Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
26. the Comforter ] Better, the Advocate (see on Joh 14:16).
whom I will send ] ‘I’ is emphatic. Here it is the Son Who sends the Paraclete from the Father. In Joh 14:16 the Father sends in answer to the Son’s prayer. In Joh 14:26 the Father sends in the Son’s name. These are three ways of expressing that the mission of the Paraclete is the act both of the Father and of the Son, Who are one.
from the Father ] See note on ‘from God’ Joh 1:6: the preposition and case are here the same; with the genitive.
the Spirit of truth ] See on Joh 14:17.
which proceedeth from the Father ] It seems best to take this much discussed clause as simply yet another way of expressing the fact of the mission of the Paraclete. If the Paraclete is sent by the Son from the Father, and by the Father in the Son’s name and at the Son’s request, then the Paraclete ‘proceedeth from the Father.’ If this be correct, then this statement refers to the office and not to the Person of the Holy Spirit, and has no bearing either way on the great question between the Eastern and Western Churches, the Filioque added in the West to the Nicene Creed. The word used here for ‘proceed’ is the same as that used in the Creed of Nicea, and the Easterns quote these words of Christ Himself as being against not merely the insertion of the clause ‘and the Son’ into the Creed (which all admit to have been made irregularly), but against the truth of the statement that the Spirit, not only in His temporal mission, but in His Person, from all eternity proceeds from both the Father and the Son. On the whole question see Pearson On the Creed, Art. viii.; Reunion Conference at Bonn, 1875, pp. 9 85, Rivingtons; Pusey On the Clause “ and the Son,” a Letter to Dr Liddon, Parker, 1876. The word rendered ‘proceedeth’ occurs in this Gospel only here and Joh 5:29, but is frequent in the other Gospels and in Revelation (Mat 3:5; Mat 4:4; Mat 15:11; Mat 15:18; Mar 7:15; Mar 7:18; Mar 7:20-21; Mar 7:23; Luk 4:22; Luk 4:37; Rev 1:16; Rev 4:5, &c.), and there seems to be nothing in the word itself to limit it to the Eternal Procession. On the other hand the preposition used here ( para = ‘from the side of’) is strongly in favour of the reference being to the mission. Comp. Joh 16:27, Joh 17:8.
he shall testify of me ] Better, He shall bear witness. It is the same word as is used in the next verse and is one of the words characteristic of this Gospel (see on Joh 1:7). ‘He’ is emphatic, in opposition to the world which hates and rejects Christ. Christ has the witness of the Spirit of truth, which has the authority of the Father: it is impossible to have higher testimony than this.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Joh 15:26-27
But when the Comforter is come
The Holy Spirit: His work and mission
I.
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1. Our text speaks of the Holy Spirit as a Person. He shall testify; and ye also (see also Joh_16:7-8; Joh_16:13-15). In the first of these places He is spoken of as a Person acting with other persons, of whose personality there can be no doubt, viz., the apostles. In the last He is represented as acting intermediately between the Father, an undoubted Person, and the apostles. We know that the effects of His operation are sometimes personified. But still our Lord and the sacred writers speak of Him in a way which requires us to understand an intelligent agent, e.g., in the form of baptism (Mat 28:19). If the Spirit is a figure of speech, so are the Father and the Son.
2. He is a Divine Person. Otherwise an idol is set up on the very threshold of the Christian temple; and we are taught by the form of baptism to worship a creature of our own fancy. If the inspired language is perplexing, if He is not a real Person, it is delusive and dangerous if He be not divine Mat 12:28; Joh 14:12; of. Rom 15:19). We turn our thoughts to the offer of forgiveness so free and wide (Isa 55:7; Mar 3:28); but amidst all this wealth of mercy we find a solitary exception–blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Mar 3:29). Is a figure of speech the object of the one irremissible sin!
3. The Three Divine Persons, though equal in dignity and power, have been pleased to establish a method of procedure which corresponds in a measure to the mode of the Divine existence. The Father is of none, and is never said to be sent or given. The Son is of the Father, and as the Son of the Father, is sent and given by Him (2Jn 1:3; 1Jn 4:9; Joh 3:16), The Holy Spirit is never said to give or send the Son; but to proceed from the Father, to be given, and sent by the Father. In like manner, also, as the Son is called the Son of the Father, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of His Son, etc. (Gal 4:6; 1Pe 1:11), and is said to be sent and given by Christ (Joh 16:7; Act 2:33).
II. HIS WORK.
1. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. All the preannouncements concerning the coming and work of Christ were but the voice of the Spirit (Mat 1:22; Act 28:25). This testimony is so manifold as to anticipate the gospel at every point (Act 26:22). It was by the agency of the Spirit that this prophecy was turned into history.
(1) Our Redeemer must be a man like ourselves, and a body was prepared Him by the agency of the Spirit (Luk 1:35).
(2) He must be a holy man, and so that conceived by the Holy Ghost was that holy thing, and continued so.
(3) In His public capacity He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power.
(4) To the same gracious agency we are taught to ascribe the virtues exhibited in His passion.
(5) After death Jesus was quickened by the Spirit.
2. The Holy Spirits testimony as borne by the apostles.
(1) All Christs oral teachings was recalled to their minds, and the knowledge, courage, etc., needed to discharge their duties.
(2) Their testimony was confirmed by the Spirit in a wonderful manner in wonders and signs, etc.
(3) The spoken testimony has perished, but the written testimony remains from generation to generation.
(4) In the long succession of faithful men who have been able to teach others also, from that day to this the Spirit has borne a continuous testimony to Christ.
3. In the Church, as in the ministry, the Holy Spirit bears this testimony, and not only in many persons, but in many ways in the same persons.
(1) He testifies to mens need of Christ, by convincing them of sin.
(2) He reveals Christ as a Saviour, and enables the penitent to receive and rest on Him for salvation.
(3) The spirit of adoption is a testimony of Christ. When we cry, Abba, Father, it is by the spirit of Gods Son.
(4) The spirit of adoption is also the spirit of holiness, and growth in holiness is inseparably connected with the knowledge of Christ (2Pe Heb 6:1). (G. Osborn, D. D.)
The Spirit testifying of Christ
I. CONSIDER STATEMENTS IN GENERAL TERMS OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1. He shall testify–bear witness. Now, when we have a witness it is most important that we should understand whether or not he is competent to bear witness about the matter in question. This witness is the Spirit who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. He is a Divine and therefore a competent witness with regard to Christ Jesus.
2. Again, in a court of justice it is important to know whether a witness is reliable. This witness is none other than the Spirit of Truth Himself.
3. He is one who puts honour on Christ. In Joh 16:14 we read, Heshall glorify Me. As we preach, the Holy Ghost bears witness to Him–carries home the truth in power to the hearts of those to whom it is addressed, and by His sweet constraint leads them to yield to the Saviour and to put their trust in Him. Joh 16:8, etc., we read–
(1) He will convict of sin because they believe not on Me; of all sins the most heinous is the rejection of Christ Jesus.
(2) Of righteousness, etc., i.e., of righteousness in Christ Jesus.
(3) Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. This is of triumph over Satans power.
II. STATEMENTS OF HIS WORK IN PARTICULAR CASES.
1. A striking example of that is afforded in 1Co 6:9-10. What a catalogue! Such were some of you, says the apostle, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified, etc. What a wondrous change! How had the change come about? By the Spirit of God. He had spoken to them; He had dealt with them; He had drawn them; He had united them to Christ Jesus, so that they were sanctified and justified in Him. A strolling conjuror was one night in a tramps lodging house in Sheffield, and different members of the fraternity were sitting over the fire, and they were overhauling the contents of their bags, and he told me that he saw one bring out a New Testament that he had bought for his little girl. The conjuror was greatly struck, and bought it, and that night, before he lay down upon his bed in that tramps lodging house, by the dim light of the candle, he opened his new purchase to see what it contained, and his eye fell upon these words, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? He was like a man who had been shot. He tossed backwards and forwards upon his bed that night; there was no rest, no sleep for him. The Holy Ghost had carried the word home to his heart. He gave up his conjuring, and followed some honest trade, and for months he went up and down England with the arrow of conviction sticking fast in his heart; and then, through the kindly counsels of a town missionary, he was brought to put his trust in the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. When last I saw him he was earning an honest living, making and selling braces, and as he offered them for sale he would speak some homely earnest words about the Saviour.
2. If you will turn to the Epistle to Tit 3:3, you will find another list of sins. Now, when we read the list in the Corinthians, we cannot help thinking what loathsome, horrible people they were. When we read the list in Titus, we cannot help thinking what exceedingly disagreeable people they must have been to live with. But the Apostle says, But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour, etc. Those persons had become the heirs of God in the hope of eternal life. And how? By the work of God, because the Holy Spirit had spoken to them and had dealt with them, had wrought in their hearts, had drawn them to the Lord Jesus, and united them in faith to Him.
III. THERE ARE SOME NEGATIVE STATEMENTS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE, AS THROWING LIGHT UPON THIS SUBJECT.
1. Turn to Rom 8:9. If any man, whosoever he may be, however beautiful may be his character, and however excellent may be his natural disposition, have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
2. Another statement occurs in 1Co 12:3. These words imply that we not only recognize in Christ a Saviour, but a Lord to whom we yield, and to whose service we consecrate all that we are and all that we have. No man can do that but by the Holy Ghost.
3. Another negative statement is found in Jud 1:19, where we read,These be they who separate themselves, sensual–not having the Spirit–those who are beyond the pale; those who are not to be numberedamongst the children of God. They are in their natural or unrenewed state because they have not the Spirit.
IV. ONE OR TWO VERY PERSONAL OR STRIKING WORDS IN SCRIPTURE ON THIS SAME SUBJECT.
1. My Spirit shall not always strive with men.
2. Turn to Heb 3:15; Heb 4:7. Why has God seen fit to repeat that sentence three times over? Do you know that when a division on a most important subject is about to take place in the House of Commons the whips on the respective sides of the House send out a letter urging members individually not to fail to be present? And they put what is called underlining, and when you have a three-line whip or a four-line whip it means that the matter is most urgent, and that the member must by all means give heed to it, Now, when God caused this word to be written three times over, it is as if He had sent out a three-line whip to the children of men. It is the message of one who loves the souls of men as tenderly as does the Father or as does the Son. (W. P. Lockhart.)
The Spirit the witness to truth
1. Pilate put the question to our Lord, What is truth? The answer was given in a manner more direct and forcible than words can express: in person and in deed. Jesus was Himself the Truth. But Pilate had neither an eye to see the Truth, nor an ear to hear it.
2. Many men, worthy and noble, before and since have put the question, presuming that truth belongs to the region of thought and human speech. But truth does not lie in the sphere of thought and speculation. Reflections and images of the truth are indeed to be found there; but truth is deeper and more original than human intelligence. Our Lord says of Himself, I am the Truth–absolute Truth. All other truth is such only relatively to Himself. He is the Truth of all other truths. But to know the truth and to receive its light and power, a man must be in positive sympathy with it. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.
3. Jesus Christ witnesses of Himself as the Absolute Truth by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth. Other witnesses, indeed, there are and will always be. But such only are witnesses who are the organs of the Spirit. Let us consider the Christian doctrine–that the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Truth, is the all-sufficient witness to Jesus Christ.
I. THAT THE SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH IS SPECIALLY MANIFESTED BY THE FACT THAT THROUGH HIS AGENCY THE TRUTH OF THE GODHEAD HAS BECOME INCARNATE IN MAN.
1. The Creator and the creature, the Absolute Truth in God and the relative truth in man are constituted one life in the person of Jesus Christ. The Word was made flesh by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, etc. The Divine was made human according to the law of human life; for Jesus was born. And the human was assumed into the Divine after the Divine manner, for Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The eternal and absolute Truth was revealed and made manifest in the person and life of a veritable man, who is for us and for all men the living and ultimate Truth, in whom and by whom alone the truth of all truths is accessible to faith, and through faith accessible to intelligence.
2. If we inquire further, How was it that He became the Truth in life and in death? The answer is as by the Spirit Jesus was born the Holy Babe, so by the Spirit did He manifest God by a perfectly holy manhood, and offer a spotless sacrifice for sin upon the cross, and vanquish all the powers of darkness in His resurrection from the dead.
II. THIS SPIRIT OF TRUTH, WHEREBY JESUS ACCOMPLISHED THE WORK OF REDEMPTION, IS BY HIM SENT FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH AS HIS REPRESENTATIVE AND WITNESS, THAT HE MAY LIVE IN THOSE WHO RECEIVE HIM AND GUIDE THEM INTO ALL TRUTH. The Spirit makes those true who are by nature perverse.
1. The truth is heavenly and spiritual, not earthly and material. No earthly thing can witness of the essence of the heavenly. No material thing can exhibit the life of the spirtual. Human genius cannot look into the depths of the Divine and announce its unfathomable fulness. If, as He claims, Jesus be the Truth, and if the Truth be spiritual and heavenly, transcendent and Divine, then in this fallen, dark, wicked world, where the He is enthroned and men walk in a vain show, there can be no agencies, no resources, whereby the depraved heart and the darkened understanding and the perverted will may come to a knowledge of the Truth. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, etc. The wisdom of this world is utterly inadequate to the task of discovering the truth of God. But God has revealed to us His wisdom by the Spirit.
2. It must needs be, then, that the truth being spiritual and heavenly, the agency, by whom we may know the truth, must likewise be spiritual and heavenly. To this end, the presence and the power of the Spirit is effectual. In those who receive Him, the Spirit dissipates the clouds of natural darkness, removes the aversion of the carnal mind, and sheds the light of heavenly truth into the soul with convincing power. As on the day of Pentecost the Spirit touched the consciences of the multitudes; as the revelation of Christ smote Saul of Tarsus to the ground, as the Spirit opened the heart of Lydia, so has the same Spirit all along the ages been a power working mysteriously in those to whom the Word was preached, convincing them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The Spirit alone can shed the light of truth into the souls of men now.
III. THE SPIRIT AWAKENS IN MEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH BY MAKING THEM POSSESSORS OF THE TRUTH.
1. No right knowledge of Jesus Christ is external or merely intellectual. To appreciate Christ men must be members of Christ. The Spirit, accordingly, is the Divine agency whereby Christ apprehends men and men appropriate Christ. In the Spirit the separation is resolved into unity, the contradiction into the fellowship of faith. The dominion of error and falsehood is broken–broken because He who is the Truth lives in the believer, and thebeliever thus also becomes true.
2. To this end the power of the Spirit is effectual, independently of time or place, independently of rank or station.
3. For this work of the Spirit there can be no substitute. No discoveries in the natural world, no progress in science, no achievement of human genius can put man in possession of the truth, and thus make man personally true. In spite of all these empty glories he will remain the victim of a lie, and all his proud knowledge will confirm his delusion and deepen his spiritual darkness.
IV. MAKING MEN POSSESSORS OF THE TRUTH, THE SPIRIT IS ALSO THE POWER BY WHICH BELIEVERS FULFIL THE TRUTH BY A RIGHTEOUS AND GODLY WALK.
1. When the truth lives in the soul, it becomes the principle of action. The truth fills our ethical nature and gives it freedom. The truth sets the will free from the bondage of self-love and the world spirit. It becomes active in the truth and for the truth. Thus consciously active our ethical life acquires strength, that strength which is of the truth itself, a strength as mighty as the truth is mighty.
2. No such strength can come from the resoluteness and firmness of the natural will; not from any kind of self-imposed moral discipline. The self-denial and self-sacrifice of which the natural man is capable is but the renunciation of one falsehood to lay hold of another. The noble heroism and the stern morality of which, without possessing the truth that is in Christ, some men are capable, falls short just as certainly of freedom.
3. Not that the spiritual man is without spot or blemish. Nevertheless the man who by the Spirit possesses the truth and lives by faith under its power, asserts and develops a new morality. Thus in him the Spirit bears witness of Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the believer in turn is a living perpetual witness to the truth of God in Christ.
V. RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, HE BECOMES FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN THE WITNESS TO CHRIST.
1. He is the immediate witness. The Spirit is the living bond by which Jesus Christ and fallen men become one life. Possessing the believer, Christ authenticates Himself to his heart and mind, in his will and consciousness. In that He shows unto us the things of Christ, the Spirit witnesses directly of Christ to us that He (Jesus Christ) is the Truth. Such witness is like the witness of self-consciousness. No truth can be more certainly known than this: that I am, that I think and will. Even so, in the heart and consciousness of a true believer, does the Holy Ghost testify that Jesus is the Truth of all truths.
2. The Spirit is the all-sufficient witness. Whatever question the natural reason may raise, or philosophy suggest; whatever new problem may arise in the history of the world; whatever doubts may be prompted by revolutions in science or convulsions in social life; whatever strength the human intellect may acquire by culture and discipline; however imposing and fearful may be the hostile array of the enemies of the Cross; however proud and triumphant the boasts and predictions of unbelief and naturalism, the status of the Christian Church remains unchanged. The witness is at hand, adequate to every objection that scepticism, materialism, and wickedness may seek to establish; a witness just as satisfying to every man who is not of the lie but of the truth as an axiom of quantitative truth is satisfying to the intellect of a mathematician. Here is the refuge and the strength of the Church and of the ministry and of the people of God in every land and in every age. No other witness is valid, or can satisfy the spiritual demands of the soul. (E. V. Gerhart, D. D.)
The great world-restoring Spirit
I. HIS ADVENT FORETOLD. When the Comforter is come.
1. The prediction was given to comfort them in the prospect of the persecution to which Christ had just directed their attention. They are given to understand that however great their approaching trials may be, and though He Himself was about departing from them, One would soon come to them from His Father who would be all sufficient for their help.
2. The prediction was strikingly fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, in connection with the preaching of Peter (Act 2:1-3).
II. HIS CHARACTER PORTRAYED. The Spirit of truth. There is a spirit of lying abroad in the world, sowing the seeds of error in human souls, and cultivating them into briars and thorns, into poisonous weeds and upas trees. But here is the Spirit of Truth who is also abroad and at work.
