The Lord has been telling the disciples, as a little flock now separated from the world, that they would be put out of the synagogues, and that the time was coming when they that killed them (so obnoxious were they, and so blinded were the others) would think that they were doing God's service; and this because they had not known the Father, nor Him the Son. This spirit and this darkness they showed in their rejection of the Son.: had they known and received Him, they would have known and received the Father. But as in all this Gospel, so here, the Lord takes His departure, not in the light of His suffering and rejection-dying as a man here, but according to the dignity of His person, " departing out of this world to the Father." And it is in the light of this He sets the disciples that had loved Him. " And now I go my way to Him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? and because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts."
They had received Him as their Master and as Messiah from God, hut were quite dim as to the economy of grace, founded on the resurrection of the Lord, and His glory with the Father. Nevertheless, by their owning Him, they were set in complete contrast with the world, which rejected Him. The Father had sent the Son into the world: the world had rejected and refused, or not known nor received, Him; and He was returning to the Father. This is just one principle of the gospel. But He had attracted in grace these few hearts to own Him, witnesses of what He really was. These were naturally sorrowful at His going away, specially accompanied as it was with the declaration of their being left to the relentless enmity of a world of power, to those who would conscientiously, and therefore with no scruple, even kill them.
But He proceeded to explain to them what their portion and place would most and that by virtue of another and most important truth. " 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 to you; but if I go away, I will send Him unto you." Such, then, is the position in which the scene of this world is set in this passage. The world has rejected, not believing in, the Son of God; and He goes away to the Father. The disciples, a little remnant, had believed. On Christ's going away, He sends the Spirit to them. The fact of the presence of the Holy Ghost, consequent upon the departure of the Son, is then the point of this passage. And the presence of the Holy Ghost, that other Comforter, supposes the rejection of the Son, being sent by Christ from the Father. That Comforter is then looked at as personally present with the disciples in the world, as come on the Son's departure to the Father. The world is therefore viewed only as having rejected the Son; for the Spirit would not be thus here, but for the Son's rejection: "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him unto you." But, He being thus sent by the Lord Jesus from the Father, His presence was the evidence, not only that the world had rejected Jesus, but that the Father owned and had received Him. Towards such a world God might deal in grace, and the greatness of that grace be enhanced; but such a world it was.
The Spirit had ever wrought, even in creation and onward; but the Comforter had not come personally till after the ascension of Jesus, any more than the Son till the incarnation, though He had created all things. " For the Holy Ghost was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified " (John 7:3939(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)). Thus come, He would convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (or, convict it); His very presence would do this. Of sin, because they believed not on Jesus. The world was convicted of it, not a few wicked men; many had been their sins and evils. But there was now one plain universal question between God and the world in which these had been summed up: they had rejected His Son.
The world before the flood had sufficed to prove that the imaginations of the thoughts of men's hearts were only evil, and that continually. The law had shown the wilfulness of man in breaking through the prohibitory enactments by which God had forbidden the indulgence of their evil imaginings. The prophets God had sent in vain to man, rising up early and sending them, till there was no remedy; and God said, " I have one Son; it may be they will reverence my Son." And the Son came in direct mercies, even those which nature could feel, as well as grace, and in grace ministering to all their wants, proving in grace (coming into a world into which they were all driven out by sin, and into the midst of miseries which told that they were outcasts from paradise) who He was. They saw it, and said, " This is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours."
Thus was their hatred of the Lord, and the ripeness of sin, fully shown. Therefore, because nothing more could be done but through a change by divine power, the Lord says, " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. If I had not done amongst them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father."
The presence of the Holy Spirit, then, being sent down by the Son of God received on high, convinced the world of sin in their rejection of Him, for He was there only by virtue of the Son's rejection. But He was also the evidence of righteousness. Righteousness on earth was there none, not even on the cross. The one Righteous Man had been crucified and slain by men and then, to man's eye, God had not owned Him. Why, He had been constrained to say, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The saint may and does see all security in this by faith, and the necessities of our eternal righteousness; he may be fitted for heavenly places by it; but there was no manifested righteousness to the world in it. The Righteous Man suffered, and God in no way interfered, and that Righteous One had openly to proclaim that God was not with Him. We, indeed, know why, in His infinite grace: it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, that " with His stripes we might be healed."
But the Lord had previously declared that, if He went to the Father, He would send the Comforter. The coming and presence of the Comforter, then, was the testimony that the Father had received the Son. And here was the witness of righteousness and the full estimate of the value of Christ's work, even His reception on the Father's throne; as His rejection by man had been the proof and full estimate of their sinful state. Therefore it is that Christ appeals to His Father at the end of John 17, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee!" In reference to the children, He says, "O Holy Father, keep, &c."
