What does it mean that the Holy Spirit will teach you all things (John 14:26)?

"If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." John 14:15-17. It is as if He said, My being here with you can but be transient; He shall be with you for ever: all the things you have heard and seen during My ministry here ye cannot apprehend or appreciate for want of capacity, but when He is come He shall give you to understand, that never were creatures favoured like you have been. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." v. 26. Here we have illumination, on the ground of which they could say after He had gone — but not before — "We beheld His glory, the glory as of an only-begotten with a Father, full of grace and truth." The words, "He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you," includes the inspired record of the Gospels and the opening up of the holy grandeur of all they had been taught. He had spoken of Himself as the Son; Son of God; Son of Man; Son of David. The Tabernacle, the Temple, the Law, the Testimony, all figured in His ministry. His parables explored the moral world and His miracles the world of nature — all was marked by a combination of depth and simplicity, that only the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth could unfold. But what of the present time? If the Spirit alone can teach us the meaning of His life and service here, who shall tell us of where He is now and what He is doing? Peter asked Him, "Lord, whither goest thou?" John 13:36. Thomas said, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" John 14:5. The Spirit is the answer to all this. "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; and ye too bear witness, because ye are with me from the beginning." John 15:26-27. New Tran. When He left them at His ascension, they stood bewildered till two men in white clothing said to them, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" Acts 1:11. Sometime later Peter wrote of Him, "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." 1 Peter 3:22. How did Peter know this? Flesh and blood could not reveal it. It was revealed by the Spirit, Who had come according to promise, that our Lord's whereabouts, His official glories and activities might be known by us, and that, by the same blessed Spirit, we might have the joy of communion with Him where He now is. We are told that Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and for ever. Heb. 13:8. The Holy Spirit makes Him known to us as He was 'yesterday' in the Gospels. John 14:26. He also shows us where He is and what He is doing 'today'. John 15:26. This comes out in the Epistles. Thirdly, the Spirit shows us things to come. John 16:13. This is what the Lord will do 'tomorrow'. Thus we have in these three chapters the work of the Spirit concerning our Lord past, present, and future. At the present moment, He is gone far above all heavens; He has been made Lord; Head; Priest, and is coming again to put down all evil and establish the rule of God over every part of creation. We know Him as He is now. The Lord of Glory; the Head of every man; the Head of the Body the Assembly; the great Priest over the House of God; the Minister of the Sanctuary; the Mediator of the better covenant. And well we know that He is about to come forth and call His own home to be with Himself for ever.

(1.) "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26.) What the Master Himself had done or had said, but which could not then be communicated in power to the heart, and precious, and beautiful, and full of divine import as it was, was often unheeded or forgotten, because its significance was wanting to their souls, should all come back in mighty volume and enhanced blessedness, every word melodious, and every act fragrant with the virtue and the value of His atoning work and glorified person, now disclosed to faith, and ministered by the Holy Ghost, that other Comforter. For an instance of this character, compare John 7:39 with John 12:16.

This leads us to another function of the Comforter: being "the Spirit of truth," He is the Teacher of the disciples. We must not miss the contrast in verses 25 and 26 between "these things" and "all things." When, as the fruit of His work, Jesus should be glorified and the Spirit given, there should be a larger revelation of Divine truth. All things that come within the scope of revelation should be made known and effectually taught to the disciples by the Comforter. Much had been made known to them by Christ, present amongst them in flesh and blood: all should be made known to them in the coming day of the Spirit. Here we find promised as to revelation and teaching the same expansion by the coming of the Spirit as we found stated in verse 12 as to works. In addition, the Spirit would bring to their remembrance all the things they had heard through Christ.

Here the great work of the Spirit is to engage us with Christ Himself. There are two ways in which He awakens our affections for Christ. First the Lord tells the Eleven, "He shall teach you all things." The "all things" of verse 26 are in contrast to "these things" of verse 25. The Lord had spoken of certain things, but there were things belonging to the glory of Christ, which were beyond the apprehension of the Eleven at that moment. The Lord was limited in His communications by the limited spiritual capacity of the disciples. With the coming of the Spirit there would be an enlarged spiritual comprehension which would make it possible for the Spirit to communicate "all things" connected with Christ in the glory. Secondly, the Lord can say, "the Spirit will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you." He will not only reveal the new things concerning Christ in His new place — things that carry us far into eternal glory — but He will recall the gracious communications made by Christ in His sojourn on earth. All that is of Christ, past, present and future, is infinitely precious. Nothing that is of Christ shall be lost. How important that those who by their words and writings were going to instruct others, should have the Lord's words recalled to them by a Divine Person. In reporting these words to us they are not left to their own imperfect, and failing, memories. Their report of His words will have all the absolute perfection of One who recalls them without any admixture of human frailty.

We read in verse 26 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name". We have often noticed that in John 14 the Father sends the Spirit; in John 15 the Son sends Him, and in John 16 He comes of His own volition. This again shows how divine Persons work together. Here it is the Father who sends Him, but He sends Him in the interests of the Son, "in My Name". "He (emphatic) shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you". The Lord said to them, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now". There were things that could not be made known until the Son was in glory; but whether it was what did come out in His life down here, or that which is administered from the glory, the Spirit brings "all things" to our remembrance, as divine enlightenment.

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.