1. He is infallible Truth. Truth without any admixture of error or impunity. His ideas and His affections, so to say, are in perfect accord with eternal fact.
2. He is Redemptive Truth. His truth is to open the eyes of ignorance, to break the chains of bondage, to cleanse the heart from impurities, to deliver the conscience from guilt l In one word, to restore the soul to the knowledge, the image, the friendship, and the enjoyment of the great God.
III. HIS WORK INDICATED.
1. His work is that of an advocate. He goes into the court of human conscience and there He pleads for spirituality, benevolence, righteousness, God, against worldliness, selfishness, wrong, the devil. Sometimes He pleads in whispers, sometimes in thunder. Always is He earnest and persevering. He inspires His ministers to say, We beseech you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God.
2. His work is that of a witness. A witness for Christ, for the perfection of His character, the purity of His doctrines, and the beneficence of His influence. He does this through the teaching, the miraculous works, the moral triumphs, and the noble lives of those whom He inspired as the apostles of Christ. Conclusion: Let the assurance that this restoring Spirit is in the world encourage us in our efforts to spread truth, and in our trials to be magnanimous and patient. (D. Thomas D. D.)
The defence against a hostile world
Our Lord has been speaking of a world hostile to His followers and to Him. He proceeds, in the words which follow, to paint that hostility as aggravated even to the pitch of religious murder. But here He lets a beam of light in upon the darkness. He lets them see that they will not be left alone, but have a great champion, who will put into their hands a weapon, with which they may conquer the world, and turn it into a friend, and with which alone they must meet the worlds hate. Consider
I. THE GREAT PROMISE OF AN ALLY AS AGAINST A HOSTILE WORLD.
1. The wonderful designation of this Champion Friend.
(1) The Comforter is no mere gentle consoler. The word which means one who is summoned to the side of another, conveys the idea of a helper. The verses before our text suggest what sort of aid and succour the disciples will need. And that Paraclete is a strong Spirit who will be our champion and our ally, whatever antagonism may storm against us, and however strong and well-armed may be the assaulting legions of the worlds hate.
(2) The Spirit of Truth, which means not so much His characteristic attribute as rather the weapon which He wields, or the material with which He works. That is to say, the Spirit of God is the Strengthener, the Encourager, the Comforter, the Fighter for us and with us, because He wields that great body of truth, the perfect revelation of God, and man, and duty, and salvation, which is embodied in the Incarnation and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The truth is His weapon, and it is by that that He makes us strong.
2. The two-fold description of the mission of this Divine Champion.
(1) Sent by Christ. In a previous part of this discourse, our Lord speaks of Him as being sent by the Father in His name and in answer to His prayer. The representation here is by no means antagonistic to this, for whatsoever the Son seeth the Father do that also the Son doeth likewise. And therefore the Spirit is sent forth by the Father, and also the Son sends the Spirit.
(2) But, on the other hand, we are not to regard that Divine Spirit as merely a messenger sent by another. He proceeds from the Father. That word has been the battlefield of theological controversy, but what is meant is the simple historical coming forth into human life of that Divine Spirit. And, possibly, the word is chosen to give the idea of a voluntary and personal action of the Messenger, who not only is sent by the Father, but of Himself proceeds on the mighty work to which He is destined. Mark that wonderful phrase, twice repeated and emphasized by repetition from the Father. The word translated from designates a position at the side of, and suggests much rather the intimate and ineffable union between, Father, Son, and Spirit than the source from which the Spirit comes.
3. Is not all this enough to make the weakest strong, and to make us more than conquerors through Him that loved us? All nations have legends of the gods fighting at the head of their armies, and through the dust of battle the white horses and the shining armour of the celestial champions have been seen. The chiddish dream is a historical reality. It is not we that fight, it is the Spirit of God that fighteth in us.
II. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT WHICH FORTIFIES AGAINST THE WORLD. He shall bear witness of Me. That phrase, unto you, tells us that the witness is something which is done within the circle of the Christian believers, and not in the wide field of the worlds history or in nature. Of course it is a great truth that long before Jesus Christ, and today far beyond the limits of His name the Spirit of God is working. As of old, He brooded over the chaotic darkness, ever labouring to turn chaos into order, and darkness into light; so today, all over the field of humanity, He is operating. But what is spoken of here is something that is done in and on Christian men, and not even through them on the world, but in them for themselves. He shall testify of Me to you.
1. The first application of these words is to the little group listening to Him. Never were men more desolate and beaten down than these were, in the prospect of Christs departure. Never were men more utterly bewildered and dispirited than these were, in the days between His crucifixion and His resurrection. Think of them during His earthly life, their narrow understandings, their manifold faults, moral as well as intellectual. What was it that made these dwarfs into giants in six weeks; that made them start up all at once as heroes and that so swiftly matured them, as the fruits and flowers are ripened under tropical sunshine? The witness of the Spirit of God working within them, working upon what they knew of the historical facts of Christs life, and interpreting them, was the explanation of their change and growth. And the New Testament is product of that. Christs life was the truth which the Spirit used, and the product of His teaching was these epistles which we have, and which for us step into the place which the historical facts held for them; and become the instrument with which the Spirit of God will deepen our understanding of Christ and enlarge our knowledge of what He is to us.
2. The promise still applies to each of us in a secondary and modified sense. For there is nothing in these great valedictory words which is not the revelation of a permanent truth in regard to the Christian Church. And, therefore, we have the promise of a universal gift to all Christian men and women, an actual Divine Spirit to dwell with each of us, to speak in our hearts. And what will He do there? He will teach us a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. He will help us to understand better what He is. He will show us more and more of the whole sweep of His work, of the whole infinite truth for morals and religion, for politics and society, for time and for eternity, about men and about God, which is wrapped up in that great saying which we first of all, perhaps under the pressure of our own sense of sin, grasp as our deliverance from sin–God so loved the world, etc. And as the days roll on, and new problems rise, and new difficulties present themselves, and new circumstances emerge in our personal life, we find the truth that we first of all dimly grasped as life and salvation, opening out into wisdom and depth and meaning that we never dreamed of in the early hours.
3. Then, note that this inward witness of Christs depth and preciousness is the true weapon and stay against a hostile world.
(1) A little candle in a room will make the lightning outside almost invisible; and if I have burning in my heart the inward experience and conviction of what Jesus Christ is, and what He has done and will do for me–oh, then all the storm without may rage and it will not trouble.
(2) If you take an empty vessel and bring pressure to bear upon it, in go the sides. Fill it, and they will resist the pressure. So with growing knowledge of Christ and growing personal experience of His sweetness in our souls, we shall be able to throw off, untouched and undinted, the pressure which would otherwise have crushed us.
4. And so here is the true secret of tranquillity, in an age of questioning and doubt. Let me have that Divine voice speaking in my heart, and no matter what questions may be doubtful, this is sure–We know whom we have believed; and we can say, Settle all your controversies any way you like, one thing I know–the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true. Labour for more of this inward, personal conviction of the preciousness of Jesus Christ to strengthen you against a hostile world.
5. And remember that there are conditions under which this Voice speaks in our souls
(1) One is that we attend to the instrument which the Spirit of God uses, and that is the truth. If Christians will not read their Bibles, they need not expect to have the words of these Bibles interpreted and made real to them by any inward experience.
(2) And there must be moral discipline too. Laziness, worldliness, the absorption of attention with other things, self-conceit, prejudice, and the taking of our religion at second hand, stand in the way of our hearing the Spirit of God when He speaks. Come away from the babble and go by yourself, and take your Bibles with you and read them and meditate upon them and get near the Master of whom they speak, and the Spirit which uses the truth will use it to fortify you.
III. THE CONSEQUENT WITNESS WITH WHICH THE CHRISTIAN MAY WIN THE WORLD. And ye also shall bear witness of Me, etc. That also has, of course, direct reference to the apostles, and therefore their qualification was simply the companionship with Him which enabled them to say, We saw what we tell you; we were witnesses from the beginning. But then, again, it belongs to us all, and so here is the task of the Christian Church in all its members. They receive the witness of the Spirit, and they are Christs witnesses in the world. Note
1. What we have to do–to bear witness: not to argue, to adorn, but simply to attest.
2. What we have to attest–the fact, not of the historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position to be witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, and the fact of our own experience of what He has done for us.
3. That is by far the most powerful agency for winning the world. You can never make men angry by saying to them, We have found the Messias. You cannot irritate people, or provoke them into a controversial opposition when you say, Brother I let me tell you my experience. I was dark, sad, sinful, weak, solitary, miserable; and I got light, gladness, pardon, strength, companionship, and a joyful hope. We can all say that. This is the witness that needs no eloquence, no genius, no anything except honesty and experience; and whosoever has tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life may surely go to a brother and say, Brother! I have eaten and am satisfied. Will you not help yourself? We can all do it, and we ought to do it. Conclusion: The Christian privilege of being witnessed to by the Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the Christian duty of befog witnesses in our turn to the world. Oh! listen to the Master, who says, Him that confesseth Me before men, will I also confess before My Father in heaven. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 26. But when the Comforter is come] See Clarke on Joh 14:16.
Ver. 26. – 27. He shall testify and ye also shall bear witness] He shall bear his testimony in your souls, and ye shall bear this testimony to the world. And so they did, by their miracles, their preaching, their writings, their lives, and by their deaths. Our Lord appears to reason thus: In every respect the unbelief of the Jews is inexcusable. They believe not my doctrine, notwithstanding its purity and holiness. They believe not in the Father who sent me, notwithstanding I have confirmed my mission by the most astonishing miracles. One thing only remains now to be done, i.e. to send them the Holy Spirit, to convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and this he shall do, not only by his influence upon their hearts, but also by your words: and when they shall have resisted this Spirit, then the cup of their iniquity shall be filled up, and wrath shall come upon them to the uttermost.
BUT in what sense can it be said that Christ wrought more miracles than any other had done, Joh 15:24? – for Elijah and Elisha raised the dead; cured diseases; and made fire to come down from heaven. Did Christ do greater miracles than Moses did in Egypt-at the Red Sea-at the rock of Horeb, and at the rock of Kadesh? Did Christ do greater miracles than Joshua did, in the destruction of Jericho-in the passage of Jordan-in causing the sun and moon to stand still? To all this it may be answered, Christ’s miracles were greater:
1. As to their number.
2. As to their utility – they were wrought to comfort the distressed, and to save the lost.
3. Christ wrought all his miracles by his own power alone; and they wrought theirs through his power only.
4. Christ wrought his numerous miracles in the space of three or four years, and in the presence of the same people; and the others mere wrought from time to time in different centuries.
Some critics have confined the whole of this chapter to the apostles of our Lord, and the work of propagating Christianity to which they had been called. The whole comment of Rosenmuller on this chapter proceeds on this plan; and at once shows how nugatory it is. What learned labour has there been in the world, to banish the spirit of Christianity from the earth, while the letter was professed to be scrupulously regarded!
1. The spiritual union spoken of by Christ is not merely necessary for his primitive disciples, but also for all who would be Christians on earth, and beatified spirits in heaven.
2. The brotherly love here inculcated is the duty and interest of every Christian soul on the face of the earth.
3. The necessity of adorning the Christian profession, by bringing forth corresponding fruits, is the duty of all who name the name of the Lord Jesus.
4. The appointment to, and preparation for, the work of the sacred ministry, must ever be primarily with Christ: for those who have no higher authority than that which they derive from man are never likely to be useful in Christianizing the world.
5. The persecution to which the apostles were exposed has been the common lot of Christians from the foundation of Christianity.
6. The consolations and influences of Christ’s Spirit have not been the exclusive privileges of the apostles; they are the birthright of all the sons and daughters of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Concerning the Holy Ghost as a Comforter we have spoken largely, Joh 14:16,26; as also his mission from the Father and the Son, and in what sense he is called
the Spirit of truth: See Poole on “Joh 14:16“. See Poole on “Joh 14:26“. What proceeding from the Father is here meant, is questioned amongst divines: some understand it only of his coming out from the Father, and being poured out upon the disciples in the days of Pentecost: others understand it of the Holy Spirits eternal proceeding. Those that interpret it of the first, urge the use of the Greek word, here used to signify Gods manifestation of himself by some external sign, as they say the Septuagint useth the same word. They also urge the same use of a parallel word, Joh 8:42; 16:28. But the generality of the best interpreters think it is best understood of the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit:
1. Because Christ here distinguishes the Spirits proceeding from the Father from his sending.
2. Having himself promised to send the Spirit, he seemeth further to describe him as proceeding from the Father.
3. The word here used is not any where used in the New Testament to signify a temporal mission.
Some will say: But doth not the Spirit proceed from the Son?
Answer. The Greek Church in latter ages hath denied this, and this is the principal text they rest on; but those churches that are more orthodox have constantly affirmed it:
1. Because he here saith he would send it.
2. Because he is often called the Spirit of Christ, Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6.
3. Because otherwise there were no personal relation between Christ and the Spirit.
Our Saviour here having first said he would send him, here only nameth his proceeding from the Father; that they might not suspect his testimony, or think that he spake arrogantly.
He shall testify of me; the Spirit, he saith, should testify of him, both by those gifts with which he was to fill the apostles, and to the hearts of Gods people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26, 27. (See on Joh14:15; Joh 14:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But when the Comforter is come,…. Or advocate, the Spirit of God; who was to be, and has been an advocate for Christ, against the world, and for his people, against all their enemies; and who as he was to reprove, and did reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, in favour of Christ, so he was to assist his people, and plead their cause, and help them, in vindication of themselves, before the princes of the earth, as he did: and who also was to act, and has acted the part of a “comforter” to them, under all the hatred and violence they have met with from the world; by taking and applying the things of Christ to them; by shedding the love of God in them; by applying the promises of the Gospel to them; by witnessing their adoption, and sealing them up to the day of redemption:
whom I will send unto you from the Father; visibly, as on the day of Pentecost, in cloven tongues as of fire; and invisibly into their hearts, by the secret influence of his light and grace; which mission, as it suggests no inferiority in the spirit, either to the Father or the Son; since the same spirit with the Father, was the sender of Christ; so it is expressive of the equal deity of Christ, and his joint power and authority with the Father:
even the Spirit of truth; who is the true Spirit, truth itself; yea, the true God, with the Father and Son; the Spirit of him who is truth; the dictator of the Scriptures of truth; who leads his people into all truth; and is the Spirit of truth, as he is a witness or testifier of Christ, hereafter promised:
which proceedeth from the Father; Christ is not content to describe him by his work and office, as, an, advocate and comforter, and as the Spirit of truth: and from his mission by him from the Father; all which shows his usefulness and authority; but also from his nature and essence, which is the same with the Father’s; and from his peculiar personal and distinctive character, expressed by his proceeding from the Father; and which is mentioned, as what is distinct from his mission by Christ, from the Father before spoken of; and designs no other, than the eternal, ineffable, and continued act of his procession, from the Father and the Son; in which he partakes of the same nature with them, and which personally distinguishes him from them. The ancient Jews x spoke of him just in the same language; “the Spirit of God”, in Ge 1:2; they say is the Holy Spirit,
, “which proceedeth from God”: very pertinently does Christ take notice of this his character here, when he was about to speak of him as his testifier:
he shall testify of me: of his deity and sonship, of his incarnation, of his being the Messiah, of his sufferings and death, of his resurrection and ascension, of his exaltation at the right hand of God, and of his ordination to be the Judge of quick and dead; all which he bore testimony to, by the gifts bestowed upon the apostles, and the great grace that was upon them all; by the signs, wonders, and divers miracles, by which the Gospel of Christ was confirmed; and by the power, influence, and success, which attended the preaching of it every where. Thus he testified of Christ, against the blaspheming Jews, and persecuting Gentiles, to the reproof and confusion of them; and he testified of him to the apostles, and all true believers, to their great joy and comfort, and to the support of them, under all the malice and hatred of the world.
x Zohar in Gen. fol. 1. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Comforter Announced. |
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26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Christ having spoken of the great opposition which his gospel was likely to meet with in the world, and the hardships that would be put upon the preachers of it, lest any should fear that they and it would be run down by that violent torrent, he here intimates to all those that were well-wishers to his cause and interest what effectual provision was made for supporting it, both by the principal testimony of the Spirit (v. 26), and the subordinate testimony of the apostles (v. 27), and testimonies are the proper supports of truth.
I. It is here promised that the blessed Spirit shall maintain the cause of Christ in the world, notwithstanding the opposition it should meet with. Christ, when he was reviled, committed his injured cause to his Father, and did not lose by his silence, for the Comforter came, pleaded it powerfully, and carried it triumphantly. “When the Comforter or Advocate is come, who proceedeth from the Father, and whom I will send to supply the want of my bodily presence, he shall testify of me against those that hate me without cause.” We have more in this verse concerning the Holy Ghost than in any one verse besides in the Bible; and, being baptized into his name, we are concerned to acquaint ourselves with him as far as he is revealed.
1. Here is an account of him in his essence, or subsistence rather. He is the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father. Here, (1.) He is spoken of as a distinct person; not a quality or property, but a person under the proper name of a Spirit, and proper title of the Spirit of truth, a title fitly given him where he is brought in testifying. (2.) As a divine person, that proceedeth from the Father, by out-goings that were of old, from everlasting. The spirit or breath of man, called the breath of life, proceeds from the man, and by it modified he delivers his mind, by it invigorated he sometimes exerts his strength to blow out what he would extinguish, and blow up what he would excite. Thus the blessed Spirit is the emanation of divine light, and the energy of divine power. The rays of the sun, by which it dispenses and diffuses its light, heat, and influence, proceed from the sun, and yet are one with it. The Nicene Creed says, The Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son, for he is called the Spirit of the Son, Gal. iv. 6. And the Son is here said to send him. The Greek church chose rather to say, from the Father by the Son.
