John 16 JOHN 16:1-7 "I have told you all these things so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue, yet a time is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you will remember that I told you about them. "I did not tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you.
But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ Instead your hearts are filled with sadness because I have said these things to you. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I am going away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. The opening verses of this chapter contain three important utterances of Christ, which deserve our special attention. For one thing, we find our Lord delivering a remarkable prophecy.
He tells His disciples that they will be cast out of the Jewish Church, and persecuted even to the death--"They shall put you out of the synagogues--yes, the time comes, that whoever kills you will think that he does God service." How strange that seems at first sight! Excommunication, suffering, and death, are the portion that the Prince of Peace predicts to His disciples. So far from receiving them and their message with gratitude, the world would hate them, despitefully use them, and put them to death.
And, worst of all, their persecutors would actually persuade themselves that it was right to persecute, and would inflict the cruelest injuries in the sacred name of religion. How true the prediction has turned out! Like every other prophecy of Scripture, it has been fulfilled to the very letter. The Acts of the Apostles show us how the unbelieving Jews persecuted the early Christians. The pages of history tell us what horrible crimes have been committed by the Popish Inquisition.
The annals of our own country inform us how our holy Reformers were burned at the stake for their religion, by men who professed to do all they did from zeal for pure Christianity. Unlikely and incredible as it might seem at the time, the great Prophet of the Church has been found in this, as in everything else, to have predicted nothing but literal truth. Let it never surprise us to hear of true Christians being persecuted, in one way or another, even in our own day. Human nature never changes. Grace is never really popular.
The quantity of persecution which God's children have to suffer in every rank of life, even now, if they confess their Master, is far greater than the thoughtless world supposes. They only know it who go through it, at school, at college, in the counting-house, in the barracks-room, on board the ship. Those words shall always be found true--"All who will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12.) Let us never forget that religious earnestness alone is no proof that a man is a sound Christian. Not all zeal is right--it may be a zeal without knowledge.
No one is so mischievous as a blundering, ignorant zealot. Not all earnestness is trustworthy--without the leading of God's Spirit, it may lead a man so far astray, that, like Saul, he will persecute Christ himself. Some bigots imagine they are doing God service, when they are actually fighting against His truth, and trampling on His people. Let us pray that we may have light as well as zeal . For another thing, we find our Lord explaining His special reason for delivering the prophecy just referred to , as well as all His discourse.
"These things," He says, "I have spoken unto you, that you should not be offended." Well did our Lord know that nothing is so dangerous to our comfort as to indulge false expectations. He therefore prepared His disciples for what they must expect to meet with in His service. Forewarned, forearmed! They must not look for a smooth course and a peaceful journey. They must make up their minds to battles, conflicts, wounds, opposition, persecution, and perhaps even death. Like a wise general, He did not conceal from His soldiers the nature of the campaign they were beginning.
He told them all that was before them, in faithfulness and love, that when the time of trial came, they might remember His words, and not be disappointed and offended. He wisely forewarned them that the cross was the way to the crown. To count the cost is one of the first duties that ought to be pressed on Christians in every age.
It is no kindness to young beginners to paint the service of Christ in false colors, and to keep back from them the old truth, "Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God." By prophesying smooth things, and crying "Peace," we may easily fill the ranks of Christ's army with professing soldiers. But they are just the soldiers, who, like the stony-ground hearers, in time of tribulation will fall away, and turn back in the day of battle. No Christian is in a healthy state of mind who is not prepared for trouble and persecution.
He that expects to cross the troubled waters of this world, and to reach heaven with wind and tide always in his favor, knows nothing yet as he ought to know. We never can tell what is before us in life. But of one thing we may be very sure--we must carry the cross if we would wear the crown. Let us grasp this principle firmly, and never forget it. Then, when the hour of trial comes, we shall "not be offended." In the last place, we find our Lord giving a special reason why it was expedient for Him to go away from His disciples.
"If I do not go away," He says, "the Comforter will not come unto you." We can well suppose that our gracious Lord saw the minds of His disciples crushed at the idea of His leaving them. Little as they realized His full meaning, on this, as well as on other occasions, they evidently had a vague notion that they were about to be left, like orphans, in a cold and unkind world, by their Almighty Friend. Their hearts quailed and shrunk back at the thought. Most graciously does our Lord cheer them by words of deep and mysterious meaning.
