits truth in its sanctifying power, guides into all truth and righteousness and holiness, teaches meekness and lowliness under Christ's yoke, and stamps the soul with the divine image and superscription so that Christ is formed within as the hope of glory and the heart receives the perfect image of God. The humble, trusting believer is thus led into truth and shaped by the gospel into the image of Christ and made to reflect Him. This gift is promised to those who ask in earnest, humble, childlike prayer and stand by faith on God's pledged word, and to them the Spirit is given without measure, for God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who earnestly desire Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children.
The Spirit who does this is Christ's representative to the world and the Third Person of the Godhead, coming in no modified energy but in the fullness of divine power to restrain and resist evil accumulated for centuries. When He operates upon the mind the human agent understands the promise about receiving and showing, being awakened as from the dead, having the mind carried along with Christ's own, and having created faculties employed to honor His name. Consecrated energies are then seen to be inspired of God, the noblest powers called into exercise for His service, and faculties once used to serve self and advance unworthy principles brought into captivity to Jesus Christ and made one with the will of God, which is the restoration of the self through subjection to the Word. His office as set forth in these wonderful statements is a theme of encouragement to be kept before the people and presented in every discourse, and comprehending it brings all blessings to the receiver and makes complete in Christ.
Illuminating Truth and Scripture
The Spirit is the only effectual teacher of divine truth, and only by His illumination can God's Word be understood, with its truths continually unfolding to those He guides into all truth, righteousness and holiness. He glorifies Christ by receiving what belongs to Christ and making it known to followers, presenting Christ Himself, the purity of His righteousness, and the great salvation received through Him. He guides into truth and shows things to come, revealing what is needed for salvation and assuring help in trial and temptation. He opens to the mind precious truths, that merits blot out transgressions, that righteousness clothes the believer, and that the crown of life awaits at the end of the conflict, a promise verified in experience.
He makes witness accurate by bringing to remembrance all that was said and by opening the many unsaid things that could not yet be borne, quickening understanding to appreciate heavenly things and to grasp breadth and length and depth and height and know love. Minds confused by traditions and maxims, by earthly and temporal ideas, by failure to understand the spiritual nature of the kingdom and the value of the Scriptures, could not keep lessons distinct or lay hold of their real meaning until the Comforter dwelling in the heart defined and maintained truth. He speaks through the Scriptures to the mind, impresses truth on the heart, and brings both new truth and forgotten buried truth into clear view, leading to repentance. He exposes error and expels false theories and traditions, for there is no genuine comfort in falsehood, truth does not exalt finite humanity but glorifies Christ, and whatever dims or eclipses Christ is falsehood to be called by its right name and expelled from the soul by receiving and rightly appropriating the light given in the Word.
Sent from heaven by infinite love, He gives the enlightenment needed to discern the truths in the Word, taking the things of God and of Christ and revealing them to every soul that has implicit faith and trust in Christ. He impresses upon the mind the vital truths upon which salvation depends and makes the way of life so plain that none need err, even without great learning. As the lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun dispelling darkness floods them with light, so the treasures in the Word are not appreciated until revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, therefore study should be joined with prayer for the light of the Spirit to shine upon the Word that its treasures may be seen and appreciated. To sincere searchers learning about Christ He enlightens minds and impresses hearts to see love, the fullness of salvation, and the purpose to make them part of the heavenly family. Sin is a disease of the soul that prevents understanding from doing its appointed work on heart and memory, creating blindness that blocks discernment of truth, yet through the truth He works continually even in children and youth with transforming power, making them partakers of divine nature and keeping the future immortal life before them.
He constantly shows the soul glimpses of the things of God, imparting increased light and strength just as fast as the soul resolves and acts in accordance with light already revealed. His energy works in the heart to lead the inclinations of the will to Jesus by living faith and complete dependence on divine power to will and to do, bringing the realization that a divine presence is hovering near and that Jesus abides in the open soul. Grace is supplied to cooperate with earnest, determined resolve, not to substitute for individual exercise of faith and working out salvation according to light bestowed, so more light and evidence alone do not make the soul advance or free. If the mind responds and the door of the heart is opened, the enlightened mind sees truth in distinction from error, but without human response and willing obedience the revealing accomplishes nothing.
His instruction becomes clear with new understanding when minds yield to God, so teaching guided by Him presents Christ and His truth rather than elevating human theories. What could not yet be borne was understood more after the resurrection and discerned still more fully after the ascension, and at Pentecost His work revealed the Father and the Son through witness that adversaries could not gainsay.