2. In his mission. (1.) He will come in a more plentiful effusion of his gifts, graces, and powers, than had ever yet been. Christ had been long the ho erchomenos—he that should come; now the blessed Spirit is so. (2.) I will send him to you from the Father. He had said (ch. xiv. 16), I will pray the Father, and he shall send you the Comforter, which bespeaks the Spirit to be the fruit of the intercession Christ makes within the veil: here he says, I will send him, which bespeaks him to be the fruit of his dominion within the veil. The Spirit was sent, [1.] By Christ as Mediator, now ascended on high to give gifts unto men, and all power being given to him. [2.] From the Father: “Not only from heaven, my Father’s house” (the Spirit was given in a sound from heaven, Acts ii. 2), “but according to my Father’s will and appointment, and with his concurring power and authority.” [3.] To the apostles to instruct them in their preaching, enable them for working, and carry them through their sufferings. He was given to them and their successors, both in Christianity and in the ministry; to them and their seed, and their seed’s seed, according to that promise, Isa. lix. 21.
3. In his office and operations, which are two:– (1.) One implied in the title given to him; he is the Comforter, or Advocate. An advocate for Christ, to maintain his cause against the world’s infidelity, a comforter to the saints against the world’s hatred. (2.) Another expressed: He shall testify of me. He is not only an advocate, but a witness for Jesus Christ; he is one of the three that bear record in heaven, and the first of the three that bear witness on earth.1Jn 5:7; 1Jn 5:8. He instructed the apostles, and enabled them to work miracles; he indited the scriptures, which are the standing witnesses that testify of Christ, ch. v. 39. The power of the ministry is derived from the Spirit, for he qualifies ministers; and the power of Christianity too, for he sanctifies Christians, and in both testifies of Christ.
II. It is here promised that the apostles also, by the Spirit’s assistance, should have the honour of being Christ’s witnesses (v. 27): And you also shall bear witness of me, being competent witnesses, for you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry. Observe here,
1. That the apostles were appointed to be witnesses for Christ in the world. When he had said, The Spirit shall testify, he adds, And you also shall bear witness. Note, The Spirit’s working is not to supersede, but to engage and encourage ours. Though the Spirit testify, ministers also must bear their testimony, and people attend to it; for the Spirit of grace witnesses and works by the means of grace. The apostles were the first witnesses that were called in the famous trial between Christ and the prince of this world, which issued in the ejectment of the intruder. This intimates, (1.) The work cut out for them; they were to attest the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, concerning Christ, for the recovering of his just right, and the maintaining of his crown and dignity. Though Christ’s disciples fled when they should have been witnesses for him upon his trial before the high priest and Pilate, yet after the Spirit was poured out upon them they appeared courageous in vindication of the cause of Christ against the accusations it was loaded with. The truth of the Christian religion was to be proved very much by the evidence of matter of fact, especially Christ’s resurrection, of which the apostles were in a particular manner chosen witnesses (Acts x. 41), and they bore their testimony accordingly, Act 3:15; Act 5:32. Christ’s ministers are his witnesses. (2.) The honour put upon them hereby–that they should be workers together with God. “The Spirit shall testify of me, and you also, under the conduct of the Spirit, and in concurrence with the Spirit (who will preserve you from mistaking in that which you relate on your own knowledge, and will inform you of that which you cannot know but by revelation), shall bear witness.” This might encourage them against the hatred and contempt of the world, that Christ had honoured them, and would own them.
2. That they were qualified to be so: You have been with me from the beginning. They not only heard his public sermons, but had constant private converse with him. He went about doing good, and, while others saw the wonderful and merciful works that he did in their own town and country only, those that went about with him were witnesses of them all. They had likewise opportunity of observing the unspotted purity of his conversation, and could witness for him that they never saw in him, nor heard from him, any thing that had the least tincture of human frailty. Note. (1.) We have great reason to receive the record which the apostles gave of Christ, for they did not speak by hearsay, but what they had the greatest assurance of imaginable, 2Pe 1:16; 1Jn 1:1; 1Jn 1:3. (2.) Those are best able to bear witness for Christ that have themselves been with him, by faith, hope, and love, and by living a life of communion with God in him. Ministers must first learn Christ, and then preach him. Those speak best of the things of God that speak experimentally. It is particularly a great advantage to have been acquainted with Christ from the beginning, to understand all things from the very first, Luke i. 3. To have been with him from the beginning of our days. An early acquaintance and constant converse with the gospel of Christ will make a man like a good householder.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
When the Comforter is come ( ). Indefinite temporal clause with and the second aorist active subjunctive of , “whenever the Comforter comes.”
Whom I will send unto you from the Father ( ). As in 16:7, but in John 14:16; John 14:26 the Father sends at the request of or in the name of Jesus. Cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 2:33. This is the Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son.
Which (). Grammatical neuter to agree with , and should be rendered “who” like in 14:26.
Proceedeth from the Father ( ). “From beside the Father” as in the preceding clause.
He (). Emphatic masculine pronoun, not neuter () though following .
Shall bear witness of me ( ). Future active of . This is the mission of the Paraclete (16:14) as it should be ours.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1 ) “But when the comforter is come,” (hotan elthe ho parakletos) “When the Paraclete (comforter) comes,” of His own choice and will, in His own time, as sent by the Father, in response to my prayer to Him, Joh 14:16-19.
2) “Whom I will send unto you from the Father,” (hon ego pempso humin para tou patros) “Whom I will send directly to you all from the Father,” in my stead, Joh 14:26; Joh 16:7.
3) “Even the Spirit of truth,” (to pneuma tes aletheias) “The Spirit of truth one,” who shall come forth as a helper and guide, a comrade to you while I am away, Joh 16:13.
4) “Which proceedeth from the Father,” (ho para tou patros ekporeuetai) “Which one comes from alongside the Father,” Joh 14:26; Luk 24:49; Act 2:4.
5) “He shall testify of me.” (ekeinos marturesei peri emou) “That one (the Holy Spirit as comforter) will witness concerning me,” Joh 16:14-15; Act 1:8; For “the testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit (breathing force) of prophecy,” Rev 19:10; Act 10:43; And you are to speak as He bears witness to you, 1Jn 5:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
26. But when the Comforter is come. After having explained to the apostles that the Gospel ought not to be less highly valued by them, because it has many adversaries, even within the Church itself; Christ now, in opposition to the wicked fury of those men, produces the testimony of the Spirit, and if their consciences rest on this testimony, they will never be shaken; as if he had said, “True, the world will rage against you; some will mock, and others will curse your doctrine; but none of their attacks will be so violent as to shake the firmness of your faith, when the Holy Spirit shall have been given to you to establish you by his testimony.” And, indeed, when the world rages on all sides, our only protection is, that the truth of God, scaled by the Holy Spirit on our hearts, despises and defies all that is in the world; for, if it were subject to the opinions of men, our faith would be overwhelmed a hundred times in a day.
We ought, therefore, to observe carefully in what manner we ought to remain firm among so many storms. It is because
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which have been given to us by God, (1Co 2:12.)
This single witness powerfully drives away, scatters, and overturns, all that the world rears up to obscure or crush the truth of God. All who are endued with this Spirit are so far from being in danger of falling into despondency on account of the hatred or contempt of the world, that every one of them will obtain glorious victory over the whole world. Yet we must beware of relying on the good opinion of men; for so long as faith shall wonder in this manner, or rather, as soon as it shall have gone out of the sanctuary of God, it must become involved in miserable uncertainty. It must, therefore, be brought back to the inward and secret testimony of the Spirit, which, believers know, has been given to them from heaven.
The Spirit is said to testify of Christ, because he retains and fixes our faith on him alone, that we may not seek elsewhere any part of our salvation. He calls him also the Comforter, that, relying on his protection, we may never be alarmed; for by this title Christ intended to fortify our faith, that it may not yield to any temptations. When he calls him the Spirit of truth, we must apply the term to the matter in hand; for we must presuppose a contrast to this effect, that, when they have not this Witness, men are carried about in various ways, and have no firm resting-place, but, wherever he speaks, he delivers the minds of men from all doubt and fear of being deceived.
When he says that he will send him from the Father, and, again, that he proceedeth from the Father, he does so in order to increase the weight of his authority; for the testimony of the Spirit would not be sufficient against attacks so powerful, and against efforts so numerous and fierce, if we were not convinced that he proceedeth from God So then it is Christ who sends the Spirit, but it is from the heavenly glory, that we may know that it is not a gift of men, but a sure pledge of Divine grace. Hence it appears how idle was the subtlety of the Greeks, when they argued, on the ground of these words, that the Spirit does not proceed from the Son; for here Christ, according to his custom, mentions the Father in order to raise our eyes to the contemplation of his Divinity.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(26) But when the Comforter is come.Better, But when the Advocate is come. (Comp. Excursus G.)
Whom I will send unto you from the Father.Comp. Joh. 14:16, and Note on Joh. 15:26. The pronoun is here emphatic. Whom I will send . . . The mission by the Father in answer to the Sons prayer, and the mission by the Father in the Sons name, and the mission by the Son Himself, are thought of as one and the same thing.
Even the Spirit of truth.Comp. Note on Joh. 14:17.
Which proceedeth from the Father.The force of these words is to give weight to the witness which the Spirit shall bear of the Son. He is the Advocate whom the Son will send from the Father, but He is also and emphatically the Spirit of Truth proceeding from the Father, and His witness therefore will be that of the Father Himself. These two clauses (whom I will send unto you from the Father, which proceedeth from the Father) are to be regarded as parallels; and both of them probably refer to the office of the Holy Spirit. The Vulgate renders the verb in the latter clause by the word procedit, and the older expositors generally understood it of the person of the Holy Ghost. The Eastern Church, from the days of Theodore of Mopsuestia downwards, have claimed this text as proving the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father only, and have quoted it as decisive against the addition of the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed. The Western Church, comparing it with Joh. 16:15, and such texts as Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6; Php. 1:9; 1Pe. 1:11, have held that it includes the procession from the Son. If it refers to the person of the Holy Spirit, it must be granted that the ipsissima verba of our Lord are in favour of the interpretation of the Greek Church; but if it refers, as with much greater probability it does, to the office of the Holy Ghost, then these words have no bearing upon the doctrinal question at issue. The student should read on this subject, Pearson On the Creed, Art. viii., more particularly his invaluable collection of notes.
He shall testify of me.Better, shall bear witness of Me. (Comp. Notes on Joh. 1:7 and 1Jn. 5:6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. Comforter Spirit shall testify Though a wicked world reject and deny, there is a Holy Spirit that confirms and testifies. And here is the great issue. The world, with the spirit of evil, is on one hand, and Jesus, with his apostles and the Spirit of truth, is on the other. But the result of this issue cannot be doubtful. That Spirit proceedeth from the Father. Over all is God the Father Almighty. And where shall be the victory when God contendeth? Boastful and mighty as is the world, there is one who is mightier GOD.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4). The Spirit of Truth and the Disciples Must Bear Witness Together ( Joh 15:26-27 ).
The disciples, however, need not fear. They will not be left without assistance. For Jesus will send to them from the Father the Spirit of Truth Who will Himself bear witness to Jesus through them. They will thus be fully provided for.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
“But when the Paraclete is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me. And you also bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.”
Jesus now comforts His disciple by the promise of the coming ‘Helper’ (parakletos) Who will be ‘sent by Jesus from the Father’. Previously the Paraclete has been seen as the One Who is the perfect divine companion and helper (Joh 14:16-17), the One Who will teach all things and brings to memory the words of Jesus (Joh 14:26). Now He is seen as a witness and testifier, the perfect advocate, the One Who will be alongside them in their witness, and will indeed be the prime Witness. Previously He was the gift of the Father (Joh 14:16), sent by the Father in Jesus’ name (Joh 14:26). But now it is Jesus Who will send Him from the Father. He comes from both Father and Son. So the coming of the Spirit of truth in new measure will also be as a witness to the world, revealing the truth and revealing Christ.
But this will not make the disciples redundant, for it is through them that He will speak. They will be Spirit empowered. And from an earthly point of view they are in a unique position to testify of Jesus, for they have been with Him from the beginning of His ministry. How carefully He has planned His strategy for the future (compare 2Pe 1:16 – ‘we were eyewitnesses of His majesty’).
Note that the Spirit ‘proceeds from the Father’. The present tense emphasises a continual process. This has always been so and will always be so. This stresses His divinity. It also stresses the close co-relation between Father and Holy Spirit. They act as One. But He is here also sent from the Son as well as from the Father. The members of the Godhead are at One in Their work. This is why the creed can say ‘He proceeds from the Father and the Son’.
Note On The True Israel (The True Vine).
Is The Church the True Israel?
The question being asked here is whether the early church saw itself as the true Israel. It should be noted that by this we are not speaking of ‘spiritual Israel’, except in so far as Israel were supposed to be spiritual, or of a parallel Israel, but as to whether they saw themselves as actually being the continuation of the real Israel whom God had promised to bless.
In this regard the first thing we should note is that Jesus spoke to His disciples of ‘building His congregation/church (ekklesia)’ (Mat 16:18). Now the Greek Old Testament often used ekklesia to refer to the congregation of Israel when translating the Pentateuch (see Deu 4:10; Deu 9:10; Deu 18:16; Deu 23:3; Deu 23:8; Deu 32:1). This suggests then that Jesus was here thinking in terms of building the true congregation of Israel. It thus ties in with Joh 15:1-6 where He calls Himself the true vine, in contrast with old Israel, the false vine. The very use of the adjective ‘true’ demonstrates that He is contrasting Himself and His disciples with the false vine.
While this did come after He had said that He had come only to ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’, that is those of Israel who were as sheep without a shepherd (Mat 10:6; Mat 15:24 compare Joh 9:36 and see Jer 50:6), it also followed the time when His thinking clearly took a new turn following His dealings with the Syro-phoenician woman, when He began a ministry in more specifically Gentile territory. So while at the core of His ‘congregation’ were to be those Jews who responded to His teaching and became His followers, He undoubtedly envisaged a wider outreach.
There is therefore good reason for thinking that in His mind the ‘congregation/church’ equates with the true ‘Israel’, the Israel within Israel (Rom 9:6), as indeed it did in the Greek translations of the Old Testament where ‘the congregation/assembly of Israel’, which was finally composed of all who responded to the covenant, was translated as ‘the church (ekklesia) of Israel’. That being so we may then see it as indicating that He was now intending to found a new Israel, which it later turned out would include Gentiles. Indeed this was the very basis on which the early believers called themselves ‘the church/congregation’, that is, ‘the congregation of the new Israel’, and while they were at first made up mainly of Jews and proselytes, which was all that the Apostles were expecting until God forcibly interrupted them, this gradually developed into including both Jews and Gentiles.
Indeed in Act 4:27-28, Luke demonstrates quite clearly that the old unbelieving Israel is no longer, after the resurrection, the true Israel, for we read, “For in truth in this city against your holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to come about.” Note the four ‘items’ mentioned, the Gentiles, the peoples of Israel, ‘King’ (Tetrarch) Herod and Pontius Pilate the ruler. And note that these words follow as an explanation of a quotation from Psa 2:1 in Act 4:25-26, which is as follows:
‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
And the peoples imagine vain things,
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers were gathered together,
Against the Lord and against His anointed –.’
The important point to note here is that ‘the peoples’ who imagined vain things, who in the original Psalm were nations who were enemies of Israel, have now become in Acts ‘the peoples of Israel’. Thus the ‘peoples of Israel’ who were opposing the Apostles and refusing to believe are here seen as the enemy of God and His Anointed, and of His people. It is a clear indication that old unbelieving Israel was now seen as numbered by God among the nations, and that that part of Israel which had believed in Christ were seen as the true Israel. As Jesus had said to Israel, ‘the Kingly Rule of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits’ (Mat 21:43). Thus the King now has a new people of Israel to guard and watch over.
The same idea is found in Joh 15:1-6. The false vine (the old Israel – Isa 5:1-7) has been cut down and replaced by the true vine of ‘Christ at one with His people’ (Joh 15:1-6; Eph 2:11-22). Here Jesus, and those who abide in Him (the church/congregation), are the new Israel. The old unbelieving part of Israel has been cut off (Joh 15:6) and replaced by all those who come to Jesus and abide in Jesus, that is both believing Jews and believing Gentiles (Rom 11:17-28), who together with Jesus form the true Vine by becoming its ‘branches’.
The new Israel, the ‘Israel of God’, thus sprang from Jesus. And it was He Who established its new leaders who would ‘rule over (‘judge’) the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Mat 19:28; Luk 22:30). Here ‘the twelve tribes of Israel’ refers to all who will come to believe in Jesus through His word, and the initial, if not the complete fulfilment, of this promise occurred in Acts. This appointment of His Apostles to rule ‘over the tribes of Israel’ was not intended to divide the world into two parts, consisting of Jew and Gentile, with the two parts seen as separate, and with Israel under the Apostles, while the Gentiles were under other rulers, but as describing a united Christian ‘congregation’ under the Apostles. Thus those over whom they ‘ruled’ would be ‘the true Israel’ which would include both believing Jews and believing Gentiles. These would thus become the true Israel.
This true Israel was founded on believing Jews. The Apostles were Jews, and were to be the foundation of the new Israel which incorporated Gentiles within it (Eph 2:20; Rev 21:14). And initially all its first foundation members were Jews. Then as it spread it first did so among Jews until there were ‘about five thousand’ Jewish males who were believers to say nothing of women and children (Act 4:4). Then it spread throughout all Judaea, and then through the synagogues of ‘the world’, so that soon there were a multitude of Jews who were Christians. Here then was the initial true Israel, a new Israel within Israel.
But then God revealed that He had a more expanded purpose for it. Proselytes (Gentile converts) and God-fearers (Gentile adherents to the synagogues), people who were already seen as connected with Israel, began to join and they also became branches of the true vine (Joh 15:1-6) and were grafted into the olive tree (Rom 11:17-28). They became ‘fellow-citizens’ with the Jewish believers (‘the saints’, a regular Old Testament name for true Israelites who were seen as true believers). They became members of the ‘household of God’. (Eph 2:11-22). And so the new Israel sprang up, following the same pattern as the old, and incorporating believing Jews and believing Gentiles. That is why Paul could describe the new church as ‘the Israel of God’ (Gal 6:16), because both Jews and Gentiles were now ‘the seed of Abraham’ (Gal 3:29).