He tells those who His departure, however painful it might seem, was not an evil, but a good. They would actually find it was not a loss, but a gain. His bodily absence would be more useful than His presence. It is vain to deny that this is a somewhat mysterious saying. It seems at first sight hard to understand how in any sense it could be good that Christ should go away from His disciples. Yet a little reflection may show us that, like our Lord's sayings, this remarkable utterance was wise, and right, and true. The following points, at any rate, deserve attentive consideration.
If Christ had not died, risen again, and ascended up into heaven, it is plain that the Holy Spirit could not have come down with special power on the day of Pentecost, and bestowed His manifold gifts on the Church. Mysterious as it may be, there was a connection in the eternal counsels of God, between the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit. If Christ had remained bodily with the disciples, He could not have been in more places than one at the same time.
The presence of the Spirit whom He sent down, would fill every place where believers were assembled in His name, in every part of the world. If Christ had remained upon earth, and not gone up into heaven, He could not have become a High Priest for His people in the same full and perfect manner that He became after His ascension. He went away to sit down at the right hand of God, and to appear for us, in our human nature glorified, as our Advocate with the Father.
Finally, if Christ had always remained bodily with His disciples, there would have been far less room for the exercise of their faith and hope and trust, than there was when He went away. Their graces would not have been called into such active exercise, and they would have had less opportunity of glorifying God, and exhibiting His power in the world. After all, there remains the broad fact that after the Lord Jesus went away, and the Comforter came down on the day of Pentecost, the religion of the disciples became a new thing altogether.
The growth of their knowledge, and faith, and hope, and zeal, and courage, was so remarkable, that they were twice the men they were before. They did far more for Christ when He was absent, than they had ever done when He was present. What stronger proof can we require that it was expedient for those who their Master should go away! Let us leave the whole subject with a deep conviction that it is not the bodily presence of Christ in the midst of us, so much as the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, that is essential to a high standard of Christianity.
What we should all desire and long for is not Christ's body literally touched with our hands and received into our mouths, but Christ dwelling spiritually in our hearts by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Technical Notes: 1. These things I have spoken to you, that ye should not be offended. 2. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he does God service. 3. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me. 4.
But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. 5. But now I go away to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, “Where are you going?” 6. But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. 1.--[ These things...not be offended. ] The chapter we now begin is a direct continuation of the last chapter, without break or pause. Our Lord’s object in this first verse is to cheer and revive the minds of the Apostles and to prevent them being discouraged by the persecution of the unbelieving Jews. “I have spoken the things which I have just been speaking in order to obviate the depressing effect of the treatment you will receive.
Lest you should stumble and be offended by the conduct of your enemies, I have told you the things you have just heard.” Stier remarks that “these things” include both the warning of the world’s hatred and the promise of the witnessing Spirit. Foreknowledge of the world’s hatred would prevent the disciples being surprised and disappointed. The promise of the Spirit would cheer and encourage.
The word “offended” is literally “scandalized.” It is a remarkable instance of a word that has greatly changed its meaning since the last translation of the Bible, to the great perplexity and injury of many Bible readers. It is needless to point out how great a stumbling block it often is to young and unestablished Christians to find themselves persecuted and illused for their religion. Our Lord knew this and took care to arm the eleven apostles with warnings.
He never kept back the cross or concealed the difficulties in the way to heaven. 2.--[ They shall put...synagogues. ] In this verse our Lord tells the disciples most plainly what they must expect. “They will excommunicate you, and cast you out of the Jewish Church, and expel you from their assemblies.” The Greek words are curious: “They will make you out-ofsynagogue men.” How great a grief and loss this was to a Jew we have little idea, unless we have studied the work of Christianity among the Jews in modern times.
Nothing affects a Jew so much as expulsion from the synagogue, or excommunication. There is no nominative here to which we can refer “they.” It is a Hebraism equivalent to “You will be put out.” Hengstenberg observes: “The disciples were not to depart voluntarily out of the synagogue but to await what would happen to them on a full proclamation of the Gospel. This gives a very intelligible hint to the faithful in times of the Church’s decline: viz., that they should keep far from their thoughts the idea of arbitrary secession.