Transforming Heart and Character
The Spirit glorifies Christ as the regenerating agent who makes effective the salvation secured by the Redeemer's death, constantly directing attention to Calvary and to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He draws sinners to Christ, brings them to repentance, presents God's requirements to the mind and presses them upon the conscience for obedience unto eternal life, and opens the precious things and promises of Scripture to the convicted soul. In doing this He unfolds the love of God, enlightens minds to recognize truth and reject false representations of Jesus, and reveals Christ's power, majesty, sacrifice and intercession in new light to the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. This revealing brings holy joy and peace and moves those who receive it to work lovingly for the lost.
He takes what belongs to Christ and to God and makes it known as living principles in hearts open to receive them, leading into all truth and into knowledge of the Father and the Son. This guidance brings self-importance into submission to Christ and produces surrender of the will that admits truth in its sanctifying, soul-purifying power, working faith that operates by love. He takes the words that fell from Christ's lips and conveys them with living power into the obedient soul emptied of self, impressing upon every obedient heart the likeness of Christ. Received in this way the truth teaches meekness and lowliness under Christ's yoke, reveals personal incompetence, and leaves upon the soul the perfect impress of the Author of truth with transformation of heart, soul, character and entire being.
That revealing shows human littleness and incompetence alongside the perfection, purity, righteousness, dignity, glory and excellent character of Jesus. It awakens desire to become like Him and hunger and thirst to possess His righteousness, guides into all truth and righteousness and holiness, and continues in the soul fixed on Jesus until the person is conformed to His image and grows increasingly like Him. Where this work is done the soul receives the image and superscription of the divine, Christ is formed within as the hope of glory, and the desire for righteousness moves toward satisfaction. The humble, contrite heart with yielded will that receives light from the divine altar and sees its own incompetence and Christ's glory is placed under this guidance, and the Spirit conveys Christ's words into the heart obedient to God's will so it may receive the perfect image of God and reflect Christ according to the gospel.
When wills yield to God's will by consent, without compulsion or violence, God molds and fashions the perverse human mind into His own likeness by showing what belongs to Christ. Beholding the beauty of the Saviour's character, beholders grow more and more like Him until complete in Him and perfection is brought to the character, supplying all excellence necessary for perfection. To create the soul anew, to bring light out of darkness, love out of enmity and holiness out of impurity, is the work of Omnipotence alone, the work of the Infinite in making the life complete in Christ, which must be wrought in everyone who passes through the gates of the city of God. Subjection to the Word restores the self, for Christ by His Spirit awakens the person as from the dead, carries the mind along with His own mind, and employs the faculties He created so they better honor and glorify His name. Consecrated to Him, energies are seen to be inspired of God and the noblest powers called into exercise for God's service, so faculties once used to serve self and advance unworthy principles as members of unrighteous purposes are brought into captivity to Jesus Christ and become one with the will of God.
Through the Spirit God's image is reproduced in humanity, for as Christ glorified the Father by demonstrating His love, the Spirit glorifies Christ by revealing the riches of His grace and making His character known to the world. The honor of God and of Christ is bound up with the perfection of His people's character. By the Spirit the heart is made pure, hearts of stone become hearts of flesh so that evil cannot work through them to counteract Christ's work, believers become partakers of the divine nature, receive divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and have Christ's own character impressed upon the church. As the Spirit reveals God's great love and Christ's light and grace shine into the heart, selfishness is seen as repulsive and cast out, the heart is softened, affections turn to God, and the character is transformed. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith in His righteousness is the safeguard against evil so temptation loses its power, every good work is accomplished through the Spirit's grace and power with glory belonging to Christ and not to the servant, and praise, thanksgiving, service, benevolence, prayer and self-denial make Christ appear as all in all while awakening desire to serve Him.
Pentecost and Final Outpouring
After Christ ascended and was glorified, the Spirit came at Pentecost as His promised representative, revealing His divinity and glory and empowering the disciples to witness to Him. The Spirit's power enabled them to preach Christ and Him crucified, opening hearts to the message and bringing many to faith, with the world's attention resting on Christ as Creator and Redeemer. The Spirit does not speak of Himself but testifies of Christ, helping the disciples' words enter hearts and convincing the world of sin. Through the Spirit even those who had opposed Christ could be converted.
