Who is the Spirit of truth in John 14:17?

Now the Holy Ghost works after a different way, and to other ends. There was a great manifestation of power in apostolic days; but the great starting-point was the Holy Ghost sent down by Christ glorified at the right hand of God, and giving to souls vital association with Him who is there. This, too, ever goes on while Christ is on high. It is the heavenly One making us heavenly by the Holy Ghost, the living link between Him and them upon the earth. This is what our passage speaks of here (and accordingly we have the believer contrasted with the world). He, says Christ, is "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." The false doctrine I have referred to insists strongly that the world does receive the Spirit, and that it is in no way peculiar to the believer in point of fact. Here, on the contrary, it is a special possession of the Spirit; it is His personal presence which only the Christian possesses, which the world cannot receive, "because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him.'' It is exclusively the privilege of the believer here below; "for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Instead of merely giving them a transitory taste of blessedness, the Spirit dwells with them; and more than this, instead of merely dwelling with them, "He shall be in them." There is this double truth, the dwelling with and also the being in. These two things are of importance. From the time that He comes down He dwells; yet not merely does He dwell with them as One outside of them, which is true in an assembly of saints, but He was to be "in them." That He dwells with us is of immense moment for the believer to hold — that the Holy Ghost does not merely visit occasionally but really dwells with us, and that we may look to Him, knowing that He really is here. But besides, as the Lord adds, He shall be in you, intimating that there would be the closest possible presence of the divine Spirit "in" as well as "with" those He was coming to; and this "for ever."

Now the Holy Ghost works after a different way, and to other ends. There was a great manifestation of power in apostolic days; but the great starting-point was the Holy Ghost sent down by Christ glorified at the right hand of God, and giving to souls vital association with Him who is there. This, too, ever goes on while Christ is on high. It is the heavenly One making us heavenly by the Holy Ghost, the divine link between Him and them upon the earth. This is what our passage speaks of here (and accordingly we have the believer contrasted with the world). He, says Christ, is "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." The false doctrine I have referred to insists strongly that the world does receive the Spirit, and that it is in no way peculiar to the believer in point of fact. Here, on the contrary, it is a special possession of the Spirit; it is His personal presence which only the Christian possesses, which the world cannot receive, "because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him." It is exclusively the privilege of the believer here below; "for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Instead of merely giving them a transitory taste of blessedness, the Spirit dwells with them; and more than this, instead of merely dwelling with them, "he shall be in them." There is this double truth, the dwelling with and also the being in. These two things are of importance. From the time that He comes down He dwells; yet not merely does He dwell with them as One outside of them, which is true in an assembly of saints, but He was to be in them. That He dwells with us is of immense moment for the believer to hold — that the Holy Ghost does not merely visit occasionally, but really dwells with us, and that we may look to Him, knowing that He really is here. But besides, as the Lord adds, He shall be in you, intimating that there would be the closest possible presence of the divine Spirit "in" as well as "with" those He was coming to; and this "for ever."

The other Comforter is identified as the Spirit of Truth. What our Lord had said of Himself objectively, "I am … the Truth," is here said of the Spirit subjectively. The Spirit would reproduce in the disciples of the Lord a practical answer to that which had been set before them in Him. Furthermore, the Spirit of Truth would not only be "with you"-companywise, but He would be "in you"-individually. The Son had been with them but He had not been "in" them. The Spirit being "in" them, awaited "that day." For His being "with" the Assembly in its collective character as distinct from being "in" them individually-please read 1 Cor. 3:16 and also 1 Cor. 6:19.

Note that the company of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are distinct and consequently distinguished from the world. For "the world cannot receive the Spirit of Truth, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:17).

He is the Comforter, however, only of believers. We must distinctly understand, that in this character He has nothing to do with the worldling, though He may have somewhat to say to the world, as a matter of testimony. He will surely testify against the world, while He will sweetly comfort and sustain the feeblest believer in Jesus. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter," and observe, "that he may abide with you for ever." The great thought in this chapter is the abiding presence of this blessed "Spirit of truth," as He is also, for the first time, styled. It is to be observed, that in all three chapters the Lord calls Him "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17, John 15:26, John 16:13). In John's first epistle he says, "the Spirit is truth" (ver. 6). Here the Lord designates Him as "the Spirit of truth," and we may be sure that there is a meaning in, and a reason for, any change in the words of Scripture. The Lord, in the fourteenth chapter, says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me." Yes, Christ is the Truth; and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth.

The Comforter is also the Spirit of truth. Truth, together with grace, "came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17), and He is the truth, as we have just seen, presented to us in an objective way. The Spirit of truth is now to come, indwelling the saints, and thus bringing truth into them subjectively. Hence when we come to 2 John 2, we read the truth "dwells in us" by the Spirit as well as being "with us for ever" in Christ. The world does not share in this. It has not the Divine nature, nor does it walk in obedience; hence it cannot receive the Spirit. It neither sees nor knows Him, occupied as it is with material things.