The new formation is right only when the casting out has gone before.” Calvin remarks: “We have no reason to be alarmed at the Pope’s excommunications, with which he thunders against us on account of the Gospel. They will do us no more injury than those ancient excommunications that were made against the apostles.” The curse causeless shall not come. [ Yes...kills you...does God service. ] In this clause our Lord warns the eleven that they must not be surprised if even death was the final result of discipleship. There would be no length of persecution to which their enemies would not go.
“The hour comes when he who has killed you will think that in so doing he offers God an acceptable service.” How true this has proved, the history of all religious persecution has abundantly showed. Who can doubt that Saul before his conversion was sincere? “I verily thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9). The persecutions carried on in Spain, Portugal, France, and England by Romanists against Protestants are painful examples of the same thing. Men have actually thought that killing people was doing a holy and a good action.
The extent to which conscience may be blinded—until a man actually thinks that he is doing a godly deed when in reality he is committing a huge sin— is one of the most painful phenomena in human nature. Many of those who burned our Reformers in the days of Queen Mary were sincere and in earnest. Earnestness is not the slightest proof that a man is right in his religion. It is one of the most monstrous idols of modern times. The folly of those who are content with earnestness and say that all earnest men go to heaven, is abundantly shown by this text.
Ferus remarks that “good intentions and meanings are no better than impiety, if they do not spring from God’s Word.” 3.--[ And these things they will do, etc. ] Here, as in a former verse, our Lord points to blind ignorance as the true cause of the enmity of the Jews against Himself and His disciples. “They do not rightly know my Father, in spite of their professions of religious knowledge, nor Me whom the Father has sent.
Hence they hate and persecute.” (See my notes on ch. 15 verse 21.) 4.--[ But these things I have told you, etc. ] Here once more our Lord repeats His reasons for telling the disciples what they must expect. “I have told you what treatment you will receive, in order that you may not be surprised when the time of trial comes but remember that I foretold you all, and [that you may] not be cast down. Nothing unforeseen, nothing unpredicted, you will feel, happens to us. Our Master told us it would be so.” The word “I” in the sentence—“that ye may remember that I told you”—is emphatic in the Greek.
It seems to mean, “Remember that I myself, your Master, told you.” Our Lord adds the reason why He had not dwelt on these trials before. “I did not tell you much of these things at the beginning of your discipleship because I was with you, and would not disturb your minds with painful tidings while you were learning the first principles of the Gospel. But now that I am about to leave you, it is needful to forewarn you of things you are likely to meet with.” Of course it cannot be said that our Lord had never and in no sense before this time foretold persecution and the cross to His disciples.
But it must mean that He did not think it needful to dwell much on the subject so long as He was with them and taking care of them. 5.--[But now I go...”Where are you going?” ] These words seem to convey a reproof to the disciples for not inquiring more earnestly about the heavenly home to which their Master was going. Peter, no doubt, had said with vague curiosity, “Where are You going?” (John 13:36); but his question had not originated in a desire to know the place, so much as in surprise that His Lord was going at all.
Our Lord seems here to say, “If your hearts were in a right frame, you would seek to understand the nature of my going and the place to which I go.” Let us observe that our Lord spoke of His departure as a “going back to Him who sent Him,” His mission being finished and His work done. 6.--[ But because I have said, etc. ] Here our Lord continues the reproof of the last verse. The minds of the eleven were absorbed and overwhelmed with sorrow at the thought of their Master going, and they could think of nothing else.
Instead of seizing the little time that was left in order to learn more from His lips about His place and work in heaven, they were completely taken up with sorrow and could think of nothing else but their Master’s departure. We should do well to mark how mischievous overmuch sorrow is, and to seek grace to keep it in proper control.
No affection, if uncontrolled, so disarranges the order of men’s minds and makes them unfit for the duties of their calling. 7.--[ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, etc. ] In this verse we see our Lord mercifully condescending to show His disciples the necessity for His leaving them. It was expedient. It was for their good. It was for the real ultimate benefit of themselves and the whole Church that He should go away. If He did not go away, the great outpouring of the Holy Ghost, so often promised, could not come down on them and the world. If He went away, He would send the Comforter.
