Joh 14:27-31 | KingComments | STEP | With all the wonderful previous promises, the Son’s promises have not yet come to an end. He also grants them peace and gives them His own peace. The first peace, the peace He “leaves” with them, is the peace He worked on the cross, the peace with God ( ). That peace is, as it were, His legacy to them as their inalienable property. The second peace, “My peace”, is the peace He has had in His heart throughout His life on earth, the peace that comes from complete trust in the Father, whatever the circumstances. We can also experience that peace when we go our way with trust in the Father (cf. ). Christ’s giving differs from the world’s giving. The world may give part of what it possesses, but it will never give all. However, what it gives, it has lost, it no longer possesses it. What Christ gives, He does not lose, but multiplies. He gives us His peace, His Father is our Father, His God is our God, He gives us His joy, He gives us the words the Father has given Him, He asks for us the glory the Father has given Him. The Father loves us with the love with which He loved Him. All this he tells His disciples to encourage and reassure them because He is going to die. That is always on His mind. He knows that His death will make them sad and that the circumstances that will lead to His death can frighten them. Once again, He tells them that there is no need for their hearts to be troubled. In He says this with the assurance of a glorious future as consolation. Here He connects it with the comfort of peace with which He will fill them during His absence. This peace will shut out fear.

‏ John 14:27-31

Peace

With all the wonderful previous promises, the Son’s promises have not yet come to an end. He also grants them peace and gives them His own peace. The first peace, the peace He “leaves” with them, is the peace He worked on the cross, the peace with God (Rom 5:1). That peace is, as it were, His legacy to them as their inalienable property. The second peace, “My peace”, is the peace He has had in His heart throughout His life on earth, the peace that comes from complete trust in the Father, whatever the circumstances. We can also experience that peace when we go our way with trust in the Father (cf. Phil 4:7).

Christ’s giving differs from the world’s giving. The world may give part of what it possesses, but it will never give all. However, what it gives, it has lost, it no longer possesses it. What Christ gives, He does not lose, but multiplies. He gives us His peace, His Father is our Father, His God is our God, He gives us His joy, He gives us the words the Father has given Him, He asks for us the glory the Father has given Him. The Father loves us with the love with which He loved Him.

All this he tells His disciples to encourage and reassure them because He is going to die. That is always on His mind. He knows that His death will make them sad and that the circumstances that will lead to His death can frighten them. Once again, He tells them that there is no need for their hearts to be troubled. In Jn 14:1 He says this with the assurance of a glorious future as consolation. Here He connects it with the comfort of peace with which He will fill them during His absence. This peace will shut out fear.

The Lord Goes Away to the Father

The Lord does not speak about His death but about His going away. He reminds them that He said that. He wants and needs to keep reminding us of certain statements that help us to regain sight of both the present situation and the future. He also reminds them that He will come to them again. His going away from them is therefore temporary. They may bear that in mind as well. He also appeals to their love for Him. If only they would consider what it means for Him to go to the Father. Then they would undoubtedly rejoice for Him.

There is another aspect to that joy. His going to the Father will result in the Holy Spirit coming. The Lord Jesus has announced His coming as an event that has great consequences for them and for His work on earth. And did He not say that He Himself will come to them when He will send the Spirit? He goes but returns to them in the Spirit. Isn’t that a cause of joy? He does not only want to give peace, but also joy. This will be their part by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Something of it they already understood when the Lord went to heaven (Lk 24:52).

All this is connected with His glorifying the Father. That is always what He wants to do. When He says “the Father is greater than I”, He says it from His humble position on earth. As God He is eternally one with the Father and equal to Him. But whatever His essential and personal glory is, He is aware that He is also Man on earth. As such He goes and comes back to catch them up.

What the Lord stated in this chapter is not yet fulfilled at that moment. First the work of redemption has yet to be accomplished. And to all that faith is connected, for it is not visible and tangible. If they will see the fulfillment, it will be a great encouragement for their faith.

The Ruler of the World Is Coming

The Lord has said most of what He had in His heart to His disciples. There is not much more to say, because the time is coming when “the ruler of the world” will have the opportunity to come to Him. Satan is the ruler of the world that rejected Him. By this rejection, the world proves to stand opposite to the Father and to be subject to satan. Satan will try to find an opening in the Lord Jesus through which he could lead Him to leave the path of obedience and tribute to His Father. All attempts will be unsuccessful. On the contrary, all satan’s attempts will only result in the glory and perfection of Christ shining all the more.

In Him satan has “nothing” because He has everything in the Father and His full love and obedience are directed toward the Father. Satan will find as much in Him as he did when he tempted Him in the wilderness to take Him off the path of obedience. Now he will come to Him with the horrors of the suffering that will be inflicted on Him by men. Satan cannot imagine anything else. The Lord rejects satan. He will look on the Father and say: “The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (Jn 18:11).

In this perfect surrender to the will of the Father lies for the world the perfect testimony of His love for the Father. He could have gone free after having served the Father perfectly. He had deserved life, which no man could say. But He does not want to go free precisely because He loves the Father (Exo 21:5). Because of this reason, eternal life has become our part.

When the Lord has discussed all this with His disciples, He tells them to get up and leave the upper room. Therefore, it seems that the conversations recorded in the following chapters no longer take place in the upper room, but on their way to Gethsemane.