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John 16:4b–7a
“I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (v. 7a).
Pentecost was a decisive moment in redemptive history because on that day, the Father and the Son poured out the Holy Spirit in a fresh way on God’s people, empowering the entire church for ministry (Acts 2). The Spirit was present with the old covenant community, but His presence with the new covenant church in greater measure makes this era truly the “era of the Spirit.” To better understand the person and work of the Holy Spirit, we will spend a few days looking at Jesus’ teaching on the Spirit in John 16:4b–15.
Our Lord delivered this teaching during His Upper Room Discourse, the instruction He gave to His disciples on the night before He was crucified (see John 13–17). Jesus was about to die and the disciples were soon to enter a moment of intense tribulation wherein their faith would be severely tested, so the discourse shows us what He believed was most necessary for them to know to persevere in that dark hour. As we read the discourse, we see that it is focused on the themes of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and our union with Christ. Above all else, we need to know who God is and what benefits come to us in the Savior.
Jesus begins His remarks on the Spirit by explaining that it would be better for the disciples for Him to be physically absent than it would be for Him to remain. If He were not to depart, the Helper—the Holy Spirit—would not come (John 16:4b–7). In the outworking of God’s plan, He ordained that first the Son would come and then the Spirit. The Lord purposed to use His church in achieving the redemption of the world, not in the sense that we atone for sin and purchase eternal life but in the sense that His Spirit empowers His people to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). With Jesus’ return to heaven, the Spirit could come to make full use of the church in the work of God.
The coming of the Holy Spirit also represents the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that the Father and Son would make their home with those who love the Son and keep His word (John 14:23). This is because of the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; wherever the Spirit is present, the Father and Son are as well. Augustine of Hippo comments, “We [do not] believe that the Father is present without the Son and the Holy Spirit, or the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit, or the Son without the Father and the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son, or the Father and the Holy Spirit without the Son; but wherever any one of Them is, there also is the Trinity, one God.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
It can be easy to think that it would be better for us right now if Christ were bodily present with the church. Jesus said, however, that it is better for Him to be bodily absent but spiritually present with His people by the power of His Spirit. Jesus’ bodily presence at the right hand of God the Father means that we now enjoy the full privilege of being agents of the Holy Spirit to take the good news of salvation to all people.
For further study
- Isaiah 59:21
- Ezekiel 39:25–29
- John 20:22
- Romans 14:17
The bible in a year
- Exodus 11–12
- Matthew 18:21–35