If he did not go away, the Comforter would not come. There is undeniably much that is deep and mysterious about the contents of this verse. We can only speak with reverence of the matter it unfolds. It seems clearly laid down that the Holy Ghost’s coming down into the world with influence and grace was a thing dependent on our Lord’s dying, rising again, and ascending into heaven.
It seems to be part of the eternal covenant of man’s salvation that the Son should be incarnate, die, and rise again; and that then, as a consequence, the Holy Spirit should be poured out with mighty influence on mankind, the Gentile Churches be brought into the fold, and Christianity spread over a vast portion of the world. This seems plainly taught, and this we must simply believe. If anyone asks why the Holy Ghost could not be poured down without Christ’s going away, it is safest to reply that we do not know. One thing is very clear.
The universal invisible presence of the Holy Ghost in the Church is better than the visible bodily presence of Christ with the Church. Christ’s body could only be in one place. The Holy Ghost can be everywhere at one and the same time. Whatever the disciples might think, it was far better for Christ to go up to heaven and sit at God’s right hand as their Priest and send down the Holy Ghost to be with the Church till He came again than for Christ to tarry with them as He had done.
Flesh and blood might have liked better to keep Christ on earth, eating and drinking and walking and talking in Palestine. But it was far better for the souls of men that Christ should finish His work, go up to heaven, take up His office there in the holy of holies, and send down the Holy Spirit on the Church and the world.
Calvin remarks: “Far more advantageous and far more desirable is that presence of Christ, by which He communicates Himself to us through the grace and power of His Spirit, than if He were present before our eyes.” Alford remarks: “The dispensation of the Spirit is a more blessed manifestation of God than was ever the bodily presence of the risen Savior. Bishop Andrews remarks: “We shall never see the absolute necessity of the Holy Ghost’s coming until we see the inconvenience of His not coming.” The expression “I tell you the truth” is a very solemn, emphatic one.
It is like, “Verily, verily I say, whether you believe me or not, it is true.” The expression “I will send” seems again to point to the equal procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son and the Father. In another place it is, “The Father will send.” Here, “I will send.” After all, no text throws more light on this deep verse than Psalm 68:18: “Thou hast ascended up on high, and received gifts for men; that the Lord God might dwell among them.” These words surely point out that the Holy Ghost’s dwelling among men was a gift purchased by the Son.
Does not the verse teach us that those who make much of the so-called “corporal presence” of Christ in the Lord’s Supper as a thing we should hold and believe, are in great error? There is something of far more importance to the Church, between the first and second advents, than any corporal presence of Christ, and that is the presence of the Holy Ghost. This is the real presence we should make much of and desire to feel more.
Our question should not be, “Is Christ’s body here?” but “is the Spirit, the Comforter, here?” Excessive craving after Christ’s bodily presence before the second advent is in reality a dishonoring of the Holy Ghost. We should make much of the Spirit.
Ecolampadius remarks: “Those who try to defend an eating of Christ, or a presence of Christ, in the Sacramental bread, as if His body was at the same time with us and in heaven, are manifestly at variance with this text.” Henry remarks here: “The presence of the Holy Spirit is a greater comfort and advantage to us than the presence of Christ in the flesh.
Christ’s bodily presence was comfortable, but the Spirit is more intimately a Comforter than Christ in His fleshly presence because the Spirit can comfort all believers at once in all places, while Christ’s bodily presence can comfort but few and that only in one place at once.
The benefit of Christ’s presence was great, but the advantage of the Spirit’s renovation and holy inspiration is much greater.” JOHN 16:8-15 "And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment--concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you." When our Lord in this passage speaks of the Holy Spirit "coming," we must take care that we do not misunderstand His meaning. On the one hand, we must remember that the Holy Spirit was in all believers in the Old Testament days, from the very beginning.
No man was ever saved from the power of sin, and made a saint, except by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Abraham, and Isaac, and Samuel, and David, and the Prophets, were made what they were by the operation of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we must never forget that after Christ's ascension the Holy Spirit was poured down on men with far greater energy as individuals, and with far wider influence on the nations of the world at large, than He has ever poured out before. It is this increased energy and influence that our Lord has in view in the verses before us.
