It has always been an effort of the enemy, if he cannot succeed in blinding the mind against the truth when ministered by God, to take up divine truths of some by—gone day, and to occupy and divert the mind with them, in order to shut out and hinder the reception of some fresh revelation, or present application of truth from the Lord.
He can take up that which God used at a former day, and use it effectually (if permitted) to blind the mind to some present ministration of the Lord. And this presentation of “present truth” is ever a test for faith. Man may be zealous and orthodox in truths which God had used in the past, to the refusal and rejection of that which God may at the moment be presenting and pressing on souls. It clothes men with importance to be found contending for orthodoxy; while, at the moment of such zeal, they may be rejecting some fresh light or revelation from Him. The zeal for what is past is used by the enemy to blind their minds, and that for which they contend, while it may be of God, does not prove to be a test of faith, which alone enters, or can enter, into the present action of His Spirit by the truth.
And this has ever been so. Man’s heart evades having to do with God and His revelation as a present thing. He can reason about the past, and he can speculate about the future, (even the natural man’s mind can do this), while the soul’s present relations with God are evaded.
The “word of righteousness” for each moment was thus refused at all times by unbelief; while faith entered upon it, and seemed as a visionary when contrasted with that which was commended of man as a holding fast of what had gone before.
It was thus the case with those who reviled the man who had been born blind and had his eyes opened, in the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel. “Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples.” God’s present action was denied by them; while they, with seeming orthodoxy, acknowledged Him in the past.
So it was with the woman of Samaria, when Jesus the Lord was dealing with her soul. She could turn her mind to the past and recall the words of the prophets about the expected Messiah. Her conscience at the moment was under the power of His words, and the truth was penetrating her soul; and the desire to avoid this too close dealing is noticed in the words, “We know that Messias cometh.” This was orthodox, and right as to faith prior to the moment then present. She could reason, too, as to the then supposed future— “When he is come he will tell us all things.” But neither the past nor the future was the test for faith. He must have her to do with God as a present thing; her soul must bow under His present action, and carry away the grand discovery in her heart that He was there, and at that very moment talking with her— “I that speak unto thee am he.”
Now, the sixteenth chapter of John opens with a remarkable forecasting of this by the Lord. He had come, and had revealed the Father. The One God—Jehovah, of Judaism—was in its day the grand center of revelation. “Hear, O Israel; the Jehovah thy God, is one Jehovah” (Deuteronomy 6:44Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: (Deuteronomy 6:4)). There might have been hints as to the Trinity of the Persons of the godhead; but it was never the subject of revelation in the Old Testament. Israel had been called out from the nations to witness, amongst them, to the unity of the one true God—Jehovah, in contrast with the plurality of the gods of the nations. But the Son had come and had made the Father known. He was then (John 16) breaking off those earthly associations with His people, and about to go back to the Father through the cross, and to send from on high the Spirit, that God might be fully known.
He says: — “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father nor me.” They would with bitter zeal refuse the revelation of the Father and the Son (in Christianity); while contending for the orthodoxy of the God of Israel, as they supposed. Like Saul of Tarsus, who was the great example of that zealous persecution of the Jew which thought that God was served, and never better served, than by it. He says this of himself in so many words:— “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities” (Acts 26:9, 10, 119I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 11And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. (Acts 26:9‑11)).
The whole truth of Christianity was now to be made plain. The Father had been revealed in the Son. It was expedient that the Son should go away, in order that the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, should come.
“If I depart,” says the Lord, “I will send him unto you.” As Man, Jesus now was taking His place on high, and from thence He would send the Holy Ghost to dwell with His people on earth till He would come again. A new thing was dawning: the counsels of God as to the church, which until now were hid in Himself, were about to be brought out; and the Spirit, who was not yet given until Jesus was glorified (John 7:3939(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)), was to be sent from on high to dwell with and in His people, to perform the varied offices towards them and towards the world, of which He speaks in this chapter (John 16:8-158And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 12I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. 14He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. 15All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. (John 16:8‑15)).
How frequently is the Spirit of God—the third person, as men say, of the blessed Trinity—spoken of as merely some power or influence, and not as a real Person having His own offices and distinct actions to perform, as have the Father and the Son, in the unity of the Eternal godhead. The Lord speaks of Him here in a marked and special way, distinct in His person as that of the Father and Himself. The Son had glorified the Father when on earth; the Spirit would glorify the Son (v. 14). He could say of Him, “When he is come!” Doubtless He had wrought at all times, even before the world was; and all the good that ever had been done on earth was performed by Him. In creation He had moved upon the face of the waters. By Him had souls been born again, since Adam departed from God. He had inspired the Lawgiver, and taught the prophets to sing their glorious strains; He had led hearts of the children of God to look onward, and wait until the promised Seed should come. Now there was a new thing about to take place. He was to come and take up His place on earth, to bring demonstration to the world of its great and final sin—the rejection of the Son of God; to tell of righteousness in heaven for all who found that there was none on earth, in man; to be by His presence the grand proof that the whole world was under judgment, with its prince, who was under sentence of it as its leader and its god.
