Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 16:14

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show [it] unto you.

14. He shall glorify me ] Both pronouns are emphatic; ‘Me shall that Spirit of truth glorify.’ Just as the Son glorifies the Father by revealing Him (Joh 1:18; Joh 17:4) both in word and work, so does the Spirit glorify the Son by revealing Him. In both cases to reveal is necessarily to glorify: the more the Truth is known, the more it is loved and adored.

for he shall receive unto you ] Better, because He shall take of Mine and shall declare it to you. The verb rendered ‘receive’ is the same as that rendered ‘take’ in Joh 16:15, and ‘take’ is better, as implying that the recipient is not wholly passive ( lambanein, not dechesthai). Comp. Joh 10:17, Joh 12:48, Joh 20:22.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Shall glorify me – Shall honor me. The nature of his influence shall be such as to exalt my character and work in view of the mind.

Shall receive of mine – Literally, shall take of or from me. He shall receive his commission and instructions as an ambassador from me, to do my will and complete my work.

Shall show it – Shall announce or communicate it to you. This is always the work of the Spirit. All serious impressions produced by him lead to the Lord Jesus 1Co 12:3, and by this we may easily test our feelings. If we have been truly convicted of sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit, the tendency of all his influences has been to lead us to the Saviour; to show us our need of him; to reveal to us the loveliness of his character, and the fitness of his work to our needs; and to incline us to cast our eternal interests on his almighty arm, and commit all to his hands.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 16:14

He shall glorify Me

Christ glorified by the Spirit

This is the crowning and has been the constant work of the Spirit.

He glorified Christ in the prophecies, sacrifices and promises of the ancient economy, in the sinless humanity with which He clothed Him; in the public ministry to which He set Him apart; in the holy life He caused Him to live; in the sufferings He enabled Him to endure; in His glorious resurrection, ascension and triumphs in the day of Pentecost. But the text points beyond these. Our Lord referred to the spiritual illumination which would make men acquainted with Him, so that whereas He had before been treated ignominiously would in future be honoured for ever. The Spirit would lead men to glorify Christ

I. BY THE VIEWS WHICH HE WOULD ENLIGHTEN THEM TO ENTERTAIN OF HIM. This implies that there is in Christ that which no eye can discover until opened by the Spirit of God. This our Lord intimated to Peter–flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, &c. The illumination of the Spirit leads to a saving discovery of the glory of

1. Christs Person, into the mystery of Godliness.

2. His work of redemption.

3. His offices, as Prophet, Priest and King.

II. BY THE AFFECTIONS WHICH HE CAUSES HIS PEOPLE TO CHERISH TOWARDS HIM, which are highly honourable to Him.

1. Faith. What an honour to receive the trust of a redeemed world.

2. Gratitude.

3. Love.

4. Hope.

5. Joy.

Men are honoured by these affections; but we can only exercise them in part because of the defectiveness oft he worthiest objects. It is Christs glory to be worthy of them and to receive them completely.

III. BY THE SUPREMACY WHICH HE CLAIMS AND SECURES FOR HIM AMONG ALL THE CREATURES OF GOD. Christ is now supreme

1. Over every heart that is given to Him.

2. Over His own Church.

3. Over the world.

4. Over other worlds.

This supremacy will, under the guidance of the Spirit, be eventually acknowledged.

IV. BY THE LIFE WHICH HE INDUCES HIS PEOPLE TO LIVE FOR HIS SAKE. Let your light so shine, &c; Ye are not your own, &c. In this life the believer joyfully acquiesces. How honourable to Christ the lives of saintly men!

V. BY THE PRAISES WHICH SHALL COMPASS HIM ABOUT FOR EVER.

1. Of angels.

2. His redeemed.

3. Every creature.

Conclusion: If we would glorify Christ we must

1. Be taught by the Spirit.

2. Be quickened by the Spirit.

3. Be sanctified by the Spirit.

4. Submit to a supremacy which the Spirit claims for Christ.

5. Be made meet for the inheritance of the saints to light. (J. Morgan, D. D.)

The glory of Christ in the mission of the Holy Ghost

I. CONTEMPLATE THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT

1. He awakens the attention of the thoughtless and slumbering world to the truth of God.

2. He convinces of sin.

3. He regenerates the soul.

4. He is the Comforter.

II. THE GREAT AND DIVINE AGENT IS THE MESSENGER OF CHRIST.

III. HIS MISSION ILLUSTRATES THE GLORY OF CHRIST.

1. Furnishing additional proof of the great facts which form the substance of Christianity.

2. Giving efficacy to the work already accomplished by Christs death and resurrection.

3. Enabling us to form some estimate of the blessings Christ bestows.

4. Giving hope to the world, (G. Spring, D. D.)

The Holy Spirit glorifying Christ

We shall use our text

I. AS A TEST. There are a thousand things that claim to be of the Holy Ghost; how can we know whether they are or not? Here is a simple mode. Apply this test

1. To ministries. Now, there are some ministries which clearly are not of the Holy Ghost, because they

(1) Glorify ceremonies.

(2) Extol doctrine. Against a sound creed we have not a word to say; but still we must exalt Christ rather than Calvinism, or any other system of theology.

(3) Magnify a certain experience–If you have felt thus, and thus, no words of praise can be too strong for you; but if you have been led in another way, you never knew vital godliness at all. I say not a word against experimental preaching, but it must be experience about Christ.

(4) Exalt morality. If we will do this, and that, and the other we shall be saved. But if any man put the works of flesh before the finished work of Christ, his ministry is not of the Holy Ghost.

(5) And what might I say of many who produce their pretty little essays, and high-sounding periods, but that they are as sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal, inasmuch as they forget Christ. How bitterly shall we lament much of our ministry because it hath not glorified Christ on our dying beds. What joy it shall be to remember that, however feebly, we did extol Him.

2. To doctrine. Any teaching, whatever authority it may claim, which does not glorify Christ, is most assuredly false. Socinianism must be utterly abhorred of us, for it strikes at once at the Deity of our blessed Lord and Master. If, on the other hand, a doctrine layeth man in the dust and lifteth up Christ as a Saviour, the Alpha and Omega of salvation, you may safely say that is the Holy Ghosts doctrine, for He shall glorify Christ.

3. To the conviction through which a sinner passes. In the first dawn of our spiritual life, a mighty tempest of spiritual influence sweeps over the heart. The Holy Ghost is active, and the Prince of the Power of the air is active too. How, in this confusion, can a man know what part of his conviction is of God, and what part of the devil? You have a thought in your head that you are too great a sinner to be saved. That is not of the Holy Ghost, clearly, because it detracts from the power of Christ as a Saviour. I am not fit to come to Christ. Surely this is not of the Holy Ghost. What, are you to make yourself fit to come to Christ? Why that is making you a Christ But I heard Mr. So-and-So say, that when he was converted, he seemed to be dragged by the hair of his head to the very depths of hell, lost beyond the reach of mercy. No doubt that was his experience; but do you want to experience every piece of devilry that a good man has known? Much of what your friend felt was not of God, but of his own corrupt heart. If the Lord brings thee to put thy soul just as it is into the hands of the Redeemer, honouring him by a childlike trust, thou hast an experience infinitely more precious than the ravings of thy proud heart could ever yield thee.