At Pentecost the church was filled with light from Christ as its source, for all righteousness and excellence in the world come from God, whose character the Spirit reveals to make Him the object of supreme love and to manifest His character in believers. The same pattern will be seen when the angel with great power lights the whole earth with God's glory. When hearts are linked together by the abiding love of Christ and strife and contention are removed, even the bitterest persecutors are converted and imbued with the Spirit to glorify Christ, and believers become united workers carrying the message of Christ the Creator and Redeemer throughout the world. Then the gospel goes rapidly around the world with new churches raised up and converts becoming witnesses.
This refreshing baptized the waiting, praying, believing disciples anew in love with a fullness and power that reached every heart, taking the things of God and showing them to men as living power. The same work is to be done again with no dearth of the Spirit in the church, refreshing God's people by baptizing them anew in love. In the future it will lighten the earth with the glory of God as a holy and divine influence goes forth to the world from those sanctified through the truth, encircling the earth with an atmosphere of grace. Then the message of salvation is proclaimed not in a few places only but throughout the world to those in the darkness of unbelief who do not know God, rebuking the indolence, selfishness and weakness of the church and calling its members to earnest effort to make known the joy of salvation through Christ. This work glorified Christ among the early disciples by drawing sinners to Him, enlightening minds to recognize truth and reject false representations of Jesus, and revealing His power and majesty so people may trust Him, and it will glorify Him again in the closing gospel work when the latter rain accompanies a more abundant proclamation of the Saviour.
Ministry and Daily Living
The verse means human workers are to lift up Christ as the center while themselves hidden in Him, so that the fullness of His grace and character attracts and holds minds and people see Christ and live. The teaching they give under the Spirit therefore presents Christ and His truth as it is in Him rather than elevating human theories, and through people thus sanctified by truth God's glory and grace are carried to the world. Even small abilities faithfully used can carry vital truths brought anew to mind, because power and success rest in God working through the agent rather than in learning or intelligence, so no glory belongs to self or any person but praise belongs to God. Those who teach truth under this guidance speak clearly and distinctly so the message can be understood, not in indistinct speech.
Ministers must not work in their own strength but obtain preparation to meet opponents and to minister to people only at the throne of grace, where tapers are kindled alone at the altar by holy fire. There, seeing and acknowledging their own incompetence, they are put under the guardianship of the Holy Spirit and receive divine efficiency, with the Spirit taking the things of God and of Christ, even the precious words falling from His lips, and conveying them in living power into the obedient heart. That leading into all truth gives faith that works by love and purifies the soul, with the molding process of the Word placing upon them the perfect image of its Author. It is great light given in mercy and love to be freely given and let shine to those in darkness, for Christ gives not only His Word but also wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, so that in His strength believers are more than conquerors.
The same Spirit who exalts Christ by making Him known guided the sacred writers so the world could receive a record of Christ's words and works. He still draws people to the sacrifice of the cross, reveals God's love, and opens the promises of Scripture to souls convicted of sin. Believers glorify God when they use entrusted gifts rightly and accept the grace Christ gives, thereby extending the knowledge and influence Christ desires His church to have, since the Father's possessions are Christ's and the Spirit communicates Christ's truth to the church. As they contemplate Jesus and His love their hearts are warmed, the truths of redemption and the plan of salvation are brought vividly and repeatedly to mind, God's promises are kept effective for them, and they are moved to share with others the comfort those truths bring.
The Spirit's coming opens blinded eyes to understand divine instruction concerning what God desires to do for the race. Those preparing for ministry through canvassing will see the promise fulfilled as the Spirit enables them to understand truth as it is in Jesus. Comprehending the office of the Spirit as Christ's representative set forth here brings all blessings to the receiver and makes complete in Christ. It is a theme of encouragement to be kept before the people and presented in every discourse.
The gift is promised to those who ask in earnest, humble, childlike prayer and stand by faith upon God's pledged word, pleading His promises. To them the Spirit is given without measure, for God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who earnestly desire Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children. He gives energizing power by taking the things of God and revealing them to those who follow Christ in meekness and lowliness, a work that makes people born again with a new heart given by Christ and must be sought most earnestly by God's people together. Its working must not be resisted, even the first presumptuous step in resistance being to be feared, while thoughts are to be uplifted and expectations enlarged to grasp the highest conception of excellence, striving to understand these words, appreciating the wonderful gift bestowed, and seeking the fullness of the Spirit.
