But I say the truth to you, It is profitable for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you.
The disciples had just heard that their Master was leaving. Grief swallowed every question they should have asked. His answer turns their loss into gain: being without His visible presence would leave them better off than keeping it.
Their grief was real, but it kept them from seeing what God was doing. One writer notes what a grieving heart stops doing, and what that costs:
The sorrow was right, but they were taken up with themselves — with their own grief — instead of seeing how God was working and what His purposes were. The real truth was that the Son was going back to the Father. We may lose God's purpose of blessing for our own souls by not seeing His mind in what grieves us. The disciples were shut up in their own sorrows and thoughts, instead of asking where the Lord was going. But He would comfort them despite this weakness of faith, and He gives them the promise of the Comforter.
"To your advantage" means profitable — better for them. No one else would have thought it, and the day the Spirit came proved it true:
The coming and indwelling of the Spirit was of enormous importance. That is why our Lord tells His disciples it was profitable, an advantage, for Him to go away so that the Spirit might come. If He had not said it, who could have imagined any privilege greater than personal contact and company with the Lord Himself? Before Pentecost the disciples had partial, earthly ideas. Compare them with the same disciples after the Spirit came down, and we see how true our Lord's words were.
The order matters. The Spirit's coming rests on a finished work and an exalted Christ:
He must go away so that the Comforter, the Spirit of God, would come (v. 7). The Spirit comes to dwell in the Church as the result of two things: redemption accomplished, and Christ raised and glorified at the Father's right hand. Only then would He send the Spirit to them.
The verse says "Helper"; older translations say "Comforter". Both stand for one Greek word, paraclete, and commentators say the English words are too small for it:
The Holy Spirit was now to work as He had never worked before in the children of men or in the children of God. More than that, He was to come in person and take over the entire charge and business of the disciples. That is the meaning of paraclete, which our word "Comforter" only partly captures.
The same word explains why His absence is not abandonment:
This word presents the Holy Spirit as the One who stands by believers and takes their matters in hand. We are not left as orphans (John 14:18) but supported by the Comforter.
The exchange is not a downgrade but a change of position. What was outside them would now be inside them:
He would send the Spirit, and the Spirit would testify of Him as the glorified Lord. That would let the disciples enjoy a deeper relationship with Him and the Father. The Lord was with them, but the Holy Spirit would be in them. That would give them a fuller understanding of the truth than they ever had when the Lord was on earth.
There is also a plain practical gain: a body can only stand in one place at a time.
He has ascended, and so we are immensely better off than if He were on earth. If He were on earth now — say in Jerusalem — He would not also be in Edinburgh. But He is in glory. So the Holy Spirit has come down to dwell among us, and to remain in each believer. He gives us the sense of the Lord's presence no matter where we are.
Peter later pointed to the kept promise as proof:
The Lord had told the disciples (John 16:7): "If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you." He had gone, and so He sent the Spirit. Peter told them facts — facts no one could question.
- Sorrow. Grief filled the disciples' hearts and stopped their questions. We can miss God's purpose by staring at our loss instead of His hand in it.
- Truth. His going is to their profit. No one else would have made that claim, and the coming of the Spirit proved it true.
- Order. The Spirit could not come until Christ had finished redemption and entered glory. His going is what opens the gift.
- Gift. "Comforter" translates paraclete — the One who stands by believers and takes their affairs in hand. No one is left an orphan.
- Reach. He was with them; the Spirit would be in them — and in every believer, in every place, at once.
And having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment
Jesus is speaking to His disciples about His departure. Here He tells them what it will mean for the world outside, not only for them. The Helper He sends will bring a case against the world on three counts: sin, righteousness, and judgment. What does that convicting work actually do?
No single English word carries the Greek verb Jesus uses here. Older translations show the struggle.
The Lord tells us that when the Spirit comes, He will elegxei the world. It is hard to bring across the true force of that word. "Reprove," as the King James Version has it, is too narrow, if not simply wrong. "Rebuke" is out of the question here. "Convict" barely fits the first clause, and does not fit the second and third at all. It also assumes an effect on people that may not be there at all. "Convince" does not satisfy either, unless it means giving proof by His presence rather than by His action. By coming and staying in believers, apart from the world, He gives the world proof by demonstration of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
The charge is not a list of wrongs. It is one refusal.