Those who deny that the church is Israel and still equate Israel with the Jews must in fact see all these believing Jews as cut off from Israel (as the Jews in fact in time did). For by the late 1st century AD, the Israel for which those who deny that the church is Israel contend, was an Israel made up only of Jews who did not see Christian Jews as belonging to Israel. As far as they were concerned Christian Jews were cut off from Israel. And in the same way believing Jews who followed Paul’s teaching saw fellow Jews who did not believe as no longer being true Israel. They in turn saw the unbelieving Jews as cut off from Israel. As Paul puts it, ‘they are not all Israel who are Israel’ (Rom 9:6).
For the new Israel now saw themselves as the true Israel. They saw themselves as the ‘Israel of God’ (Gal 6:16). And that is why Paul stresses to the Gentile Christians in Eph 2:11-22; Rom 11:17-28 that they are now a part of the new Israel having been made one with the true people of God in Jesus Christ. In order to consider all this in more detail let us look back in history.
When Abraham entered the land of Canaan having been called there by God he was promised that in him all the world would be blessed, and this was later also promised to his seed (Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4; Gen 28:14). But Abraham did not enter the land alone. In Genesis 14 we are told that he had three hundred and eighteen fighting men ‘born in his house’, in other words born to servants, camp followers and slaves. One of his own slave wives was an Egyptian (Genesis 16) and his steward was probably Syrian, a Damascene (Gen 15:2). Thus Abraham was patriarch over a family tribe, all of whom with him inherited the promises, and they came from a number of different nationalities. Only a small proportion were actually descended from Abraham directly.
From Abraham came Isaac through whom the most basic promises were to be fulfilled, for God said, ‘in Isaac shall your seed be called’ (Gen 21:12; Rom 9:7; see also Gen 26:3-5). Thus the seed of Ishmael, who was himself the seed of Abraham, while enjoying promises from God, were excluded from the major line of promises. While prospering, they would not be the people through whom the whole world would be blessed. And this was also true of Abraham’s later sons born to Keturah. Thus the large part of Abraham’s descendants were at this stage already cut off from the full Abrahamic promises. As Paul puts it, as we have seen, ‘In Isaac will your seed be called’ (Rom 9:7).
Jacob, who was renamed Israel, was born of Isaac, and it was to him that the future lordship of people and nations was seen as passed on (Gen 27:29) and from his twelve sons came the twelve tribes of the ‘children of Israel’. But as with Abraham these twelve tribes would include retainers, servants and slaves. The ‘households’ that moved to Egypt would include such servants and slaves. The ‘seventy’ were accompanied by wives, retainers, and their children. So the ‘children of Israel’ even at this stage would include people from many peoples and nations. They included Jacob/Israel’s own descendants and their wives, together with their servants and retainers, and their wives and children, ‘many ‘born in their house’ but not directly their seed (Gen 15:3). Israel was already a conglomerate people. Even at the beginning they were not all literally descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Most were rather ‘adopted’ into the family tribe.
When eventually after hundreds of years they left Egypt they were then joined by a ‘mixed multitude’ from many nations, who with them had been enslaved in Egypt, and these joined with them in their flight (Exo 12:38). So to the already mixed people of Israel were united with the mixed multitude and became even more of a mixture. At Sinai these were all joined within the covenant and became ‘children of Israel’, and when they entered the land all their males were circumcised as true Israelites (Jos 5:8). Among these was an ‘Ethiopian’ (Cushite) woman who became Moses’ wife (Num 12:1). Thus we discover that ‘Israel’ from its commencement was an international community. Indeed it was made clear from the beginning that any who wanted to do so could join Israel and become an Israelite by submission to the covenant and by being circumcised (Exo 12:48-49). Membership of the people of God was thus from the beginning to be open to all nations by submission to God through the covenant. And these all then connected themselves with one of the tribes of Israel, were absorbed into them, and began to trace their ancestry back to Abraham and Jacob even though they were not true born, and still retained an identifying appellation such as, for example, ‘Uriah the Hittite’. (Whether Uriah was one such we do not know, although we think it extremely probable. But there must certainly have been many who did it). And even while Moses was alive it proved necessary to make regulations as to who could enter the assembly or congregation of the Lord, and at what stage people of different nations could enter it (Deu 23:1-8), so that they could then become Israelites.
That this was carried out in practise is evidenced by the numerous Israelites who bore a foreign name, consider for example ‘Uriah the Hittite’ (2 Samuel 11) and many of the mighty men of David (2Sa 23:8-28). These latter were so close to David that it is inconceivable that some at least did not become true members of the covenant by submitting to the covenant and being circumcised when it was clearly open to them through the Law. Later again it became the practise in Israel, in accordance with Exo 12:48-49, for anyone who ‘converted’ to Israel and began to believe in the God of Israel, to be received into ‘Israel’ on equal terms with the true-born, and that by circumcision and submission to the covenant. These were later called ‘proselytes’. In contrast people also left Israel by desertion, and by not bringing their children within the covenant, when for example they went abroad or were exiled. These were then ‘cut off from Israel’, as were deep sinners. ‘Israel’ was therefore always a fluid concept, and was, at least purportedly, composed of all who submitted to the covenant.
When Jesus came His initial purpose was to call back to God ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Mat 10:6), those in Israel who were seeking a Shepherd, and in the main for the first part, with exceptions (e.g. John 4), He limited His ministry to Jews. But notice that those Jews who would not listen to His disciples were to be treated like Gentiles. The disciples were to shake their dust off their feet (Mat 10:14). So even during Jesus’ ministry there was a cutting off as well as a welcoming. After His dealings with the Syro-phoenician woman, He appears to have expanded His thinking, or His approach, further and to have moved into more Gentile territory, and later He declared that there were other sheep that He would also call and they would be one flock with Israel (Joh 10:16).
Thus when the Gospel began to reach out to the Gentiles those converted were welcomed as part of the one flock. The question that arose then was, ‘did they need to be circumcised in order to become members of the new Israel?’ Was a special proselytisation necessary, as with proselytes to old Israel, which was to be evidenced by circumcision? That was what the circumcision controversy was all about. The Judaisers said ‘yes’ and Paul said ‘No’. And the question was only asked because all saw these new converts as becoming a part of Israel. If they had not seen these Gentiles as becoming a part of Israel there would have been no controversy. There would have been no need for circumcision. It was only because they were seen as becoming proselyte Israelites that the problem arose. That is why Paul’s argument was never that circumcision was not necessary because they were not becoming Israel. He indeed accepted that they would become members of Israel. But rather he argues that circumcision was no longer necessary because all who were in Christ were circumcised with the circumcision of Christ. They were already circumcised by faith. They had the circumcision of the heart, and were circumcised with the circumcision of Christ (Col 2:11), and therefore did not need to be circumcised again.
Thus in Rom 11:17-24 he speaks clearly of converted Gentiles being ‘grafted into the olive tree’ through faith, and of Israelites being broken off through unbelief, to be welcomed again if they repent and come to Christ. Whatever we therefore actually see the olive tree as representing, it is quite clear that it does speak of those who are cut off because they do not believe, and of those who are ingrafted because they do believe (precisely as it was to happen with Israel), and this in the context of Israel being saved or not. But the breaking off or casting off of Israelites in the Old Testament was always an indication of being cut off from Israel. Thus we must see the olive tree as, like the true vine, signifying all who are now included within the promises, that is the true Israel, with spurious elements being cut off because they are not really a part of them, while new members are grafted in. The difficulty lies in the simplicity of the illustration which like all illustrations cannot cover every point.
Furthermore it should be noted that ‘olive tree’ is the very name by which YHWH called Israel for in Jer 11:16 we read, ‘YHWH called your name ‘an olive tree, green, beautiful and with luscious fruit’. The importance of this comes out in that those who are actually said to be ‘called by name’ by YHWH are very few (Adam, Jacob/Israel and Magormissabib, the last being an indication of the judgment that was coming on him in Jer 20:3). So, as Paul knew, ‘olive tree’ was YHWH’s name for the true Israel.
This then raises an interesting question. If unbelieving Israel can be cut off from the olive tree, what in Paul’s mind is the olive tree? For this illustration suggests that unbelieving Israel had been members of the olive tree, and if the olive tree is true Israel then does that mean that they had once been members of true Israel?
Exactly the same question could be posed about the branches of the vine which are pruned from the vine in Joh 15:1-6 and are burned in the fire. They too ‘appear’ to have been members of the true vine. And the same could be said of those caught into the net of the Kingly Rule of Heaven who are finally ejected and brought into judgment (Mat 13:47-50). They too ‘appear’ to have been a part of the Kingly Rule of God. Thus the olive tree, the true Vine and the Kingly Rule of Heaven are all seen as seeming to contain false members. On this basis then none of them could surely be the true Israel?
This argument, however, is clearly false. For the true Vine is Jesus Himself. Thus the fact that some can be cut off from the true Vine hardly means that the true vine is to be seen as partly a false vine. The illustration simply indicates that they should never have been there in the first place. They were spurious. Outwardly they may have appeared to have been members of the true vine, but inwardly they were not. The same can be said to apply to the Kingly Rule of God. Those who were gathered into the net of the Kingly Rule of God divide up into ‘children of the Kingly Rule’ and ‘children of the Evil One’. The latter were never thus children of the Kingly Rule. They were never a true part of the Kingly Rule. They were children of the Evil One all the time. Indeed their very behaviour revealed that they were not under God’s Kingly Rule. In the same way then the olive tree is an Israel composed of true believers, and is such that unbelieving Jews are cut off because essentially they are proved not to have been a part of it. Outwardly they had appeared to be, but they were not. In each case it simply means that there were spurious elements connected with them that were masquerading as the real thing, which simply have to be removed. Rather than being in the basic concept, the problem arises from the difficulty of conveying the concept in simple pictorial terms. For the true Vine can hardly really have false members, otherwise it would not be the true Vine. In each case, therefore, it is can clearly be seen that in fact those ‘cut off’ or ‘ejected’ were never really a part of what they were seen to be cut off from, but had only physically given the appearance of being so.
The same is true of the ‘church’ today. There is an outward church composed of all who attach themselves and call themselves Christians, and there is a true church composed of all who are true believers and are ‘in Christ’. It is only the latter who benefit, and will benefit, from all that God has promised for His ‘church’.
In the same way, as Paul has said, not all Israel are (or ever were) the true Israel (Rom 9:6). Many professed to be but were spurious ‘members’. They were fakes. Their hearts were not within the covenant. They were ‘not My people’ (Hos 2:23). This stresses the difference between the outward and the inward. Not all who say ‘Lord’ Lord’ will enter the Kingly Rule of God, but only those will enter who by their lives reveal that they truly are what they profess to be (Mat 7:21).
This idea also comes out regularly in the Old Testament where God made it quite clear that only a proportion of Israel would avoid His judgments (e.g. Isa 6:13). The remainder (and large majority) would be ‘cut off’, for although outwardly professing to be His people they were not His people. And thus it was with the people of Israel in Jesus’ day. They were revealed by their fruits, which included how they responded to Jesus.
But in Ephesians 2 Paul makes clear that Gentiles can become a part of the true Israel. He tells the Gentiles that they had in the past been ‘alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise’ (Eph 2:12). They had not been a part of it. Thus in the past they had not belonged to the twelve tribes. But then he tells them that they are now ‘made nigh by the blood of Christ’ (Eph 2:13), Who has ‘made both one and broken down the wall of partition — creating in Himself of two one new man’ (Eph 2:14-15). Now therefore, through Christ, they have been made members of the commonwealth of Israel, and inherit the promises. So they are ‘no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets’ (Eph 2:19-20). ‘Strangers and sojourners’ was the Old Testament description of those who were not true Israelites. It is therefore made as clear as can be that they have now entered the ‘new’ Israel. They are no longer strangers and sojourners but are now ‘fellow-citizens’ with God’s people. They have entered into the covenant of promise (Gal 3:29), and thus inherit all the promises of the Old Testament, including the prophecies.
So as with people in the Old Testament who were regularly adopted into the twelve tribes of Israel (e.g. the mixed multitude – Exo 12:38), Gentile Christians too are now seen as so incorporated. That is why Paul can call the church ‘the Israel of God’, made up of Jews and ex-Gentiles, having declared circumcision and uncircumcision as unimportant because there is a new creation (Gal 6:15-16), a circumcision of the heart. It is those who are in that new creation who are the Israel of God.
In context ‘The Israel of God’ can here only mean that new creation, the church of Christ, otherwise he is being inconsistent. For as he points out, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters any more. What matters is the new creation. It must therefore be that which identifies the Israel of God. For if circumcision is irrelevant then the Israel of God cannot be made up of the circumcised, even the believing circumcised, for circumcision has lost its meaning. The point therefore behind both of these passages is that all Christians become, by adoption, members of the twelve tribes.
There would in fact be no point in mentioning circumcision if he was not thinking of incorporation of believing Gentiles into the twelve tribes. The importance of circumcision was that to the Jews it made the difference between those who became genuine proselytes, and thus members of the twelve tribes, and those who remained as ‘God-fearers’, loosely attached but not circumcised and therefore not accepted as full Jews. That then was why the Judaisers wanted all Gentiles who became Christians to be circumcised. It was because they did not believe that they could otherwise become genuine Israelites. So they certainly saw converted Gentiles as becoming Israelites. There could be no other reason for wanting Gentiles to be circumcised. (Jesus had never in any way commanded circumcision). But Paul says that that is not so. He argues that they can become true Israelites without being physically circumcised because they are circumcised in heart. They are circumcised in Christ. So when Paul argues that Christians have been circumcised in heart (Rom 2:26; Rom 2:29; Rom 4:12; Php 3:3; Col 2:11) he is saying that that is all that is necessary in order for them to be members of the true Israel.
A great deal of discussion often takes place about the use of ‘kai’ in Gal 6:16, ‘as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and (kai) on the Israel of God’. It is asked, ‘does it signify that the Israel of God is additional to and distinct from those who ‘walk by this rule’, or simply define them?’ (If the Israel of God differs from those who ‘walk by this rule’ then that leaves only the Judaisers as the Israel of God, and excludes Paul and His Jewish supporters. But can anyone really contend that that was what Paul meant?) The answer to this question is really decided by the preceding argument. We cannot really base our case on arguments about ‘kai’. But for the sake of clarity we will consider the question.
Kai is a vague connecting word. It cannot be denied that ‘kai’ can mean ‘and’ in some circumstances, and as thus indicate adding something additional, because it is a connecting word. But nor can it be denied that it can alternatively, in contexts like this, mean ‘even’, and as thus equating what follows with what has gone before, again because it is a connecting word (it does not mean ‘and’, it simply connects and leaves the context to decide its meaning). ‘Kai’ in fact is often used in Greek as a kind of connection word where in English it is redundant altogether. It is not therefore a strongly definitive word. Thus its meaning must always be decided by the context, and a wise rule has been made that we make the decision on the basis of which choice will add least to the meaning of the word in the context (saying in other words that because of its ambiguity ‘kai’ should never be stressed). That would mean here the translating of it as ‘even’, giving it its mildest influence.
That that is the correct translation comes out if we give the matter a little more thought. The whole letter has been emphasising that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (Joh 3:28), and that this arises because all are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. So even had we not had the reasons that we have already considered, how strange it would then be for Paul to close the letter by distinguishing Jew from Greek, and Gentiles from the believing Jews. He would be going against all that he has just said. And yet that is exactly what he would be doing if he was exclusively indicating by the phrase ‘the Israel of God’ only the believing Jews. So on all counts, interpretation, grammar and common sense, ‘the Israel of God’ must include both Jews and Gentiles.
In Gal 4:26 it is made clear that the true Jerusalem is the heavenly Jerusalem, the earthly having been rejected. This new heavenly Jerusalem is ‘the mother of us all’ just as Sarah had been the mother of Israel. All Christians are thus the children of the freewoman, that is, of Sarah (Gal 4:31). This reveals that they are therefore the true sons of Abraham, signifying ‘Israel’. To argue that being a true son of Abraham through Sara is not the same thing as being a son of Jacob/Israel would in fact be to argue contrary to all that Israel believed. Their boast was precisely that they were ‘sons of Abraham’, indeed the true sons of Abraham, because they ‘came’ from Sara’s seed.
Again in Romans he points out to the Gentiles that there is a remnant of Israel which is faithful to God and they are the true Israel (Rom 11:5). The remainder have been cast off (Romans 10:27; Rom 11:15; Rom 11:17; Rom 11:20). Then he describes the Christian Gentiles as ‘grafted in among them’ becoming ‘partakers with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree’ (Rom 11:17). They are now part of the same tree so it is clear that he regards them as now being part of the faithful remnant of Israel (see argument on this point earlier). With regard to the olive tree we are told that God said to Israel, ‘God called your name “A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit’ (Jer 11:16). So the olive tree is very much a picture of the true Israel. This oneness is again declared quite clearly in Galatians, for ‘those who are of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham’ (Gal 3:7).
Note that in Romans 9 Paul declares that not all earthly Israel are really Israel, only those who are chosen by God. It is only the chosen who are the foreknown Israel. See Rom 9:8; Rom 9:24-26; Rom 11:2. This is a reminder that to Paul ‘Israel’ is a fluid concept. It does not have just one fixed meaning. It can mean all Jews. It can mean all believing Jews. It can mean all unbelieving Jews, excluding believing Jews, depending on Paul’s context. Thus ‘they are not all Israel who are Israel’ indicates already two definitions of Israel (Rom 9:6).