Through the truth the Spirit works continually even in children and youth with transforming power, making them partakers of the divine nature and keeping before them the future immortal life. When hearts are linked together by the abiding love of Christ and strife and contention are removed, believers filled by the Spirit bear living testimony for the Saviour that glorifies Jesus. Then even bitter persecutors are converted and imbued with the Spirit, the gospel goes rapidly around the world, new churches are raised up, and converts become witnesses. This is the plainly expressed will for His people in John 6 and John 13-17, instruction meant to cure dissension and lead believers to live Christ's prayer for unity and love with one another and with Christ, giving strength to stand the test.
Through the Spirit the glory of Jesus Christ is made known in the heart, for Christ lives in His representatives and the holy thoughts, pure desires, and godly purposes in them come from Christ. The Spirit's working is needed for Christ to be manifested in believers' spirit, life, and character, so they can reveal God to a world that does not know Him, with His glory shining into the heart to give knowledge of Him. Together with the promise that the Spirit guides into truth, this makes the Spirit a constant source of light and strength.
The promise was spoken by Christ on the night before His death to comfort His disciples when He would leave them. Its plain meaning is that the Holy Spirit would not act or speak on His own, but would take what belongs to Christ and make it known to His followers. His crowning work is to glorify Christ rather than Himself, making Christ the center of supreme love and delight and revealing His character, righteousness and salvation in believers. He does this as the only effectual teacher of divine truth, bringing Christ's words to remembrance, opening Scripture, and guiding obedient hearts into all truth and holiness. As Christ is thus beheld, the Spirit convicts of sin, draws hearts to Calvary, transforms selfish hearts into Christ's likeness, and empowers the church to preach Christ from Pentecost to the final worldwide proclamation.
Farewell Words and Setting
The verse belongs to Christ's final instruction given to His disciples in the upper chamber before His separation from them, before His trial and crucifixion, spoken as words of comfort, counsel and prayer so they would not be left helpless when He departed. Their appointed work would fail unless divine power worked with their human effort, and in their ministry they had to depend on a divine Christ. Those words stayed with them through disappointment and trial, yet the truths taught in the upper chamber were not fully understood or appreciated until after the resurrection, when the Spirit's work would make them clear and strengthen the disciples to carry Christ's message. The farewell teaching spans John 13:31-38 and John 14-17, spoken as comfort that their hearts not be troubled.
The disciples could not yet bear all the truth; after Christ's resurrection they understood more, and after His ascension they discerned His words still more fully. After His departure they recognized their need for the Spirit's guidance and came to value and understand His lessons more fully, for the Spirit of truth receives what belongs to Christ, guides into truth, and brings Christ's teaching to their minds. At Pentecost that work revealed the Father and the Son through the disciples' witness, which their adversaries could not gainsay. Afterward their testimony carried those upper-chamber words throughout the world as words of comfort and hope for believers in trouble.
The chapters around the verse, John 14-16, stand among words of encouragement Christ spoke knowing the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, full of encouragement and hope, giving courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. John 16 belongs to Jesus' plain talk with His disciples about the difficulties and hatred they would meet in the world, for He knew every phase of experience and every conflict and affliction they would face and the great temptation to lose faith. He prepared them by mingling bright hopeful lines about the future, including the coming Comforter, with the dark prospect of trial, and the chapter is of highest value for every soul consecrating life to the service of God. This chapter, along with John 13-15 and 17, and more broadly with John 6 and John 13-17, calls for careful study and earnest practice of Christ's teachings and duties, expressing God's plainly expressed will meant to cure dissension and to lead believers to live Christ's prayer for unity and love with one another and with Christ, giving strength to stand the test. Its message is needed by everyone and belongs in every home as a message from God showing how to receive Christ's grace, while those who refuse Christ's conditions will be unworthy to stand among His people when He comes in glory.
How Spirit Glorifies Christ
The crowning and office work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ, not to speak of Himself, exalt Himself, or flatter people. He guides into truth, speaks what He hears, shows things to come, testifies of Christ, receives what belongs to Christ and makes it known to the disciples. Through Him the disciples' words enter hearts and convince the world of sin, so that even those who had opposed Christ can be converted and become united workers carrying the message of Christ the Creator and Redeemer throughout the world. True disciples follow the same pattern by becoming so assimilated to Christ that His great love to the world and their oneness in and through Christ are made manifest in them.