The law dealt with Israel as those under it. But now it is the Spirit who shows the world its "sin." The reason is not that people break the law, that divine measure of a man's duty. The reason is that they reject the Son of God: "concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me." He had come in grace; to reject this was fatal. It is not merely failure in obligation, but contempt for God's love.
Another writer turns the same charge into a question the Spirit puts to the world:
The Comforter shows the sin of the whole world as the one that has rejected God: "He will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me." There are plenty of other sins, but the Holy Spirit would say to the world, "Where is Christ? What have you done with Him?"
The second count points away from this world, to where Jesus has gone.
Jesus was going through death and resurrection, and then going up into the glory of the Father. That is how divine righteousness would be proved and displayed. The point here is not forgiveness of sins and justification for us, as it is in Romans 3. It is righteousness set up in the open, in every sphere that sin has touched and spoiled. Christ's death was the world's supreme act of unrighteousness. His glorification was God's supreme act of righteousness, and the guarantee that righteousness will win everywhere in the end... To show sin alone would not have been enough. Righteousness is the opposite of sin, and the thing that will abolish it in the end, so righteousness must be shown too.
The third count is more than a warning about a court date still to come.
This world has refused Christ and has no righteousness of its own. Righteousness now sits on the throne, and that is the proof of the world's guilt. So one thing only is left: judgment. So the last convicting work of the Spirit is to bring home the fact of judgment to the consciences of men. He does this not only by warning of a judgment still to come — "it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." He also brings home that judgment has already been passed and carried out, in the mind of God, on the prince of this world.
One writer names the place where that sentence fell.
The judgment on the prince of this world has come already. He is judged in the cross of Christ.
The proof can be complete, and men can still refuse it.
"He will convict" does not necessarily mean that men will accept the conviction. The guilty do not necessarily admit that their sentence is right. The world certainly does not admit it. Still, God has demonstrated the guilt of the world, and placed men under responsibility to receive His sentence. That is the way into blessing beyond imagining: the salvation for the guilty that the gospel proclaims.
What proves the case is less a set of arguments than a Person who is here at all.
Had this world received the Son, the Spirit would not be here in His present testimony dwelling in our hearts. I have no doubt the demonstration comes first to us, and then through us to this world. We seek to bear witness to the Son, and to the sin of this world in rejecting Him. But it is the presence of the Spirit which brings this demonstration, not so much what the Spirit has to say.
- Presence. The Spirit is here because the world cast Christ out. His arrival is itself the evidence. The verb means "give proof" more than "tell off."
- Sin. The charge is not law-breaking but unbelief — contempt for the love that came in the Son.
- Righteousness. The world has none of its own. Christ in glory shows where righteousness is, and pledges that it will fill every sphere.
- Judgment. Not a threat about tomorrow only; sentence has already fallen on the world's prince at the cross.
- Response. Men may refuse the proof, but it stands. That same verdict opens the door to salvation for the guilty.
of sin, because they do not believe on me;
The Lord is telling His disciples what will happen when the Helper comes. The first item is startling. The Spirit will prove the world's sin, and the proof rests on one fact: they refused Him. Two questions follow. Why unbelief and not the more obvious crimes? And what does the Spirit do when He "convicts"?
Under the law, God measured Israel's guilt by broken commands. Here the measure changes. The world has turned away the Person who came in grace.
But now it is the Spirit Who shows the "sin" of the world. He shows it not because they break that divine standard of a man's duty, but because they reject the Son of God: "concerning sin, because they do not believe in me." He had come in grace, and to reject this was fatal. It is not just a failure to meet an obligation. It is contempt for God's love.
Unbelief here is not one fault among many. It sums up what man is.
It was not just sinfulness or wrongdoing. Both could have been charged against them by nature and by the law. It was their very state, their whole state with God… They were sin, and nothing else. Where all beauty was, they saw none. Where God was revealed in the flesh, they did not know Him. When He came to His own with personal grace, they did not receive Him. They hated and rejected Him.
The proof is not only in what the Spirit says. It is in the fact that He is here at all. Had the world welcomed the Son, He would not have been sent.
