What does it mean that the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth (John 16:13)?

"He will guide you into all truth." This has nothing to do with the world, as the world. But as when the Lord said, "What I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." "All truth" is the whole truth of the glory and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ - all ours. We know but little of it, it is true; but the Holy Ghost is down here to unfold it to us. He brings down to us the things from heaven, the glories of the Father and the Son, the fellowship with the Father and the Son, not what is going to happen to Nineveh. All the counsels of God in Christ are ours, in the power of the Holy Ghost. What a wondrous field of spiritual thought in this new world to which we are introduced! It is filled by Christ for our own use. Our portion is to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is not speaking to us of miracles, but taking the heart of the saint into all that God has to say about His Son Jesus. What a blessed place the saints are in! the Holy Ghost to reveal to them all that God delights in as regards the Lord Jesus, His Person, His work - all that the Father has given Him - all His coming glory.

I refer to the passage in Colossians for one particular purpose. When we think about what is rightly to be expected of teaching we dwell a good deal upon John chapter 16. If we want to enquire what teaching in divine things should do for us then surely this must have a high place, the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ announced the purposes for which He was about to give the Holy Spirit-"He will guide you into all truth," "He shall glorify Me," "He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you." It is quite plain that teaching which does not lead us to this, to the finality of what God has revealed of Himself and His thoughts of blessing, and a vast amount of teaching in Christendom does not lead us to this, then such teaching is not really the teaching of God at all. It must go to these themes in which finality is found and in that verse in John chapter 16 there is finality as to one of the great lines of divine truth and revelation and that is the revelation of God Himself. In the Name, "the Father," we have a relationship between God and ourselves, which I would very advisedly say is a secondary matter. The primary matter is that the very heart of God has been finally disclosed with no secrets left and that the nature of God is a relationship of love. God partially revealed Himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai, Almighty God, and that revelation was in the highest degree strengthening and comforting to those who received it. Then we read in the beginning of Exodus that a greater Name was to be disclosed which they did not know and that Name was Jehovah, the Name for His people Israel and His covenants with them. But figurative language and the teaching of events could not say more strongly that this in itself was not final. "Thou canst not see My face," He said to Moses, "thou shalt see My back parts; but My face shall not be seen" (Ex. 33:20, 23). Why? Because it was reserved to no lesser an event than the coming of the eternally blessed Son Himself, before the very face of God in final revelation could be seen by those who received it. And we have received it through the coming and the words and the actions of the blessed Son Himself. So when it says, "He will guide you into all truth," the central idea behind the word "truth" in that passage is finality.

Moreover in that discourse in the Upper Chamber He spoke of the Holy Spirit who was soon to come, and in that connection He promised further development and progress in the teaching. His words were these, "I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 15:12-13). These are very important words. They show that truth is revealed as God's people are in a position and state to take it in; and that before redemption was accomplished and the Spirit given the disciples were not able to receive the truth which the Lord subsequently ministered through the Apostles by the Spirit. They also show that finality as to the revelation of truth is reached when the Spirit comes, since He guides into ALL truth. With this agrees the word of the Apostle Paul as to it being given to him "to fulfil [or, complete] the Word of God" (Col. 1:25). He alludes not to the completing of the canon of Scripture — apparently John did that — but to the completing of the subjects of revelation, the whole circle of revealed truth.

He is to guide the disciples into all truth. In the previous verse the Lord indicated that there were many things yet to be revealed, but that they were not yet in the condition to receive them. When by the reception of the Spirit they should have that anointing, spoken of in 1 John 2:20 and 27 they would have the capacity to understand. So, when the Spirit of Truth was come, the Lord said through Him the many things He had yet to say, and all truth was revealed, and into that the Spirit guided them. The Apostles doubtless are primarily in view here, but as the fruit of this guiding into all truth, the Epistles were written, and thus the saints of all ages down to our own have had all truth brought within the circle of their knowledge. With what diligence have we given ourselves to these things so as to be guided into them?

In the chapters in John already referred to (14, 15, 16), the Lord Jesus especially emphasized the teaching of the Spirit as regards His disciples. He would "teach" them "all things." He would "guide" them "into all truth." This was doubtless true in an especial degree of the apostles to whom He was speaking, inasmuch as they were to be the original depositories of the further revelations which are now contained in the Epistles. Admitting this, it is still true in a general sense of every believer, even the most recently converted — the babe — as 1 John 2:27 shows. The teaching work of the Spirit goes deeper than the mere imparting of information. He instructs so effectually that the believer not only knows mentally but is also possessed by the things that he knows. They are made living and operative in his life.

