Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part XLVI
“But when the Comforter is come , whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me“
(John 15:26)
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you“
(John 16:7)
“And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost“
(John 20:22)
We ended yesterday with a look at how the Greek word pneuma is translated as both Spirit and Ghost and with no apparent consistency by the English revisers of the bible that produced the Revised Standard Version (RSV) and how the American revisers on the same team objected to this. We noted also the same trend in the King James Version (KJV) although these translators mostly use the rendition of Holy Ghost for the word that is properly rendered Spirit. Our point here is to say that these are the same thing in essence; the Spirit of God in His manifestation as we understand it. We noted also that the Master does not refer to the Christ Within but only of God the Father and the Holy Spirit and in some places speaks of Himself in relation to that Spirit of God and this is spoken of by the apostles as well. Let us look at some of this so that we can get the feel from the gospels and the epistles of the reality of our premise, that the Holy Spirit is the Activity of the Christ Within in form remembering that the Master does not speak of the Christ Within but as Himself only in that relation.
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:13-15).
We addressed the first verse of this in yesterday’s post in contrast to an earlier saying that gave a more immediate perspective to the Holy Spirit saying that “but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). As we approached this yesterday, we should see the reality of this to the disciples; “but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you” is to say that which we understand as knowing that the Christ Within is within as is the Kingdom and the Fullness of God while the ending part of this can be seen to reflect the realty of the Holy Spirit being the Activity of the Christ Within in form. The future tense of this makes is so that He will be in a man’s outward Life because the man knows Him and the man knows Him because He Lives inside. Remember that these are disciples. We should also note the next verse which says that: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” which equates the Master, in His own words, to the comforter, the Holy Spirit. This is echoed in the earlier verse as the Master says that “and he shall give you another Comforter” (John 14: 16, 18). These ideas combined with the sayings by the Master in the Sixteenth Chapter should solidify for us the singleness of purpose and of identity of the Christ and the Holy Ghost with the latter being the expression in time and space of the former. In the verses above is the idea of the Three Aspects of the Trinity in one saying which tells us that ALL that IS belongs to the Christ and the Holy Spirit will take these things that belong to the Christ and give them to the disciples. Vincent tells us regarding the words shall take that : the best texts read taketh. The relation between the Son and the Spirit us put by Jesus as present and constant4.
What are these things? In the context of the verses we can see this as ALL things but more specifically we should see this as those things that are of the Spirit and those things that are of the teachings of the Master. Additionally we must understand the relationship of “shew you things to come” which is also a part of the capabilities of discipleship insofar as when one becomes His disciple it is the Soul consciousness that now becomes the activity of the personality nd that is that the Holy Spirit. From the perspective of the man in form, he is now expressing the Christ Within through the personality and this Aspect of man, the Christ Within is one with the Greater Christ and the man can take on the vision of the eternal now which is a complex theoretical understanding of one’s future state.
We continue now with our next saying from the top of the page:
“But when the Comforter is come , whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me“. Can we see the repetition of these terms as the Master’s attempt to maximize the understanding of the disciples and can we see how each iteration of this idea of the Comforter adds a bit of something new? This particular saying is found in the center of the group of verses that we have been discussing and we can see the trend as the Master is telling them; first of the Comforter, that the disciples know Him and that He is with them and will be in them. Jesus then goes on to tell them that the Comforter IS the Holy Spirit and that He will become their teacher as this is viewed from the perspective of the man in form. Continuing to this current verse we see that the Master will send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, He now gives the understanding that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father but will be sent by the Christ which is different than the Master’s sayings in this in other verses. Can we see this in our terms as we have defined the constitution of man and the Trinity of God? Can we see the unity of it all as in a prior verse where the Master tells them that the Father will send the Holy Spirit in the name of Christ; and can we see how, as we say above from this same Chapter, the Master calls the Holy Spirit another Comforter and tells them also that He, the Christ, will come unto them to comfort them? Can we see the idea built here that the Holy Spirit and the Christ are ONE just as the Christ and the Father are ONE…..just different Aspects of the Trinity of our ONE GOD. We could go through this with the verses in order and we may do so in a future post but for now suffice it to say that our last point regarding the Trinity is a Truth and the culmination of the 14th through 16th chapters of the Gospel of John.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away , the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” Apart from church doctrine it is difficult to understand what the Master means in this saying that He must first go away. The words do not necessarily mean His death but it is the likely reference and this saying is caught up in the understanding of who the Comforter is; the Holy Spirit alone or the Christ as well. Again we need to understand the perspective; the Master has already told the disciples that they know the Holy Spirit and that He is with them which also can mean the Christ or the Holy Spirit and this we have not addressed before. Nonetheless our idea here can be seen as the disciples, when they are in the presence of the Master, are reliant on Him and are not ‘acting in their responsibility as disciples’. We should understand that this is a cumbersome area to understand and to interpret but the alternative is to see it as the various doctrines of the churches. While our interpretation may not be smooth, neither is the doctrine.