4. To what is called experience. Much of the experience of a Christian is not Christian experience. If any person should mount the platform and inform us that he had been five times tried at the Old Bailey, you would say, Well, you may have experienced that disgrace, but it is not fair to call it human experience. So, a Christian man may fall into great darkness, and sin. But if he shall set up his darkness and sin as being Christian experience, we say, No; you may be a Christian and know all this, but we cannot allow you to decide our spiritual state according to your peculiar method of feeling. When we get to that which cometh from beneath we ought to say Oh! wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. That only which glorifies Christ is true Christian experience.

5. To ourselves. Art thou saved or not? If saved, the tenor of thy life is to glorify Christ. What sayest thou in looking back? And what about the present and the future?

II. A DIRECTION. How are we to glorify Christ? We must have the Holy Spirit. Let our text, then

1. Be sanctified to our humiliation. Here are we saved, and yet such weak things that we cannot glorify Christ without the Holy Ghost. Thou hast ten talents, but those ten talents shall make thee ten times a worse defaulter to thy Master unless the Holy Ghost help thee.

2. Be an excitement to earnest prayer.

3. Teach us entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit. All the farmers in England cannot make it leave off raining, but when it does leave off, and the sun shines, they can get their wheat in as quick as they can. All the sailors on the ocean cannot make a capful of wind; but when the wind does blow they can crowd on every yard of canvas. So all the Christians in the world cannot make the Holy Spirit work. The wind bloweth where it listeth, &c., but when we have the Holy Spirit, we can use Him; when He is with us we can work.

III. A STIMULUS. Does the Holy Ghost glorify Christ? Then

1. How should we aim to do it! You have been in a large way of business. Could you say that your object was to honour Christ in it? You have come down in the world; but suppose you can glorify God more. Then you are in a better position than you used to be.

2. While we make this our aim, let us take every opportunity of glorifying Christ. We throw thousands of opportunities away. Whether ye work at a lapstone, or drive a plough, or lay the stones in a building, or are diligent with the pen, or buy and sell, do all, even to your eating or your drinking, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and so, like the Holy Spirit, let it be said of you, He shall glorify Me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Holy Spirit the Revealer of Christ

We are living in the dispensation of the Spirit. What does that mean? It means that we are living on a higher plane than ever has been occupied before. We gather this

1. From a comparison of this dispensation with others that have preceded it. True religion is more widely disseminated in this than it has been in any preceding dispensation.

2. We know that this Dispensation is an advance, because God Himself is advance–progress. He never goes backward.

3. The same fact is clear from the structure of Scripture.

4. The whole historic development of man, looked at in the line of the plan of redemption, is clearly enough in this upward direction. The work of God is from matter toward spirit. The child leaves his playthings behind, and comes to despise them. The college student turns his back on the pleasures and games of his boyhood. The professional man has forgotten the rivalries of college life–as narrow as its walls; and the mellowed and matured philosopher lives already amid the peace and the power of invisible scenes, and draws from above and beyond him the springs of incentive and action. The same principle holds throughout nature. Time and again our attention is drawn to the fact that there is an invisible world, and that that invisible world bears down upon and overpowers the visible. That thought and feeling and volition are stronger than substance and quality and force, and that from within what is unseen and supersensible and supernatural flow the upper springs of all inferior energy and action.

5. But we are not left to gather up an inference from observation, nor speculation, nor from logic. Our Saviour Himself now assures us, that if we believe in Him we shall do greater works than even those which He performed on earth, and that we shall do them precisely because He goes to the Father.

I. THE ONE ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION IS THE REVELATION OF CHRIST. How essential this is may be gathered from reason, from conscience, and from the light of the Scriptures.

1. From reason. Nowhere, outside the radius of Christianity, is there either holiness or peace. Look at Africa. Look at China. He who knows anything of the history of moral light knows that it has followed, as its centre, the planting of the cross of Christ–that just as races have receded from the light of God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, so they have sunken to a brutish level, and have died in the distractions of an utter unrest.

2. Conscience affirms the same truth. Conscience, in every man, says: You are guilty! You are a sinner! God is holy. He cannot acquit! Conscience, whatever modern thought may say, cries–Eternal Justice is Eternal Fact, and God is just; and How can justice clear the guilty? and to this cry of conscience is no answer but in Christ and in the sacrifice of Christ.

3. And these deductions of our reason and our conscience are confirmed by Scripture. Now the Bible affirms. It comes straight out and says: Apart from the knowledge of Christ there is no salvation.

II. THE HOLY GHOST IS THE ONLY REVEALER OF CHRIST. He alone makes Christ glorious. The Holy Ghost has given us all the knowledge that we have of Jesus Christ. Where do we get that knowledge? How do we know that there is such a thing as a Saviour? From the Bible. Outside the covers of this Book there is not a hint of a Christ. And whence came the Bible? It was inspired. Who inspired it? God, the Holy Ghost. Not only so, but, with the Bible in our hands, how can we know anything of Christ, save as the Spirit reveals Him? Miracle never changed any man. Appearances–like that of the angels to Abraham. Abraham saw Christs day. How did he see it? By illumination–by the Holy Ghost. Moses recognized God at Horeb. How? By the fire? No, but by God speaking out of the midst of the bush. Ezekiel was transformed at Chebar. How? By the wheels? No, but the Spirit, he says, entered in me. Israel was to be revived under Elijah. How? By the wind? By the earthquake? By the fire? By any sensible or ocular demonstration? No; but by the still small voice. That was the lesson taught to the prophet. The same fact comes out in the New Testament. How many saw Christ–touched Christ–said they believed on Christ in the flesh, who never went beyond impressions of their outward senses. What makes a Christian is the spiritual apprehension of Christ, and the Holy Ghost alone can reveal Him. Take the Levitical sacrifices how without these could we explain the Atonement? Yet only a few who read them under the Old Dispensation saw Christ in these Scriptures, and why? Because they needed more than the most perfect description. They needed light on the light. They needed, like David, to have their eyes opened to see wondrous things out of Gods law. The same thing is true of the New Testament. The Holy Ghost reveals Christ. He glorifies Christ. Notice: He does not create Christ; He shows Him. When we were sailing in the Grecian Archipelago we came, at dawn of day, to the Island of Rhodes. At first we saw only a grey indistinctness–the shapeless outline of vast rocks rising out of the water. Then as the sun came up, how glorious! There lay the harbour once bestridden by the famous Colossus, the sapphire ripplings of the water touched with rose and gold–the ships, the flappings of their sails stirred lightly by the morning breeze. There stretched away the green fields and the mountains round which poetry had thrown her charm; midway in the perspective rose the ancient castellated ramparts of the fortress of the Knights of St. John, all flashing, glowing, burning, touched and transfigured by the ministry of light. That which doth make manifest is light. The Holy Ghost is the only revealer of Jesus. And the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ or reveals Him in His true glory now, as He could not possibly do were Christ present. The apostles loved Christ too much, as the carnal loves the carnal. That is the error of Rome, with her crucifixes, her Mass, and her sensuous ecstasies. Read the memoirs of Santa Teresa and of St. John of the Cross, and you will find the love they express for the Saviour is sensuous–carnal There is something lurid about it. You are afraid of it. It was necessary that that sort of thing should be broken–that there should come an experience, which, permit me to say it, should emancipate Christ–should burst the tomb and the grave-clothes, and set Him Infinite, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Heavenly–working above, as ever in, and through His Church–an experience like that of St. Paul when he says: Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. We only know Him as the Spirit reveals Him. You have known a man by his clothes–by his face–now you come to know him by his character. Something reveals him in his abilities, in his integrity, in his truth, as your friend. The Holy Ghost reveals Christ. But let us come closer; the ulterior and special object of the Spirits revelation is Gods glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

III. He shall glorify MAKE ME GLORIOUS. St. Paul expands our Saviours statement in these words: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The world without Christ, or Christ in twilight–beneath the dawn-line of the Old Testament–beneath the histories, and types, and prophecies–beneath the horizon of an Arctic winter, and then, and all at once, and for ever, the Sun of Righteousness is visible perfection of His glory–the Mystery of Godliness–the Day-spring from on high! The statement of this point involves, of course, three. That there is such a thing as the knowledge of the glory of God–that this knowledge is unfolded in the face of Jesus Christ, and that it comes by a Divine in-shining.