Thus the presence of the Holy Ghost, sent by the Son from the Father, or (as it is also said) sent by the Father in the Son's name, proves the sin of the whole world in having slighted and rejected that Son, and shows that the only righteousness is found to be in the reception of the Son by the Father. Then and thus consequently the believer is found " accepted in the Beloved." But the great fact is what is here stated: then, and then only, in God's sense of it, righteousness is found.
A mere saving and recognition on the cross would not have been righteousness; for why should the Son of God have been ill-treated? Why should He have suffered at all? But sitting on the right hand of God, after leaving the world, and going to the Father-this, while it was in a certain sense righteous discernment as against the world, was the only worthy public estimate of what He was, of His person, and work. They saw Him no more: of Him above all " the world was not worthy "; but He went to the Father, the true testimony of His excellency, and the due estimate of His acceptance. The Holy Spirit's presence was the testimony of this also.
But was all to be left thus? The rebellious and rejectors, unjudged? those that loved Jesus, sufferers (as He had told them in the beginning of this chapter xvi.)? and Jesus still rejected as regards the world? No! The coming and presence of the Holy Ghost convicted the world of the judgment due; and that it would come, because, the the prince of this world was judged, had been proved by the cross (in whose hands the world was). " The prince of this world," saith the Lord, " cometh, and hath nothing in me." Whether religion among the Jews, or power among the Gentiles, or self-will and recklessness amongst both, all had been led up under his guidance, under one ministration of selfishness and blindness, to the murder of the blessed Son of God. Fear possessed the few that owned Him; and all His disciples forsook Him and fled. They were proved to be the strong man's goods.
But, in order to attempt to hold them, he was obliged to commit himself, in all the power he had, against the Prince of Life, One stronger than he, the Captain of our salvation. He is here looked at, as the leader and prince of a sinful world; and so the world's judgment is involved in it.
Now the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, proved by the presence of the Holy Ghost, convicted or proved the world's judgment. For one shown to be its prince' of whom it was the slave, was now judged!; and this, consequent on what was previously noticed, His reception on high, Whom under his guidance they had rejected. Satan had put forth all his power, the power of death; and He who had willingly bowed under it for our sakes was risen and glorified; and, in evidence of it, the Holy Ghost was in the world (among the disciples, but in the world.)
The world might not receive the Spirit of the witness of Christ's power whom they had rejected, listening to, and led by, that other and evil spirit. But the predominance of the power of the Holy Spirit, yea, His very presence in the world, was the witness of the judgment of a world under the dominion of him who was thus shown to be judged. Therefore, in speaking of gifts which were the manifestation of the Spirit, it is written, " When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gives gifts to men." But, though it might be publicly manifested by them, the truth itself is what is here, and what concerns us; for I know the Spirit not by the gifts, but by His being in us. Thus the believer and the church know it. The other is a consequence of course valuable in its place, and its manifestation in whatever respect given to profit withal. The force of the judgment of the world, being proved by the presence of the Comforter, is in attacking him who is still prince of this world.
Thus was stated the operation and effect of the Spirit's presence as to the world; whereby, if a man by grace be actually convinced, he is a believer. This is the efficacy of grace; for in the passage it is spoken, not of efficacy, but fact; a fact understood by faith. The Lord, having stated all this, then goes on to show what the Holy Ghost" would do among the disciples. He had many things to tell them, which they could not bear then. For they knew Him after all, after the flesh, not having yet received the Comforter. But when He was come, He would guide them (the disciples) into all truth; He would show them things to come; and in all He would glorify Christ, taking of His and showing it unto them, that is, all that the Father had, for all this belonged to Christ the Son. It is not here simply as the Spirit of adoption and son-ship, but as present to communicate the truth, and knowledge, and glory which belonged to them as children. This also was theirs, consequent upon the ascension of Jesus; and this was communicated to them in the sending of the Comforter.
A little while, then, and they would see Christ no more; and a little while, and they would, because He went to the Father, on which all this hung, partially fulfilled in pledge and witness on His resurrection, but fully, really, on His return in glory, when He had gone to the Father, to receive the kingdom, and to return.
The difference between us and the then disciples, I should perhaps notice. They received this communication of truth primarily as a fresh revelation; and, according to the wisdom and dispensation of God, they have by His will treasured it up in the written word, so that it is now to be revealed as a previously unknown truth. But to each of us the Spirit works the same work, actually guiding us into all truth. That truth is only revealed in the written word, as says the apostle John: Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Thus it is connected with our life; for the unction is from the Holy One. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:1414But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)).