- John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible8 tells us this regarding the Master’s saying: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. The Spirit of God in some sense had come, before the death of Christ; he had appeared in the creation of all things out of nothing, as a joint Creator with the Father and Son; he was come as a spirit of prophecy upon the inspired writers, and others; the Old Testament saints had received him as a spirit of faith; he had been given to Christ as man, without measure, and the disciples had been partakers of his gifts and graces; but he was not come in so peculiar a manner as he afterwards did; as the promise of the Father, the glorifier of Christ, the comforter of his people, the spirit of truth, and the reprover of the world: there are reasons to be given, why the Spirit of God should not come in such a manner before, as after the death of Christ. The order of the three divine persons in the Trinity, and in the economy of man’s salvation, required such a method to be observed; that the Father should first, and for a while, be more especially manifested; next the Son, and then the Spirit: besides, our Lord has given a reason himself, why the Spirit “was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”, ( John 7:39 ) ; And the coming of the Spirit as a comforter, and the spirit of truth, was to be through the intercession, and by the mission of Christ; and therefore it was proper he should go away first, in order to send him; add to all this, that if Christ had not gone away or died, there would have been nothing for the Spirit to have done; no blood to sprinkle; no righteousness to reveal and bring near; no salvation to apply; or any of the things of Christ, and blessings of grace, to have taken and shown; all which are owing to the death of Christ, and which show the expediency of it: the expediency of Christ’s death for the mission of the Spirit to his disciples, is very conspicuous; for hereby they were comforted and supported under a variety of troubles; were led into all truth, and so furnished for their ministerial work; and were made abundantly successful in it, that being attended with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
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The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible8 covers this in this simplicity: It is expedient for you that I go away—
My Saviour, can it ever be
That I should gain by losing thee?
KEBLE.Yes. for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto. Can we see the reliance on doctrine here and in this whole idea of going away and the Comforter coming can we see the parabolic nature? The general interpretation is a man in form on the Earth and not as the spiritual being that he is in reality.
These are the height of Christian doctrine regarding these verses that we discuss today. These sayings are essentially interpreted that at the death of the Master that He would send the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit can do nothing until this is accomplished. Note how Gill refers back to the comment from John that we discussed a few posts back saying that “for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:39). Can we see how they connect the dots? At the same time they disregard the saying in Luke regarding asking when the Master tells us that “how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). From our perspective they fail to see the Unity and the Oneness of God’s Trinity and His uniformity in purpose and that, while ONE GOD, each Aspect has a role to play. For us this Unity and Oneness is there and we can liken the Trinity to a Lamp with the Father being the Source of the Light while the Son, the Christ, is the Light itself and the Holy Spirit is the effect of the Light in the world. A rather simple analogy of an incomprehensible God who cannot be adequately understood in the doctrines except insofar as a man just believes without question but does not understand. The Master is giving His disciples instruction to enhance their understanding and we can see by the text that He knows that they do not really understand but He knows also that they will understand when He is gone and they are left to their discipleship responsibilities on their own. This is when the Inner Man, the Christ Within will shine forth and bring about the discipleship activity in the world.
In closing today let us look at the very next verse briefly and reflect upon it and the discussion that we recently had on conscience. The verse goes thus: “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). From a world perspective we can see and understand this according to the doctrine but can we also see the deeper part, the part of conscience. According to Vincent and others the word translated here as world should be seen as the world of men; of sin should be seen as concerning sin and reprove should be seen as convict4. With this now can we see conscience at work, the Holy Spirit in form working to convict the man of doing or thinking wrong.
We will continue with these thoughts and the rest of our list of verses in the next post.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
We did not get to the Quote of the day in the main body of the post but here today we should reflect on this saying by Matthew in relation to what we read above by John Gill regarding the Holy Spirit and the doctrines that say that it was not active in the world except in the limited fashion that they allow for.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 1:18-20)
Today’s Quote of the Day is not along the lines that we generally offer as one but is rather an example of the use of the words Holy Ghost that is apart from the ideas that we developed above and contrary to any ideas that the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit were not active in the world before the glorification of the Lord. Here we have an activity of God and from our chart we know that the activity of God is the Holy Spirit and that He is an active part of God expressing Himself on the Earth. Another understanding of the working of the Holy Spirit comes from King David who says in a psalm “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me” (Psalms 51:11).
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