He meant that after His own ascension the Holy Spirit would "come" down into the world with such a vastly increased power , that it would seem as if He had "come" for the first time, and had never been in the world before. The difficulty of rightly explaining the wondrous sayings of our Lord in this place is undeniably very great. It may well be doubted whether the full meaning of His words has ever been entirely grasped by man, and whether there is not something at the bottom which has not been completely unfolded.
The common, superficial explanation, that our Lord only meant that the work of the Spirit in saving individual believers is to convince them of their own sins, of Christ's righteousness, and of the certainty of judgment at last, will hardly satisfy thinking minds. It is a short-cut and superficial way of getting over Scripture difficulties. It contains excellent and sound doctrine, no doubt, but it does not meet the full meaning of our Lord's words. It is truth, but not the truth of the text. It is not individuals here and there whom He says the Spirit is to convince, but the world.
Let us see whether we cannot find a fuller and more satisfactory interpretation. For one thing, our Lord probably meant to show us what the Holy Spirit would do to the world of unbelieving JEWS. He would convince them "of sin, and righteousness, and judgment." He would convince the Jews "of sin." He would compel them to feel and acknowledge in their own minds, that in rejecting Jesus of Nazareth they had committed a great sin, and were guilty of gross unbelief.
He would convince the Jews of "righteousness." He would press home on their consciences that Jesus of Nazareth was not an impostor and a deceiver, as they had said, but a holy, just, and blameless Person, whom God had owned by receiving up into heaven. He would convince the Jews of "judgment." He would oblige them to see that Jesus of Nazareth had conquered, overcome, and judged the devil and all his host, and was exalted to be a Prince and a Savior at the right hand of God.
That the Holy Spirit did actually so convince the Jewish nation after the day of Pentecost, is clearly shown by the Acts of the Apostles. It was He who gave the humble fishermen of Galilee such grace and might in testifying of Christ, that their adversaries were put to silence. It was His reproving and convincing power which enabled them to "fill Jerusalem with their doctrine." Not a few of the nation, we know, were savingly convinced, like Paul, and "a great company of priests" became obedient to the faith.
Myriads more, we have every reason to believe, were mentally convinced, if they had not courage to come out and take up the cross. The whole tone of the Jewish people towards the end of the Acts of the Apostles is unlike what it is at the beginning. A vast reproving and convincing influence even where not saving, seems to have gone over their minds.
Surely this was partly what our Lord had in view in these verses when He said, "The Holy Spirit shall reprove and convince." For another thing, our Lord probably meant to foretell what the Holy Spirit would do for the whole of MANKIND, both Gentiles as well as Jews. He would reprove in every part of the earth the current ideas of men about sin, righteousness, judgment, and convince people of some far higher ideas on these points than they had before acknowledged. He would make men see more clearly the nature of sin, the need of righteousness, the certainty of judgment.
In a word, He would insensibly be an Advocate and convincing Pleader for God throughout the whole world, and raise up a standard of morality, purity and knowledge, of which formerly men had no conception. That the Holy Spirit actually did so in every part of the earth, after the day of Pentecost, is a simple matter of fact. The unlearned and lowly Jews, whom He sent forth and strengthened to preach the Gospel after our Lord's ascension, "turned the world upside down," and in two or three centuries altered the habits, tastes, and practices of the whole civilized world.
The power of the devil received a decided check. Even infidels dare not deny that the doctrines of Christianity had an enormous effect on men's ways, lives, and opinions, when they were first preached, and that there were no special graces or eloquence in the preachers that can account for it. In truth, the world was "reproved and convinced," in spite of itself; and even those who did not become believers became better men.
Surely this also was partly what our Lord had in view when He said to His disciples, "When the Holy Spirit comes, He shall convince the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment." Let us leave the whole passage, deep and difficult as it is, with a thankful remembrance of one comfortable promise which it contains. "The Spirit of truth," says our Lord to His weak and half-informed followers, "shall guide you into all truth." That promise was for our sakes, no doubt, as well as for theirs. Whatever we need to know for our present peace and sanctification, the Holy Spirit is ready to teach us.