To glorify Christ means to make Him the object of supreme regard, so that the Saviour becomes the delight and the rejoicing of the human agent in whose heart this transformation is wrought. Christ, not the human worker, is to be the center of attention, lifted up and hidden in, that the fullness of His grace and character may attract and hold minds so people may see Christ and live. The Spirit asserts Christ's rights and claims, writes Christ's name on human hearts, enters the heart and enlightens the understanding. He reveals God's character to His people, makes God the object of their supreme love, manifests His character in them, and shows that all righteousness and excellence in the world come from God. Through the Spirit Christ lives in His representatives, so that the holy thoughts, pure desires and godly purposes in them come from Christ, and at Pentecost the church was filled with light from Christ its source, a pattern to be seen again when the angel with great power lights the whole earth with God's glory.
As Christ came to glorify the Father by demonstrating the Father's infinite love in all His works, so the Spirit comes to glorify Christ. He glorifies Christ by revealing what belongs to Him and by demonstrating that Christ and the Father are one.
The Spirit glorifies Christ by presenting Christ Himself, the purity of His righteousness, and the great salvation received through Him, serving as the only effectual teacher of divine truth and continual guide. His work is to display the glory of Jesus, God in human form, His divinity and glory, His character and grace, and to reveal the things God freely gives. To the repentant sinner who hungers and thirsts for righteousness He takes what belongs to Christ and makes it known, revealing the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As regenerating agency He makes effectual the salvation accomplished by the death of the Redeemer, constantly drawing attention to the offering made on Calvary, unfolding the love of God, and opening the precious things of Scripture to the convicted soul. As Christ glorified the Father by demonstrating His love, the Spirit makes Christ's character and grace known to the world and works to reproduce God's image in people, with the honor of God and Christ bound up with the perfection of His people's character.
Receiving and Revealing Christ's Things
The Spirit does not speak or act on His own but receives what belongs to Christ and makes it known to the disciples and followers. In doing so He glorifies Christ, guiding into all truth, speaking what He hears, and showing things to come, without exalting Himself or flattering people. This receiving and revealing was promised before trial and crucifixion so the disciples would not be left helpless when Christ departed. The Spirit's teaching therefore presents Christ and His truth rather than elevating human theories, and it works in those who open their hearts to Him.
Since all that the Father has belongs to Christ, the Spirit communicates the Father's possessions and Christ's truth to the church. More broadly He takes the things of God and shows them to men, and to the obedient heart they come as living power. He fills the mind with glorious conceptions of God, knits life by hidden links to the life of Jesus, shines in the heart to give the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and leads to the threshold of the Infinite where glory beyond the veil can be beheld and the sufficiency of the ever-living Intercessor revealed to others. He draws sinners to Christ, enlightens minds to recognize truth and reject false representations of Jesus, and reveals Christ's power and majesty so that people may trust Him. Believers in turn glorify God when they use entrusted gifts rightly and accept the grace Christ gives, extending the knowledge and influence He desires His church to have.
This work was seen in fullness and power reaching every heart after Christ's ascension upon the waiting, praying, believing disciples, and it is to be repeated with no dearth of the Spirit when God refreshes His people by baptizing them anew in love. Then a holy influence goes forth from those sanctified through the truth, the earth is lightened with God's glory and encircled with an atmosphere of grace, and the message of salvation is carried worldwide to those in darkness, rebuking indolence, selfishness and weakness and calling the church to earnest effort. This glorified Christ among the early disciples and will glorify Him again in the closing gospel work when the latter rain accompanies a more abundant proclamation of the Saviour.
He takes the very words that fell from Christ's lips and presents them in rich assurance, conveying them with living power into the soul that is obedient and emptied of self. That revealing shows human littleness and incompetence and the perfection, purity, righteousness, dignity and glory of Jesus, creating desire to become like Him and hunger and thirst to possess His righteousness. By bringing self-importance into submission to Christ and producing self-surrender of the will, He admits truth in its sanctifying power, guides into all truth and righteousness and holiness, teaches meekness and lowliness under Christ's yoke, and stamps the soul with the divine image and superscription so that Christ is formed within as the hope of glory and the heart receives the perfect image of God. The humble, trusting believer is thus led into truth and shaped by the gospel into the image of Christ and made to reflect Him. This gift is promised to those who ask in earnest, humble, childlike prayer and stand by faith on God's pledged word, and to them the Spirit is given without measure, for God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who earnestly desire Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children.