But more: He would guide the disciples into all the truth. He would not speak from Himself (αφ’εαυτου), as some Spirit who spoke apart from the Godhead; but as the Son could do nothing from Himself (αφ’εαυτου), but as in concert with the Father who had sent Him, neither would the Spirit speak from Himself, but would, as one with the Father and the Son, equal with them, yet distinct in His workings, tell the disciples what He heard in those glorious plans, and thoughts, and purposes of the Godhead on high. He would, from the center of that unapproachable light where God Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—dwells, convey to the hearts of the disciples those wondrous things which God had prepared for Christ’s glory and for them that love Him, but which the eye of man had never seen, nor his ear had ever heard.
“He will show you things to come,” adds the Lord (v. 13). Not only would He carry down the secrets of God from on high to them, but also He would shed across the earth—now darkened with the cloud of coming judgment—the light of the lamp of Eternity, and allow those whom Jesus loved to read their glorious future in His own coming glory, revealing a bright and blessed portion when their waiting days were over, as members of that church which Jesus loved and sought as His bride—His Eve for the paradise of God.
As Eliezer, the steward of all the goods of Abraham, the servant and friend of his master, He would set out from his master’s house, across the desert of the world, taking of the goods of His master in His hand, to find a Rebekah for the true Isaac, and convey her across the waste to meet the Isaac of her heart, whom, though she had not seen Him, she had learned to love, and to rejoice at her prospect of His coming glory.
Let us examine the steps of this wondrous event, as forecasted by the Lord Jesus—the coming of the Holy Ghost, and His presence with His people.
We learn in John 14, for the first time, of Jesus going away to the Father’s house. Hitherto the disciples had, with true Jewish hearts, looked at their beloved Master as true sons of Israel. They expected Him to bring in the glorious kingdom of His father David, and be seen by a wondering and subject world; to reign and claim the homage of all hearts, whether of kings or people. What must have been the thoughts of that little company when they heard for the first time the solemn announcement from His lips, that He was about to leave them alone (Yet not alone.) How their hearts must have sunk within them at the words, that the One for whom they had left all—for whom all earthly ties were broken, to whom they had clung for three short years, their only Hope, Protector, and Friend—was now about to depart and leave them, as they felt, desolate.
He meets what was passing in their hearts with these words, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me.” God had been the object of their faith hitherto, and yet they had never seen Him; now they must learn to believe in like manner in their Messiah, as unseen. Look at Me, and in Me ye see the Father. Let all My words, and acts, and ways, and love be imprinted on your memories, for I am about to depart to the Father’s house, and, wielding all the resources of His love there, to watch over and dispense them unto you. “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever.”
Here was the announcement for the first time made, of One whose presence would be substituted for the Lord’s amongst His people. The Son, who had learned what best would suit them, would ask the Father to send them this other Comforter, who would never be taken away.
Further on in His discourse, He says that the Father would send this Comforter—the Holy Ghost—in His (the Son’s) name (v. 26), and He would teach them all things, and inspire their memories, bringing all things to their remembrance whatsoever He had said to them.
Again, in chapter 15, after He had left the upper chamber where He had told them of His going away, and of the rich provision for His absence which He would, with the Father, bestow; after He had said “Arise, let us go hence,” He says, speaking of those who had rejected. Him, “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. But that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, he shall testify of me; and ye—also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”
Mark now, that it is not merely the Son praying the Father, who would send another Comforter (chap. 14:16). Nor was it the Father sending the Holy Ghost in the Son’s name (chap. 14:26); but the Son Himself—as Man exalted, sending the Holy Ghost from the Father.
Mark also the twofold way in which He could act, as thus sent by the Lord. “He shall testify of me,” said the Lord. He would be the Dispenser of the glories and riches of Jesus from on high: the Witness of all that He had entered upon, and could bestow on man exalted. In this work Paul was the chosen vessel and channel in an after day. But He would do more. Jesus had walked amongst men; and there should be a record of that wondrous and blessed path from the lips and hearts of those who had walked with and had known the spotless Saviour. Hence the Lord says of this, turning to the eleven disciple’s. “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” Thus the two-fold witness would be borne of Him in whom was the Father’s good pleasure: the line of light would stream down from on high with the witness of Him who was there. And the Holy Ghost would retrace the footprints of Jesus through the wondering hearts of His inspired witnesses, and treasure them up in the Word for all who should thereafter believe.
Another step of His coming to this world to dwell is recorded in the 16th chapter, which we have a little anticipated. He would take of mine, said the Lord, and announce it unto you; and show you things to come. Not only would His testimony come downwards from the glory, and shine backwards, retrospectively, over the past, but He would display the things of the Son; His riches and glories, who possessed all that the Father had; and He would cast His divine and living light prospectively onwards, and show them things to come. How full was to be His offices and testimony of the absent Saviour! His past gracious, lowly path; His present exaltation, as waiting in the heavens; His riches there; His future glory: all these would be in the Spirit’s care, and the subject of His testimony, who would be sent down here in place of the absent Lord.
How immense, then, are the issues involved in the presence of the Spirit of God, personally on earth! How deep the importance that He should have His true and rightful place, in unhindered power! How solemn the thought that denies His presence practically, or in words. May His people ponder more deeply the great central truth of Christianity, after and next to the cross and its results and the exaltation of Him who hung there—the presence of the Holy Ghost with us here on earth, sent down from heaven at Pentecost, and remaining here on earth till Jesus comes again.
The 2nd chapter of Acts gives His advent, the fulfillment of the words of the blessed Lord. The day of Pentecost had fully come, and the promise was fulfilled. Peter’s words testify to these great facts— “This Jesus,” says he; “hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God, exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:32-3332This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. (Acts 2:32‑33)).