All truth in science, nature, and philosophy of course is not included in this promise. But into all spiritual truth that is really profitable, and that our minds can comprehend and bear, the Holy Spirit is ready and willing to guide us. Then let us never forget, in reading the Bible, to pray for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. We must not wonder if we find the Bible a dark and difficult book, if we do not regularly seek light from Him by whom it was first inspired. In this, as in many other things, "we have not because we ask not." Technical Notes: 8.
And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9. of sin, because they do not believe in me; 10. of righteousness, because I go to my Father and ye see me no more; 11. of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 12. I still have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will tell you things to come. 14.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it to you. 15. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he shall take of mine and shall show it to you. 8.--[ And when he has come. ] These words would be rendered more literally, “And He having come.” Here, as in other places, we must remember that the “coming” of the Holy Ghost does not mean His coming for the first time into the world. He was in all the Old Testament saints, and no one ever believed or served God without His grace.
Wherever there has been a true servant of God, there has been the Holy Ghost. The “coming” here mentioned means His coming down with larger power and influence on all mankind after the ascension of Christ, and specially on the day of Pentecost.
From that day began an enormous extension of His influence and operation on human nature—an influence so much wider than it ever was before, that He is said to have “come.” Lightfoot remarks that “the Holy Spirit had absented Himself from the Jewish nation for four hundred years!” Hence the phrase “come” had a special significance. [ He will reprove...of judgment. ] This sentence is perhaps one of the most difficult in the whole of St. John’s Gospel. Men will probably never agree about it entirely till the Lord comes. There is something in it which seems to baffle all interpreters.
The most common explanation is that which regards the passage as describing the ordinary operations of the Holy Ghost in saving God’s people. It is He who convinces people that they are sinners, convinces them that they must be saved by Christ’s righteousness and not their own, and convinces them that there is a judgment to come. This interpretation is the one adopted by Alford and many others. No doubt it contains truth, but it is not at all clear to me that it is the truth of the passage.
It is open, in short, to grave objections, and, in common with some commentators, I cannot feel satisfied with it. For popular addresses, this view may do pretty well. But, I venture to think, no man who sits down and calmly weighs the meaning of words can fail to see that it is open to very serious objections. Inward conviction is certainly not the meaning of the word rendered “reprove.” It is rather refutation by proofs, convicting by unanswerable argument as an advocate, that is meant. Believers and God’s people are not said to be the subjects of the Spirit’s reproving work.
It is the “world” that is to be reproved; and this very world, in this last sermon, is continually put in contrast with Christ’s people. Add to all this, that the latter part of the 9th, 10th, and 11th verses can hardly be said to suit and square in with the verse we are considering. If our Lord had simply said, “The Spirit shall convince your hearers of their own sins, of my imputed righteousness, and of a day of judgment,” it would have been plain enough. But unfortunately there are several things added that really do not chime in with this mode of interpretation.
I repeat that no intelligent Christian, of course, will think of denying that the conviction of sin is a special and saving work of the Holy Ghost on the hearts of believers. But it does not therefore follow that it is the thing taught in this passage. It is truth, but not the truth of the text. I believe the meaning to be something of this kind.
“After the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost—the great Advocate of Me and my people—shall come into this world with such mighty power that He shall silence, convince, and stop the mouths of your enemies and oblige them, however unwillingly, to think of Me and my cause very differently from what they think now. In particular, He shall convince them of their own sins, of my righteousness, and of the victory that I have won over Satan.
He shall, in short, be a crushing Advocate whom the world shall not be able to resist or gainsay.” That this was one effect of the Holy Ghost coming down on the day of Pentecost appears so frequently in the Acts of the Apostles that it is needless to quote texts. It is clear from the whole narrative of the earlier portion of Acts that after the day of Pentecost there was a peculiar, restraining, irresistible power accompanying the work of the Apostles, which the unbelieving Jews, in spite of all their numbers and influence, were unable to withstand.
Nor was this work of the Holy Ghost confined to the Jews. Wherever the Apostles and their fellow laborers went, the same convincing power accompanied them and obliged even the heathen to acknowledge Christianity as a great fact, even when they did not believe. Pliny’s famous letter to Trajan about the Christians is a remarkable illustration of this. I prefer this interpretation to the one above mentioned, as held by Alford and most commentators, for two simple reasons. One is that it suits the language of the passage and the other view does not.