The Spirit who does this is Christ's representative to the world and the Third Person of the Godhead, coming in no modified energy but in the fullness of divine power to restrain and resist evil accumulated for centuries. When He operates upon the mind the human agent understands the promise about receiving and showing, being awakened as from the dead, having the mind carried along with Christ's own, and having created faculties employed to honor His name. Consecrated energies are then seen to be inspired of God, the noblest powers called into exercise for His service, and faculties once used to serve self and advance unworthy principles brought into captivity to Jesus Christ and made one with the will of God, which is the restoration of the self through subjection to the Word. His office as set forth in these wonderful statements is a theme of encouragement to be kept before the people and presented in every discourse, and comprehending it brings all blessings to the receiver and makes complete in Christ.
Illuminating Truth and Scripture
The Spirit is the only effectual teacher of divine truth, and only by His illumination can God's Word be understood, with its truths continually unfolding to those He guides into all truth, righteousness and holiness. He glorifies Christ by receiving what belongs to Christ and making it known to followers, presenting Christ Himself, the purity of His righteousness, and the great salvation received through Him. He guides into truth and shows things to come, revealing what is needed for salvation and assuring help in trial and temptation. He opens to the mind precious truths, that merits blot out transgressions, that righteousness clothes the believer, and that the crown of life awaits at the end of the conflict, a promise verified in experience.
He makes witness accurate by bringing to remembrance all that was said and by opening the many unsaid things that could not yet be borne, quickening understanding to appreciate heavenly things and to grasp breadth and length and depth and height and know love. Minds confused by traditions and maxims, by earthly and temporal ideas, by failure to understand the spiritual nature of the kingdom and the value of the Scriptures, could not keep lessons distinct or lay hold of their real meaning until the Comforter dwelling in the heart defined and maintained truth. He speaks through the Scriptures to the mind, impresses truth on the heart, and brings both new truth and forgotten buried truth into clear view, leading to repentance. He exposes error and expels false theories and traditions, for there is no genuine comfort in falsehood, truth does not exalt finite humanity but glorifies Christ, and whatever dims or eclipses Christ is falsehood to be called by its right name and expelled from the soul by receiving and rightly appropriating the light given in the Word.
Sent from heaven by infinite love, He gives the enlightenment needed to discern the truths in the Word, taking the things of God and of Christ and revealing them to every soul that has implicit faith and trust in Christ. He impresses upon the mind the vital truths upon which salvation depends and makes the way of life so plain that none need err, even without great learning. As the lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun dispelling darkness floods them with light, so the treasures in the Word are not appreciated until revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, therefore study should be joined with prayer for the light of the Spirit to shine upon the Word that its treasures may be seen and appreciated. To sincere searchers learning about Christ He enlightens minds and impresses hearts to see love, the fullness of salvation, and the purpose to make them part of the heavenly family. Sin is a disease of the soul that prevents understanding from doing its appointed work on heart and memory, creating blindness that blocks discernment of truth, yet through the truth He works continually even in children and youth with transforming power, making them partakers of divine nature and keeping the future immortal life before them.
He constantly shows the soul glimpses of the things of God, imparting increased light and strength just as fast as the soul resolves and acts in accordance with light already revealed. His energy works in the heart to lead the inclinations of the will to Jesus by living faith and complete dependence on divine power to will and to do, bringing the realization that a divine presence is hovering near and that Jesus abides in the open soul. Grace is supplied to cooperate with earnest, determined resolve, not to substitute for individual exercise of faith and working out salvation according to light bestowed, so more light and evidence alone do not make the soul advance or free. If the mind responds and the door of the heart is opened, the enlightened mind sees truth in distinction from error, but without human response and willing obedience the revealing accomplishes nothing.
His instruction becomes clear with new understanding when minds yield to God, so teaching guided by Him presents Christ and His truth rather than elevating human theories. What could not yet be borne was understood more after the resurrection and discerned still more fully after the ascension, and at Pentecost His work revealed the Father and the Son through witness that adversaries could not gainsay.
Transforming Heart and Character
The Spirit glorifies Christ as the regenerating agent who makes effective the salvation secured by the Redeemer's death, constantly directing attention to Calvary and to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He draws sinners to Christ, brings them to repentance, presents God's requirements to the mind and presses them upon the conscience for obedience unto eternal life, and opens the precious things and promises of Scripture to the convicted soul. In doing this He unfolds the love of God, enlightens minds to recognize truth and reject false representations of Jesus, and reveals Christ's power, majesty, sacrifice and intercession in new light to the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. This revealing brings holy joy and peace and moves those who receive it to work lovingly for the lost.
