Understanding the Red Letters Part 32
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:16-17)
One of the promises of Jesus revealed in His upper room message is the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit – here identified as the Helper – is coming to live in us.
We have a hint of the Spirit in us in Jesus’ great proclamation at the feast in John chapter 7, ” ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” ‘ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39).
Here in the John 14 passage, Jesus begins a fuller revelation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises to petition the Father and also promises that the Father will answer by giving us His Holy Spirit. What aspects of the Holy Spirit’s presence does Jesus reveal here?
First, the Holy Spirit will be sent to us by the Father in answer to Jesus’ prayer. Second, the Spirit will be “another” [Greek allos, another of the same sort; not heteros, another that is different] meaning that He will be a “Helper” in the same way that Jesus has been to the disciples. Third, He will be with us forever. Fourth, He will be known as the Spirit of truth. Jesus referred to Himself as “the truth” (John 14:6). The Spirit, as Jesus’ equal, will also be known as true. Fifth, the world will not be able to receive God’s Spirit, because the world does not know or recognize Him. Sixth, the Spirit abides with the disciples at that time through the physical presence of Jesus.
Last, and I think the most radical idea of them all, the “Spirit will be IN you.” Will be IN you. Will be IN us. Will be IN you and me. At the time of Jesus’ words, God’s Spirit dwelt with the disciples through the physical presence of Jesus, the God-man. But a future time is coming, after Jesus has physically departed, when the Spirit will literally live IN the disciples. And by our faith in Christ and His work on the cross to bring us into His family, the Spirit will live IN us as well.