The privilege of being a ‘son of Abraham’ is that one is adopted into the twelve tribes of Israel. It is the twelve tribes who proudly called themselves ‘the sons of Abraham’ (Joh 8:39; Joh 8:53). That is why in the one man in Christ Jesus there can be neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal 3:28). For they all become one as Israel by being one with the One Who in Himself sums up all that Israel was meant to be, the true vine (Joh 15:1-6; Isa 49:3). For ‘if you are Abraham’s seed, you are heirs according to the promise’ (Gal 3:29). To be Abraham’s ‘seed’ within the promise is to be a member of the twelve tribes. There can really be no question about it. The reference to ‘seed’ is decisive. You cannot be ‘Abraham’s seed’ through Sara and yet not a part of Israel. (If we want to be pedantic we can point out that Edom also actually ceased to exist and did become by compulsion, a part of Israel, under John Hyrcanus. Thus Israel was once again to be seen as an openly conglomerate nation. Furthermore large numbers of what were now seen as Galilean Jews (but some of whom had been Gentiles) had been forced to become Jews in the two centuries before Christ. Having been circumcised they were accepted as Jews even though not born of the twelve tribes).
Paul can even separate Jew from Jew saying, ‘he is not a Jew who is one outwardly — he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that of the heart’ (Rom 2:28-29 compare Rom 2:26). The true Jew, he says, is the one who is the inward Jew. So he distinguishes physical Israel from true Israel and physical Jew from true Jew.
In the light of these passages it cannot really be doubted that the early church saw the converted Gentiles as becoming a member of the twelve tribes of Israel. They are ‘the seed of Abraham’, ‘sons of Abraham’, ‘spiritually circumcised’, ‘grafted into the true Israel’, ‘fellow-citizens with the saints in the commonwealth of Israel’, ‘the Israel of God’. What further evidence do we need?
In Romans 4 he further makes clear that Abraham is the father of all who believe, including both circumcised and uncircumcised (Rom 4:9-13). Indeed he says we have been circumcised with the circumcision of Christ (Col 2:11). All who believe are therefore circumcised children of Abraham.
When James writes to ‘the twelve tribes which are of the dispersion’ (Jas 1:1) he is taking the same view. (Jews living away from Palestine were seen as dispersed around the world and were therefore thought of as ‘the dispersion’). There is not a single hint in his letter that he is writing other than to all in the churches. He therefore sees the whole church as having become members of the twelve tribes, and sees them as the true ‘dispersion’, and indeed refers to their ‘assembly’ with the same word used for synagogue (Jas 2:2). But he can also call them ‘the church’ (Jas 5:14).
Yet there is not even the slightest suggestion anywhere in the remainder of his letter that he has just one section of the church in mind. In view of the importance of the subject, had he not been speaking of the whole church he must surely have commented on the attitude of Jewish Christians to Christian Gentiles, especially in the light of the ethical content of his letter. It was a crucial problem of the day. But there is not even a whisper of it in his letter. He speaks as though to the whole church. Unless he was a total separatist (which we know he was not) and treated the ex-Gentile Christians as though they did not exist, this would seem impossible unless he saw all as now making up ‘the twelve tribes of Israel’.
Peter also writes to ‘the elect’ and calls them ‘sojourners of the dispersion’, but when he does speak of ‘Gentiles’ he always means unconverted Gentiles. He clearly assumes that all that come under that heading are not Christians (1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 4:3). The fact that the elect includes ex-Gentiles is confirmed by the fact that he speaks to the recipients of his letter warning them not to fashion themselves ‘according to their former desires in the time of their ignorance’ (1Pe 1:14), and as having been ‘not a people, but are now the people of God’ (1Pe 2:10), and speaks of them as previously having ‘wrought the desire of the Gentiles’ (1Pe 4:3). So it is apparent he too sees all Christians as members of the twelve tribes (as in the example above, ‘the dispersion’ means the twelve tribes scattered around the world).
Good numbers of Gentiles were in fact becoming members of the Jewish faith at that time, and on being circumcised were accepted by the Jews as members of the twelve tribes (as proselytes). In the same way the Apostles, who were all Jews and also saw the pure in Israel, the believing Jews, as God’s chosen people, saw the converted Gentiles as being incorporated into the new Israel, into the true twelve tribes. But they did not see circumcision as necessary, and the reason for that was that they considered that all who believed had been circumcised with the circumcision of Christ.
Peter in his letter confirms all this. He writes to the church calling them ‘a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession’ (1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9), all terms which in Exo 19:5-6 indicate Israel.
Today we may not think in these terms but it is apparent that to the early church to become a Christian was to become a member of the twelve tribes of Israel. That is why there was such a furore over whether circumcision, the covenant sign of the Jew, was necessary for Christians. It was precisely because they were seen as entering the twelve tribes that many saw it as required. Paul’s argument against it is never that Christians do not become members of the twelve tribes (as we have seen he actually argues that they do) but that what matters is spiritual circumcision, not physical circumcision. Thus early on Christians unquestionably saw themselves as the true twelve tribes of Israel.
This receives confirmation from the fact that the seven churches (the universal church) is seen in terms of the seven lampstands in chapter 1. The sevenfold lampstand in the Tabernacle and Temple represented Israel. In the seven lampstands the churches are seen as the true Israel.
Given that fact it is clear that reference to the hundred and forty four thousand from all the tribes of Israel in Revelation 7 is to Christians. But it is equally clear that the numbers are not to be taken literally. The twelve by twelve is stressing who and what they are, not how many there are. There is no example anywhere else in Scripture where God actually selects people on such an exact basis. Even the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1Ki 19:18) were a round number based on seven as the number of divine perfection and completeness. The reason for the seemingly exact figures is to demonstrate that God has His people numbered and that not one is missing (compare Num 31:48-49). The message of these verses is that in the face of persecution to come, and of God’s judgments against men, God knows and remembers His own. But they are then described as a multitude who cannot be numbered (only God can number them).
It is noticeable that this description of the twelve tribes is in fact artificial in another respect. While Judah is placed first as the tribe from which Christ came, Dan is omitted, and Manasseh is included as well as Joseph, although Manasseh was the son of Joseph. Thus the omission of Dan is deliberate, while Ephraim, Joseph’s other son, is ‘excluded by name’, but included under Joseph’s name. (This artificiality confirms that the idea of the tribes is not to be taken literally). The exclusion of Dan is because he was seen as the tool of the Serpent (Gen 49:17), and the exclusion of the two names is because the two names were specifically connected with idolatry.
In Deu 29:17-20 the warning had been given that God would ‘blot out his name from under heaven’, when speaking of those who gave themselves up to idolatrous worship and belief, and as we have seen idolatry and uncleanness were central in the warnings to the seven churches. Thus the exclusion of the names of Ephraim and Dan are a further warning against such things.
It is unquestionable that the names of both Ephraim and Dan were specifically connected with idolatry in such a way as to make them distinctive. Hosea declared, ‘Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone, their drink is become sour, they commit whoredom continually’ (Hos 4:17-18). This is distinctly reminiscent of the sins condemned in the seven churches. It is true that Ephraim here means the whole of Israel, as often, but John saw the name of Ephraim as besmirched by the connection with idolatry and whoredom.
As for Dan, it was a man of the tribe of Dan who ‘blasphemed the Name’ (Lev 24:11), it was Dan that was first to set up a graven image in rivalry to the Tabernacle (Jdg 18:30) and Dan was the only tribe mentioned by name as being the site of one of the calves of gold set up by Jeroboam, as Amos stresses (Amo 8:14; 1Ki 12:29-30; 2Ki 10:29). Indeed Amos directly connects the name of Dan with ‘the sin of Samaria’. Thus Dan is closely connected with blasphemy and idolatry. And to cap it all ‘Dan will be a serpent in the way, and an adder in the path’ (Gen 49:17). He is the tool of the Serpent. Typologically therefore he is the Judas of the twelve. How could he not then be excluded? It is also voices in Dan and Ephraim which declare the evil coming on Jerusalem (Jer 4:15), closely connecting the two.
That what is excluded is the name of Ephraim and not its people (they are included in Joseph) is significant. It means that the message of these omissions is that the very names of those who partake in idolatry and sexual misbehaviour will be excluded from the new Israel (compare the warnings to the churches, especially Thyatira). The exclusion of the name of Dan is therefore to warn us that those who are not genuine will be excluded from the new Israel. But that does not mean that there were not many Danites who had become Christians.
So here in Revelation, in the face of the future activity of God against the world, He provides His people with protection, and marks them off as distinctive from those who bear the mark of the Beast. God protects His true people. And there is no good reason for seeing these people as representing other than the church of the current age. The fact is that we are continually liable to persecution, and while not all God’s judgments have yet been visited on the world, we have experienced sufficient to know that we are not excluded. In John’s day this reference to ‘the twelve tribes’ was telling the church that God had sealed them, so that while they must be ready for the persecution to come, they need not fear the coming judgments of God that he will now reveal, for they are under His protection.
In fact the New Testament tells us that all God’s true people are sealed by God. Abraham received circumcision as a seal of ‘the righteousness of (springing from) faith’ (Rom 4:11), but circumcision is replaced in the New Testament by the ‘seal of the Spirit’ (2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30). It is clear that Paul therefore sees all God’s people as being ‘sealed’ by God in their enjoyment of the indwelling Holy Spirit and this would suggest that John’s description in Revelation 7 is a dramatic representation of that fact. His people have been open to spiritual attack from earliest New Testament days (and before) and it is not conceivable that they have not enjoyed God’s seal of protection on them. Thus the seal here in Revelation refers to the sealing (or if someone considers it future, a re-sealing) with the Holy Spirit of promise. The whole idea behind the scene is in order to stress that all God’s people have been specially sealed.
In Revelation 21 the ‘new Jerusalem’ is founded on twelve foundations which are the twelve Apostles of the Lamb (Rev 21:14), and its gates are the twelve tribes of the children of Israel (Rev 21:12). Indeed Jesus said that he would found his ‘church’ on the Apostles and their statement of faith (Mat 16:18) and the idea behind the word ‘church’ (ekklesia) here was as being the ‘congregation’ of Israel. (The word ekklesia is used of the latter in the Greek Old Testament). Jesus had come to establish the new Israel. Thus from the commencement the church were seen as being the true Israel, composed of both Jew and Gentile who entered within God’s covenant, the ‘new covenant’, as it had been right from the beginning, and they were called ‘the church’ for that very reason.
In countering these arguments it has been astonishingly said that ‘Every reference to Israel in the New Testament refers to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ And another expositor has added the comment, ‘This is true in the Old Testament also.’
Such statements are not only a gross oversimplification, but in fact they are totally untrue. They simply assume what they intend to prove, and are in fact completely incorrect. For as we have seen above if there is one thing that is absolutely sure it is that many who saw themselves as Israelites were not physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Many were descended from the servants of the Patriarchs who went down into Egypt in their ‘households’, and were from a number of nationalities. Others were part of the mixed multitude which left Egypt with Israel (Exo 12:38). They were adopted into Israel, and became Israelites, a situation which was sealed by the covenant.
Indeed it is made quite clear that anyone who was willing to worship God and become a member of the covenant through circumcision could do so and became accepted on equal terms as ‘Israelites’ (Exo 12:47-49). They would then become united with the tribe among whom they dwelt or with which they had connections. That is why there were regulations as to who could enter the assembly or congregation of the Lord, and when (Deu 23:1-8). Later on proselytes would also be absorbed into Israel. Thus ‘Israel’ was from the start very much a conglomerate, and continued to be so. That is why many Galileans and the Edomites were forced to become Jews and be circumcised once the Jews took over their land. From then on they were seen as part of Israel.
Nor is it true that in Paul ‘Israel’ always means physical Israel. When we come to the New Testament Paul can speak of ‘Israel after the flesh’ (1Co 10:18). That suggests that he also conceives of an Israel not ‘after the flesh’. That conclusion really cannot be avoided.
Furthermore, when we remember that outside Romans 9-11 Israel is only mentioned by Paul seven times, and that 1Co 10:18 clearly points to another Israel, one not after the flesh (which has been defined in Joh 15:1-18), and that it is one of the seven verses, and that Gal 6:16 is most satisfactorily seen as signifying the church of Jesus Christ and not old Israel at all (or even converted Israel), the statement must be seen as having little force. In Eph 2:11-22 where he speaks of the ‘commonwealth of Israel’ he immediately goes on to say that in Christ Jesus all who are His are ‘made nigh’, and then stresses that we are no more strangers and sojourners but are genuine fellow-citizens, and are of the household of God. If that does not mean becoming a part of the true Israel it is difficult to see what could.
Furthermore in the other four references (so now only four out of seven) it is not the present status of Israel that is in mind. The term is simply being used as an identifier in a historical sense in reference to connections with the Old Testament situation. Thus the argument that ‘Israel always means Israel’ is not very strong. Again in Hebrews all mentions of ‘Israel’ are historical, referring back to the Old Testament. They refer to Israel in the past, not in the present. In Revelation two mentions out of three are again simply historical, while many would consider that the other actually does refer to the church (Rev 7:4). (Mentions of pre-Christian Israel obviously could not include the ‘church’, the new Israel. But they certainly do include Gentiles who have become Jews).
In Romans 9-11 it is made very clear that Israel can mean more than one thing. When Paul says, ‘they are not all Israel, who are of Israel’ (Rom 9:6) and points out that it is the children of the promise who are counted as the seed (Rom 9:8), we are justified in seeing that there are two Israels in Paul’s mind, one which is the Israel after the flesh, and includes old unconverted Israel, and one which is the Israel of the promise.
And when he says that ‘Israel’ have not attained ‘to the law of righteousness’ while the Gentiles ‘have attained to the righteousness which is of faith’ (Rom 9:30-31) he cannot be speaking of all Israel because it is simply not true that none in Israel have attained to righteousness. Jewish-Christian believers have also attained to the righteousness which is of faith, and have therefore attained the law of righteousness. For many thousands and even tens of thousands had become Christians as we have seen in Acts 1-5. Thus here ‘Israel’ must mean old, unconverted Israel, not all the (so-called) descendants of the Patriarchs, and must actually exclude believing Israel, however we interpret the latter, for ‘Israel did not seek it by faith’ while believing Israel did.
Thus here we see three uses of Israel, each referring to a different entity. One is all the old Israel, which includes both elect and non-elect (Rom 11:11) and is therefore a partly blind Israel (Rom 11:25), one is the Israel of promise (called in Rom 11:11 ‘the election’) and one is the old Israel which does not include the Israel of promise, the part of the old Israel which is the blind Israel. The term is clearly fluid and can sometimes refer to one group and sometimes to another.
Furthermore here ‘the Gentiles’ must mean those who have come to faith and not all Gentiles. It cannot mean all Gentiles, for it speaks of those who have ‘attained to the righteousness of faith’ (which was what old Israel failed to obtain when it strove after it). It means believing Gentiles. Thus that term is also fluid. (In contrast, in 1 Peter ‘Gentiles’ represents only those who are unconverted. Thus all words like these must be interpreted in their contexts).
When we are also told that such Gentiles who have come to faith have become ‘Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise’ (Gal 3:29) we are justified in seeing these converted Gentiles as having become part of the new Israel, along with the converted Jews. They are now actually stated to be ‘the seed of Abraham’. This clarifies the picture of the olive tree. Old unconverted Israel are cut out of it, the converted Gentiles are grafted into it. Thus old Israel are no longer God’s people while the converted Gentiles are.
It may then be asked, ‘What then does Paul mean when he says that ‘all Israel will be saved’?’ (Rom 11:26). It clearly cannot mean literally ‘all’ of old Israel, both past and present, for Scripture has made quite clear that not all of them will be saved. Let us consider the possibilities:
1) All the people of a nation have been saved at one point in time. It would not be in accordance with God’s revealed way of working. But more importantly it would also make nonsense of those many passages where God’s final judgment is poured out on Israel, and it is therefore clear that all Israel will not be saved. How can all Israel be saved and yet face His judgment?
2). Does he then mean ‘all the true Israel’, those elected in God’s purposes, ‘the remnant according to the election of grace’ (Rom 11:5), who will be saved along with the fullness of the Gentiles? That is certainly a possibility if we ignore all the Scriptures that we have looked at and see believing Jews as not made one with believing Gentiles (as Ephesians 2 says they were). But if it is to happen in the end times it will require a final revival among the Jews in the end days bringing them to Christ. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which men can be saved. We would certainly not want to deny the possibility of God doing that. That may be why He has gathered the old nation back to the country of Israel. But that does not mean that God will deal with them as a separate people.
3) Or does it mean ‘all Israel’ who are part of the olive tree, including both Jews and the fullness of the Gentiles? All the new Israel, made up of the fullness of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Jews? That seems to be its most probable significance, and most in accordance with what we have seen above. After all, ‘all Israel’, if it includes the Gentiles, could not be saved until the fullness of the Gentiles had come in.
It is important in this regard to consider at Paul’s message was in Romans 9-11. It was that God began with Abraham and then began cutting off many of his seed, leaving the remnant according to the election of grace, those whom He foreknew. Then He began incorporating others in the persons of believing Gentiles as we have seen, and these increased in proportion through Christ, and all who believed became members of the olive tree. Thus this was now ‘all Israel’, those whom God had elected from eternity past.
But what in fact Paul is finally seeking to say is that in the whole salvation history God’s purposes will not be frustrated, and that in the final analysis all whom He has chosen and foreknown (Rom 11:2) will have come to Him, whether Jew or Gentile.
In the light of all this it is difficult to see how we can deny that in the New Testament all who truly believed were seen as becoming a part of the new Israel, the ‘Israel of God’.
But some ask, ‘if the church is Israel why does Paul only tell us so rarely?’. The answer is twofold. Firstly the danger that could arise from the use of the term, causing people to be confused. And secondly because he actually does so most of the time in his own way. For another way of referring to Israel in the Old Testament was as ‘the congregation’ (LXX church). Thus any reference to the ‘church’ does indicate the new Israel.