The other reason is that it harmonizes with the context. Our Lord is encouraging the disciples against the world by the presence of the Comforter. And one special part of the encouragement is that the Comforter shall do for them the work of an advocate by silencing, crushing, refuting, and convincing their enemies. After all, the enormous change that took place in the state of “the world” within a few centuries after Pentecost is a strong proof, to my own mind, of the correctness of the view I advocate.
About sin, Christ, and judgment, the opinions of men were completely transformed even though men were unconverted. And who did this? The Holy Ghost. Nothing can account for the change but the miraculous interposition of the Holy Ghost. I frankly confess that this view of the passage before us is not that of the vast majority of commentators. But in these matters I dare not call any man master and must say what I think.
Those who wish to see the view I maintain more fully argued out and supported are advised to consult “Poole’s Annotations” and Suicer’s “Thesaurus” on the Greek work that we translate “reprove.” Schleusner also seems to support the view.
Scott remarks here: “It is worthy of notice that from the time of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit after our Lord’s ascension, an immense proportion of the human race have been led to form such sentiments about sin, righteousness, and a future judgment (of which the world up to that time had not the most remote conception), that a far higher standard of morals has been fixed throughout numerous nations than was at all thought of before.” 9.--[ Of sin, etc. ] I think this verse means: “The Holy Ghost shall first and foremost convince the world concerning sin by obliging my enemies to see, though too late, that in not believing Me they made an enormous mistake and committed a great sin.
He shall make them feel at last that in rejecting Me they rejected One whom they ought to have believed.” 10.--[ Of righteousness, etc. ] I think this verse means: “The Holy Ghost, secondly, shall convince the world concerning my righteousness—that I was a righteous Man and not a deceiver. And this He will do after I have left the world, when the Jews can no longer see Me and form any opinion of Me. I go to the Father, as you know, and you will soon see me no more.
But after I am gone, the Holy Ghost will oblige my enemies to feel that I was a just and righteous Person and was unjustly slain.” Even the centurion who saw our Lord crucified declared, “Certainly this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:46). 11.--[ Of judgment, etc. ] I think this verse means: “The Holy Ghost, in the last place, shall convince the world concerning the judgment and overthrow of Satan’s usurped power by setting up a new kingdom everywhere, even my Church, by emptying the heathen temples of their worshippers, and by drying up the power of idolatry and delivering vast portions of the world from its dominion.” The “Prince of this world,” of course, means the devil.
How great His power was over mankind before Christ came into the world, and how great a change Christ’s death and resurrection produced in the general condition of mankind, are things that at this period of time we can hardly realize. The coming of the “kingdom of God,” or “kingdom of heaven,” was a reality 1800 years ago, of which we can now form little idea. The Holy Ghost produced a general conviction that a new order of things had begun, and that the old king and tyrant of the world was dethroned and stripped of much of his power. Such is the view that I take of this passage.
I do not pretend to deny that there are difficulties about it. I only maintain that these difficulties are fewer than those that surround the common idea attached to the passage. Poole’s “Annotations” perhaps throw more light on the passage than any commentary I have met with.
But even he says things that appear to me not warranted by the words of the evangelist. 12.--[ I still have...say to you. ] This clause seems to refer to the higher, fuller, deeper views of Christian truth that our Lord doubtless revealed to His disciples during the forty days between His resurrection and ascension, when He was continually “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” The absurdity and unreasonableness of concluding from this text that there are many other truths that Christ revealed to the Apostles after His resurrection, but which are not recorded in Scripture, is well exposed by Ecolampadius and other Protestant commentators. [ Ye cannot bear them now. ] This word “bear” means literally “carry.” It does not therefore signify things that the disciples could not “apprehend,” but things that their minds were not yet strong enough to endure and digest.
Do we not see here that there are steps and degrees in Christian attainment? A man may be a good man and yet not able to endure the whole truth. We must teach people as they are able to bear, and be patient. 13.--[ However...guide you into all truth. ] Here our Lord gives another promise concerning the Holy Ghost. He shall guide disciples into all truth. He will lead and direct them into the full knowledge of all the doctrines of the Gospel and all the truth they need to know. It is needless to say that “all truth” here does not mean all scientific truth.
