“Let not your heart be troubled,” said He whose own heart, when He had comforted theirs, would be exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. And a step beyond that (the final one), there lay in the path of their divine Comforter the trouble, the shadow of which would have consumed them. The very shadow of the cross would have withered up mortal man, God entering into judgment with man about sin. “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” But here was One who was going to bear the fire and wrath of God’s judgment against sin. The bloody sweat tells of the agony of His soul, in anticipation of that hour; when it came we know He met it with a calmness equal to that in which He addressed the disciples here, having gone through it first in spirit with His Father. How great the agony of Gethsemane, the bloody sweat, and the cry, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me,” bear witness.
And this was all before Him, even at the door, during the progress of this wonderful discourse; yet was His spirit free in communicating these precious instructions and revelations, as though not even a shadow was to darken His path. To the last moment He is occupied in meeting the troubles of other hearts. He had just been washing their feet, and now He comforts their hearts in opening up scenes of rest, and we may add, of glory, too, in the Father’s house above.
“Let not your heart be troubled” — how sweet from Him at such a moment! “In My Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you.” Rest of heart they were to have, and peace, even His own peace, down here; but an abiding place in the Father’s house — “that rest secure from ill — prepared for tired pilgrims, and to go no more out,” gives the heart a fresh spring and an object in pressing forward. He knows what the heart needs, and gives accordingly. Who so restful as Himself amid the trials and conflicts of His life of service? and He, too, Man of sorrows, was comforted by that which lay beyond — “for the joy set before Him endured the cross,” and so on. Did He not appreciate the rest of the Father’s house, and the glory that awaited Him? Though for Him even the cross would be the realization of the highest moral glory, the vindication of God in regard to sin brought into His creation. John was the one to note this; he sees glory in the cross, and power in His dying even, an act of power — “He delivered up His spirit.” He was very near Him and loved Him, was the disciple whom Jesus loved; none seem to have envied him this place in Jesus affections.
It was surely from a loving human heart that the words of comfort came, yet from One who could link Himself with God in uttering them — “Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” He knew, in His path of obscurity and rejection, of sources and resources beyond man’s vision and reach: the Father’s house above; the Father Himself; the Holy Spirit as Comforter and Revealer — these He hastens to disclose. And then the secret of that path of life from which He had never swerved, how He had kept His Father’s commandments, and abode in His love; so that the prince of this world, when he came found nothing in Him.
But all this teaching of chapter 14 is for those who have accompanied Him thus far, and have seen Him about to leave a judged world for the Father’s house, whose hearts have been united to Him on the way. It is this revelation which set them on their pilgrim path. A condemned world yields no resting-place. When a mansion below has become an object of desire, two things — and serious truths, too — have already faded from the mind: the judgment of this world, and the mansions (abodes) above. One is in the wilderness, deliverance from Egypt forgotten, and Canaan not in the thoughts. We can understand why judgment begins at the house of God. But one in this state is incapable of appreciating the truth before us. The state of soul needed to receive anything is formed by the ministration of suited truth. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” The difficulty of entering that kingdom would touch the conscience as to the state that hindered. The thorns and briars of poverty hinder, and riches have the same effect; but faith, strengthened by the word, breaks through them all, and can sing along the way.
Verse 3. “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” The terms in which Paul gives his experience in Philippians 3 might serve for something like a response to love like this; he wanted to win Christ, know Him, reach Him, even in being made conformable to His death. Such, at least, was the beautiful response of His Spirit in the soul of one who truly loved Him. He wished to reach Him where He was, not bring Him down here. He will come with Him in the day of glory. But this is life in power, life governed by the objects God presents to faith.
The disciples had known Him after the flesh, and would fain have continued to know Him thus. How strangely the words, used on a later occasion, would have sounded in their ears: “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” But He was all things to them, and was now about to leave them, no wonder that sorrow filled their hearts, for it was His presence in the flesh that sustained them, and ministered to the nature of which they were already partakers. But this nearly describes their position. They were, indeed, born again, and that was nearly all that could be said of them — grace attaching them to His Person. Redemption unaccomplished, peace unknown, the Holy Ghost not come, the conscience not perfected, the Father unknown! the Father’s house unheard of, their hopes of His coming again vague and undefined (Matt. 24). Witness also their query in Acts 1: “Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” How hopeless their case, had Jesus left them without these precious instructions! Blessed Comforter of Thy people! that could not be. How important to understand the position and state of those whom Jesus addresses. They loved Him, but beyond that knew nothing and could do nothing.
