How should Jesus' saying, "I will not leave you as orphans," give us hope (John 14:18)?

Consider them, "I will not leave you orphans, " for that is the meaning of them — I will not leave you desolate, forlorn, lonely, uncared for. It is all that and more. An orphan may be cared for, and that very tenderly by others, but the heart cries out for the love of relationship. "I want my mother" is the cry that breaks from the heart of the bereaved child. I will not leave you crying out like that for Me, said the Lord, I will come to you. Will He keep His word? Assuredly. His word is a steadfast as the pillars of the throne of God, and His love can be satisfied with nothing less than the company of the loved ones. Then everything is right on His side. What about ours?

366 The second part of this chapter - the power that is in us - begins at verse 15. The Lord says, I cannot stay, but I will send you One who will abide with you. The Holy Ghost is only known by being in us. Christ was before them, they could see Him. Everything that came out from Christ to the world was the manifestation of God, His words and His works, and the world was called on to believe that He was there, the blessed testimony of the goodness of God in the midst of their needs and their wretchedness, and they would not have Him. That is not the way with the Comforter - they cannot see Him. Fruits ought to be shewn; but no person is manifested. When the Holy Ghost came down, there was power that struck them, and fruits of grace where the Spirit works, which are a deeper testimony - for a wicked man can do a miracle, or a dumb ass speak, if God choose. Therefore He is only known where He dwells. The effect of the Spirit is, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." The Holy Ghost brings Christ to our hearts, and He dwells in our hearts. "The world seeth me no more; but ye see me"; and mark what it is connected with, "Because I live, ye shall live also." The power of divine life was triumphant over death, and where a person believed on Him, Christ is brought, through the presence and power of the Spirit, to that man's heart much closer and nearer than if He were on earth. Not that the eye sees Him; but He says, 'I am going to be with you and in you, in a far better way, that the world cannot see or know.' The Holy Ghost testified to the world of all this; but He is not here to be received by the world, but is given to those who believe, and the moment He is given He brings Christ down to the heart. Our immediate intercourse with Christ is established. He comes to us by the power and presence of the Holy Ghost. The One who "loved me, and gave himself for me," that He might redeem me by blood, and who has washed me in His blood, and done everything for me - I have got Him. A poor vessel I am for Him to dwell in, but when we are cleansed by the blood, fit for God, He comes and dwells in me. How far do all our souls know that? He has not left me comfortless, He has come; I know what it is to have Christ, to hear His voice. In the world I have tribulation, but I know what it is to have peace in Him. "Ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." He is in us, the power of eternal life, and He must die before I die. The life I have got is, "Not I, but Christ lives in me." What a thing to be able to say! He has overcome death, broken all its bands. He lives as man; and if He lives as triumphant over it all, I shall live also. How blessed to have it from His own lips, anxious to have us happy! He says, 'Do not be uneasy, I am going to prepare a place for you, and meantime I will come to you and reveal Myself to you. I will not leave you comfortless.'

Beloved, I can say no more. What more could be given to encourage and sustain the heart in faithfulness to our absent Lord? Has God resources beyond what are here revealed for our joy? Oh, to be filled with the Spirit, that we may comprehend the full blessedness of our portion and have capacity to enjoy it! Well, well may He say (ver. 18), "I will not leave you comfortless," when He only goes away to reveal Himself from His place in the Father's presence, in oneness with the Father, in the full brightness and joy for our hearts of all that He is, even while we tread the path of this dark world. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you," and so faith enjoys His presence still, and knows Him in the Father as it never could have known Him while He was in the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit given to us, and all that is wanting to the full consummation of our joy is to see Him face to face, and be like Him and with Him for ever.

Lastly, self confidence, such as Peter's, had to be exposed, for that can be only a hindrance wherever it is. It is a perpetual menace to the peace and progress of the assembly. Then the Lord put Himself forward as their Refuge and Resource. He said later on, "I will not leave you comfortless [or orphans], I will come to you" (v. 18). An orphan is one who is without a protector or guide, without help or resource. And if we understand things we shall say, That is just what we are without the Lord, for we have nothing to boast in. We cannot say, like the Laodiceans, "I am rich, and increased with goods and have need of nothing." No, we are orphans, defenceless and destitute, if we have not the Lord. Well, to a company of nothings such as we are the Lord says, "I will come to you." And then we have everything, and we glory in the Lord.