But does this mean that old Israel can no longer be seen as having a part in the purposes of God. If we mean as old Israel then the answer is yes. As old Israel they are no longer relevant to the purposes of God for the true Israel are the ones who are due to receive the promises of God. But if we mean as ‘converted and becoming part of believing Israel’ then the answer is that God in His mercy will surely yet have a purpose for them by winning many of them to Christ in the end days. Any member of old Israel can become a part of the olive tree by being grafted in again. And there is a welcome to the whole of Israel if they will believe in Christ. Nor can there be any future for them as being used in the purposes of God until they believe in Christ. And then if they do they will become a part of the whole, not superior to others, or inferior to others, but brought in on equal terms as Christians and members of ‘the congregation’. It may well be that God has brought Israel back into the land because he intends a second outpouring of the Spirit like Pentecost (and Joe 2:28-29). But if so it is in order that they might become Christians. It is in order that they might become a part of the new Israel, the ‘congregation (church) of Jesus Christ’. For God may be working on old Israel doing His separating work in exactly the same ways as He constantly works on old Gentiles, moving them from one place to another in order to bring many of them to Christ. It is not for us to tell Him how He should do it. But nor must we give old Israel privileges that God has not given them.
But what then is the consequence of what we have discussed? Why is it so important? The answer is that it is important because if it is the fact that true Christians today are the only true people of God that means that all the Old Testament promises relate to them, not by being ‘spiritualised’, but by them being interpreted in terms of a new situation. Much of the Old Testament has to be seen in the light of new situations. It is doubtful if today anyone really thinks that swords and spears will be turned into ploughshares and pruninghooks. However we see it that idea has to be modernised. (Tanks being turned into tractors?). In the same way therefore we have to ‘modernise’ in terms of the New Testament many of the Old Testament promises. Jerusalem must become the Jerusalem that is above. The sacrifices must become the spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. And so on. But Israel continues on in the true church (congregation) of Christ, being composed of all who have truly submitted to the Messiah.
Note. Literal sacrifices in the Old Testament could not possibly be repeated in the future in any sense that is genuine. The so-called memorial sacrifices of some expositors are a totally new invention. They are certainly not what the prophets intended. So it is no less ‘spiritualising’ to call them memorial sacrifices than it is to speak of spiritual sacrifices. And can anyone really believe, if they open their eyes, that in a world where the lion lies down with the lamb, and the wolves and the sheep are mates, only man is vile enough to kill animals? It does not bear thinking about. It goes against all the principles that lie behind the idea. Whereas when we recognise that that is an idealised picture of the heavenly Kingdom where all is peace and death is no more then it all fits together.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 15:26. But when the Comforter is come, “For your encouragement, however, Iassure you, that all of them will not continue thus obstinately bent against me and my religion. When he who is to comfort you under all your troubles by his divine inspiration and the aid he will afford you, and who, on that account, is justly styledthe Comforter; when this divine Person is come, whom I will find unto you from the Father, to remain always with you, he shall bear witness to me and to my religion so effectually, that many of the Jews shall be converted.” Our Lord says of this Spirit of truth, that he proceedeth, , from the Father: which denotes the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit; whereby the manner of his subsistence is defined, as that of the Son is by the word generation, as far perhaps as it can be to us in this mortal state. The Spirit’s coming, and being sent by our Lord, from the Father, to testify of him, are personal characters, and plainly distinguish him from the Father and Son: and his title, as the Spirit of truth, together with his proceeding from the Father, can apply to none but a divine person: for this title is too high for a creature; and I cannot see any sufficient reason why his proceeding from the Father is mentioned in the present tense, in the midst of a sentence, where Christ’s sending him, and his testifying of Christ, are spoken of as future; unless it be to intimate his necessary, unbeginning, and never ending procession from the Father, in such a sublime manner as lies beyond the reach of all our ideas, but is some way answerable to what is called eternal generation with regard to Christ, in correspondence to his character as the Son: and yet that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father, may be fairly, clearly, and fully argued from his being called the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the Son, as well as of the Father, (1Pe 1:11. Gal 4:6.) and from his being here said to be sent by Christ from the Father, as well as sent by the Father in his name, ch. Joh 14:26. And this, at the same time, shews the equal divinity of the Father and Son, inasmuch as they have equal power of sending the Holy Spirit to bear the peculiar part, and to have the glory that belongs to him, in the work of salvation: so that the Sacred Three are here represented both in their personal characters, and in their divine and oeconomical glories.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 15:26-27 . Over against this hatred of the world, Jesus further appeals confidently, and in the certainty of His future justification, to the testimony which the Paraclete , and also the disciples themselves , will bear regarding Him. The Paraclete was to give testimony of Christ through the disciples , in speaking forth from them (Mat 10:20 ; Mar 13:11 ). But the testimony of the disciples of Christ was at the same time also their own , since it expressed their own experiences with Christ from the beginning onwards, Joh 1:14 ; 1Jn 1:1 ; Act 1:21-22 . Both were, in so far as they, filled and enlightened by the divine , delivered His instructions (Joh 14:26 ), and what they themselves had heard and seen of Jesus, both consequently , one witness; it is, however, separated into its two actual factors (comp. Act 1:8 ; Rom 8:16 ; Rom 9:1 ), and they are kept apart.
. .] How? see Joh 14:16 . As is used with the weight of authority, so also has the more exact definition: . . (see on Joh 14:17 ), and the addition . . . ., in emphatic confirmation of the above , the pragmatic weight of causing to be felt the truth and validity of the Spirit’s testimony, which thus goes back to the Father . The general expression ., however, which is without any definite limitation of time, does not refer to the immanent relation of subsistence ( actus hypostaticus ), but, agreeably to the connection, to the being efficaciously communicated outwards [170] from the Father, by means of which, in every case that occurs, the Spirit is received. “Itaque hujusmodi testimonia nec a Graecis (against the filioque ) nec contra Graecos (against the ) satis apposite sunt citata,” Beza. For the dogmatic use in the interest of the Greek Church, see already in Theodore of Mopsuestia. Recently, Hilgenfeld especially has laid great stress on the hypostatic reference, and that in the sense of a Gnostic emanation.
] opposed to the Christ-hating world.
] of my Person, my work, etc. Comp. 1Jn 5:6 .
] atque vos etiam . Comp. on Joh 6:51 , Joh 8:17 .
] ye also are witnesses, since ye from the beginning (of my Messianic activity) are with me (consequently are able to bear witness of me from your experience). Jesus does not say , because the disciples were already the witnesses which they were to be in future. They were, as the witnesses, already forthcoming . denotes that which still continues from the commencement up to the present moment. Comp. 1Jn 3:8 . . taken as imperative would make the command appear too abrupt; considering its very importance, a more definite unfolding of it was necessarily to be expected, which, however, is not missed, if the words are only a part of the promise to bear witness (in answer to B. Crusius and Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 19). An echo of this word of Christ regarding the united testimony of the Spirit and of the apostles is found in Act 5:32 , also in Act 15:28 .
[170] The Spirit goes out if He is sent , Joh 14:16 ; Joh 14:26 ; Gal 4:6 . Comp. the figurative expression of the outpouring . Seo also Hofmann, Schriftbew . I. p. 203 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1701
THE PERSONALITY AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Joh 15:26. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.
THE characters of the most holy men may suffer from envy and malevolence; but their righteousness often shines forth the brighter afterwards, as the sun obscured for awhile by an intervening cloud. According to all human appearances, our Lords name must either have sunk into speedy oblivion, or been handed down with infamy to the latest posterity. It scarcely seemed possible that the ignominy of his cross could ever be so obliterated as to be succeeded by respect and honour: but our Lord knew that the testimony of the Spirit would assuredly effect this. While therefore he consoled both himself and his Disciples with the reflection, that the causeless enmity of his countrymen was nothing more than a completion of the prophecies, he taught them to look forward to the time, when the Spirit of God should come down visibly from heaven, and by the most indubitable testimony efface every stain, and rectify the mistaken apprehensions of the world respecting him.
Let us consider,
I.
Our Lords description of his promised messenger
In speaking of the inscrutable mysteries of our religion, we are constrained to represent, heavenly things in terms, not strictly just perhaps, but such as are best accommodated to our own feeble apprehensions. We observe then respecting the messenger whom Jesus undertook to send, that,
He is a distinct person
[Many deny the distinct personality of the Spirit, and affirm that he is only a virtue or quality belonging to the Father: but our text clearly shews, that this is not a just and scriptural idea: the names here given to the Spirit, as the Comforter, and the Spirit of Truth, import that he is a distinct person. And the circumstance of his mission leaves no doubt upon the subject; for he proceeds from the Father, is sent by the Son, and comes down to us. Besides, the very end of his mission implies the same; for he comes to testify, that is, to be a witness.]
Yet, though distinct from the Father, he is, in his essential properties, equal to him
[He is sent to testify to all persons, in all places, at the very same instant of time: and does not the execution of such an office require both omnipresence and omniscience? Must he not know what every person needs to be instructed in, and be every where present to hear and grant their requests? And are there any attributes more appropriate to the Deity than these? Yet these the Spirit has in common with the Father: David says respecting him, Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit? If I go up to heaven, thou art there; if I go down to hell, thou art there also [Note: Psa 139:6-7.]: and St. Paul observes that the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God [Note: 1Co 2:10.]. Nor are these testimonies unsupported by others that are yet more direct and clear: for the Spirit is constantly joined both with the Father and the Son as equally worthy of the highest honour [Note: Mat 28:19.], and equally a source of the richest blessings [Note: 2Co 13:14.]. Indeed he is expressly and repeatedly called God. They who lied unto him, were therefore guilty of lying unto God [Note: Act 5:3-4.]; and they who had him dwelling in them, were therefore the temples of the living God [Note: 1Co 3:16-17.].]
Nevertheless in some respects he is subordinate both to the Father and the Son
[In the order of subsistence, as the Father is not of the Son, but the Son of the Father, so neither the Father nor the Son proceeds from the Spirit, but the Spirit from them, inasmuch as he proceeds from the Father, and is sent by the Son. In the order of operation also the Spirit is inferior: the Father is represented as the fountain of authority and of blessings: the Son acts as his servant [Note: Isa 42:1.]: and the Spirit acts under Christ, being sent or deputed by him, (according as it was determined in the eternal counsels of the Father,) to apply to men that redemption, which was procured for them by his death. The Spirit acted in this subordinate capacity before the time of Christs incarnation: it was by him that Christ went and preached to the antediluvian world [Note: 1Pe 3:18-19.]: by him also he inspired the prophets to foretel the things relating to his sufferings and glory [Note: 1Pe 1:11.]. During the days of our Lords ministry on earth the Spirit still acted in subserviency to him; it was by the Spirit that Christ cast out devils [Note: Mat 12:28.], and performed his other miracles. In a more especial manner did the Spirit exert himself in subserviency to Christ after he had ascended to heaven; it was then that the Spirit began fully to execute the office assigned him, and to glorify Christ before an ungodly and unbelieving world [Note: Joh 16:14.]. To this very hour does the Spirit bear the same part, convincing the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment [Note: Joh 16:8.], in order to magnify Christ, and to enlarge his kingdom.]
As our attention is principally directed to the Holy Spirit, we shall proceed to state,
II.
The particular office committed to him
The Father, Son, and Spirit, have distinct and different offices in the economy of redemption. That of the Spirit is twofold:
1.
To be a witness for Christ
[Our blessed Lord died under circumstances of the deepest ignominy and reproach; being treated by his whole nation as the vilest of malefactors. Nor could it be conceived that one, who under such circumstances saved not himself, should be constituted by God the Saviour of others. This was, to all appearance, so absurd an idea that it never could have gained any credit in the world, if it had not been confirmed by the most unquestionable testimony. To overcome these obstacles, the Holy Spirit testified of two things, namely, the righteousness of his person, and the sufficiency of his salvation. While the Apostles testified of these things to the ears of men, the Spirit confirmed their word with visible signs [Note: Heb 2:4.], and sealed it on mens hearts by his invisible, but effectual, influence [Note: 1Th 1:5.]. This he did, not only on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were converted at once, but on many other occasions. It is worthy of remark, that when he visibly descended on the Gentiles in confirmation of the word that was delivered by Peter, he descended at the very instant that the Apostle began to speak of the fulness and excellency of Christs salvation [Note: Act 10:43-44.]; as though he designed to intimate, that this was the great truth which he came to attest, and which we ought to receive with our whole hearts.]
2.
To be a Comforter to us
[When a soul begins to feel its guilty and undone state, it needs a comforter: but there is no creature in heaven or earth that can administer effectual consolation; none but the Holy Spirit is sufficient for so great a work: if he reveal Christ to the soul, all tears will instantly be wiped away; but if he withhold his influence, sorrow and despondency will overwhelm it utterly. Thus also in all subsequent trials and temptations, it is the Holy Ghost alone that can heal the wounded spirit, or bind up the broken and contrite heart. And it must further be noticed, that the principal, if not the only, way, in which he administers consolation to us, is by testifying of Christ; it is by shewing to us his beauty, his sufficiency, his truth and faithfulness, and by enabling us to rest entirely on him: and as there can be no comfort till this be done, so there can be nothing but joy and exultation arising from it.]
This subject naturally leads us to reflect,
1.
How great and glorious a person Christ is!
[It has been already shewn that the Holy Spirit is God equal with the Father: yet has Christ authority to send him into our hearts. If Christ say, Go, my Spirit, and quicken that dead sinner; go and dwell in that polluted heart; go and comfort that drooping and desponding soul; in short, whatever commission Jesus gives to the ever-blessed Spirit, it is executed instantly, and to its utmost extent. No unworthiness in us excites any reluctance in the mind of the Spirit; if Jesus do but speak, it is done. Who then would not wish to have this glorious person for his friend? Who does not desire an interest in him? Who would not seek him who is so able and willing to save? Blessed Lord, send thy Spirit now to testify of thee, and to glorify thee in all our hearts!]
2.
How unspeakable is the happiness of Christs faithful people!
[These enjoy the witness of the Spirit in their own hearts [Note: 1Jn 5:10.]. The Spirit not only testifies to them that Jesus is the Saviour of believers in general, but their Saviour in particular: he witnesses to, and with, their spirits, that they are children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ [Note: Rom 8:16-17.]. Can we conceive any greater happiness than this? Surely not in this present world. Let every one then aspire after this honour; let every one seek the Spirit, not merely as an instructor, but a comforter. Thus shall we be filled with consolation, even under the most afflictive circumstances; and his testimonies shall prove to us an earnest, and a foretaste, of our heavenly inheritance.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. (27) And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning,
If the Reader recollects what was observed, in the preceding Chapter, on the one, chief, and great subject, of this Sermon of our Lord’s, namely, concerning the Person, Godhead, Work, and Ministry of the Holy Ghost; he will remember, that it was reserved to the subsequent parts of Christ’s discourse, to notice the several offices of God the Spirit, as they were mentioned. Now here, in those verses, the Lord Jesus takes observation of two of them, namely, as the Comforter, and as the Spirit of truth. I therefore beg the Reader to remark with me, some few particulars relating to those blessed offices of God the Holy Ghost.
First, as the Comforter. Now it is the special work of God the Spirit, to bring comfort into the conscience of the Lord’s people, in taking of the things of Christ and shewing to them; whereby he fills their hearts with joy and peace in believing, while he makes them to abound in hope through his own sovereign power. His very employment is consolation. And hence nothing can be more suited to him as a name, than the Holy Ghost the Comforter! And, if a child of God at any time feels refreshed with the consolations of Jesus, or the contemplation of the love of God the Father; these precious things are of His working. And hence we are taught to pray for the quickenings of the Spirit; because the Lord the Holy Ghost by those sweet influences, opens a communion between Christ and our souls. He manifests the love of the Father and the Son to the heart; and thus by holding up to our view their love, he awakens his own graces in our hearts, and leads forth the actings of faith and love in them, upon the Persons of the Godhead. Oh! the blessedness of the Holy Ghost, when acting as the Comforter of the Church! What are all the promises and encouragements in the Word, until they are opened and applied by the Lord the Spirit? Blessed God! do thou prove thyself to my soul’s joy, as the Holy Ghost the Comforter, in all thy sevenfold gifts; that by opening and keeping open, a continual communion between Christ and my soul, I may hourly rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Secondly. The Lord Jesus speaks of him as the Spirit of truth, to lead into all truth. And what a gracious, compassionate, and wise office, is this? How would the poor, dark ignorant, and senseless children of men, under the Adam-nature of a fallen sinful state, ever have the least apprehension of divine things, but from his divine teaching? Oh! thou Matchless Instructor! hadst thou not shewn me the utterly lost estate of my poor nature by the fall, how should I have ever known my ruin and misery? And hadst thou not opened mine eyes to see the glory and suitableness of the Lord Jesus, what should I ever have apprehended of his glory, and my need of him? Yea! gracious God the Spirit! hadst thou not warmed my soul with his love, as well as informed my understanding by thy grace, thousands of errors would have remained; and though I had obtained an head knowledge, yet no heart influence would have followed, but from thy sovereign saving power. But now, dearest Lord, whilst thou art mercifully pleased to be to me a Spirit of truth, leading to the right apprehension of all truth, and a Spirit of grace, leading to the right performance of all prayer; then the whole comes home warmed and endeared to my heart. I hear the voice behind me, and I feel a power within me, when at any time exercised with doubts or misgivings, saying, This is the way, (even Christ the way,) walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isa 30:21 . See Joh 16:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Ver. 26. Whom I will send unto you from, &c ] Christ hath satisfied the wrath of the Father; and now the Father, and Christ both, as reconciled, send the Spirit, as the fruit of both their loves, and as an earnest, which is part of the whole sum.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
26. ] This assurance carries on the testimony concerning Christ, which the world should see and hear, and yet reject and hate Him, even to the end of time, by means of the Spirit of Truth: so that on the one hand this seeing and hating must not be expected to cease as long as the Spirit bears this witness, and on the other, He, the Spirit of Truth, will never cease to overcome the hating world by this His testimony.