1. The knowledge of the glory of God. If God be God, He is glorious, for glory is manifested excellence, and God is most excellent, and cannot be hid. The glory of God is not only His greatness, but the equipoise of His character. Satan is great, i.e., in faculties, but he is in no wise glorious, but infamous, because of the defect of his character. Gods glory is the equipoise of His attributes. With Him nowhere is there too much–nowhere a deficit. It is important to put emphasis upon the fact before us, because the effort of to-day is to destroy the balance of the attributes of God–to posit in that justice, for example–and in measurement and in adjustment everything comes back to the straight line–that justice in God is a merely optional attribute. How can God, says one of our modem neologians, how can God be free if He be the slave of His own justice? As well ask, How can I be free if I cannot rid myself of my backbone? I am the slave, then, of my backbone. But how can I be a man and have no backbone? For God to be free from His justice would be for Him to be free from Himself as moral, and therefore immoral; for justice is simply looking on things as they are, and treating them accordingly, and to deny this is to deny rectitude, and to deny rectitude is to deny God and make Him immoral. Justice optional! What should we think of a man to whom it were optional to be just, or to be unjust? The moral grandeur of God is His balance, His poise, that He rights Himself. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

2. The glory of God then, as it stands revealed in vast concentric haloes, circles upon circles of immeasurable excellence, is at its brightest spot–its centre–and when focalized and gathered to one burning-point, nothing more, nothing less than conciliation of justice and grace. How can God be just and justify the guilty? lies at the root of the gospel. The answer to that question is the gospel, and Christ on the cross is its sum. Christ on the cross, not Christ in pre-existence, transcending thought as is the mystery of everlasting generation. Not Christ again in all the grand kaleidoscopic aspects of His ministry, as miracles spring up beneath His footsteps like fresh flowers. Not Christ in any, nor in all, these revelations, glorious as they are, but still subordinate, but Christ upon the tree. It was there seen that God could not swerve–that sin must be punished. What is the upshot of this? The upshot is that from the instant you and I look away to Christ as our Substitute, we are eternally saved. Is not that glorious? Bursts there not a glory from that torn flesh which hangs and writhes upon those ragged nails, which challenges all suns to rival it in splendour? Is not here Gods glory focalized, as it swings low and kisses even your and my horizon? When we were at the North Cape, at midnight, a French gentleman took out a sun-glass and burned a hole in his hat with it. Low as the sun was, he was still clothed with all his burning power. So it was with our Saviour on the cross. For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth.

3. This glory hath in-shined–that is the third point. It hath shined not historically–not in the face of a physical Christ, although these, of course, are included; but through the veil of the heart. Christs glory to mere worldly men is a veiled glory; the veil says the Apostle, is upon their heart. That veil has been rent–not from our side–from Gods side. God hath shined in–not into the world only, that is not enough–could not be, for the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. Into believing hearts God hath shined. It is not simply knowledge, but it is the light of the knowledge. It is not Church instruction, but heart-work–interior regeneration. When it pleased God, says Paul, to reveal His Son within me, immediately I took no conference flesh and blood.

How then do we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

1. One way, by faith. Faith is the great opened eye of the soul.

2. Another way the light shines in us is by the witness of the Spirit. What is that witness if not a supernatural spiritual emphasis put on the assurances and promises of God, which makes them true to us without a question?

3. A third way light shines in is by consciousness. Consciousness of breathing goes with breathing. Consciousness of walking goes with walking. Consciousness of life and vigour goes with power. A man full of the Holy Ghost knows what he is full of, and that he is not empty. He knows that his light is not darkness–that his joy is not despair, and that his power is something other and more than physical elation or physical energy. Can He not, through some interior eye which we know not, and for which we have no name, pour into us the radiance of His own infinite glory, though He be the King invisible, whom no man has seen, nor can see? Can He not manifest Himself to the eye of interior consciousness with a distinctness of spiritual presence as satisfying as that which His bodily form gave to the external vision of His disciples? This revelation of Christ–fresh revelation I mean, satisfying our souls, filling, flooding–enlarging us with the light, and the love, and the joy, and the strength of the Lord is what we need. (G. S. Bishop, D. D.)

The promise of the Spirit–the fulness of Christ

He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, &c., might be liable to misconstruction, and indicate that Christ would have Himself to be glorified, apart from the Father, and His own fulness drawn upon independently. As if to obviate this, Christ hastens to account for His having said it. It is of the Fathers after all that He takes, when He takes of Mine. It is the Father whom He glorifies when He glorifies Me. But the Lord had undoubtedly another reason. It is for their sakes, rather than His own, that He announces this truth, I would not have said that were it not that all things which the Father hath are Mine; for otherwise it would have been poor consolation to you. We are therefore naturally led, first, to consider what Christ has before examining the promise concerning what the Holy Ghost is to do.
The Lord might say, All things that the Father hath are Mine, in respect of

I. HIS ORIGINAL GODHEAD; and but for this He could not, without blasphemy, have said it. This the Jews well understood, when, for similar language, they took up stones to stone Him, and when they cried out at His trial, He hath spoken blasphemy. For it is impossible to explain away this claim of a right of property in all that is the Fathers, or to justify it if made by a creature. Often, during the days of His flesh, do we find Him dwelling with a holy and blessed complacency on thoughts connected with His being in the bosom of the Father.

II. HIS SUFFERING MANHOOD. It is this consideration, indeed, which makes the statement practically important in its application to us, viz., as being in our nature. Such is the glory of His person, as combining the Divine nature with the human; and such the value of His work that whatsoever is comprehended in the fulness of the Godhead is centred in the Man Christ Jesus, considered as obedient to the Father, even unto death. And as the recompense of that work, He receives, in His human nature, an interest in all that the Father hath. Hence the blessedness of His assurance, that as the Son of Man He has power on earth to forgive sins. Hence also the value of that deed of grant, by which, as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, that the Son also may quicken whom He will. And hence the importance of the Fathers surrender, as it were, of the right of rule or judgment into the hands of the Son, for this very reason, that He is the Son of Man. These are among the things which the Father has, and these He has given to the Son. Now, in respect of His original Godhead, these things cannot be said to be given to Him. They belong to Him by necessity of nature. But as the Son of Man He receives this threefold prerogative as the gift of the Father.

III. HIS HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH. In one sense, it is true, even as regards the wicked, that all things which the Father hath, He hath given unto the Son. The impenitent and unbelieving are consigned to His disposal; and on Him it devolves to award and inflict eternal judgment. But it is His own people that Christ has chiefly in His eye here.