Verse 18. "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." He would not leave them as orphans, but would come to them; first in person after He was risen, then in spirit, and finally in person from heaven. Their life (eternal) would be simply dependent upon its flowing from Him. How could they be more closely connected with Himself?

We know that one of the great features of love is the constant desire to be in the company of its object. If it must be at a distance it will communicate with, and labour to the limit of its power for, the loved one; but nothing can satisfy it but its company. We believe that this is most eminently true of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for His own. He serves us and often communicates precious and comforting thoughts to us, but can He come to us? Is this possible? If it is, we know that He will do it. He is not on earth. He has passed through death, has risen up from the tomb, and ascended up into heaven; and heaven seems so far away sometimes. Can He reach us from His high and exalted place in the glory? Yes, He can, love has found a way, and He has said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you ” (John 14:18). I know that these words were addressed to His bewildered and sorrowful disciples, and that they had a very special application and meaning to them, even that they were to SEE Him alive from the dead. They did see Him; they looked with wonder on His wounded hands and side, but they are also good and true words for us and, “ blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. ”

But, said the Lord, "I will not leave you orphans: I am coming to you." It is not here by His future advent, but by the gift of the Spirit.278 Thus would He comfort them in His own absence. "Yet a little, and the world beholdeth Me no more, but ye behold Me: because I live, ye also shall live." Nothing could be more opposed to their thoughts of, and expectations from, the Messiah of Israel seen by every eye, though in special nearness to His own people on earth. Now they were by the Holy Ghost to see Him Whom the world had rejected and lost, and should see no more save in judgment. And the saints should not behold Him only, but live of the selfsame life, having Christ living in them, as says the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:17), or, as the Lord here, "Because I live, ye also shall live." Christ is their life, and this in resurrection-power, to which the future tense may point.

124 And was this peace to cease when He went from the earth? No; He expressly says, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come unto you." This He will do manifestly - but now by the Spirit of holiness, who comes to the soul in a new power; declaring the same truth which Jesus had before revealed; still bringing home this testimony to the soul, "My Father, and your Father." And He just brings in the same blessed truth - "Ye are sons." It is not less true - it is not less real - not less certain, because Christ is actually gone to the Father. No, that proves its reality, for He is thence declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection; and this He declares to His brethren, and in a way the most engagingly convincing.

(Vv. 18-20). In these verses the Lord passes from speaking of the Person of the Holy Spirit, to unfolding the normal effects of His presence in the believer. The departure of the Lord to be with the Father, and the coming of the Spirit would not mean that they had lost one divine Person and gained another. One has truly said, "The promise is not of a substitution which excludes, but of a means which secures His presence." Thus the Lord can say to His disciples, "I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you." It has been said, "When Christ was here on earth, the Father was not far off, 'I am not alone because the Father is with Me,' and if the Comforter is here, Christ is not far distant."

If the 18th verse tells us that the coming of the Spirit will bring Christ very near to us, the following two verses unfold the response in the believer to the Christ who comes. The Lord expresses these apprehensions of the believer in the three definite statements "Ye see Me," "Ye shall live," and "Ye shall know." The Holy Spirit does not come to speak of Himself, or occupy us with Himself, nor form a cult of the Spirit, but to lead the soul to Christ. In a little while the world would see Christ no more, but when He had passed out of the sight of men, He would, in the power of the Spirit still be the object of faith for the believer. To the world Christ would become only an historical figure of one who had lived a beautiful life and died a martyr's death; to the believer He would be still a living Person, the conscious sense of whose presence they would be able to realize and enjoy by the power of the Spirit. Moreover in seeing Him believers would live. The men of the world live because the world exists with its pleasures, and politics, and social round. When these things fail the life of the worldling ceases to have any interest. The Christian lives because Christ lives, and even as Christ, the object of our life, for ever lives, so the believer's life is an eternal life.

All this was an assurance to the disciples that they were not to be left "comfortless," or "orphans," but that by the Comforter He would come to them, and thus His presence be a reality to their hearts.