The very presence of the Holy Ghost stamps the world with this sin. He could not be sent here, unless Jesus had been rejected — unless God's own Son had been cast out.
The same fact also explains who receives the Spirit and who does not.
Why is the Holy Spirit in this world in the special way in which He is? Because Christ is rejected. Why is the Holy Spirit given to some and not to others? Because some believe and some do not. This marks the difference between the believer and the world. It shows the guilt of the world.
The Greek word here is hard to translate. Kelly weighs the usual options and settles on proof supplied, not an effect produced.
"Reprove," as in the King James Version, is too narrow a meaning, if not false. "Rebuke" is out of the question here. "Convict" barely fits even the first clause, and does not fit the second and third at all. It also assumes an effect produced, which may not be there in any case. "Convince" is not satisfying either, unless it means giving proof by His presence rather than by His action.
The accused can deny a case that is fully proved. That does not weaken it — and it leaves a door open.
"He will convict" does not have to mean that men will accept the conviction. The guilty do not always admit that their sentence is just. The world certainly does not admit it. Still, God has shown the guilt of the world, and has placed men under responsibility to receive His sentence. There lies the way into blessing beyond imagining — the salvation for the guilty which the gospel proclaims.
Commentators differ on how far the world itself receives this. Hamilton Smith says the proof lands not on the world but on those the Spirit lives in. They then carry it outward.
In fact it is not the world itself that receives the demonstration. It is those in whom the Spirit dwells. They do use what they have learned to tell the world its true condition.
That witness is not abstract. Believers meet this same unbelief whenever they talk with someone outside the faith.
The Spirit is here to bear witness to this. His very presence here bears witness that Christ is rejected. And when we meet unconverted people in this world, we too see that they have not believed.
Some stretch this verse to mean that unbelief is now the only sin God counts. Ridout answers that rejecting the remedy makes the record worse, not empty.
Rejecting Christ does not wipe out every other sin committed; it underlines them. Here is an atonement available for terrible sins. That atonement is rejected, and this makes the sins worse still.
- Proof, not scolding. The word behind "convict" means evidence laid down — a case established, whether or not the accused admits it.
- Proof by presence. The Spirit is here because the Son was cast out; His being here at all stamps the world with the sin.
- Proof of one thing. The charge is not broken law but refused grace — the Son came in love and was not received.
- Proof carried by believers. Those in whom the Spirit dwells receive the demonstration first, and then take it to a world that does not see Him.
- Proof that opens a door. God has settled the guilt, so men may accept the verdict and receive the salvation the gospel offers to the guilty.
of righteousness, because I go away to [my] Father, and ye behold me no longer;
Jesus has just said the Spirit will convict the world of three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. Here He explains the second, and the proof He points to is not on earth at all — it is His own going to the Father.
The world showed what it was by refusing Him, and heaven answered by receiving Him. One writer pictures how strange that leaves things down here:
Christ is the righteous One, and the world proved its unrighteousness by rejecting Him. Righteousness is with the Father. The Holy Spirit came down after our Lord went up, and that is the proof of the world's unrighteousness. They rejected the One whom heaven welcomed. To those who love the Lord, everything in this world is out of joint. It is like a kingdom where the lawful king has been driven out and a republic set up in his place. To every loyal subject, its affairs are out of joint.
In Israel, sin meant breaking the law. The Spirit's case now rests on something else:
The proof of sin is not the breaking of the law, as in Israel. There is an entirely new standing, and the Holy Spirit witnesses to this and to no other. So with righteousness — the world rejected Jesus, and righteousness is not here but up in heaven. Righteousness is the fruit of His work, and the work of the Holy Spirit answers to His; you see righteousness only in heaven. God the Father raised up a rejected Christ and set Him at His own right hand. So the world lost Jesus, and God was righteous when He received Him to His own right hand in heaven.
The verse has a positive side and a negative side, and both convict. Christ has gone up, and the world has lost Him.
The first ground is that the only righteousness now is in Christ gone to be with the Father. In death Christ glorified God perfectly, just as in life He always did the things that pleased His Father. Nothing less than putting Him as man at His own right hand could meet the case. A wonderful fact — a man now in glory, at the right hand of God, above all angels, principalities, and powers. This is the proof of righteousness... But there is another proof, negative where that was positive — that the world has lost Christ, "and you will see me no longer."
