Joh 14:16-17 | 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 14:16-17

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).