He takes what belongs to Christ and to God and makes it known as living principles in hearts open to receive them, leading into all truth and into knowledge of the Father and the Son. This guidance brings self-importance into submission to Christ and produces surrender of the will that admits truth in its sanctifying, soul-purifying power, working faith that operates by love. He takes the words that fell from Christ's lips and conveys them with living power into the obedient soul emptied of self, impressing upon every obedient heart the likeness of Christ. Received in this way the truth teaches meekness and lowliness under Christ's yoke, reveals personal incompetence, and leaves upon the soul the perfect impress of the Author of truth with transformation of heart, soul, character and entire being.
That revealing shows human littleness and incompetence alongside the perfection, purity, righteousness, dignity, glory and excellent character of Jesus. It awakens desire to become like Him and hunger and thirst to possess His righteousness, guides into all truth and righteousness and holiness, and continues in the soul fixed on Jesus until the person is conformed to His image and grows increasingly like Him. Where this work is done the soul receives the image and superscription of the divine, Christ is formed within as the hope of glory, and the desire for righteousness moves toward satisfaction. The humble, contrite heart with yielded will that receives light from the divine altar and sees its own incompetence and Christ's glory is placed under this guidance, and the Spirit conveys Christ's words into the heart obedient to God's will so it may receive the perfect image of God and reflect Christ according to the gospel.
When wills yield to God's will by consent, without compulsion or violence, God molds and fashions the perverse human mind into His own likeness by showing what belongs to Christ. Beholding the beauty of the Saviour's character, beholders grow more and more like Him until complete in Him and perfection is brought to the character, supplying all excellence necessary for perfection. To create the soul anew, to bring light out of darkness, love out of enmity and holiness out of impurity, is the work of Omnipotence alone, the work of the Infinite in making the life complete in Christ, which must be wrought in everyone who passes through the gates of the city of God. Subjection to the Word restores the self, for Christ by His Spirit awakens the person as from the dead, carries the mind along with His own mind, and employs the faculties He created so they better honor and glorify His name. Consecrated to Him, energies are seen to be inspired of God and the noblest powers called into exercise for God's service, so faculties once used to serve self and advance unworthy principles as members of unrighteous purposes are brought into captivity to Jesus Christ and become one with the will of God.
Through the Spirit God's image is reproduced in humanity, for as Christ glorified the Father by demonstrating His love, the Spirit glorifies Christ by revealing the riches of His grace and making His character known to the world. The honor of God and of Christ is bound up with the perfection of His people's character. By the Spirit the heart is made pure, hearts of stone become hearts of flesh so that evil cannot work through them to counteract Christ's work, believers become partakers of the divine nature, receive divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and have Christ's own character impressed upon the church. As the Spirit reveals God's great love and Christ's light and grace shine into the heart, selfishness is seen as repulsive and cast out, the heart is softened, affections turn to God, and the character is transformed. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith in His righteousness is the safeguard against evil so temptation loses its power, every good work is accomplished through the Spirit's grace and power with glory belonging to Christ and not to the servant, and praise, thanksgiving, service, benevolence, prayer and self-denial make Christ appear as all in all while awakening desire to serve Him.
Pentecost and Final Outpouring
After Christ ascended and was glorified, the Spirit came at Pentecost as His promised representative, revealing His divinity and glory and empowering the disciples to witness to Him. The Spirit's power enabled them to preach Christ and Him crucified, opening hearts to the message and bringing many to faith, with the world's attention resting on Christ as Creator and Redeemer. The Spirit does not speak of Himself but testifies of Christ, helping the disciples' words enter hearts and convincing the world of sin. Through the Spirit even those who had opposed Christ could be converted.
At Pentecost the church was filled with light from Christ as its source, for all righteousness and excellence in the world come from God, whose character the Spirit reveals to make Him the object of supreme love and to manifest His character in believers. The same pattern will be seen when the angel with great power lights the whole earth with God's glory. When hearts are linked together by the abiding love of Christ and strife and contention are removed, even the bitterest persecutors are converted and imbued with the Spirit to glorify Christ, and believers become united workers carrying the message of Christ the Creator and Redeemer throughout the world. Then the gospel goes rapidly around the world with new churches raised up and converts becoming witnesses.
