Joh 14:15-26 | KingComments | STEP | Immediately attached to praying in His Name and the answer to prayer is the keeping of His commandments out of love for Him. All is related to each other. The one results from the other. Obedience is a fruit of love, just as praying in His Name is a fruit of knowing Him and His will and trusting in Him. The manner in which the disciples can show their love and dedication to the Master is obedience. The commandments of which the Lord speaks here do not refer to the commandments of the law of Sinai. While the commandments of the law of Sinai are aimed at obtaining life, keeping the commandments of the Lord Jesus is proof of the possession of new life. They are commandments that are kept out of love for Him. Obedience that comes from love results in great blessings. The Lord Jesus promises that He will ask the Father for another Helper. This ‘ask’ is a confidential asking. It characterizes His relationship to the Father (the same in ). It is not a begging prayer like the disciples do to the Father ( ). A helper – Greek: parakletos – is someone who is called in to help another, someone who takes up the cause of another and comes to his aid. Now that He is with them on earth, the Lord is that for His disciples. In view of His ascension, He will see to it that His own will receive “another Helper”. It is Someone other than the Lord Jesus, but Who will do the same work. Since the Lord is in heaven, the Holy Spirit performs this task on earth ( ). This does not mean that Christ does not do this work anymore; on the contrary, He continues to do it while He is in heaven ( ). An additional encouragement is that the Helper Christ gives to His own on earth will be with them forever. The dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the church as a whole and in the believer personally is a permanent, continuous and uninterrupted dwelling. It is therefore wrong to ask for a new pouring out of the Spirit. With this promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit to earth, the Lord points forward to the two great characteristics of Christendom: 1. God dwells on earth since the day of Pentecost and 2. since the ascension of the Lord Jesus there is a Man in heaven . This is a reversal of what God meant with earth and heaven: the earth He has given to men, and heaven is His heaven, His dwelling place ( ). The believer on earth is connected with heaven by the dwelling of the Spirit in him. Heaven is where he belongs ( ). The fact that the Lord Jesus is already there as Man is the guarantee that the believer will actually come there too. That is what the Lord also said in the beginning of this chapter ( ). The Holy Spirit that the Father will give is the Spirit of truth. He bears witness to the truth, that is to say, He bears witness to the Lord Jesus Who is the truth. The Spirit reveals everything we need to know about God and what was revealed to us by the Son. The world has no part in this because it has no part in the Divine nature and does not walk in obedience. The world has even called the Spirit Beelzebul ( ). It is impossible for the world to receive the Spirit of truth because it is blind to the Son and does not know Him. Believers do know Him through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will not, like the Lord Jesus, be with them for only a short time. He will not only be with them to guide them, as the Messiah has been with them, but He will also be in them. This will be a new, special, intimate presence of God in and with the believers. By sending the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus will show His care for His own. He will not leave them to their fate as helpless orphans. He will send the Holy Spirit and therein come to them Himself. This is a great comfort and encouragement. The Holy Spirit will always remind the disciples of Him and the presence of the Holy Spirit will let them sense the presence of the Lord Jesus. By telling the disciples about His going away and that they will no longer have Him with them, He wants to free their minds from the expectation of a visible Messiah. No longer must they live in the expectation of a visible Messiah, seen by all eyes. The Lord lifts their expectations to a higher level. He directs their eye of faith toward Himself in glory and reminds them that only there true life is found and that they partake of it with Him. Christ will be their life once He has risen from the dead. That life is therefore life in the power of the resurrection. The believers will not only see Him, but live the same life. Our life is in everything the revelation of Him Who is our life ( ).

‏ John 14:15-26

The Promise of the Helper

Immediately attached to praying in His Name and the answer to prayer is the keeping of His commandments out of love for Him. All is related to each other. The one results from the other. Obedience is a fruit of love, just as praying in His Name is a fruit of knowing Him and His will and trusting in Him. The manner in which the disciples can show their love and dedication to the Master is obedience.