1. They themselves belong to the Father. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me. All that the Father giveth Me, shall come unto thee. All that the Father has are dear to Him as belonging to the Father, and as the gift of the Father, pledged to Him in the everlasting covenant, and bestowed in recompense of His making His soul an offering for sin.

2. And taking this people as His own, uniting Himself to them, identifying Himself with them, He says All things that the Father hath are Mine, for them, as His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. For them, when He ascended up on high, He received gifts. He has righteousness for them so that in Him the righteous God is well pleased. He has life with the Father, so that they may live also. He has the everlasting love of the Father. So that the love wherewith the Father hath loved Him may be in them. He has glory that they may behold the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Conclusion: The Father entrusts His all to Christ, and so surely we might venture to entrust our all to Him. The Fathers glory is safe in His keeping; the Fathers riches of wisdom and grace and love are well and wisely expended by Him. Is it to such a Saviour that you, oh sinner, will hesitate about committing your soul? If He can take charge of all that is the Fathers as His own, may He not take charge of all that is yours? (J. S. Candlish, D. D.)

The promise of the Spirit–taking and showing what is Christs

In the words, He shall receive of Mine, &c., the Spirit stands in a twofold relation and discharges a twofold function–towards Christ on the one hand, and toward His believing people on the other.

I. HE SHALL TAKE OR RECEIVE OF MINE.

1. He is well entitled to take of what is Christs, because He is Himself a Divine person. The manner in which the Holy Ghost is here associated with the Father and the Son clearly shows that tie is such. In truth, for any other than a Divine Person to take part in this transaction were a liberty not to be tolerated. But the Holy Ghost, being Himself God, is a party to the whole arrangement by which all things that the Father hath become Christs: nay, more, He is a party to the carrying of that arrangement into effect. For consider how large a share the Holy Ghost had in the whole of that mediatorial work of Christ, which is the main ground of His saying, All things that the Father hath are Mine. His very coming into the world was by the Holy Ghost, by whom a body was prepared for Him. He was anointed by the Holy Ghost without measure, for the doing of His Fathers will. Through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself, without spot, to God; and He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness. In all the critical circumstances of His arduous undertaking, in His birth, His baptism, &c., the Holy Ghost stood by Him sustaining His human soul, and conveying to it the Fathers love.

2. Nor is He less qualified and able, than He is entitled, to receive of what is Christs. For, having been with the Father and the Son in the ordering of the plan from all eternity, and having been with Christ all along in the accomplishment of it, He searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God: and in dealing with what is Christs, He is in His element, so to speak, and at home (Joh 16:13). He can make us know the things which are freely given to us of God; past, present, and future; opening our eyes to behold wondrous things out of Gods law.

3. He is One whom Christ is, altogether willing to have taking of His. It is not a stranger who disposes of anothers property, or builds on anothers foundation. It is no rash or rude hand, indifferent to His interest or honour, that rifles His treasury and steals from His unsearchable riches. He shall glorify Me, says Christ Himself. He is of My council, and His sole aim is to carry out My work and to exalt My name.

II. WHAT THE SPIRIT THUS TAKES OR RECEIVES OF CHRISTS, HE SHOWS TO HIS PEOPLE.

1. What kind of showing is it that we need? How is it that what the Spirit takes of Christs must be revealed? Will it suffice to set before our eyes what is to be shown? Alas! the experience of the Lords actual sojourn here below gives but a sad reply. Nor is the case altered now. In the written Word, in the preaching of the gospel, in all the means and ordinances by which Christ and His salvation are brought before the minds of men and pressed upon their regard, the Holy Ghost is taking of what is Christs and showing it, and every time you open the Bible, or wait on the preaching of Christ crucified, if you continue unaffected and unmoved, you are resisting the Spirit. But there must be a showing of another kind; a work of discovery within, an opening of the eye of the carnal mind; a dispelling of the darkness of the evil heart, that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ may shine. Now for this kind of showing, the Holy Ghost is the fitting agent. For being pure Spirit, He has access immediately to your spirits: and being almighty, He turns them whithersoever He will.

2. Mark the progress of the Spirits work, in showing you what He takes of Christs.

(1) Call to mind the first awakening of your soul to the apprehension of things divine. Think on the time, when, after a sudden and decided call perhaps, or a slower and more doubtful process of conviction, you have felt as if, all at once, the clouds broke and the sky cleared. What of Christs was it that the Spirit was then showing you? Did He not show you the Son obedient, and the Father well pleased: the righteous and holy love of God, which is Christs as the reward of His obedience unto death, in all its fulness and freeness?

(2) Or again, if you go back to any season of peculiar spiritual prosperity, what was it that quickened your holy graces, filled you with hatred of sin, and made duties a delight? What did the Spirit show to you of Christs then? What of holy beauty, or meek endurance, or tender sympathy in Christ? What of venerable authority and benignant complacency in God His Father?

(3) Learn to note in some such way as this the agency of the Holy Spirit in you, by observing what it is that He shows you of Christs and of the Fathers, in the critical periods of your Christian pilgrimage. See how He has used the unsearchable riches of Christ for the satisfying of your wants; how in your ignorance He has opened to you the riches of His wisdom and knowledge; in your waywardness and backsliding; the riches of His forbearance in your grief and despondency the riches of His grace; and amid the terrors of death the riches of His glory. Thus you will be able to stir up the gift that is in you, and to improve the Spirits gracious dealings with you to the uttermost.

3. Observe as an encouragement how this whole work of the Spirit is carried on, not against, but by means of our natural faculties of understanding and conscience. If He shows you must look. It is in the Word that Christ is set forth. Let the Word of Christ then dwell in you richly. Then will the Spirit be ever showing you out of the word by His inward teaching, more and more of what is Christs and opening your eyes more and more to behold wondrous things out of His law. And this the rather because

4. The work is according to the mind of Christ. He is the Spirit of Christ–the Spirit that dwelt in Him. And if the very Spirit that dwelt in Christ, and was intimately cognisant of all that passed through His soul in all His life of sorrows, and His death of shame, and His resurrection to glory, dwell in you; have you not here a connecting link which will give you a quick understanding and discernment of all that is Christs, and cause you to realize it as your own?

Conclusion:

1. The doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity is brought out in this, as it generally is in other passages of the Word, not abstractly and in the way of a naked statement of the truth, but practically, and with reference to what they severally do in the economy of grace.

2. The manner of intercourse between heaven and earth is here presented. The chain is formed–fixed on the throne of God at one end, twined round your heart at the other–waiting but the touch of the heavenly fire, the swift and secret influence of the Heavenly Spirit, to make it all instinct with life and meaning, so that signs and tokens may pass between. The ladder is set–reaching from the sanctuary above to the sanctuary of every church, home, and closet. And not angels only are ascending and descending on this ladder, which is none other than the mediation of the Son of Man–but the Lord Himself–the Spirit-As moving to and fro, communicating the fulness of the Father, through the Son. (J. S.Candlish, D. D.)