The phrase describes what God did for His Son:
In John 16:10 we see where the righteousness of God has been shown. God has set Christ at His right hand in His own glory, because Christ has perfectly glorified Him. The righteousness consists in this: the Father has lifted Christ as Man into His own glory — the glory He had with Him before the world was... By the rejection of Christ, the world has for ever lost Him as the One who came in grace; but God has accepted and glorified Him.
The clause marks the end of one role and the start of another. It also marks the moment a person stops belonging to the world, and it shows where righteousness can be seen.
In "and you will see me no longer," it means you will not see Me in that character of mercy, come as a Saviour; every eye will see Him in His new character as Judge. Suppose I receive the Holy Spirit's proof about righteousness, given because Christ has gone. Then I have ceased to belong to the world, and have become a believer... The root of the gospel is here: "righteousness, because I go to the Father." ... You do not see righteousness fully displayed anywhere except in the glory. The cross is the declaration, not of righteousness, but of the opposite. It is the ground of righteousness.
The same fact that condemns the world is the ground of a Christian's peace and future.
For us Christ is dead, and risen, and gone on high, and we are made the righteousness of God in Him. So this is the righteousness that the Holy Spirit is convincing the world of: not man's righteousness under law, but God's in grace... The world will never see Christ again until He comes in judgment of it. The Christian even now belongs to Christ in heaven. He will go soon to meet Christ in the air and be with Him in the Father's house.
- Rejection. The world drove out the only righteous Man; by that act it proved it has no righteousness of its own.
- Reward. Christ glorified God perfectly, so God owed Him the highest place. "The righteousness of God" here means God seating Him as man at His own right hand.
- Removal. "You will see me no longer" is the negative half of the proof. The world has lost Him as Saviour for ever, and will next meet Him as Judge.
- Reach. The Spirit came down because Christ went up. His presence here proves that righteousness is now in heaven, not on earth.
- Result. Those who accept that proof stop belonging to the world. In the very One the world cast out, they are made the righteousness of God.
of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
The Lord is telling His disciples what the Helper will do when He comes. This verse names the third thing the Spirit presses on the world, and its reason startles: the world's ruler stands judged already.
Translators have long struggled with the verb in verse 8 that covers all three items. One writer explains why no single English word fits.
It is hard to give the proper force of the word translated "reprove" in verse 8. Different passages translate it in different ways. So we must weigh the context to find the mind of the Spirit of God. This note explains the difficulty better than any words of our own: "'Convince' (this word is often used instead of 'reprove') assumes an effect in the person convinced; 'convict' would not do for righteousness or judgment. I have said 'bring demonstration'... I use it in the sense that His presence and all that He does gives this demonstration."
The older wording "prince of this world" is what the ESV calls "the ruler of this world." The cross proved the title, when Satan drew every class of people with him against Christ.
Satan had shown himself to be the prince of this world by leading all men against the Lord Jesus. To carry out the purposes of God in grace, Jesus does not resist. He gives Himself up to death. Satan, who has the power of death, committed himself fully. In his desire to ruin man he had to risk everything in his attack on the Prince of Life. He was able to bring the whole world in with himself in this — Jew and Gentile, priest and people, governor, soldier, and subject. The world was there, led by its prince, on that solemn day.
So where is the proof? The Spirit points to the place the crucified One now holds.
At the cross it looked as if the devil had won. There he used man to nail to a cross of shame the very One God has destined for a throne of glory. But the presence of the Spirit brings demonstration that Christ is in the highest place in glory, despite all that the world has done under the lead of the prince of the world. God has triumphed over man's sin and the devil's power. The place of glory where God has set Christ proves the devil's defeat in his greatest display of power.
"Is judged" is not the same as "is destroyed." One writer uses a courtroom picture to explain the gap we now live in.
A court passes sentence on a murderer days or weeks before the execution. So in John 12:31 — "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out" — you see the judgment was a present thing. The casting out was a future thing. Between the verdict and its execution lies this present day of grace, which the word "now" covers, as in 2 Corinthians 6:2. In His patience God delays the execution of judgment.