The commandments of which the Lord speaks here do not refer to the commandments of the law of Sinai. While the commandments of the law of Sinai are aimed at obtaining life, keeping the commandments of the Lord Jesus is proof of the possession of new life. They are commandments that are kept out of love for Him. Obedience that comes from love results in great blessings.

The Lord Jesus promises that He will ask the Father for another Helper. This ‘ask’ is a confidential asking. It characterizes His relationship to the Father (the same in Jn 16:26 ; Jn 17:9 ; 15 ; 20). It is not a begging prayer like the disciples do to the Father (Jn 15:16 ; Jn 16:23-24 ; 26). A helper – Greek: parakletos – is someone who is called in to help another, someone who takes up the cause of another and comes to his aid. Now that He is with them on earth, the Lord is that for His disciples.

In view of His ascension, He will see to it that His own will receive “another Helper”. It is Someone other than the Lord Jesus, but Who will do the same work. Since the Lord is in heaven, the Holy Spirit performs this task on earth (Jn 14:16 ; 26 ; Jn 15:26 ; Jn 16:7). This does not mean that Christ does not do this work anymore; on the contrary, He continues to do it while He is in heaven (1Jn 2:1).

An additional encouragement is that the Helper Christ gives to His own on earth will be with them forever. The dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the church as a whole and in the believer personally is a permanent, continuous and uninterrupted dwelling. It is therefore wrong to ask for a new pouring out of the Spirit.

With this promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit to earth, the Lord points forward to the two great characteristics of Christendom:

1. God dwells on earth since the day of Pentecost and

2. since the ascension of the Lord Jesus there is a Man in heaven.

This is a reversal of what God meant with earth and heaven: the earth He has given to men, and heaven is His heaven, His dwelling place (Psa 115:16).

The believer on earth is connected with heaven by the dwelling of the Spirit in him. Heaven is where he belongs (Phil 3:20). The fact that the Lord Jesus is already there as Man is the guarantee that the believer will actually come there too. That is what the Lord also said in the beginning of this chapter (Jn 14:3).

The Holy Spirit that the Father will give is the Spirit of truth. He bears witness to the truth, that is to say, He bears witness to the Lord Jesus Who is the truth. The Spirit reveals everything we need to know about God and what was revealed to us by the Son. The world has no part in this because it has no part in the Divine nature and does not walk in obedience. The world has even called the Spirit Beelzebul (Mt 12:24). It is impossible for the world to receive the Spirit of truth because it is blind to the Son and does not know Him. Believers do know Him through the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit will not, like the Lord Jesus, be with them for only a short time. He will not only be with them to guide them, as the Messiah has been with them, but He will also be in them. This will be a new, special, intimate presence of God in and with the believers. By sending the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus will show His care for His own. He will not leave them to their fate as helpless orphans. He will send the Holy Spirit and therein come to them Himself. This is a great comfort and encouragement. The Holy Spirit will always remind the disciples of Him and the presence of the Holy Spirit will let them sense the presence of the Lord Jesus.

By telling the disciples about His going away and that they will no longer have Him with them, He wants to free their minds from the expectation of a visible Messiah. No longer must they live in the expectation of a visible Messiah, seen by all eyes.

The Lord lifts their expectations to a higher level. He directs their eye of faith toward Himself in glory and reminds them that only there true life is found and that they partake of it with Him. Christ will be their life once He has risen from the dead. That life is therefore life in the power of the resurrection. The believers will not only see Him, but live the same life. Our life is in everything the revelation of Him Who is our life (2Cor 4:11).

The Unity of the Father and the Son

When the day or period has come that the Holy Spirit will be in them, they will understand through the Holy Spirit how much He and the Father are one and how much they are one with Him. The Holy Spirit not only gives them the knowledge but also the awareness of it. The words “you in Me” indicate the unity of the believer with the Lord Jesus of which the Holy Spirit is the power and the bond. We are in Him as Man Who Himself as the eternal Son is in the Father. Through our union with Him and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ flows into us. The fact that He is in us enables us to manifest Him and not ourselves.

By grace we may already know to be in the closest connection with Him Who is one with the Father. He is there in glory and yet also one with us here, just as we are with Him there. We know this through the Spirit Who is given to us. Everything is about what, Who and where Christ is. The glorious blessings that the Lord Jesus gives us here cannot but increase our love for Him.