The Holy Spirit revealing the things of Christ

As the page may bear upon its surface writings traced in viewless ink, which are there, and yet are aa if they were not, until the nearness of the fire shall call them out into a new distinctness, so may all truth be written on the mind of man, and yet be dead and meaningless, until called into power and being by the falling on it of these rays of the heavenly fire; and then every word of Scripture, every voice of God in His Church, every sacrament, comes forth into shape and completeness, as Christ is seen by the soul to be there. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

That is, he shall make me famous in the world; as by the extraordinary gifts which he shall dispense and give out, so particularly by showing you things to come: for he shall guide and lead you into no other truth, but that which I have revealed, or which it is my will he should make known and reveal.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

14. He shall glorify me; for heshall receive of mine and show it unto youThus the wholedesign of the Spirit’s office is to glorify Christnot in His ownPerson, for this was done by the Father when He exalted Him to Hisown right handbut in the view and estimation of men. For thispurpose He was to “receive of Christ“all thetruth relating to Christ“and show it unto them,“or make them to discern it in its own light. The subjectivenature of the Spirit’s teachingthe discovery to the souls of menof what is Christ outwardlyis here very clearly expressed;and, at the same time, the vanity of looking for revelations of theSpirit which shall do anything beyond throwing light in the soul uponwhat Christ Himself is, and taught, and did upon earth.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

He shall glorify me,…. In the ministration of the Gospel, which is “the ministration of the Spirit”, 2Co 3:8; and asserts Christ to be God over all, to have all that the Father hath, to be possessed of all divine perfections, to have the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him; ascribes the same works and worship to him as to, the Father; and, as in a glass, holds him forth to be beheld as the brightness of his glory, and his glory to be seen in it, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth: it declares him to be the only Saviour and Redeemer of lost sinners, that justification is solely by his righteousness, pardon by his blood, and atonement by his sacrifice; and which ministration the Spirit makes effectual to the bringing of many souls to Christ to believe in him, profess his name, and expect life and salvation from him, by all which he is glorified. Moreover, the Spirit of God glorifies Christ in the experience of the saints, by leading them to him for righteousness, peace, and pardon, for grace, and fresh supplies of it, for wisdom and strength, for food and rest, for life and happiness; and by enabling them to live by faith on him, on whom he has encouraged them to venture, and to whom they have committed their all; and by instructing them to glory in him, as their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; and by ascribing the glory of their salvation to him, and by making continual application to him, under his direction and influence; by leaning on him, and expecting every good thing from him both for time and eternity. The particular instance in which he glorifies Christ, follows,

for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you; which is to be understood not of gifts Christ received from his Father, and which he gives to men by his Spirit; nor of internal grace, as faith, love, c. which the Spirit from Christ works in the hearts of men but either of the doctrines of the Gospel, the deep things of God and Christ, which the Spirit searches, and reveals in the ministration of the word. The Gospel is a sort of a “Kabala”, though of a different kind from the oral law of the Jews. Christ received it from the Father, the Spirit received it from Christ, the apostles received it from the Spirit, and the churches of Christ from them in succeeding generations: or this may be understood of the blessings of grace held forth in the Gospel, such as justification, pardon, adoption, c. which are in Christ and which the Spirit from Christ takes and shows to the saints, and witnesses their special and particular interest in, and so comforts them, and glorifies Christ.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He shall glorify me ( ). This is the glory of the Holy Spirit, to glorify Jesus Christ.

For he shall take of mine ( ). Future middle of and a definite promise of the Spirit’s guidance in interpreting Christ. One need only refer to Peter’s sermon at pentecost after the coming of the Holy Spirit, to Peter’s Epistles, to Paul’s Epistles, to Hebrews, to John’s Epistles, to see how under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit the disciples grew into the fulness of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ (2Co 6:4).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Shall receive [] . Rev., take. See on 3 32.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “He shall glorify me;” (ekeinos eme doksasei) “That one will glorify me:” It is the Spirit’s office work to point to Jesus Christ, not to Himself. For “the testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit (pneuma, meaning breath) of prophecy,” Rev 19:10.

2) “For he shall receive of mine,” (hoti ek tou emou lempsetai) “Because he shall receive out of and from mine,” all that relates to my person as Savior, Redeemer, Messiah, Lord, Priest, and coming King; For “ye are (exist as) complete in Him,” Col 2:10.

3) “And shall shew it unto you.” (kai anangelei humin) “And he will announce or disclose it to you all,” by direction, by suggestion, and by illumination, He helps men to understand their needs, then points them, through the Word, to Jesus Christ who supplies all and every need, 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27; Rev 3:7-8; Rev 4:7. Every action of the Spirit empowered church in the early years of Her empowerment attest His glory.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

14. He will glorify me Christ now reminds them that the Spirit will not come to erect any new kingdom, but rather to confirm the glory which has been given to him by the Father. For many foolishly imagine that Christ taught only so as to lay down the first lessons, and then to send the disciples to a higher school. In this way they make the Gospel to be of no greater value than the Law, of which it is said that it was a schoolmaster of the ancient people, (Gal 3:24.)

This error is followed by another equally intolerable, that, having bid adieu to Christ, as if his reign were terminated, and he were now nothing at all, they substitute the Spirit in his place. From this source the sacrileges of Popery and Mahometanism have flowed; for, though those two Antichrists differ from each other in many respects, still they agree in holding a common principle; and that is, that in the Gospel we receive the earliest instructions to lead us into the right faith, (97) but that we must seek elsewhere the perfection of doctrine, that it may complete the course of our education. If Scripture is quoted against the Pope, he maintains that we ought not to confine ourselves to it, because the Spirit is come, and has carried us above Scripture by many additions. Mahomet asserts that, without his Alcoran, men always re-main children. Thus, by a false pretense of the Spirit, the world was bewitched to depart from the simple purity of Christ; for, as soon as the Spirit is separated from the word of Christ, the door is open to all kinds of delusions and impostures. A similar method of deceiving has been attempted, in the present age, by many fanatics. The written doctrine appeared to them to be literal, and, therefore, they chose to contrive a new theology that would consist of revelations.

We now see that the information given by Christ, that he would be glorified by the Spirit whom he should send, is far from being superfluous; for it was intended to inform us, that the office of the Holy Spirit was nothing else than to establish the kingdom of Christ, and to maintain and confirm for ever all that was given him by the Father. Why then does he speak of the Spirit’s teaching? Not to withdraw us from the school of Christ, but rather to ratify that word by which we are commanded to listen to him, otherwise he would diminish the glory of Christ. The reason is added, Christ says,

For he will take of what is mine. By these words he means that we receive the Spirit in order that we may enjoy Christ’s blessings. For what does he bestow on us? That we may be washed by the blood of Christ, that sin may be blotted out in us by his death, that our old man may be crucified, (Rom 6:6,) that his resurrection may be efficacious in forming us again to newness of life, (Rom 6:4😉 and, in short, that we may become partakers of his benefits. Nothing, therefore, is bestowed on us by the Spirit apart from Christ, but he takes it from Christ, that he may communicate it to us. We ought to take the same view of his doctrine; for he does not enlighten us, in order to draw us away in the smallest degree from Christ, but to fulfill what Paul says, that Christ is made to us wisdom, (1Co 1:30,) and likewise to display those treasures which are hidden in Christ, (Col 2:3.) In a word, the Spirit enriches us with no other than the riches of Christ, that he may display his glory in all things.

(97) “ Les premieres instructions pour estre amenez a la droite foy.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(14) He shall glorify me.The pronoun is here full of emphasis. The thought is that the future guidance of the Spirit promised in Joh. 16:13, will be the revelation of the many things of Christ Himself which they cannot bear now (Joh. 16:12).