It is blessed, too, to note that His own Person when absent, as the direct Object of faith, is the first word of comfort He presents to their sorrowing hearts. Henceforth their faith in Him absent, was to be like their faith in God, whom they had not seen; but they had felt no difficulty in that, and there were blessings for them of which they as yet knew nothing, dependent on His departure from them. There were many mansions (abodes) in the Father’s house, He told them, and He went to prepare a place for them; and the coming of the Holy Ghost was so important that it was expedient even on this account that He should depart, that He might send Him to them. But of all the consolations He would pour into their troubled hearts, was not this the sweetest — “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also”? And so we find them in the beginning waiting for the Son from heaven, “and the virgins (Christians) going forth to meet Him.”
In the meantime, they knew the way without being conscious of it. It was no longer a question of leading the sheep out of the Jewish fold, but of conducting the saints — the children — to the Father’s house on high. But this blessed thought they little appreciated at the moment, for they knew not that in knowing Jesus they knew the Father also.
In Him, most perfectly express’d,
The Father’s self doth shine.
But in everything they show themselves wholly unacquainted with, and unprepared for, this new path that led to the Father’s house; but what was lacking for them, found its answer, as ever, in the glory of His own Person. Already we have seen that it was “I am” Himself in their midst; here He declares Himself to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life; that no one came to the Father but by Him: this was the present answer to their difficulty.
The Father once known, how dear to the soul the dwelling-places in His house! We have truth communicated in this way throughout the gospel; difficulties, trials, and sorrows become occasions for the manifestation of who He was. “I am,” He says, “the way, and the truth, and the life”; as, a little while before, “I am the resurrection and the life”; and before that, “I am the Good Shepherd, laying down My life for the sheep” — for their sakes taking His place in death, yet in Himself the Resurrection and the Life. Equally for His people, whether in the grave, or in the Father’s house preparing a place for them.
In earlier chapters, we have seen Him as the Life and the Light, and the Bread from heaven, and, as to position as Man, sanctified, sent, and sealed. In this last chapter, He comes out fully as Himself the Son, Revealer of the Father, and Sender of the Spirit. Neither His words nor His works proceeded merely from Himself, but revealed the Father, who abode in Him and did the works (vs. 10). Yet compare with this what He said John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25) (New Trans.), “I am what I say.” His words, language, revealed Himself, as here the Father. How blessed this is! you cannot find the Father without finding the Son, nor the Son without the Father. “Believest Thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” — and the works that Jesus did, the believer should do also, and even greater works, because He went to the Father. In all this, He was leading them gently on to see the importance for them of His departure to the Father. They would not only do greater works (when He should have sent the Spirit), but whatever they should ask in His name (they had never done so yet), the Father would own that name when presented in faith.
What blessed teaching and comforting of the disciples! How gently He prepares them for a path that man had never trodden before! It was not revealed for “dwellers upon earth,” but for pilgrims on their way to the mansions above. He must go before them too, that they might know the way, for they had not passed that way heretofore.
But to return for a moment to verse 3. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” Fellowship is properly with persons, and not with truths. A truth may reveal a person to me, but fellowship is with a person. “That where I am, there ye may be also.” Think of the patient grace that is never weary of opening out fresh sources of comfort for their troubled hearts! Very often, from our very familiarity with the word, the thoughts have lost their true import for our inattentive hearts.
Verse 6. “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” He wants to engage their attention, and open their minds about the way to the Father. The answer to this state of entire ignorance is found in the knowledge of the glory of His Person. It is Himself that is here — in which knowledge they were always coming short. He, and He only, was or could be the Way, the Truth, and the Life; this was in connection with His going to the Father out of this world. His coming into it, and His work in it, was as sanctified, sent, and sealed by the Father. We need to get these things definitely.