The Holy Spirit not only brings the truth of God to us, but in Himself He bears the character of truth, so that He is able to form this same character in those in whom He dwells. It is not that the world does not receive Him, but it cannot receive Him. He is not presented in testimony to the world to be accepted or refused: He brings to the world the testimony of a heavenly Christ, the One who, with all the Father's grace, they have rejected. It is impossible for the world to receive Him, for it has not the capacity for His reception; it only receives what it sees and knows, and it does not see Him, nor does it know Him whom the Father has sent. The world is only concerned with what the natural senses of man live in: the Spirit and His things are outside the realm of man's things.

Those to whom the Spirit came would know Him in a double way, first, as being in them, secondly, as being with them. He would indwell every true believer in the Lord Jesus, being the seal of God's work, the earnest of all that God had promised them, and the anointing to empower them to carry out the will of God. Added to this, He would dwell among the saints, in the habitation that God would form, and there direct all the interests of Christ for the accomplishment of God's pleasure. This two-fold function of the Spirit was clearly indicated on the day of Pentecost, when He "filled all the house where they were sitting," and "sat upon each of them." The Pauline Epistles give us consider-able detail of these functions.

But here, you see, the Holy Ghost is called, "the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive." Why? "Because it sees him not, neither knows him; but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you." The Spirit of truth! Could I expect a world of falsehood to receive Him? Nay. And why cannot it receive Him? The Lord tells us, "It sees him not, neither knows him." He is outside the world. You have come into an out-of-the-world atmosphere, when you come to the fourteenth of John. Perhaps some one may say, I know very little about that atmosphere. The reason is not far to seek. You are too much in, and of, the world, to know much about this atmosphere. That is a very hard saying, you think. Well, I pray you weigh it, as I repeat, that we are in a very out-of-the-world atmosphere, in the fourteenth of John. You are in the atmosphere where the Son reveals the Father, and the Father bears witness to the Son. The world has refused and rejected Him, who was incarnate, and cannot receive the Spirit, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him. The Holy Ghost was never incarnate. What the world sees it is prepared to believe. What it does not see it declines to believe, hence "the world cannot receive him, because it sees him not, neither knows him." He was not presented to the world, as an object, to be received by it. What does the world know about the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost? Nothing. It is the truth carrying with it the sweetest, richest, and most blessed consequences to the believer. But the world receives Him not; for though the Holy Ghost has a certain relation to the world — as we shall see presently in the sixteenth chapter, — yet it is unaware of His existence, or presence in its midst, as it sees Him not.

In further contrast with the Lord, the Spirit is One whom the world cannot receive or know because "it sees Him not." Christ had become incarnate and could be seen of man, and was thus presented to be received of man. The Holy Spirit would not become incarnate, and is not presented as an object that can be seen visibly or known intellectually. To the world He is not a divine Person but, at best, only a poetic and vague influence. To the disciples He will be no mere influence, but a Person who abides with them, in contrast to Christ who was leaving them; and would be in them, in contrast to Christ who was with them but not in them.

In verse 15 it is because of love for Him that His own are asked to keep His commandments: it is the opposite of a legal spirit. His commandments are not the ten commandments given by Moses, but those laid upon us as the living fruit of faith and love (cf. 1 John 3:23). In view of His leaving, He promises that He will pray the Father, who would unfailingly answer by His giving another Comforter, the Spirit of God, who would never leave them, as Christ was doing, but abide forever (vv. 16-17). The perfect interdependence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is evident here. While the Spirit cannot be seen or known by the world, He is yet “the Spirit of truth,” a living person, just as is true of the Father and the Son; and the Lord insists, “ye know Him,” just as they knew the Father and the Son (v. 7). As the Father dwelt with them in the person of the Son, so the Spirit dwelt with them in the same way. They knew the Spirit just as they knew the Father and the Son. Wonderful knowledge!

The Spirit of God dwelt with the disciples in the person of the Son of God (v. 17). “And shall be in you.” In this the Lord spoke of the Spirit coming at Pentecost (Acts 2) to dwell in believers, for they could receive Him only on the basis of an accomplished redemption, and after Christ had been glorified (John 7:39).

What marks the present day is that the Spirit has come to take up His abode in the saints in relation to an external condition of things. He is said to be "the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not". Men of the world are not born of God, hence they are absolutely bound to the material sphere. Whilst it does not say that we see Him, it does say we "know Him". There is already in our souls that which is the work of the Spirit, and as He takes up His abode in our hearts as the Comforter, we are conscious that He is there, we "know Him".