For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.Better, as in Joh. 16:13, . . . . announce it unto you. This is the test of the Spirit, Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God. (Comp. Notes on 1Jn. 4:1-2.) The revelation of Christ is not an imperfect revelation which the Holy Spirit is to supplement. It is a full revelation imperfectly received, and His office is to illumine the heart, and bring home to it the things of Christ.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. Shall glorify me The Spirit shall exhibit the Son in all his Messianic glory, as Head of the Church, and Judge of the world. Nay, he shall exhibit him as possessing “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Col 2:9.)

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Joh 16:14-15 . For me , with a view to glorify me ( , with emphasis), will the Paraclete, as is said in Joh 16:13 , operate, for the advancement of my among men, since He will announce to you nothing else than what is mine , what according to the identity of substance is my truth, of which I am the possessor and disposer. [179] Justly do I designate the divine truth, which He is to announce, as my property, since all that the Father has, i.e . according to the context, the whole truth possessed by the Father (Col 2:3 ), belongs properly to me , as to the Son, who was in intuitive fellowship with the Father (Joh 1:18 ), went forth from the Father (Joh 8:42 ), was consecrated (Joh 10:36 ) and sent for the accomplishment of His work, and, moreover, continually lives and moves in the Father, and the Father in Him. Comp. Joh 17:10 . Calvin, in opposition to the ontological interpretation, well observes, that Christ speaks: “de injuncto sibi erga nos officio .” Note further, the emphatic, all-embracing , . . ., as major premiss in the argument from the universal to the particular; hence all the less is Joh 16:14 to be referred, with Grotius and Hengstenberg, merely to the announcement of what is future .

] Conceived as a constant relation.

[179] Every claim that anything belongs to what Christ terms must necessarily, according to the analogia fidei , be measured by His and His disciples’ extant word ; hence the present passage, in like manner, as ver. 13, excludes all the pretended claims of fanaticism.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1703
THE OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT TO GLORIFY CHRIST

Joh 16:14. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

MANY imagine that the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ is founded on some few passages only of Holy Writ, on passages too which may possibly be of doubtful interpretation. But the truth is, that that doctrine pervades the whole New Testament; so that scarcely any part of it can be fairly explained except on the hypothesis, that Christ is God. Take for instance the passage before us. Our blessed Saviour told his Disciples that he would send to them the Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, who should guide them into all truth, and shew them things to come [Note: ver. 7, 13.]. But is he a man, or a mere created being, that arrogates to himself this power? Of that Spirit he proceeds to say, He shall glorify me. What language is this? Does a creature say, he will send the Spirit of the living God to glorify him? That God should send a creature for the advancement of his own glory, is intelligible enough: but that a creature should send God for the advancement of his glory, is what no rational being would for a moment admit. But further; our Saviour adds, He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. What! Has a creature any thing that he can call his own; and which is of so mysterious a nature, that it cannot be known, except God himself shall make it the subject of a special revelation? And has he such an exclusive propriety in that thing, that it must be acknowledged to be his, at the very time that God is taking of it in order to shew it unto men? This was so strong an assertion of his Godhead, that the Disciples themselves appear to have been staggered at it; on which account our Lord proceeded to vindicate and confirm the expression he had used: All that the Father hath, is mine: therefore said I that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you [Note: ver. 15.].

The whole declaration, if viewed in this light only, is of infinite importance: but, without insisting on this doctrine, which only incidentally arises out of the text, we shall turn our attention to the doctrines more directly contained in it; and shall shew you,

I.

The office of the Spirit

The whole of our Saviours life was a state of humiliation: the establishing of his proper character was committed to the third Person in the everblessed Trinity, who was in due time to come down from heaven for the express purpose of glorifying Christ. In what way he was to glorify Christ, is specified in the text; he was to take, as it were, all the excellencies of Christ, and to display them before the eyes of all his people. Among these excellencies we will mention a few, which are deserving of more especial notice:

1.

The virtue of his sacrifice

[Man, as soon as he begins to be truly convinced of sin, is apt to doubt whether his iniquities be not too great to be forgiven. But the Holy Spirit discovers to him from the word, that the death of Christ was a propitiation, not for the sins of a few only, but for the sins of the whole world; that his blood has an efficacy to cleanse from all sin; and that all who believe in him shall be justified from all things, even from sins of a scarlet or crimson dye. How glorious does Christ then appear in the sinners eyes!]

2.

The prevalence of his intercession

[After a person has believed in Christ, he still is renewed only in part; the flesh still lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that he cannot do the things that he would. Hence he is sometimes led to fear that God will cast him off, and be no more entreated by him. Then the Holy Spirit shews him that Christ is his Advocate with the Father [Note: 1Jn 2:1-2.], and that he ever liveth in heaven on purpose to make intercession for him. He convinces him that Christ can never intercede in vain, for that him the Father heareth always; and that consequently the backslider, as well as the newlyawakened sinner, shall be saved to the uttermost, if only he look to Christ as his allprevailing Advocate and Mediator. Thus the Spirit still further endears the Saviour to the believing soul.]

3.

The sufficiency of his grace

[Conflicts innumerable both with sin and Satan will still remain, even such conflicts as may bring the believer sometimes to the borders of despair. But then the Spirit again proceeds in his work of glorifying Christ: he shews the soul, that there is, by the Fathers own appointment, an inexhaustible fulness of grace treasured up in Christ [Note: Col 2:9.] out of which his people shall receive all the grace that they shall stand in need of [Note: Joh 1:16.]: and that, whatever their conflicts or temptations may be, his grace shall be sufficient for them [Note: 2Co 12:9.]. How precious does Christ then become, when the believer, after crying, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? is enabled to add, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord [Note: Rom 7:24-25.]: In the Lord have I righteousness and strength [Note: Isa 45:24-25.]!]

4..

The extent of his love

[Of this no finite being can form any adequate idea; much less can the language of mortality express it. But in some degree it is the privilege of all saints to have it revealed to them by the Spirit. The times and seasons, as well as the manner and degree, of making this revelation to the soul, are altogether ordered by that Spirit who divideth to every man severally as he will. Generally it is in some season of trial or affliction, and by means either of some remarkable providence, or of the written word, that he thus glorifies Christ: but, O! when he does take of the love of Christ, and discover unto men its length and breadth and depth and height [Note: Eph 3:17-18.], what joy and transport does he impart! truly it is a joy that is unspeakable and glorified; a very heaven upon earth. Such manifestations of the Saviours glory cannot be made to the world, because the world has no dispositions suited to them: but to the believer they are made; and they produce in him a determination of heart to consecrate himself wholly and for ever to the Lord.]

5.

The greatness of his salvation

[Salvation, when first embraced, is regarded almost exclusively as a deliverance from everlasting punishment. But when the Spirit of God brings it more fully to our view, how amazing does it appear: and how glorious does that Saviour appear who has obtained it for us! The renovation of the soul after the Divine image, and the investing of it with all the glory and felicity of heaven, a glory inconceivable, a felicity everlasting; truly salvation, in this view of it, overwhelms the soul with wonder, and prepares it to do and suffer whatever can be done or suffered, for the ultimate enjoyment of it.]
Such being the office of the Spirit, let us consider,

II.

Our duty arising from it

We have an office similar in some respects to that which is sustained by the Spirit himself: we are all in our place and station to glorify Christ, and to take of the things that are his, and shew them unto men.

This is our duty,

1.

