14:16
We now come to key part of this section, and what will be a main focus of the following chapters, the sending of the Holy Spirit. The word translated “Helper” is “paraclete”. It means one who consoles, encourages or an advocate. They had had Jesus with them for some three years. Jesus had taught them and encouraged them, now He was going to leave them. However, they were not going to be left alone. They would receive the Holy Spirit and He would fulfil the same role. Moreover, He would be with us forever. Sometimes we might think how wonderful it would have been to have been around when Jesus was around. We would do far better to concentrate on getting to know the Holy Spirit better, learning to learn and receive from Him. And one of His key roles is to help us know Jesus better. Note also the implicit message that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, is a person. If we think of Him as a force or a power then we are going down the wrong track.
14:17
The Helper is the Spirit of Truth. So we see here the close connection with Jesus, for Jesus said He is the Truth (14:6). “The world cannot accept the Spirit, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him”. Now this is a strange saying in some ways. The Holy Spirit is not visible, so why does Jesus say the world does not see Him? It is because they do not see Jesus. Now did obviously the people did see Jesus physically, but most of them did not really see who He was. Likewise today, many people know about Jesus, but very few really recognise who He is.
“But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you”. This emphasises the identity with Jesus. The disciples did see Jesus and did know Him. Now think about this. The disciples knowledge and understanding of Jesus was very very limited. At this stage they had no idea about the resurrection, despite being told about it. Yet Jesus still said that they did see and know Him. So God does not expect our faith to be perfect for progress to be made.
The Holy Spirit will be in us. He dwells within us. Remember also Jesus’ words about the Father being in Him and He in the Father. Just as there is a unity between the Father and the Son, so there is to be a unity between the Spirit and us.
In all this we need to remember the fundamental doctrine of the trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, there is complete and perfect unity between them. Yet they are three distinct persons. This must always be borne in mind when interpreting anyone verse, ie anyone verse must be interpreted in light of the rest of Scripture. For no one sentence can encapsulate the fullness of the doctrine of the trinity, so any one verse will emphasise one aspect of it. So if we base our understanding on one verse alone we will have a skewed view of things.
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