In connection to that He points again to His commandments. As said, it is not about the law of Sinai. The law of Sinai contains God’s commandments which He imposes on a human being in order to obtain life. Over the centuries this has proven to be an impossibility for man. Man has violated all the commandments and is therefore under curse and condemnation. One can only escape from this by acknowledging God’s righteous judgment and believing in the Son. Not only that there is no judgment anymore, but whoever believes in the Son receives eternal life from Him.

The commandments about which the Lord Jesus speaks here also are related to that eternal life. Whoever knows Him as his life and therefore has His commandments, should also keep them, that is to say, live according to them. A believer demonstrates his love for Christ by living according to the commandments of the new life. This means that Christ becomes visible in his life.

The consequence is – and it cannot be else – that such a person is also loved by the Father. After all, the Father is reminded of His Son’s life. And how would He not love Him of whom He has testified several times: “This is My beloved Son”? Such a believer is also the subject of the Son’s love, to whom He will show more of Himself. To have the commandments of the Son and to keep them leads to spiritual growth.

Judas, not Iscariot, not the Judas who will betray the Lord, is not yet free from his Jewish way of thinking. He sees no more than a public appearance of the Messiah, as proclaimed in the Old Testament. He cannot imagine a situation where the Messiah is seen by His disciples, but not by the world. And indeed, this is an inexplicable difficulty for anyone who only envisages the earthly glory of the Messiah. Judas asks the Lord for it.

The Lord does not give a direct answer to his question. Instead, His answer goes far beyond the thoughts of Judas and what relates to His earthly glory. For He speaks about making an abode with the believer. To get sight of that and to experience the blessing of it, it is a necessity to love Him, which becomes evident from keeping His word (Jn 14:23).

This is another thing and goes beyond keeping His commandments (Jn 14:21). His word (not: His words) is the entire truth brought by Him in words and deeds through which He has revealed Himself. His word represents Himself, He is the Word. Someone who loves Him will keep that word as fruit of that love. Just as in Jn 14:21, the consequence here too is that the Father loves such a person. He who is so full of the Lord Jesus that he keeps His word, through which he identifies himself, as it were, with Him in all that He is, is also the object of the Father’s love.

Then there is another glorious consequence which is that the Father and the Son, by virtue of the indwelling Spirit, make Their abode with such a person. Doesn’t this far exceed sharing in the earthly glory of a visible Messiah on earth? And does it not also go beyond the Lord Jesus’ disclosure to the believer who has and keeps His commandments (Jn 14:21)? That the Father and the Son make their abode with the believer is the most intimate form of fellowship. It indicates that the Father and the Son have found complete rest with that believer because to that believer Christ is everything.

Without love for the Son, no one will keep His word. Someone may say that he loves the Lord Jesus, but if it turns out that he does not live in accordance with His word, what he says is not true. Not listening to the truth brought by Him, means, not listening to what the Father says. If His word is not kept, not only the Son is dishonored, but also the Father.

The Spirit Teaches and Reminds

The Lord says that He has spoken these things to His disciples while He is with them. He does this to make a distinction from the time when He will no longer be here. So far they have not been able to grasp many things because the Holy Spirit is not here yet. Despite that absence, the blessing of His presence and His personal teaching is still very great. The blessing of His absence will be even greater with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord uses both the name “Helper” and the name “Holy Spirit”. He speaks of “the Helper” to point the disciples to the support of the Spirit and the help they will need to follow the way He wants them to go. He speaks of “the Holy Spirit” to point out to His disciples the Divine teaching He will give. As an additional encouragement, He promises His disciples that the Father will send Him in His Name. There is an abundance of encouragement in the promise that He will send the Spirit.

When the Spirit has come, He will teach the disciples more abundantly than the Lord Jesus could do at that time. He will teach them “all things” and not just “these things” from Jn 14:25. He will bring to the remembrance of the disciples all the Lord Jesus said to them and also give them the ability to understand what He meant by that.