The sentence does not stop with Satan. Because he is a prince, what falls on him falls on everything under him.
The Spirit convicts the world of judgment, because the prince of this world (Satan) has lost his possession. Christ is heir of all things, the true owner of this earth. The Holy Spirit is here on behalf of Christ. His very presence proves that the world's prince stands judged, and those who have let him rule them must share his judgment.
The same fact that condemns the world steadies those who trust Christ. One writer reasons from the plain fact that the Spirit is still here.
The Holy Spirit convinces the world "concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world [Satan] is judged." If Satan really had the upper hand, there would be no Holy Spirit here. This world would not put up with the Holy Spirit, or with those He lives in. How cheering is the word, "Little children, you are from God... for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). That may be said of the feeblest or youngest believer in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
- Demonstration — The Spirit does not just scold the world. His presence and work here are the proof of sin, righteousness and judgment.
- Exposure — The cross showed Satan to be the world's real ruler. He led every class of people against Christ.
- Verdict — Christ in glory proves the enemy lost in the very hour of his greatest effort.
- Delay — God has passed sentence but not carried it out. The gap between the two is this present day of grace.
- Reach — Because the ruler is judged, his realm falls with him. And the Spirit still here assures the weakest believer that the greater One is within.
I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now.
On the last night before the cross, Jesus breaks off mid-teaching. The limit is not in what He has to give, but in what His disciples can take. So how did the rest ever reach them — and has it reached us?
These men were close to Him, yet they did not have all He wanted to give them. One writer marks the point when that changed:
So the disciples, favoured as they were, were far from knowing all that the Lord wanted for them. He would have told them if their state had allowed it. They could enter into all the truth only after redemption was accomplished, Christ was raised from the dead, and the Holy Spirit was given — not before.
"You cannot bear them" sounds like a comment on their slowness. One writer rules that out:
It was not that they were lacking in intelligence. They could not bear or understand the truths that He wanted to tell them, because they had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit... Only after He had come could every believer have the power and the potential to understand every truth put before them. No Christian should be ignorant of the mind of the Lord. It is not a question of natural ability. It is a question of being in a moral condition, with a teachable mind and a desire to learn. Then the indwelling Spirit gives the power to understand and learn the truth of God.
The truths held back waited on two things: cleansed consciences, and a Man glorified in heaven.
The Spirit, when given, was to supply what the disciples in their state at that time could not bear... The Lord truly had many things to say, kept back for the Holy Spirit. They waited for the time when the disciples would have their consciences purged and could come near with boldness into the holy places, and when a Man glorified in heaven gave the fitting occasion for displaying all that is in God.
Notice what the Lord does with what He cannot say: He does not force it on them, and He does not let them lose it either.
Many things He had to say to them, but then they could not bear them. He would not therefore press on them what they were not in a condition to receive. Would they lose by that? Should they afterwards have to speak of an opportunity they had not used, lost for ever? No. He would provide against that. The Comforter sent by Him would come, and guide them into all the truth.
What was partial while He stood among them becomes complete when the Spirit arrives:
His disciples could only understand so much. So in His teaching the Lord was limited to making known what was only partial. But when the Spirit came there would be full revelation. No longer partial teaching, but open communication from the Father and the Son, through the Spirit — and so unlimited fullness for us.
Two things follow from the verse — one about how truth is given, one about where revelation ends:
These words show that truth is revealed as God's people are in a position and state to take it in. Before redemption was accomplished and the Spirit given, the disciples could not receive the truth which the Lord later ministered through the apostles by the Spirit. They also show that the revelation of truth reaches its finality when the Spirit comes, since He guides into ALL truth. This agrees with Paul's word that it was given to him "to fulfil [or, complete] the Word of God" (Col. 1:25). He does not mean the completing of the collection of Bible books — apparently John did that — but the completing of the subjects of revelation, the whole circle of revealed truth.
So the Spirit's ongoing work is not the addition of fresh messages. It is applying what He has already written:
This is how the Spirit guides into all truth without giving new revelations. He opens and applies His own writings to meet the needs of the church.