. ] See ch. Joh 14:16 and note.
] Stier (whose comment on this verse should be consulted) dwells on the accurate division of the clauses here, . , but . . . . The first clause he regards as spoken conomically, of the Spirit in His office as Paraclete, sent from the Father by the glorified Son (or, by the Father in the Son’s name, ch. Joh 14:26 ), and bringing in the dispensation of the Spirit; the second ontologically, of the essential nature of the Spirit Himself, that He proceeded forth from the Father . (And if from the Father, from the Son also, see ch. Joh 16:15 , and those passages where the Spirit is said to be His Spirit, Rom 8:9 ; Gal 4:6 ; Phi 1:19 ; 1Pe 1:11 ; also Rev 22:1 .) Perhaps however it is better to take the whole conomically, as Luthardt has done. Then . . is parallel with . , and the procession from the Father is the sending by the Son. At all events, this passage , as Beza remarks, cannot be alleged either one way or the other in the controversy with the Greek Church on the procession of the Holy Spirit. See this done in the interest of the Greek view, by Theodor. Mops [221] in loc.
[221] Mops. Theodore, Bp. of Mopsuestia, 399 428
, as opposed to the world which hates Christ. On the emphatic use of this pronoun as identifying the chief subject of the sentence, see note, ch. Joh 7:29 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 15:26 . But the work of the Apostles was not to be wholly fruitless, nor was their experience to be wholly comprised in fruitless persecution. . The Spirit of Truth will witness concerning me. The Spirit is here designated, as in Joh 14:16 , “the Paraclete,” and the Spirit of Truth. There, and in Joh 14:26 , it is the Father who is to give and send Him in Christ’s name: here it is , as if the Spirit were not only dwelling with the Father, but could only be sent out from the Father as the source of the sending. This is still further emphasised in the added clause, . To define the mode of being of the Spirit, or His essential relation to the Father, would have been quite out of place in the circumstances. These words must be understood of the mission of the Spirit. What the disciples needed to know was that He came out from the Father, and of this they are here assured. , “He,” that person thus elaborately described, who is truth and who comes out from Him who sent me, “will witness concerning me”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Joh 15:26 to Joh 16:11 . The conquest of the world by the Spirit .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
OUR ALLY
Joh 15:26 – Joh 15:27
Our Lord has been speaking of a world hostile to His followers and to Him. He proceeds, in the words which immediately follow our text, to paint that hostility as aggravated even to the pitch of religious murder. But here He lets a beam of light in upon the darkness. These forlorn Twelve, listening to Him, might well have said, ‘Thou art about to leave us; how can we alone face this world in arms, with which Thou dost terrify us?’ And here He lets them see that they will not be left alone, but have a great Champion, clad in celestial armour, who, coming straight from God, will be with them and put into their hands a weapon, with which they may conquer the world, and turn it into a friend, and with which alone they must meet the world’s hate.
So, then, we have three things in this text; the great promise of an Ally in the conflict with the world; the witness which that Ally bears, to fortify against the world; and the consequent witness with which Christians may win the world.
I. Now consider briefly the first of these points, the great promise of an Ally in the conflict with the world.
I have already explained in former sermons that the notion of ‘Comforter,’ as it is understood in modern English, is a great deal too restricted and narrow to cover the whole ground of this great and blessed promise. The Comforter whom Christ sends is no mere drier of men’s tears and gentle Consoler of human sorrows, but He is a mightier Spirit than that, and the word by which He is described in our text, which means ‘one who is summoned to the side of another,’ conveys the idea of a helper who is brought to the man to be helped, in order to render whatever aid and succour that man’s weakness and circumstances may require. The verses before our text suggest what sort of aid and succour the disciples will need. They are to be as sheep in the midst of wolves. Their defenceless purity will need a Protector, a strong Shepherd. They stand alone amongst enemies. There must be some one beside them to fight for them, to shield and to encourage them, to be their Safety and their Peace. And that Paraclete, who is called to our side, comes for the special help which these special circumstances require, and is a strong Spirit who will be our Champion and our Ally, whatever antagonism may storm against us, and however strong and well-armed may be the assaulting legions of the world’s hate.
Then, still further, the other designation here of this strong Succourer and Friend is ‘the Spirit of truth,’ by which is designated, not so much His characteristic attribute, as rather the weapon which He wields, or the material with which He works. The ‘truth’ is His instrument; that is to say, the Spirit of God sent by Jesus Christ is the Strengthener, the Encourager, the Comforter, the Fighter for us and with us, because He wields that great body of truth, the perfect revelation of God, and man, and duty, and salvation, which is embodied in the incarnation and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The truth is His weapon, and it is by it that He makes us strong.
Then, still further, there is a twofold description here of the mission of this divine Champion, as ‘sent’ by Christ, and ‘proceeding from the Father.’
In regard to the former, I need only remind you that, in a previous part of this wonderful discourse, our Lord speaks of that divine Spirit as being sent by the Father in His name and in answer to His prayer. The representation here is by no means antagonistic to, or diverse from, that other representation, but rather the fact that the Father and the Son, according to the deep teaching of Scripture, are in so far one as that ‘whatsoever the Son seeth the Father do that also the Son doeth likewise,’ makes it possible to attribute to Him the work which, in another place, is ascribed to the Father. In speaking of the Persons of the Deity, let us never forget that that word is only partially applicable to that ineffable Being, and that whilst with us it implies absolute separation of individuals, it does not mean such separation in the case of its imperfect transference to the mysteries of the divine nature; but rather, the Son doeth what the Father doeth, and therefore the Spirit is sent forth by the Father, and also the Son sends the Spirit.
But, on the other hand, we are not to regard that divine Spirit as merely a Messenger sent by another. He ‘proceeds from the Father.’ That word has been the battlefield of theological controversy, with which I do not purpose to trouble you now. For I do not suppose that in its use here it refers at all to the subject to which it has been sometimes applied, nor contains any kind of revelation of the eternal depths of the divine Nature and its relations to itself. What is meant here is the historical coming forth into human life of that divine Spirit. And, possibly, the word ‘proceeds’ is chosen in order to contrast with the word ‘sent,’ and to give the idea of a voluntary and personal action of the Messenger, who not only is sent by the Father, but of Himself proceeds on the mighty work to which He is destined.
Be that as it may, mark only, for the last thought here about the details of this great promise, that wonderful phrase, twice repeated in our Lord’s words, and emphasised by its verbal repetition in the two clauses, which in all other respects are so different-’from the Father.’ The word translated ‘ from’ is not the ordinary word so rendered, but rather designates a position at the side of than an origin from , and suggests much rather the intimate and ineffable union between Father, Son, and Spirit, than the source from which the Spirit comes. I touch upon these things very lightly, and gather them up into one sentence. Here, then, are the points. A Person who is spoken of as ‘He’-a divine Person whose home from of old has been close by the Father’s side-a Person whose instrument is the revealed truth ensphered and in germ in the facts of Christ’s incarnation and life-a divine Person, wielding the truth, who is sent by Christ as His Representative, and in some sense a continuance of His personal Presence-a divine, personal Spirit coming from the Father, wielding the truth, sent by Christ, and at the side of all the persecuted and the weak, all world-hated and Christian men, as their Champion, their Combatant, their Ally, their Inspiration, and their Power. Is not that enough to make the weakest strong? Is not that enough to make us ‘more than conquerors through Him that loved us’? All nations have legends of the gods fighting at the head of their armies, and through the dust of battle the white horses and the shining armour of the celestial champions have been seen. The childish dream is a historical reality. It is not we that fight, it is the Spirit of God that fighteth in us.
II. And so note, secondly, the witness of the Spirit which fortifies against the world.
Now it is to be noted, also, that the first and special application of these words is to the little group listening to Him. Never were men more desolate and beaten down than these were, in the prospect of Christ’s departure. Never were men more utterly bewildered and dispirited than these were, in the days between His crucifixion and His resurrection. Think of them during His earthly life, their narrow understandings, their manifold faults, moral as well as intellectual. How little perception they had of anything that He said to them, as their own foolish questions abundantly show! How little they had drunk in His spirit, as their selfish and ambitious janglings amongst themselves abundantly show! They were but Jews like their brethren, believing, indeed, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, but not knowing what it was that they believed, or of what kind the Messiah was in whom they were thus partially trusting. But they loved Him and were led by Him, and so they were brought into a larger place by the Spirit whom Christ sent.
What was it that made these dwarfs into giants in six weeks? What was it that turned their narrowness into breadth; that made them start up all at once as heroes, and that so swiftly matured them, as the fruits and flowers are ripened under tropical sunshine? The resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ had a great deal to do with the change; but they were not its whole cause. There is no explanation of the extraordinary transformation of these men as we see them in the pages of the Gospels, and as we find them on the pages of the Acts of the Apostles, except this-the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ as facts, and the Spirit on Pentecost as an indwelling Interpreter of the facts. He came, and the weak became strong, and the foolish wise, and the blind enlightened, and they began to understand-though it needed all their lives to perfect the teaching,-what it was that their ignorant hands had grasped and their dim perceptions had seen, when they touched the hands and looked upon the face of Jesus Christ. The witness of the Spirit of God working within them, working upon what they knew of the historical facts of Christ’s life, and interpreting these to them, was the explanation of their change and growth. And the New Testament is the product of that change. Christ’s life was the truth which the Spirit used, and a product of His teaching was these Epistles which we have, and which for us step into the place which the historical facts held for them, and become the instrument with which the Spirit of God will deepen our understanding of Christ and enlarge our knowledge of what He is to us.
So, dear friends, whilst here we have a promise which specially applies, no doubt, to these twelve Apostles, and the result of which in them was different from its result in us, inasmuch as the Spirit’s teaching, recorded in the New Testament, becomes for us the authoritative rule of faith and practice, the promise still applies to each of us in a secondary and modified sense. For there is nothing in these great valedictory words of our Lord’s which has not a universal bearing, and is not the revelation of a permanent truth in regard to the Christian Church. And, therefore, here we have the promise of a universal gift to all Christian men and women, of an actual divine Spirit to dwell with each of us, to speak in our hearts.
And what will He speak there? He will teach us a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. He will help us to understand better what He is. He will show us more and more of the whole sweep of His work, of the whole infinite truth for morals and religion, for politics and society, for time and for eternity, about men and about God, which is wrapped up in that great saying which we first of all, perhaps under the pressure of our own sense of sin, grasp as our deliverance from sin: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ That is the sum of truth which the Spirit of God interprets to every faithful heart. And as the days roll on, and new problems rise, and new difficulties present themselves, and new circumstances emerge in our personal life, we find the truth, which we at first dimly grasped as life and salvation, opening out into wisdom and depth and meaning that we never dreamed of in the early hours. A Spirit that bears witness of Christ and will make us understand Him better every day we live, if we choose, is the promise that is given here, for all Christian men and women.
Then note that this inward witness of Christ’s depth and preciousness is our true weapon and stay against a hostile world. A little candle in a room will make the lightning outside almost invisible; and if I have burning in my heart the inward experience and conviction of what Jesus Christ is and what He has done and will do for me-Oh! then, all the storm without may rage, and it will not trouble me.
If you take an empty vessel and bring pressure to bear upon it, in go the sides. Fill it, and they will resist the pressure. So with growing knowledge of Christ, and growing personal experience of His sweetness in our souls, we shall be able, untouched and undinted, to throw off the pressure which would otherwise have crushed us.
Therefore, dear friends, here is the true secret of tranquillity, in an age of questioning and doubt. Let me have that divine Voice speaking in my heart, as I may have, and no matter what questions may be doubtful, this is sure-’We know in whom we have believed’; and we can say, ‘Settle all your controversies any way you like: one thing I know, and that divine Voice is ever saying it to me in my deepest consciousness-the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true.’ Labour for more of this inward, personal conviction of the preciousness of Jesus Christ to strengthen you against a hostile world.
And remember that there are conditions under which this Voice speaks in our souls. One is that we attend to the instrument which the Spirit of God uses, and that is ‘the truth.’ If Christians will not read their Bibles, they need not expect to have the words of these Bibles interpreted and made real to them by any inward experience. If you want to have a faith which is vindicated and warranted by your daily experience, there is only one way to get it, and that is, to use the truth which the Spirit uses, and to bring yourself into contact, continual and reverent and intelligent, with the great body of divine truth that is conveyed in these authoritative words of the Spirit of God speaking through the first witnesses.
And there must be moral discipline too. Laziness, worldliness, the absorption of attention with other things, self-conceit, prejudice, and, I was going to say, almost above all, the taking of our religion and religious opinions at secondhand from men and teachers and books-all these stand in the way of our hearing the Spirit of God when He speaks. Come away from the babble and go by yourself, and take your Bibles with you, and read them, and meditate upon them, and get near the Master of whom they speak, and the Spirit which uses the truth will use it to fortify you.
III. And, lastly, note the consequent witness with which the Christian may win the world.
But then, again, I say that there is no word here that belongs only to the Apostles; it belongs to us all, and so here is the task of the Christian Church in all its members. They receive the witness of the Spirit, and they are Christ’s witnesses in the world.
Note what we have to do-to bear witness; not to argue, not to adorn, but simply to attest. Note what we have to attest-the fact, not of the historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position to be witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, and the fact of our own experience of what He has done for us. Note, that that is by far the most powerful agency for winning the world. You can never make men angry by saying to them, ‘We have found the Messias.’ You cannot irritate people, or provoke them into a controversial opposition when you say, ‘Brother, let me tell you my experience. I was dark, sad, sinful, weak, solitary, miserable; and I got light, gladness, pardon, strength, companionship, and a joyful hope. I was blind-you remember me when my eyes were dark, and I sat begging outside the Temple; I was blind, now I see-look at my eyeballs.’ We can all say that. This is the witness that needs no eloquence, no genius, no anything except honesty and experience; and whosoever has tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life may surely go to a brother and say, ‘Brother, I have eaten and am satisfied. Will you not help yourselves?’ We can all do it, and we ought to do it. The Christian privilege of being witnessed to by the Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the Christian duty of being witnesses in our turn to the world. That is our only weapon against the hostility which godless humanity bears to ourselves and to our Master. We may win men by that; we can win them by nothing else. ‘Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servants whom I have chosen.’ Christian friend, listen to the Master, who says, ‘Him that confesseth Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father in heaven.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 15:26-27
26″When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Joh 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you” Both the Father and the Son send the Spirit (cf. Joh 14:16; Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7). The work of redemption involves all three persons of the Trinity.
“the Spirit of truth” This is used in the sense of the Holy Spirit as the revealer of the Father (cf. Joh 14:17; Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:13). See Special Topic on Truth at Joh 6:55; Joh 17:3.
“He will testify about Me” The Spirit’s task is to witness to Jesus and His teachings (cf. Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13-15; 1Jn 5:7).
Joh 15:27 “you will bear witness also” The “you. . .also” is emphatic. This is a present active indicative. This must refer to the inspiration of the authors of the NT (i.e., Apostles and their friends) who were with Jesus during His earthly life (cf. Luk 24:48). See Special Topics: Witnesses to Jesus at Joh 1:8 and The Personhood of the Spirit at Joh 14:26.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the Comforter. See Joh 14:16.
is come = shall have come.
send. Greek. pempo. App-174.
from. Greek. para. App-104.
the Spirit of truth. See on Joh 14:17.
proceedeth = goeth forth.
he. Greek. ekeinos, as in Joh 14:26.
shall = will; one of the many instances where both Authorized Version and Revised Version blur the sense of their translation by the misuse of “shall “and “will”.
testify = bear witness. Greek. martureo. See note on Joh 1:7.
of = concerning. Greek. peri. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
26.] This assurance carries on the testimony concerning Christ,-which the world should see and hear, and yet reject and hate Him,-even to the end of time, by means of the Spirit of Truth: so that on the one hand this seeing and hating must not be expected to cease as long as the Spirit bears this witness,-and on the other, He, the Spirit of Truth, will never cease to overcome the hating world by this His testimony.
.] See ch. Joh 14:16 and note.
] Stier (whose comment on this verse should be consulted) dwells on the accurate division of the clauses here, . ,-but . . . . The first clause he regards as spoken conomically, of the Spirit in His office as Paraclete, sent from the Father by the glorified Son (or, by the Father in the Sons name, ch. Joh 14:26), and bringing in the dispensation of the Spirit;-the second ontologically, of the essential nature of the Spirit Himself, that He proceeded forth from the Father. (And if from the Father, from the Son also,-see ch. Joh 16:15, and those passages where the Spirit is said to be His Spirit, Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6; Php 1:19; 1Pe 1:11; also Rev 22:1.) Perhaps however it is better to take the whole conomically, as Luthardt has done. Then . . is parallel with . , and the procession from the Father is the sending by the Son. At all events, this passage, as Beza remarks, cannot be alleged either one way or the other in the controversy with the Greek Church on the procession of the Holy Spirit. See this done in the interest of the Greek view, by Theodor. Mops[221] in loc.
[221] Mops. Theodore, Bp. of Mopsuestia, 399-428
, as opposed to the world which hates Christ. On the emphatic use of this pronoun as identifying the chief subject of the sentence, see note, ch. Joh 7:29.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 15:26. , but) The testimony of the Paraclete (Comforter) and of the disciples is put in contrast with the ignorance and hatred of the world.- , from the Father) The Spirit of God is the same as the Spirit of Christ: Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6. Both are here implied; for as the Son is said to send the Paraclete (Comforter), not to the exclusion of the Father: so the Spirit of Truth is said to proceed from the Father (not to the exclusion of the Son).-, proceedeth) Rev 22:1. Separation from the person or thing from which the procession takes place is not always denoted by this verb, LXX., Exo 25:35, According to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick ( ).