Verses 15-17. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Their love to Him would be shown in keeping His commandments, in this way they would approve themselves as really His own, by obedience, one of the qualities of the divine nature in man. How it shone out in Him we have seen; and further, He would obtain for them the Spirit, that He might abide with them forever, the expression of no passing favor, and the power by which they would realize all that appertained to them in their relationship to Him, as developed afterwards. They would understand and know the things given unto them to know and enjoy.
Verse 18. “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” He would not leave them as orphans, but would come to them; first in person after He was risen, then in spirit, and finally in person from heaven. Their life (eternal) would be simply dependent upon its flowing from Him. How could they be more closely connected with Himself?
But to crown these blessings, they would know in that day that He was in the Father, and they in Him, and He in them. These were the secret blessings, flowing from the presence of the Holy Ghost, and while Jesus was on the Father’s throne, hid from the eyes of men, their life hid with Him in God.
It is well to observe the order; we in Him, and He in the Father. We are in Him who is our Life, and, according to the power of the Holy Ghost, He would make it known and enjoyed, “in that day ye shall know.” But the unity of the body, Paul’s doctrine, is not the subject here, but rather individual union (oneness), if that be a correct phrase; the word says, “in Him.” When the glory is manifested, the order is different, then it is the Father in Him and He in us, “that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” Then He will glorify His saints, and make evident in glory what hitherto the world had refused to believe — the truth and character of His love to the saints. In the meanwhile, the world knows us not. Are we satisfied with the secret blessings? Do we all know them, or are any in danger of forgetting these things through neglect of communion?
Verse 21. “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them” — in keeping them it is that truth in the inward parts is realized — “he it is that loveth Me, and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father.” As in John 12, “If any man serve me, him will My Father honor. “Honored and loved of the Father for service and love to Himself! But these are results of holy diligence in service, and earnest love to Himself. We have come now upon the ground of the saint’s responsibility in service. In answer to Judas’s question, “How is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” the Lord answers, “If a man love Me, he will keep My word” — not “words,” His testimony — “My Father will love him” — but further, and what He had not said before — “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” His interest in Christ and His word met with a precious reward, and so it is always, we receive more than we asked for, the diligent shall be made fat.
These were His instructions while present with them, but the Holy Ghost, whom the Father would send in His name, as representing Him and acting for Him, would not only bring all things to their remembrance whatever He had said, but would teach them all things. Compare 1 John 2:2020But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. (1 John 2:20), “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”; and 1 Corinthians 2:1515But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (1 Corinthians 2:15), “He that is spiritual judgeth all things.” Thus we see how knowledge and discernment in the saints are connected with the presence of the Holy Ghost, as, in Philippians 1, with the development of the divine nature in us, “That your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence.”
We have already had brief teachings about the Holy Ghost, expressed in beautiful figures; the wind from heaven that bloweth where it listeth, conveying life in its gales; the well of water springing up into eternal life; the river flowing from those who, being thirsty, had drunk for themselves of the fullness and glory of the Person of Jesus. Each beautiful figure implies the energy of life. The wind blows, the well springs, the river flows. It could not be otherwise.
But here figures are dropped, none are sufficient for the mighty truth, the personal presence of God the Holy Ghost on earth, when God the Son should have left it; and see the glorious way in which the truth is unfolded! Each Person in the Godhead is before us. The Father, in the name of the Son, sends the Holy Ghost. This, next to the first coming of Christ, is the most important for the church of all truths; while, of all truths, it is the least practically known. See how scripture speaks of Him when present on earth. The Spirit of life and of power, of truth and holiness, of sonship and unity. The power of every divinely formed relationship, as of all worship, service, conflict. “We worship by the Spirit”; we pray and sing in the Holy Ghost; we use in conflict the word as the sword of the Spirit. Every gift to the church, and every exercise of gift, is the effect of His presence amongst us. Has the world believed on Him? No. But how have the saints treated Him? Very much as we have treated our divine Master. We have forgotten Him, and gone to sleep; the Holy Ghost we have grieved almost beyond measure! Many would say, “Wherein?” (Mal. 1:6, 76A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? 7Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. (Malachi 1:6‑7)).