The Lord's care for what each hearer could take shows up again in the Epistles:
So we see that the Lord recognised spiritual growth in His hearers. On one occasion He had many things to say, but the apostles were then unable to bear them (John 16:12). When, however, the Spirit of truth came at Pentecost they were led forward into all truth. But in the Epistles, as in the Gospels, we find that the ministry of the truth took each person's progress into account. Paul fed some with "milk," and others with "meat" (1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12).
- Cause — The pause was on their side, not His; He had more to say and would have said it if their state had allowed.
- Not ability — Their problem was not intelligence. They had not yet received the Spirit.
- Gift — What opened the rest: redemption accomplished, Christ raised, a Man glorified in heaven, and the Spirit given.
- Reach — The delay cost them nothing. What He held back came in full through the Spirit, who guides into all the truth.
- Result — Revelation has reached its end. The Spirit adds no new messages. He opens what He has already written, as the church needs it.
But when *he* is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce [it] to you.
Jesus tells His disciples what the Helper will do when He comes: the Spirit will make much of Christ, not of Himself. That raises two questions — what does the Spirit take from Christ, and how do we know when He is really at work?
The Spirit reveals truth, speaks what He hears, and shows things to come. All of it serves one purpose.
"He will glorify me," says the Lord. Here the main purpose now becomes clearest — whether He is revealing the truth, speaking what He hears, or showing things to come. This is the centre around which all His roles and all His work find their full operation… We never read of the government or rule of the Holy Spirit. The reason seems to be that the Spirit is making good the lordship of Christ: He is exalting Him, not glorifying Himself. So He acts among the saints to exalt Christ before our eyes.
The Spirit does not invent. He takes what already belongs to Christ, and the next verse says how much that is: everything the Father has.
What are "the things" that "are Mine"? We have spoken of Him in His varied glories, but this surpasses them all. Think of His days on earth, or of Him raised to heaven. Think of His moral glory, His official glory, or His glory as Mediator. This goes beyond them all, to the things that are His together with the Father, in the deep blessedness of the full glory of God… It does not say, "All that I have is the Father's," but "All that the Father has is mine."
The Father and the Son hold all things in common. So hearing what belongs to Christ is never less than hearing what belongs to the Father.
He says the Spirit takes "what is mine". This shared possession, as in everything else, is the very blessing of the Church. If it were not so, then in receiving or hearing Christ's things we might not have known or received the Father's. But when we know His things spiritually, we know the Father's.
The showing is present tense. Believers are not left waiting for heaven before they can know where Christ is and what is His.
We already know, by the Holy Spirit, the things that belong to Jesus where He is now… We do not wait until we are glorified to know where Christ is today, what things are His, and our part in them. May we know more and more of the resources of Christ, for by the Spirit all the riches of God's glory are available to faith!
The Spirit's object is Christ. That gives us a test for anyone who claims to speak by Him.
For what does the Spirit do? He is glorifying Christ. This is always the true test. The power of a thing is not the test of it. Suppose a man talked a great deal about the Spirit, and at the same time was serving sin and not Christ. Who could trust him? … A man may make the most extravagant claims that the Holy Spirit's power is at work in him or in the church. But how am I to know the claim is real? … The great criterion is just this — the Holy Spirit always exalts Christ. The object is not to make much of the Church or a minister.
The reverse also follows. Where little is said of Christ, something has gone wrong.
This shortage of the ministry of Christ is clear proof that the Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched. And nothing grieves and quenches Him more than making Him and His work the main subject of ministry instead of Christ.
This ministry shows itself in an appetite for Christ. And it works through a definite means.
Is Christ the food of your soul? Is He precious? Then you know to whose gracious ministry this is due. "He will take what is mine and declare it to you." May nothing hinder the blessed Spirit in His holy work of feeding our souls with the things of Christ. I might remark in passing that the word of God is the treasure house of all this wealth. The Spirit uses that to bring home to our hearts the things of Christ.
- Aim. The Spirit's whole ministry has one centre — making Christ great. He exalts Him, not Himself.
- Source. He takes what is Christ's; He does not invent it. And what He takes has no limit, because everything the Father has belongs to the Son.
- Reach. Knowing Christ's things means knowing the Father's things too — the two are held in common, so nothing is lost to us.