Further, the Holy Spirit "will guide you into all truth". There is a danger, and we are all prone to it, that we reach a certain stage and we become content, our sins are gone through belief in Christ, we know a little about justification and some other forms of truth and we are quite content, 'But,' says the Lord, "He will guide you into all truth", there is the possibility of us entering into all truth, the whole tremendous scope of Christian teaching. Now, having said that, that does not mean that it is possible for any one of us to arrive at this in perfection. What a tremendous amount of teaching there is in the New Testament, in the personal teaching of Christ and in the teaching of the apostles. There are fine distinctions of meaning, deep presentations of prophecy, the presentation of the Person of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the greatness of the church, the greatness of the blessings that we have in Christ, all the different names of the Lord Jesus and their meanings, oh what a scope of truth there is! It would be a sad, sad day if we thought that we had arrived at a full knowledge of the truth, it certainly would not be the divine standard of knowledge because that is so extensive and so profound, and yet it is open for us all in the power and service of the Holy Spirit.

First, let us point out that the Spirit is to guide us into all truth. There is now no limit to what He may teach us, and grant us the realization of. Secondly, however, He is to guide us, not exactly force us. It supposes no reluctance on our part, but rather a glad surrender to our Guide. Any point at which we submit to be deflected by human affection or earthly interest is the point at which we lose His guidance, and miss the path of truth. Any reserve in our hearts as to putting ourselves under His absolute control because of some cost dreaded, and no one can tell what we miss. Many would like to save themselves exercise by following human leaders, eminent teachers, and so on; but it is a sad substitution for the One of whom Christ says, "He shall guide you into all truth."

In connection with these there is also another thing. Jesus, to establish the mind of His disciples on leaving them, comforts them with the words recorded in John 14:29, John 15:15, John 16:12. It is by the Spirit Who searcheth all things etc., that, as friends, believers are admitted into the counsels of God (1 Cor. 2:16). It is thus that without new revelations the Spirit, by opening and applying His own writings according to the exigencies of the church, guides into all truth. "Lo! I have told you beforehand." This is their safeguard against surprise. He is "the Spirit of counsel and wisdom," not by setting man's will to work on his own materials, but by turning the thoughts to Jesus Who is our wisdom; and it is only as things bear on Him and are connected with Him, that they are the truth.

But be the instrument who it might, when the Spirit of Truth is come, as the Lord intimates here, "He will guide you into all the truth," or "in" it all as the Sinaitic, Cambridge (D), and Parisian (L) uncials with other authorities have it. For this two main grounds are given, besides His necessary competency as a Divine Person. First, He does not act independently, but fulfilling the mission on which He is sent expressly. "For He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He shall hear, He will speak; and He will announce to you the things to come." Secondly, His prime object is to exalt the Lord Jesus, and therefore He will assuredly make this good in testimony to the disciples. "Me He will glorify, for He will receive of mine and announce (it) to you."

The reader must guard against the popular error, easily suggested by the Authorised Version of verse 13, as if the sense meant were that the Spirit shall not speak about Himself. For it is neither true as a fact, nor is it of course intended here. The Spirit largely speaks concerning Himself in this Gospel, and particularly in the section we are examining. So He does in Rom. 8; in 1 Cor. 2, 12; in 2 Cor. 3; in Eph. 1, 2, 3, 4, and many other parts of Scripture. This makes it the more strange that even the simplest have not learnt the meaning here to be, that He shall not speak from Himself, but, as the next clause explains, whatever He shall hear He will speak. As the Son came not to act independently, whatever might be His glory, but to serve His Father; so the Spirit is come to serve the Son, and whatever He shall hear, He will speak.299

But there is more. Not only can He speak of the Son in heaven as Himself sent down by Him, and thus bear the highest testimony to His intrinsic dignity and the new position Christ is in there, but He has not ceased to be the Spirit of prophecy. On the contrary, He would thus work abundantly in view of the world's total ruin and the blessing that waits on the Lord's return. "And He will announce to you the things to come." The prophetic word is found largely in the New Testament, not only in the Gospels, but also in the Epistles, but most of all in the wonderful book of Revelation. And the effect was immense in detaching the saints from the world as under judgment, however this might tarry. They knew these things before, and thus held fast their own steadfastness. Nevertheless prophecy as occupied with the earth, even though it go on to the kingdom of God there, is but a small and even inferior part of the Spirit's testimony, however astonishing in man's eyes and precious in itself.

"He will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of (or 'from') himself......". It is not that the Spirit is speaking as an individual as separate from the Father and the Son, He gives the truth in accord with the Father and the Son, They are divine, They work together, They have one will and purpose. So, if the Spirit is speaking, He is speaking all that is true of the Father and all that is true of the Son. This is 'the Spirit's day', the Lord is in glory having completed the work of the cross, and what is going on on earth, although coming through the Lord Jesus, is in the power and service of the Holy Spirit.

"He shall not speak of (or 'from') himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak". The Holy Spirit hears these great distinctive truths that belong to the Christian era, He hears them and, as come to earth with the church and indwelling every believer, He speaks what He has heard, just like the Lord Jesus, of whom it is said, "morning by morning he openeth my ear that I may be able to speak a word to those that are weary", and "the words which I speak to you I do not speak from myself; but the Father who abides in me, he does the works" (John 14:10), He received words from His Father, He spoke them and people were blessed by them. The Spirit takes the same place of service, He hears the words, conveys them to those who are listening and divine formation takes place.