But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, *he* shall bear witness concerning me;
The promise of the Helper comes right after a warning. The Lord has told His followers that the world will hate them as it hated Him. Against that hatred He sets a Person: One He will send from the Father to bear witness about Him.
The ESV calls Him the Helper. Older translations say Comforter. One Greek word lies behind both:
The Greek word for "Comforter" is parakletos. It is the same word used to describe our Lord in 1 John 2:1: "If anyone does sin, we have an ADVOCATE [parakletos] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." The meaning of the original Greek word is One called alongside to help. Is the word "Comforter" enough for this meaning? We think not. We have no word in the English language that quite conveys the full meaning.
The same word puts a Paraclete in two places at once:
Christ is our Paraclete (Advocate) in this sense on high. The Holy Spirit is our Paraclete (Comforter) down here, living within us. What He does answers to what our Advocate does with the Father. So He is charged with our interests below, as Christ is above.
Notice the pronoun. The Spirit is sent, He proceeds, He bears witness:
Though the Father and the Son are One in divine essence, so that Jesus could say, "I and the Father are one," yet in person they are distinct... Our Lord also spoke of the Spirit's personal actings: "He will teach you all things... He will bear witness about me. He will guide you into all the truth."... What language could show us more plainly that a Person is acting? And who, I ask, but One who was God, could teach all things, and guide into all truth? It is "He," "He," "He," all through.
Three chapters of this same conversation describe the Spirit's coming. This verse is the middle one:
In John 14, our Lord identifies "another Comforter" as the Holy Spirit (verse 26)... So in John 14 the Father would send Him in the Son's Name. In John 15, the Son would send Him as from the Father. And in John 16, He would come... How blessed is the inter-communion of the Persons of the Godhead!
The language of proceeding and being sent raises a question about rank within the Godhead:
In this present age the Holy Spirit also takes a place that looks like a lower one. He "proceeds from the Father" and is "sent" by the Father and the Son... All such expressions seem to put the Spirit in a lower place, as others seem to do with the Son. But it is only in appearance. It has to do with the place they have taken and the part they play in carrying out the divine purposes, not in any way with the dignity of their Persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are coequal in deity.
Placed where it is, the promise answers two problems at once — a violent world and frail disciples:
Knowing the wickedness of the world and the weakness of the disciples He says, "I will send" to you the Comforter "from the Father, the Spirit of truth," and the Lord adds, "He will bear witness about Me." However weak the disciples may be, however strong the world may be, "He will bear witness about Me."... The world will crucify Him in the lowest place on earth. Heaven will crown Him in the highest place in glory. And the Holy Spirit would come to bear witness of His glory. The Son had come from the Father to bear witness of the Father: the Holy Spirit was coming from the Father to bear witness to the Son.
The apostles could report what they had seen and heard:
The Spirit of Truth is the fitting witness to Christ as He is above; the disciples also testify, as His companions, chosen from the beginning... For as such they could not go beyond what they had seen and heard... The Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father would not only strengthen them to do that task perfectly, but would add a testimony of another kind altogether, of a blessedness never known before, as sent by Christ Himself from the Father.
That witness has a purpose for us:
Coming from the glory, He would bear witness to Christ. He would bear testimony to the glory into which He has entered for us, that our souls might be formed by it. What could we know of this but for Him?... The Spirit loves to bring before us the blessedness which is now His, and to assure our hearts that all is ours because we are in Him before God.
- Called alongside. Parakletos means One called alongside to help. Christ is our Advocate above; the Spirit is our Helper here.
- A "He," not an it. He is sent, He proceeds, He testifies, He guides into all truth. Only a Person can act like that, and only God.
- Sent, yet equal. The Son sends Him from the Father. Being sent describes the part He plays, not a lower dignity: Father, Son and Spirit are coequal.
- Witness against hatred. The world hates and the disciples fail, yet the promise stands: He will bear witness about Christ.
- News from the glory. The apostles told only what they had seen. The Spirit comes from where Christ now is, and tells of the glory He has entered.
and ye too bear witness, because ye are with me from [the] beginning.
The Lord has just promised the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will testify about Him. Then, without a pause, He adds His disciples to the witness stand. What could they add to the Spirit's testimony, and what qualified them to give it?
The Spirit and the disciples do not repeat each other. Each speaks from a place the other cannot occupy.
The apostles had authority and could say so. The Spirit of truth would testify, and so would they: "you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." They bore their witness through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was sent down to bear witness of what Christ is in heaven. The apostles bore witness of what He was on earth.
If the Spirit's testimony lacks nothing, the disciples' witness looks redundant. One writer raises that objection and answers it.
The previous verse mentions the coming of the Holy Spirit and the testimony He would render. His testimony is perfect, so would any further testimony be needed? Yes, there were men chosen to bear witness. They had the privilege of hearing, seeing and even handling these things, as they kept company with their Lord from the beginning, in the days before the Spirit was given.
Which beginning? One writer rules out the widest sense.
"That which was from the beginning" does not mean the beginning of creation, as in Genesis 1 and John 1. It means the beginning of the revelation that has reached us in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who doubts this can turn to John 15:27.
The beginning here is the disciples' first days with Jesus. Their witness covers all of it, not only its climax.
So they were called to bear witness of Him — "because you have been with Me from the beginning." It was not only the great display at the end. The truth was there from the beginning; grace and truth were always in Him.
Their time with Him from the start left something behind. It is why we can read their account today.
The Lord had chosen the twelve as His disciples, but also as His witnesses. He said, "You also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning" (John 15:27). Men who had been witnesses from the beginning wrote Matthew's Gospel and John's Gospel.
The verse sits inside a chapter about the world's hatred. To be a witness is to step into the line of fire. One writer separates two kinds of hatred: what a disciple meets, and what a witness meets.
They were now entering the path of testimony, which always involves suffering… The hatred of the world and the love of Christ press them so much the more together. But there is also the hatred that comes upon them in testifying, not as disciples so much as witnesses. They witnessed of what they had known of Christ here, and of what the Spirit taught them of Christ on high. The result would be: "They will put you out of the synagogues."
We were not there. The disciples had a qualification no one can repeat. Yet the verse still reaches us in two ways. First, the subject of the testimony has moved:
They bore witness to Him in the days of His flesh, but after Pentecost they were called to testify of Him in glory. This is where we all come in. As a qualification for their work, they had to be with the Lord when He was here… But as witnesses to Christ glorified we are all brought in.
Second, one condition has not changed. Being with Christ still stands behind any witness.
It is true that we have not been with Jesus in the literal way the disciples were. They kept company with Him from the beginning of His ministry. Still, it remains true in a moral sense: if we are to bear witness for Christ before men, we too must be with Christ in secret. When the Holy Spirit had come, Peter and John bore a striking witness to Christ before the persecuting religious world. It was so striking that their persecutors "recognized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).
- Two witnesses. The Spirit testifies of Christ in heaven; the disciples testify of Christ on earth. One Christ, two vantage points.
- Qualified by company. Their credential was time spent with Him — they had heard, seen and handled what they reported.
- Empowered by the Spirit. They bore their witness through the Holy Spirit. His perfect testimony did not replace theirs; it carried it.
- Written down. That eyewitness testimony is why we have the Gospel accounts.
- Costly, and still ours. Witnessing puts you on the path of suffering. The qualification still stands: be with Christ in secret, and people will see it.