This refreshing baptized the waiting, praying, believing disciples anew in love with a fullness and power that reached every heart, taking the things of God and showing them to men as living power. The same work is to be done again with no dearth of the Spirit in the church, refreshing God's people by baptizing them anew in love. In the future it will lighten the earth with the glory of God as a holy and divine influence goes forth to the world from those sanctified through the truth, encircling the earth with an atmosphere of grace. Then the message of salvation is proclaimed not in a few places only but throughout the world to those in the darkness of unbelief who do not know God, rebuking the indolence, selfishness and weakness of the church and calling its members to earnest effort to make known the joy of salvation through Christ. This work glorified Christ among the early disciples by drawing sinners to Him, enlightening minds to recognize truth and reject false representations of Jesus, and revealing His power and majesty so people may trust Him, and it will glorify Him again in the closing gospel work when the latter rain accompanies a more abundant proclamation of the Saviour.
Ministry and Daily Living
The verse means human workers are to lift up Christ as the center while themselves hidden in Him, so that the fullness of His grace and character attracts and holds minds and people see Christ and live. The teaching they give under the Spirit therefore presents Christ and His truth as it is in Him rather than elevating human theories, and through people thus sanctified by truth God's glory and grace are carried to the world. Even small abilities faithfully used can carry vital truths brought anew to mind, because power and success rest in God working through the agent rather than in learning or intelligence, so no glory belongs to self or any person but praise belongs to God. Those who teach truth under this guidance speak clearly and distinctly so the message can be understood, not in indistinct speech.
Ministers must not work in their own strength but obtain preparation to meet opponents and to minister to people only at the throne of grace, where tapers are kindled alone at the altar by holy fire. There, seeing and acknowledging their own incompetence, they are put under the guardianship of the Holy Spirit and receive divine efficiency, with the Spirit taking the things of God and of Christ, even the precious words falling from His lips, and conveying them in living power into the obedient heart. That leading into all truth gives faith that works by love and purifies the soul, with the molding process of the Word placing upon them the perfect image of its Author. It is great light given in mercy and love to be freely given and let shine to those in darkness, for Christ gives not only His Word but also wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, so that in His strength believers are more than conquerors.
The same Spirit who exalts Christ by making Him known guided the sacred writers so the world could receive a record of Christ's words and works. He still draws people to the sacrifice of the cross, reveals God's love, and opens the promises of Scripture to souls convicted of sin. Believers glorify God when they use entrusted gifts rightly and accept the grace Christ gives, thereby extending the knowledge and influence Christ desires His church to have, since the Father's possessions are Christ's and the Spirit communicates Christ's truth to the church. As they contemplate Jesus and His love their hearts are warmed, the truths of redemption and the plan of salvation are brought vividly and repeatedly to mind, God's promises are kept effective for them, and they are moved to share with others the comfort those truths bring.
The Spirit's coming opens blinded eyes to understand divine instruction concerning what God desires to do for the race. Those preparing for ministry through canvassing will see the promise fulfilled as the Spirit enables them to understand truth as it is in Jesus. Comprehending the office of the Spirit as Christ's representative set forth here brings all blessings to the receiver and makes complete in Christ. It is a theme of encouragement to be kept before the people and presented in every discourse.
The gift is promised to those who ask in earnest, humble, childlike prayer and stand by faith upon God's pledged word, pleading His promises. To them the Spirit is given without measure, for God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who earnestly desire Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children. He gives energizing power by taking the things of God and revealing them to those who follow Christ in meekness and lowliness, a work that makes people born again with a new heart given by Christ and must be sought most earnestly by God's people together. Its working must not be resisted, even the first presumptuous step in resistance being to be feared, while thoughts are to be uplifted and expectations enlarged to grasp the highest conception of excellence, striving to understand these words, appreciating the wonderful gift bestowed, and seeking the fullness of the Spirit.
Through the truth the Spirit works continually even in children and youth with transforming power, making them partakers of the divine nature and keeping before them the future immortal life. When hearts are linked together by the abiding love of Christ and strife and contention are removed, believers filled by the Spirit bear living testimony for the Saviour that glorifies Jesus. Then even bitter persecutors are converted and imbued with the Spirit, the gospel goes rapidly around the world, new churches are raised up, and converts become witnesses. This is the plainly expressed will for His people in John 6 and John 13-17, instruction meant to cure dissension and lead believers to live Christ's prayer for unity and love with one another and with Christ, giving strength to stand the test.
Through the Spirit the glory of Jesus Christ is made known in the heart, for Christ lives in His representatives and the holy thoughts, pure desires, and godly purposes in them come from Christ. The Spirit's working is needed for Christ to be manifested in believers' spirit, life, and character, so they can reveal God to a world that does not know Him, with His glory shining into the heart to give knowledge of Him. Together with the promise that the Spirit guides into truth, this makes the Spirit a constant source of light and strength.