As Ministers

[Our Lord particularly marks this connexion between the office of the Holy Spirit, and that which his Disciples were to execute in the world [Note: Joh 15:26-27.]. They were sent forth, as all other ministers are, to testify of Christ, and to exalt him in the eyes of men. At this day, no less than in the apostolic age, is this the duty of those who are his ambassadors to a guilty world: we are to speak of Christ, to set forth the fulness and excellency of his salvation, and to commend him to the love of all around us. Counting all things but dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ ourselves, we should labour day and night to impart it unto others. How earnest the Apostles were in this blessed work, may be seen from their first addresses to the unbelieving Jews [Note: Act 2:32-36; Act 4:10-12.]: and we in like manner should contend earnestly for the faith, and determine to know nothing among our people but Jesus Christ and him crucified. The treasure of divine knowledge is put into us, as earthen vessels, for this purpose; and God has shined into our hearts for this very end, that we may give unto all around us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Co 4:6-7.]. What a glorious office is this! O that every minister bore it fully in mind: and that all who profess to execute it, might execute it with their whole hearts, and with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven!]

2.

As private Christians

[Our Lord assigns the same office to all his people; All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them [Note: Joh 17:10.]. All indeed are not called upon to exert themselves as ministers: but all are to glorify Christ by a holy conversation, and are to take of his virtues and his graces, and to exhibit them to the world. This is one end of their calling, namely, to shew forth the virtues of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light [Note: 1Pe 2:9. The marginal reading.]. All are to shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life in their own conduct, so that all may read it, yea, may be compelled to read it, as transcribed in their lives [Note: Php 2:15-16.]. What an exalted office is this for every private Christian! O that all might be ambitious to execute it aright! for Christ himself has said, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye may bring forth much fruit; so shall ye be my Disciples [Note: Joh 15:8.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Ver. 14. He shall glorify me, &c. ] And if the Holy Ghost could not use any better means to glorify Christ, than to take his excellencies, and hold them out to the world, what should ministers, the mouth of the Holy Ghost, do rather?

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

14. ] Notice the emphatic , prefixed to the verb.

This is in connexion with Joh 16:12 and sets forth that the Spirit guiding into truth is in fact the Son declaring the truth, for He shall shew forth the glory of Christ, by revealing the matters of Christ, the riches of the Father’s love in Him ( Joh 16:15 ). “conomia trium testium: patrem glorificat filius, filium Spiritus sanctus.” Bengel.

This verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations subsequent to and besides Christ; it being the work of the Spirit to testify to and declare THE THINGS OF CHRIST; not any thing new and beyond Him. And this declaration is coincident with inward advance in the likeness and image of Christ ( 2Co 3:17-18 ), not with a mere external development.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 16:14 . , “He will glorify me”. The fulfilment of this promise is found in every action and word of the Apostles. Under the Spirit’s guidance they lived wholly for Christ: the dispensation of the Spirit was the Christian dispensation. This is further explained in “because He shall take of that which is mine, and declare it unto you”. The Spirit draws from no other source of information or inspiration. It is always “out of that which is Christ’s” He furnishes the Church. So only could He glorify Christ. Not by taking the Church beyond Christ, but by more fully exhibiting the fulness of Christ, does He fulfil His mission.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

glorify. See p. 1511.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

14.] Notice the emphatic , prefixed to the verb.

This is in connexion with Joh 16:12-and sets forth that the Spirit guiding into truth is in fact the Son declaring the truth, for He shall shew forth the glory of Christ, by revealing the matters of Christ,-the riches of the Fathers love in Him (Joh 16:15). conomia trium testium: patrem glorificat filius, filium Spiritus sanctus. Bengel.

This verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations subsequent to and besides Christ; it being the work of the Spirit to testify to and declare THE THINGS OF CHRIST; not any thing new and beyond Him. And this declaration is coincident with inward advance in the likeness and image of Christ (2Co 3:17-18), not with a mere external development.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 16:14. , He shall glorify me) This is the economy of the Three Witnesses: the Son glorifies the Father; the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. See ch. Joh 14:13, Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; Joh 17:4, I have glorified Thee on the earth- , of Mine) Hence it was the Holy Spirit who taught the apostles to say and do all things in the name of Jesus Christ.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 16:14

Joh 16:14

He shall glorify me:-[His mission is to exalt or glorify Christ. It pertains entirely to him. It is to advance his glory that he comes.]

for he shall take of mine,-[He has nothing to communicate of his own. He takes up the work where Christ stops and carries it to completion.]

and shall declare it unto you.-He will from the Father receive the full and perfect knowledge of the Son of God, and make it known to the disciples. This was done on Pentecost when the Spirit revealed the full mission and character of Christ to the apostles, and through them to the world. [This verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations subsequent to and besides Christ, it being the work of the Spirit to testify and declare the things of Christ, not anything new and beyond him.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

glorify: Joh 16:9, Joh 16:10, Act 2:32-36, Act 4:10-12, 1Co 12:3, 1Pe 1:10-12, 1Pe 2:7, 1Jo 4:1-3, 1Jo 4:13, 1Jo 4:14, 1Jo 5:6

for: Joh 15:26, Zec 12:10, 1Co 2:8-10, 2Co 3:14-18, 2Co 4:6, Gal 5:5, 1Jo 3:23, 1Jo 3:24, 1Jo 4:13, 1Jo 4:14, 1Jo 5:20, Rev 19:10

Reciprocal: Gen 42:23 – he spake unto them by an interpreter Exo 29:35 – according Isa 41:22 – and show Mat 11:3 – he that Joh 5:23 – He that Joh 6:45 – Every Joh 8:54 – it is Joh 13:31 – Now Joh 14:21 – and will Joh 14:26 – he Joh 17:10 – all Act 3:13 – hath 1Co 2:12 – that 1Co 16:22 – love Phi 2:11 – to the

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

SPIRITUAL REVELATION

He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Joh 16:14

There can be no doubt that the words used, He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you (R.V.), are selected with care.

I. Consider what the word translated take really means.It is repeated with emphasis in the very following verse, but in the present tense, so as to bring out the vivid reality of the relationship implied. This word necessarily suggests the notion of activity and even of effort on the part of the One Who thus acts. Properly speaking, you cannot take a thing blindly or passively. Personal co-operation is implied. Besides, Jesus Christ is careful to represent the action of the Holy Spirit as continuous and not yet completed. What things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. It is plain, then, that we are invited to look on at the action of self-conscious Personality. Here is nothing otiose and inert. Here is nothing automatic and mechanical. An action essentially personal is unveiled to our reverent gaze. Also here is nothing selfishone gives, the other takes. Self is perpetually being lost and found in this mutual and immediate exchange of perfect self-sacrifice. This is life at its highest and holiest, and it is noteworthy that such life is found in mutual aid, in sharing together, in fellowship. To picture life under such circumstances is to get a glimpse of something exhilarating, glorious, unfettered, self-revealing. If this is life as God lives it, then the Christian has nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to apologise for in his creed which teaches him such a moving truth. If this be the life of God, as revealed to us by Christianity, then life under such conditions is instinctively felt to be worthy, a picture of our highest ideal of what life is or might be. Here is fellowship of the highest conceivable kind, in which all things are in common, and in which joy and satisfaction arise not from clutching tenaciously the treasures of affection, thought, and will, but by sharing them.