- Test. Any claim to the Spirit's power is measured here: does it exalt Christ, or a man, or a church? Power alone proves nothing.
- Result. Christ becomes food for the soul, and Scripture is the treasure house the Spirit draws from to feed us.
All things that the Father has are mine; on account of this I have said that he receives of mine and shall announce [it] to you.
The Lord has just told His disciples that the Spirit of truth would take what belongs to Him and announce it to them. Verse 15 gives the reason. It opens a window into what the Son owns and what the Spirit hands over.
Notice which way the sentence runs.
What are "the things" that "are Mine"? We have spoken of Him in His varied glories, but this surpasses them all. Whether in His life on earth or ascended on high; whether morally, officially, or in any way tied to His work as Mediator — this goes beyond them all. It reaches the things that are His with the Father, in the intrinsic blessedness of the full glory of the Godhead. In the passage before us we see His pre-eminence. It does not say, "All things that I have are the Father's," but "All things that the Father has are Mine."
Elsewhere in this Gospel the Father gives all things into the Son's hand. Both statements stand, and holding them together guards who He is.
John 16:15 gives our Lord pre-eminence from His own lips. Not of Person or relationship, which are both eternal, but of possessions. "All things that the Father has are Mine." Place beside it the words of John 3:35, and we get a most precious distinction. "The Father loves the Son and has given all things to be in His hand." If all things are given to Him as Man, the same "all things" are HIS OWN as God. The Spirit always guards the glory of HIM who stooped to become Man, and here He guards His pre-eminence in the "all things."
A ministry limited to what is Christ's might seem to leave the Father out. The Lord's therefore answers that.
In revealing and declaring things to come, He glorifies Christ, for He is declaring Christ's things. But in this there is no separation from the Father, for it is as "all things that the Father has" are Christ's. He says "receive of Mine"; and this unity of possession, as in all else, is the very blessing of the Church. For if it were not so — and it must be so — the Church, in receiving or hearing Christ's things, might not have known or received the Father's. But in knowing, spiritually knowing, what is His, we know what is the Father's.
The Spirit works by receiving and reporting, and He has one Person to glorify.
Christ's own glory, now on high, is the direct object; and this in every way. He is sent down to glorify not the Church but Christ, and He does this by receiving and reporting what is Christ's (and all the Father has is His), not by exaggerating man's importance or allowing the will of man.
Because the Son owns everything the Father owns, there is no shortage in what the Spirit has to draw from.
In verse 15 we have a most wonderful statement — "All things that the Father has are Mine." This would show the immense resources which are available to the Spirit in His ministry to the saints.
If Christ has become precious to you, someone has been at work, and He uses a particular instrument.
But notice again how the Spirit is linked with our blessed Lord. Is Christ the food of your soul? Is He precious? Then you know to Whose gracious ministry this is due. "He shall take of Mine and show it to you." May nothing hinder the blessed Spirit in His holy work of feeding our souls with the things of Christ. The word of God is the treasure house of all this wealth. The Spirit uses that to bring home to our hearts the things of Christ.
Left to ourselves we would look at Christ and see very little.
Apart from the Holy Spirit, what would any one of us see in Christ? Think for a moment of a little snowdrop. The ordinary person looks at it and admires it, but to them it is just a simple little flower. Now let a botanist take it up and examine it. He knows its intricate structure and beauty, and he shows us each tiny part in its perfection under the microscope. The more he shows us, the more we say, "How glorious!" So it is with the Holy Spirit. He unfolds to us the beauties of our Lord, seeking to captivate our hearts with what is in Him. How important that we should make use of His ministry!
- Owned — The sentence runs one way only: the Father's things are the Son's. That order is His pre-eminence, and it reaches into the full glory of the Godhead.
- Given — As Man He received all things into His hand; as God the same things are His own. Hold both, and you guard His glory.
- Therefore — The Father and the Son share the possession, so a ministry of what is Christ's loses nothing of the Father. In knowing Christ's things, we know the Father's.
- Announced — The Spirit came to glorify Christ, not the Church and not man. He does it by receiving what is Christ's and reporting it.
- Enjoyed — The resources open to Him are immense, and He uses the word of God to make Christ the food of the soul. Christ's preciousness to you is His work.