These three sources of defence against error are worthy of careful consideration. First, John reminds them of the unction of the Holy One, by which they knew all things. The same Spirit that dwells within us as the Spirit of adoption is the unction or anointing, as well as the seal and the earnest. (See 2 Cor. 1:21-22, etc.) As the anointing, the Spirit of God, bringing us thus into association with Christ, gives us two things — intelligence and power. In this scripture it is in the aspect of intelligence, and John teaches the "babes" that since they have been anointed by the Holy Ghost, they are themselves at the source of all knowledge, not that they actually know all things, but that, in having the anointing, they have the possibility within themselves of knowing, and thus of distinguishing between, truth and error. In divine things it is well to bear in mind that the Holy Ghost is the only power of apprehension. (See 1 Cor. 2) The mind, human reason, and intellect have no place here. As another has said, "The activity of mind is the greatest barrier to the understanding of the truth of God." Hence it is often the case that a mere child in the things of the world is the wisest in the things of God. The psalmist thus says, "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because I keep Thy precepts." (Ps. 109:99-100) The source, then, of all wisdom and knowledge for the believer is the word of God as unfolded by the Holy Ghost. God has in this way furnished the "babes" in His family with an all-sufficient means of discernment and defence when surrounded by anti-Christian errors. As to these they need not that any one should teach them, because, walking in dependence on God, the Holy Spirit Himself will put them on their guard, and show them what is truth and what is error. A remarkable exemplification of this occurred recently in another land. Under the guise of more light and greater charity the very foundations of the truth were assailed in a certain city, and especially in connection with the saints of God. One brother was aware of the danger, but at the outset, for the sake of peace, and because, as he then thought, the poor and simple would not be able, to enter upon such questions, he kept silence. Finally he was compelled in faithfulness to the Lord to separate from those who maintained the false doctrines; and in a letter recently received he relates, to the glory of God, that not one of the simple souls, for whom he had been afraid, has been led astray; but he adds that, with scarce an exception, all the educated and intellectual have either refused to judge, or have accepted, the erroneous teachings. Like "the babes" of our passage, those who proved themselves faithful had, and have, the unction of the Holy One, and therefore, distinguishing the truth from error, were not ensnared by the plausible persuasions of the Evil One.

But, further, the Holy Ghost was to come in Christ's name. Observe, too, that in the fourteenth chapter the Father sends the Spirit, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you" (ver. 26). The Father sends the Spirit to represent Jesus, when thus gone away, and to take His place. He has come in His name, so whatever might have been the relation of the disciples to the Lord, while He was here, whether it was a question of obedience, or subjection, that place was henceforth to be theirs in a new order of blessing, and privilege, by the Holy Ghost: and yet Christians are in doubt as to the presence of this blessed Spirit. I press this aspect of the truth, that the Father would send Him "in my name." Though the Spirit of God has come in the name of the Lord Jesus, yet Christ does not abandon His Lordship. The Holy Ghost does not come to displace the Lord, for that would be to dislocate the affections of the heart of the disciple. The Spirit of God has come, however, and He is here, in the name of the Lord Jesus, bringing to our remembrance all He said — that is, all He was — leading us into the communion of all that was thus presented, in His commandments, and His words, which were the perfect expression of Himself to His disciples.

Having developed this presentation of the Spirit of God, the Lord goes on to add another most important part of His service, when come, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you." Coupled with delight in His word, comes the ministry of the Spirit, "He shall teach you all things," and that is why it says in the First Epistle of John, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things" (1 John 2:20). Even the youngest Christian has a perfect competency, by the Holy Ghost, to know what is the truth, for the point is, that the Christian has this competency, in every sense, to learn, and know the truth, and to glory in it. "He shall teach you all things." And, further, "bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you." I do not doubt that what the Lord speaks of here in the twenty-sixth verse, we have, first of all, fulfilled in the records of the words of Jesus, in the four gospels, which are not a mere human recital of things that happened in the life of Jesus, but a divinely given, and divinely expressed, communication thereof The Holy Ghost is the power in us of entering into that which is thus laid before us. The expression "shall bring all things to your remembrance" is therefore absolutely fulfilled in the writings of the four evangelists.

Now in the words that follow we have two ways indicated in which He pursues His mission. The Lord shows what one might call the objective themes with which He engages believers' hearts. Let us recall that Christ is on high in the Father's presence, and that the Spirit has come from the glory into which Jesus has gone, to make His Name everything to us. The expression "He shall teach you all things" needs then to be read and understood in that connection; it surely implies the "all things" bound up with the position and glory of Christ in the Father's presence. While the Saviour was on earth He was not able to unfold all that was in the Father's counsels to the disciples; this is implied in verse 25 and is definitely stated in John 16:12. But when the Comforter arrived He would not be under restraint. Coming from the supreme height to which Jesus was ascended and knowing all the glory and all the love of that bright home, the Father's house, He would teach us all things. Dear saint of God, what education is indeed open to us, and what a Teacher! Do you not long to be able to use such a Guest, your permanent, indwelling Friend?

Nor are we to lose what Christ was on earth. For this seems to be implied in the remainder of the verse He shall "bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Nothing would be omitted or forgotten of all the telling and proving of that love which He had brought into the world which had for ever won His disciples' hearts. The Spirit, while filling our souls with the brilliant light of His glory, never fails to keep our hearts in touch with the grace of His service here. Christ in incarnation, lowliness, suffering, and rejection, yet revealing God; Christ crowned with glory and honour, in resurrection life, the last Adam, set over all by the Father's hand.

Secondly, the promised Comforter would teach them all things (John 15:26). There was so much that the disciples failed to understand of what the Lord had said to them. Moreover, there was so much that He did not say to them, because of their dullness of understanding (John 16:12). But the Holy Spirit would make everything clear and instruct them in all that was necessary. And He would recall for them the sayings of Christ.