II. What does God the Holy Spirit take from God the Son?Here our human experience can help us. What is the highest and best thing man can share with man? Not his money; not his goods and possessions; not his system of government. These things divide men as often as they unite them. No; ideas are the highest possession that one man can share with another. He has nothing higher to give to his fellow-man than what he knows, or thinks he knows, about the Truth. As he shares his ideas and they are accepted by his neighbour, a bond of union is knit between man and man, and nation and nation, which will defy all efforts to put them asunder. You see this when you observe how individuals or nations that have a common idea of liberty can understand one another and work to a common end in self-defence or in defence of the oppressed. No wonder Emerson said, Give me a great idea and I will feed upon it. If we ask, therefore, what does God the Holy Spirit take from God the Son, we may answer without misgiving that he takes those great ideas which fill the heart and mind of Jesus, ideas of justice, equity, sympathy, self-sacrifice, brotherhood. Where these ideas are held in common, there union becomes possible and fellowship must be full of joy.

III. The relationship of God the Holy Ghost to us.He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you. These words of Jesus Christ reveal not only the relationship between Him and the Holy Ghost, but they unveil the relationship between the Holy Ghost and ourselves. Three times over in three following verses this phrase, He will declare it unto you, is solemnly repeatedHe shall declare you the things to come, He shall take of Mine, and declare it unto you, All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine, therefore I said that He [that is, the Spirit of Truth] taketh of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. Again we notice the same principle at work. God the Holy Ghost is bent on sharing with us all that He has. But it may be asked, How can you share ideas? Ideas can only be shared when they are declared in words and by deeds. Words are good, deeds are better. The Holy Spirit, therefore, by showing to us in the Gospels the human and historical life of Jesus has manifestly declared in word and in deed those great ideas of love, compassion, sacrifice, which we rightly connect with Jesus Christ. Such ideas, indeed, before the foundation of the world were in the Heart of the Eternal, but were not fully expressed to us in glowing word and glorious deed until Jesus of Nazareth, the Incarnate Son of God, revealed them to us here on earth. It is this life of Jesus which the Holy Spirit delights to show to all those who will study the Gospels. His very work is to make Christ better known and to take the great ideas illustrated by His life and declare them to us, here a little and there a little. The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the New Testament teem with illustrations of the progress which men made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in seeing deeper into the life of Christ.

Rev. Samuel Bickersteth.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

4

The Holy Spirit would glorify Jesus by receiving the truth, then passing it on to the apostles. Jesus called this truth his (jiine), and by giving it over to the ones whom He had chosen, it would redound to the glory of the Son.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Joh 16:14. He shall glorify me, because of that which is mine will he receive and will declare it unto you. On the glorifying of Jesus here spoken of, see on chap. Joh 13:31. This glory will be given Him by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in the Church, because that which the Spirit applies for the ever increasing growth and efficiency of the Church is only a fuller unfolding of the unsearchable riches of Christ. To Him as the Alpha and Omega of our faith, and never beyond Him, the Spirit leads us.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here Christ shews the advantage which would redound to himself by the coming of the Comforter; he declares that the Spirit should glorify him by his testimony, gifts, and miracles, and shall in all things accord with him, and thereby evidence that he hath his mission from him: He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. And, all things that the Father hath are mine.

Hence learn, that, although the union in essence amongst the persons in the Trinity is the same, yet the order of their subsistence and operation is distinct: the Son being from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son; For all things that the Father hath are mine; And the Spirit shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Observe farther, that these words afford a strong argument to prove the divinity of Christ: All things which my Father hath are mine. Where Christ challenges to himself the incommunicable attributes of God, and consequently that essence which is inseparable from them.

Doth the Father know the secrets of all hearts? So doth Christ, All the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts. Rev 2:23

Is the Father eternal? So is Christ, I was set up from everlasting, &c. Pro 8:23

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Vv. 14, 15. He shall glorify me, for He shall take of what is mine and shall announce it to you. 15. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine and shall announce it to you.

The asyndeton between Joh 16:13-14 proves that Jesus only reproduces under a new and more emphatic form in Joh 16:14 the thought of Joh 16:12-13. The work of the Spirit introducing the apostles into the truth will be only the increasing glorification of Jesus in their hearts. After the Father shall have exalted Christ personally to glory, the Holy Spirit will cause His celestial image to beam forth from on high into the hearts of the disciples, and, through them, into the hearts of all believers. There is a mysterious exchange here and, as it were, a rivalry of divine humility. The Son labors only to glorify the Father, and the Spirit desires only to glorify the Son. Christ, His word and His workherein is the sole text on which the Spirit will comment in the souls of the disciples. He will, by one and the same act, cause the disciples to grow in the truth and Jesus to grow greater in them. For the understanding of this word glorify, comp. the experience admirably described by St. Paul in 2Co 3:17-18; 2Co 4:6.

In designating the source from which the Spirit will draw as that which is mine, Jesus seems to contradict what He has said in Joh 16:13; at least, if from the Father is understood after shall hear. Jesus gives the explanation of this apparent contradiction in Joh 16:15, by means of the words: All that the Father has is mine. The Father’s treasure is common to Him with the Son. This word reveals, as does no other, the consciousness which Christ had of the greatness of His manifestation. The Christian fact is the measure of the divine for humanity. There is nothing essentially Christian which is not divine; there is nothing divine which does not concentrate and realize itself in the Christian fact.Therefore I said means here: Therefore I have been able to say.The present takes is better attested by documentary evidence (Joh 16:15) than the future shall take, and it is more in accordance with the present tenses, has, is; the future is a correction in accordance with Joh 16:14, He takes: it is the present of the idea, designating the permanent function. After the present takes, the future will declare signifies: and, after having taken, He will announce in each particular case. Westcott cal s attention to the three: and He will announce to you(Joh 16:13-15), which form, as it were, a consoling refrain. Thus there is not a real breath of the Spirit which is not at the service of the person of the historic Christ. So St. Paul makes the cry of adoration: Jesus Lord! the criterion of every true operation of the divine Spirit (1Co 12:3); comp. also 1Jn 4:3. If we recall to mind how the glorifying of the creature constitutes in the Scriptures the capital crime, we shall understand what such words imply with relation to the person of Christ.

All these discourses, and in particular this masculine , he, Joh 16:14, rest on the idea of the personalityof the Holy Spirit. As Weiss says on account of Joh 15:26 : The Spirit is conceived as a personal manifestation like to that of Christ Himself.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

16:14 {5} He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you.

(5) The Holy Spirit brings no new doctrine, but teaches that which was uttered by Christ’s own mouth, and imprints it in our minds.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The Spirit would glorify the Son by expounding Him, as the Son had glorified the Father by expounding Him. The Spirit would really be taking what the Father had given the Son and explaining its significance to the disciples, unpacking it. The Eleven are particularly in view. They were the individuals who were presently unable to understand further revelations, and they had been with Jesus since the beginning of His ministry (Joh 16:12; cf. Joh 14:26; Joh 15:27).

"The Spirit worked in the apostles’ minds so that they could perceive, understand, and teach about the Savior." [Note: Blum, p. 328.]

Many of the later New Testament writings expounded on the teachings of Jesus (e.g., Romans, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 1 John, Revelation; et al.).

Notice that it is not the Spirit’s function to attract attention to Himself or to promote Himself. As John the Baptist, His purpose is to make Jesus increase in prominence. This fact should make suspect any human attempt to glorify the Spirit above the Son. Such an emphasis is not in harmony with the Spirit’s purpose.

Jesus revealed that the Spirit would have a threefold ministry when He came. He would convict the world (Joh 16:8-11), enlighten the disciples (Joh 16:12-13), and glorify Jesus (Joh 16:14-15).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)