But the Lord, thinking of the deep need of His beloved ones, when His gracious presence on earth would no longer shelter them, tells them of the character and actings of the Spirit, when sent of the Father. And what is the character in which Jesus presents to them the Holy Ghost? Just that which suited the affections of His own heart, and the deep wants and sorrows of theirs, for sorrow was filling their hearts. Think of this for a moment — a heart filled with sorrow because Jesus would be no longer here! And so He announces the Holy Ghost as the Comforter, and then gives His ways in their simplest yet deepest character, He would teach them all things, bring to remembrance all that Jesus had said, guide into all truth, take of the universal glory of Jesus — the “all things given to Him by the Father,” and show them unto them. Was any one amongst God’s creatures qualified for such service as this? Who amongst the mighty could have attempted it? Mark the word all. “All truth,” “all things,” “all that the Father hath,” are “God’s exhaustless tides,” from which the Holy Ghost would refresh and restore the hearts that mourned Jesus absence.
But was ever service like this, save that of Jesus alone, or ever service so slighted, save that of Jesus Himself? But what a revelation of God! Father, Son, and Spirit, in thoughts which are to usward, nothing kept back, no reserve, all the ways of love, all the Father’s counsels and purposes concerning His Only-begotten, communicated to the saints, the Holy Ghost leading into all.
But what can one say to these things? What can we say to Him of these His ways, or of ourselves as the objects of love like this? O depth of the riches! To Him be glory forever. Amen. Precious Spirit of God, that warms the heart while He feeds the mind! that when He speaks of Jesus makes His own presence felt, and so acts in our souls that growth in knowledge of One of the divine Persons is necessarily accompanied by a deeper knowledge of the glory and blessedness of the other Persons in the Godhead. His presence in us links us with all that is divine.
But the sending of the Holy Ghost was not all, He leaves them peace, endless and unbroken! fruit of His work, so soon to be accomplished. Peace that no tongue can tell, enduring as the work on which it was founded! Besides this He gives them His own peace; this is another thought, the privilege of realizing the peace in which Jesus lived and finished His service on earth. Meekness and lowliness were not the whole secret of that peace. His heart had a supreme Object outside this scene. His Father was greater than He (in the human position He had taken), He loved, and did, and kept His Father’s commandments, and abode in His love. No idle word or foolish thought escaped from those lips or entered that heart, whose consecration was perfect, to grieve the Spirit that found its only resting-place on earth, on Him. And so, when it was but a step to the cross, we hear Him speaking of His peace, which He left as a privilege to His people. The insults of man and the enemy’s wrath were powerless to disturb it, simply because it was Jesus peace. If storms arose, if waves ran high, if enemies threatened, and Satan raged, Jesus was with the Father, and the Father with Him. The Father did not leave Him alone, for He did always the things that pleased Him.
It seems easy to understand Jesus peace, not so to realize it; but He gave it as privilege, and we must remember that it is Jesus peace, and that He gives not as the world gives — an important and interesting word: compare with this, God gives freely (James 1), that is, without a “thought behind,” or “second thought,” a beautiful way of giving. It is indeed God’s way, and not man’s.
With peace of conscience, and peace of heart — Jesus peace — how could they be troubled or afraid! but these two things are precisely what so many precious souls do not possess, hence trouble, and fear, and heaviness of heart.
Verse 28. “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.” “I am going away,” He says, “up to My Father Himself, and He is greater than I, will not your hearts rejoice, when you think of Me with Him whom I have told you of — with My Father?”
It is a very great thing with Him, the love and sympathy of His saints, their joy in His exaltation, their remembrance of Him in His humiliation and dying love.
Verse 30. “I will not speak much more.” Oh what a word for the heart that loved Him! — not much, more! Was the tongue that spake as never man spake going to be silent to them? “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do.” But Satan could not come till the last word given Him of His Father was uttered, His divine testimony completed. And he found nothing in Jesus, no vantage ground there — he found God there, and nought else; already vanquished, before his apparent triumph in Jesus death sealed his own destruction forever. In Psalm 17 the Lord says in spirit, “My Father shall find nothing in Me, nothing that is not a fair witness to His glory”; here, “Satan shall find nothing which is not an eternal witness against himself [Satan]. “Arise, let us go hence!”