It applies specially to spiritual truth. This great promise does not appear to me to signify “inspiration,” or the imparting of that power to write and teach infallibly, which the Apostles possessed. I much prefer the view that it is a wide promise belonging to the whole Church in every age. It means that special office of “teaching” by which the Spirit illuminates, guides, and informs the understandings of all believers. That the minds of true Christians are taught and enlightened in a manner wonderful to themselves as well as others is a simple matter of Christian experience.
That enlightenment is the gift of the Holy Spirit and the first step in saving religion. At the same time we must never forget that the disciples received an immense increase of spiritual knowledge after the day of Pentecost, and saw everything in religion far more clearly than they did before.
Alford observes: “No promise of universal knowledge, nor of infallibility, is hereby conveyed; but it is a promise to them and us that the Holy Spirit shall teach and lead us, not as children under the tutors and governors of legal and imperfect knowledge, but as sons, making known to us all the truth of God” (Gal. 4:6).
It is worth notice that in the Greek it is literally “guide into all THE truth,” as if it specially meant “the truth concerning Me.” Poole remarks that the Greek word rendered “guide” is one of great emphasis, signifying not only a guide who will discover truth as the object of the understanding, but one who will bow the will to the doctrines of truth. [For...not speak of Himself...will speak. ] Here begins a list of things said about the Holy Ghost that our weak capacities can hardly take in.
The clause before us seems meant to show the close and intimate union existing between the Spirit and the two other Persons in the blessed Trinity. “He shall not speak from Himself, independently of Me and my Father. He shall only speak such things as He shall hear from us.” The words “speak” and “hear” are both accommodations to man’s weakness.
The Spirit does not literally “speak” or literally “hear.” It must mean, “His teachings and guidings shall be those of One who is in the closest union with the Father and the Son.” “Of Himself” does not mean “about Himself,” but “from Himself.” [ He will tell you things to come. ] The second thing said about the Spirit is that He will tell “things to come.” I can only suppose that this points to the prophetical revelation of the future of the Church, which the Spirit was to impart to the disciples. He did so when He inspired St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. John to prophecy.
The expression probably includes the destruction of Jerusalem, the removal of the Mosaic dispensation, the scattering of the Jews, the calling in of the Gentile churches, and the whole history of their rise, progress, and final decay. 14.--[ He shall glorify Me. ] The third thing said of the Spirit is that he shall “glorify Christ.” He shall continually teach, lead, and guide disciples to make much of Christ. Any religious teaching that does not tend to exalt Christ has a fatal defect about it.
It cannot be from the Spirit. [ He shall receive...show it to you. ] This is the fourth thing said of the Spirit in this place. He will take of the truth about Christ and show it, or reveal it, to disciples.
I can attach no other meaning to the phrase “mine.” It is in the singular number—“that thing which is mine”—and I cannot see what it can mean but “truth concerning Me.” Alford remarks: “This verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations subsequent to and beside Christ, it being the work of the Spirit to testify to the things of Christ and not to anything new or beyond Him.” 15.--[ All things that the Father has, etc. ] The object of this deep verse seems to be to show the entire unity between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the revelation of truth made to man.
“The Holy Spirit shall show you things concerning Me, and yet things at the same time concerning the Father, because all things that the Father has are mine.” Both this verse and the preceding one are strikingly calculated to humble a Bible reader and make him feel how little he knows, at his very best, of the full meaning of some Scriptures. There are things in them that we must feel we do not comprehend. Beyond the great principle—that it is the special office of the Holy Spirit to glory Christ and to show disciples the whole truth concerning Christ—it is very hard to get.
May not the clause “All things that the Father has are mine” be specially put in to prevent our supposing that there can be any real separation between the things of Christ and the things of the Father? It is like, “I and my Father are One,” “All mine are Thine, and Thine are mine.” “Think not,” our Lord seems to say, “when I speak of the Spirit showing you ‘my things,’ that He will not show you the things of my Father. That would be impossible. There is so close a union between the Father and the Son that the Spirit cannot show or teach the things of the one without the things of the other.
In a word, He proceeds from the Father as well as from the Son.”