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 15:26
Joh 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,-Jesus had said, If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever. (Joh 14:15-16). Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. (Joh 16:7). The meaning of all the teachings of the fourteenth to the sixteenth chapters is that Jesus was about to leave his disciples here in this world. It distressed their hearts and this promise of another heavenly Guest, another divine Person, another representative of the Godhead to dwell with, instruct, go with, and comfort them in their sorrow over the departure of Christ is promised them. He gives the qualities of the Spirit. He will comfort for the absence of the Son; he is a Spirit that brings truth, lives truth, and dwells in truth, never in a falsehood.
even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me:-He comes from God. Has received the truth from God in heaven, brings that truth to earth, makes it known to man, and will testify of the truth concerning Jesus, and his mission and his home with his Father.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
when: Joh 14:16, Joh 14:17, Joh 14:26, Joh 16:7, Joh 16:13, Joh 16:14, Luk 24:49, Act 2:33
which: Joh 8:42, Rev 22:1
he: Joh 16:14, Joh 16:15, Act 2:32, Act 2:33, Act 5:32, Act 15:8, 1Co 1:6, Heb 2:4, 1Jo 5:6-10
Reciprocal: 2Ki 2:15 – The spirit Isa 11:2 – the spirit of wisdom Joh 3:34 – for God Joh 12:17 – bare Joh 20:22 – Receive Act 1:4 – the promise 1Co 1:4 – the grace 1Co 2:14 – the things 1Co 12:3 – no man Gal 4:6 – the Spirit Eph 1:13 – holy 1Ti 3:16 – justified Heb 10:15 – General 1Pe 1:12 – with 1Pe 5:1 – and a 1Jo 4:6 – the spirit of truth 1Jo 4:14 – we have 1Jo 5:8 – the spirit Rev 3:1 – he that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WITNESS-BEARING
He shall testify of Me: And ye also shall bear witness.
Joh 15:26-27
There seem to be three points noticeable in this passage.
I. The Comforter is coming.Who is He? A Divine person proceeding from the Father, Who is the fountain of the Godhead: procession referring both to being and to office. What are His titles? Comforter and Spirit of Truth. What does He do? He testifies of Christ. Who sends Him? The ascended Saviour. He is the Saviours great gift to man.
II. His testifying turns the disciples into witnesses.The Spirit witnesses for Christ in and by the disciples. This is a point of some practical importance in its application to ourselves. It is well to be in possession of the truth; it is better that the truth should possess us, so that we shall not be able to refrain from speaking what we have seen and heard. Ay, but theres the difficulty! What we have seen and heard. The Apostles could easily use such language. Can we? Yes! and we must do so if we are to be witnesses for Christ. We must have an evidence of reality equivalent to that enjoyed by the first disciples. And Who is it that makes Christ real to us? makes Him an abiding presence? transforming the objects of faith from abstractions into living entities? in fact, strengthens us to live the life we live in the flesh as a life of faith in the Son of God? The Holy Ghost. He, and He alone. The world says to the Christian (and the demand is not altogether an unreasonable one), Be Christ to us. So live that we may see in you what your Master is. It is the Holy Ghost Who enables us to comply with the demand.
III. This witness-bearing is not a smooth task.The early Christians had to hold themselves ready for excommunication, for loss of goods, even for loss of life. The Lord gives them notice of this beforehand. With ourselves the circumstances are not so trying. Yet the faithful witness-bearer will have something to encounter, something to suffer for Christ in proportion to his faithfulness; and he must be prepared for it. It is nothing surprising. The world does such things because it knows not the Father nor Christ.
Illustration
Through all the centuries the most convincing witness to the truth of Christ has been in the lives of individual saints, and in their effect upon human society. Perhaps the greatest revival which the Church has ever known, the Franciscan movement in the thirteenth century, was brought about purely by the witness of the simple Gospel life led by Francis of Assisi and his brothers and sisters. Bishop Creighton was of opinion that St. Francis by his life (far more than by his words) had worked a greater revolution in Europe than had ever been brought about by war or diplomacy. All that was best in humanity awoke to follow in his footsteps, is the comment of his latest biographer.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
WITNESSING FOR CHRIST
If our life is built upon Jesus Christ as our Head corner-stone, then we cannot help witnessing for Him.
I. Jesus is here, and we know what He thinks, and what He does, and what He would have us do.He would have those who are building upon Him bear witness that He is their Head corner-stone, the foundation of all their hopes for life and for eternity. What was it that distinguished all the great characters of Christian historySt. Simon, St. Jude, and all apostles and prophets? It was their determination in their day and generation to witness for Jesus Christ. It was their business to do so, and they had no other business.
II. What are we to testify of Jesus?That He is the Son of God. Nothing short of that. Then why do you not do it? Is it too high an ambition? Do you say, It is impossible for me? It is not impossible for you. But, you say, I am not a man of speech; I have no words. God does not want only men of words! We have too many men of words. God wants men of deeds, of thought, of intellect, of heart. Whatever gift of grace you may possess it is not too humble to dedicate to the service of God. Have you ever tried doing it? We so often spend our time in vain regrets at the impossible. We say if we only had so-and-so, then we should be able to serve Christ. If we only had this or that, or could go here or there, then, indeed, we would serve Him. But if you cannot serve Christ where you are, you will not serve Him anywhere else. Jesus calls us to bear witness to Him just where we are.
III. Gods witnesses are most varied.God wants witnesses of all ages and of all gifts. You may be tempted to say, I am not worthy to be one of Gods witnesses; but if we waited till we were worthy, I am afraid that God would not have many witnesses. God will make you worthy; He will perfect youaye, even by your own witnessing, for he is no witness who is not a witness to himself. He who tries to lead men must lead himself. Then some of us say, This ministry is too exacting, too trying. Others will say, I am afraid to put my hand to the plough, lest I turn back. Well, God does not want half-hearted witnesses. He wants men and women who are able to make up their minds. What would life be if before you entered its responsibilities you were always hesitating in a state of fear that you would change your mind and turn back. In the great responsibilities of life men and women have to make up their minds, and they have to try to be faithful when their minds are made up. God wants men and women who have made up their mindswho have said: I will serve God by the gifts which God has given mengifts of speech, gifts of action, gifts of love, gifts of kindnesswhatever my gift may be. By it I am become a minister of God, and God by my own ministry shall perfect me.
Rev. J. Stephen Barrass.
Illustration
Many may saymany here are saying nowI have so little power; so little time; so few and fleeting opportunitiesthat the little I can bring would make no difference to the final result. But, my friends, in such questions as these there is no consideration of great and little. What God requires of us is simply what we have to offerwhat we are. He requires no more, but He requires no less. And we are very poor judges in spiritual things of what is great and what is little. Our joy is to remember that God has tempered the whole body together, and it may be that its efficiency, its life, depends upon the right action of some part which we can hardly discern. We know by our own experience that vigour and strength come in living things, from the harmonious combination of many small forces. So too it is in that greatest of all living bodiesthe Churchwhich is the Body of Christ.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
6
This verse is a link in the chain of passages about the Holy Spirit, that was suggested at chapter 14:16. Jesus was to send this Spirit as a Comforter, and it was to be obtained of the Father. Everything that. the Spirit would say would be according to what Jesus had said, and in that sense he was to testify of Him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 15:26-27. When the Advocate is come, whom I will send onto you from the Father, the Spirit of the truth, which goeth forth from the Father, he will hear witness concerning me, and ye also bear witness, because from the beginning ye are with me. Up to this point Jesus had encouraged His disciples by the assurance that they shall be strengthened to overcome whatever hatred and opposition from the world they shall have to encounter in the performance of their work. Now He further assures them that this is not all. They shall not merely meet the world unshaken by all that it can do: they shall also receive a Divine power, in the possession of which they shall bear a joyful and triumphant witness even in the midst of suffering. The Advocate shall be with them, and with them in a manner adapted to that stage of progress which they are thought of as having reached. In the promise of the Advocate here given there is an advance upon that of chap. Joh 14:16; Joh 14:26. In the latter passage the promise had been connected with the training of the disciples for their work; in the present it is connected with the execution of the work. First of all, the Advocate will bear witness concerning Jesus, will perform that work of witnessing which belongs to heralds of the Cross. But He will do this in them. We are not to imagine that His is an independent work, carried on directly in the world, and apart from the instrumentality of the disciples. It is true that there is a general influence of the Holy Spirit by which He prepares the ear to hear and the eye to seesuch an influence as that with which He wrought in Judaism and even in heathenism; but that is not the influence of which Jesus speaks in the words before us. It is a specific influence, the power of the Spirit, to which He refersthat influence which, exerted through Himself when He was upon the earth, is now exerted through the members of His Body. In the two last verses of this chapter, therefore, we have not two works of witnessing, the first that of the Advocate, the second that of the disciples. We have only one,outwardly that of the disciples, inwardly that of the Advocate. Hence the change of tense from the future to the present when Jesus speaks of ye,the Advocate will bear witness, ye bear witness. The two witnessings are not on parallel lines, but on the same line, the former coming to view only in and by the latter, into which the power of the former is introduced. Hence also the force of the emphatic Ye. The personality and freedom of the disciples does not disappear under this operation of the Advocate; they do not become mechanical agents, but retain their individual standing; they are still men, only higher than they could otherwise have been. Hence, finally, the reason assigned for the part given to the disciples in the work; they are from the beginning with Jesus, with Him as partners and fellow-workers; and this from the beginning, that is, from the beginning which belongs to the subject in handthe beginning of His ministry.
The 26th verse of this chapter (Joh 15:26) is often thought to be of great importance in regard to the doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Spirit, the Greek Church finding in it its leading argument for maintaining that that Procession is only from the Father, not from the Son. So far as this text is concerned, the question resolves itself into the further one, Is Jesus here speaking of the Person or of the office of the Advocate, of the source of His being or of His operation? Attention to the preposition used with the Father ought at once to decide this point. It is from not out of that is employed: it is of office and operation, not of being and essence, that Jesus speaks (comp. chaps. Joh 1:6; Joh 1:14, Joh 7:29, Joh 9:16, Joh 10:18, Joh 16:27, Joh 17:8). The words which goeth forth from the Father are not intended to express any metaphysical relation between the First and Third Persons of the Trinity, but to lead our thoughts back to the fact that, as it is the distinguishing characteristic of Jesus that He comes from the Father, so One of like Divine power and glory is now to take His place. The same words from the Father are again added to I will send, because the Father is the ultimate source from which the Spirit as well as the Son goes forth, and really the Giver of the Spirit through the Son who asks for Him (comp. chap. Joh 14:16). In the power of this Spirit, therefore, the connection of the disciples with the Father will, in the time to come, be not less close, and their strength from the Father not less efficacious, than it had been while Jesus was Himself beside them. The emphasis on the I of I will send ought not to pass unnoticed. It is as if Jesus would say, You tremble at the prospect of my going away, you fear that you will be desolate, but it is not so. I will not forget you; I will be to you, through the Spirit, all that I have been; I will send the Advocate to be in you and by your side. Could more be necessary to sustain them? The consolation offered reaches here its culminating point; but all has yet to be made clearer, fuller, more impressive; and to effect this, not to introduce new teaching, our Lord proceeds to what we have spoken of as the second of the double pictures of this part of His discourse.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our Holy Lord confirms himself, that, though he had laid them under many aspersions and scandals from the world, yet all these should be done away by the coming of the Holy Spirit who should testify of him, and make his person and doctrine to be acknowledged in the world; and that they themselves should bear witness of him who had been with him from the beginning; that is, since he first began to exercise his prophetic office.
Observe here, 1. That Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are three distinct persons in the godhead.
2. That the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son: here the Son is said to send him: and, as to the Father, he is said to proceed from him.
If the Holy Ghost doth not proceed from the Son, why he is called The Spirit of the Son, Gal 4:6? Why is he said here to be sent by the Son? The Comforter whom I will send unto you from the Father. And if the Spirit doth not proceed from the Son, what personal relation can we conceive between the Son and the Spirit?
Observe, 3. That it is the highest dignity and honour of the apostles and ministers of Christ, that the Spirit beareth no testimony unto Christ, but with and according to the testimony given by them; for here it is conjoined, He shall testify of me! and ye shall also bear witness, who have been with me from the beginning.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 26, 27. But when the support shall have come, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me; 27. and you also shall testify, because you are with me from the beginning.
Weiss sees in this intervention of the Spirit’s testimony a fact which Jesus alleges in order to demonstrate the truth of the word without cause, Joh 15:25. But this connection is unnatural; it would have required a in Joh 15:26. It is more simple to suppose that, in speaking of the hatred of the world, Jesus interrupts Himself for a moment in order to show immediately to the disciples the power which will sustain them in this terrible conflict. He only indicates this help for a moment in passing. The idea will be completely developed in the following passage, Joh 16:5-15, when the picture of Jewish hostility will be finished.
In saying: whom I will send, Jesus is necessarily thinking of His approaching reinstatement in the divine condition; and in adding: from the Father, He acknowledges His subordination to the Father, even when He shall have recovered that condition.
Jesus here designates the Spirit asSpirit of truth, in order to place Him in opposition to the falsehood of the world, to its voluntary ignorance. The Spirit will dissipate the darkness in which it tries to envelop itself.
Most of the modern interpreters, Meyer, Luthardt, Weiss, Keil, refer the words: who proceeds from the Father, to the same fact as the preceding words: whom I will send you from the Father,to the sending of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The attempt is made to escape the charge of tautology by saying that the first clause indicates the relation of the Spirit to Christ, and the second His relation to God (Keil); as if in this latter were not already contained the from God, which, repeated in the second clause, would form the most idle pleonasm. It must be observed that the second verb differs entirely from the first;, to proceed from, as a river from its source, is altogether different from to be sent: the , out from, which is added here to , from the presence of, also marks a difference. But especially does the change of tense indicate the difference of idea: whom I will send and who proceeds from. He whom Jesus will send (historically, at a given moment) is a divine being, who emanates (essentially, eternally) from the Father. An impartial exegesis cannot, as it seems to me, deny this sense. It is that the historical facts of salvation, to the view of Jesus, rest upon eternal relations, as well with reference to Himself, the Son, as to the Spirit. They are, as it were, the reflections of the Trinitarian relations. As the incarnation of the Son rests upon His eternal generation, so themission of the Holy Spirit is related to His eternal procession from the very centre of the divine being. The context is not in the least contradictory to this sense, as Weiss thinks; on the contrary, it demands it. What Jesus sends testifies truly for Him only so far as it comes forth from God.
The Latin church is not wrong, therefore, in affirming the Filioque, starting from the words: I will send, and the Greek church is no more wrong in maintaining the per Filium and subordination, starting from the words: from the Father. In order to bring these two views into accord, we must place ourselves at the Christological point of view of the Gospel of John, according to which the homoousia and the subordination are simultaneously true.
The pronoun , he, that being, and he alone, sums up all the characteristics which have just been attributed to the Holy Spirit, and makes prominent the unique authority of this divine witness.
Does this testimony given to the person of Jesus consist only in the presence of the Spirit on the earth, as proof de facto of His glorification? This sense would not suit either the name support nor that of Spirit of truth, and would not account for the pronoun you, in the promise: I will send to you. The question here is rather of the testimony given before the world, in answer to its hostile attitude, by the intermediate agency of the apostles; for example, by the mouth of Peter and the one hundred and twenty on the day of Pentecost.
But if it is so, we ask ourselves how can Jesus afterwards distinguish this testimony from that of the apostles themselves, in Joh 15:27 : And you also shall bear witness for me; and the more, since the particle indicates a marked gradation (comp. Joh 6:51); , and also; , and besides. To understand the distinction, we must begin with Joh 15:27, which is the simplest one. The apostles possess a treasure which is peculiar to them, and which the Spirit could not communicate to themthe historical knowledge of the ministry of Jesus from its beginning to its end. The Spirit does not teach the facts of history; He reveals their meaning. But this historical testimony of the apostles would, without the Spirit, be only a frigid narrative incapable of creating life. It is the Spirit which brings the vivifying breath to the testimony. By making the light of the divine thought fall upon the facts, He makes them a power which lays hold upon souls. Without the facts, the Spirit would be only an empty exaltation devoid of contents, of substance; without the Spirit the narrative of the facts would remain dead and unfruitful. The apostolic testimony and the testimony of the Spirit unite, therefore, in one and the same act, but they do so while bringing to it, each of them, a necessary element, the one, the historical narration, the other, the inward evidence. This relation is still reproduced at the present day in every living sermon drawn from the Scriptures. Peter, in like manner, distinguishes these two testimonies in Act 5:32 : And we are witnesses of these things, as well as the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. We understand, after this, why, when the apostles wished to fill the place of Judas, they chose two men who had accompanied Jesus from the baptism of John even to His resurrection (Act 1:21-22).
The signifies therefore: And you also, you will have your special part in this testimony.The present , you bear witness, which we have translated by the future, does not by any means refer, as Weiss and Keil think, to the present moment, when the disciples are already bearing witness. Besides the circumstance that the fact was at that time true only in a very limited sense, why should it be mentioned here, since the question is of the future and the testimony of the Spirit? This present transports the disciples to the time when the Spirit shall speak: And then, on this foundation you bear witness also.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
15:26 {8} But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
(8) We will surely stand against the rage of the wicked by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit speaks in no other way and is consistent with what he spoke by the mouth of the apostles.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Even though the world rejected Jesus, the Spirit characterized by truth would bear witness that Jesus was the Son of God (cf. Joh 14:16-17; Joh 14:26). He would do this after He came on the day of Pentecost. After that, the disciples would also testify, similarly empowered by the Spirit. The basis of their testimony would be their long association with and intimate knowledge of Jesus (cf. Act 1:21-22).
These verses explain how the conflict between Jesus and the world would continue after He departed to heaven. The essence of the conflict would continue to be who Jesus is.
Joh 15:26 also contains a strong testimony to the deity of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus described as proceeding from the Father as He had done (cf. Joh 14:26). [Note: See Gerald Bray, "The Double Procession of the Holy Spirit in Evangelical Theology Today: Do We Still Need It?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41:3 (September 1998):415-26.] It refers to all three members of the Trinity and reveals something of their functional relationships to one another. "The beginning" is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.