This leads the way to the main distinctive truth the Lord is intimating, the presence and action of the Holy Ghost when sent down from heaven.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is profitable for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you.” (Ver. 7.)
The Lord had told them before, that had they loved Him, they would have rejoiced because He said, I go unto the Father. What was it not for the humbled, holy, and suffering Son of man to quit the scene of His unequaled sorrows for His Father's presence on high? Now He shows the connection of His departure with their fresh and deeper blessing. It might seem, to them especially, strange to say that the loss of His bodily presence should be their gain. But so it was to be. The truth is not what seems but the manifestation of what really is, nor is it found in the first man but in the Second; nor can we know it but by the Spirit. Now it was to be established and enjoyed more than ever. For Christ was going to heaven on the ground of accomplished redemption, thence to send the Holy Spirit to the saints on earth. It was profitable for them then that Christ should go away. He who alone effectuates any spiritual good would not otherwise come.
And now that the Lord was going above, having obtained eternal redemption, the Holy Spirit was not only to work as He had never before wrought in the children of men or in the children of God, but was to come personally and undertake the entire charge and business of the disciples. For this is the meaning of παράκλητος, which our “Advocate” so feebly represents. He had come in person to abide in Jesus; He had sealed the Son of man; He had anointed Him with power. None could have Him thus till God's judgment of sin had taken its course in the cross. Not that compassion or fidelity of goodness, or any other form or way of divine love had been lacking in times past; but this presence of the Spirit could not be till then. Jesus had the Spirit thus descending and abiding on Him, and this as the perfect Man without blood-shedding, for He knew no sin, at His baptism. But others were sinners, and those who believed had a sinful nature, notwithstanding their believing. The flesh still remained, and they are contrary to each other. Here comes in the efficacy of Christ's work. God was then and there glorified even as to sin in His cross. His blood cleanses from all sin. God made Him to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Not only were the bad fruits gone but the evil root that bore them was judged and sentence executed. Hence could the Spirit come and dwell in us as never before, not to our houses beyond the saints of past ages, but in virtue of Christ's death and its infinite value in God's eyes.
This then is the distinctive character of Christianity: not as in the kingdom Christ reigning in Jehovah power and glory, and the Spirit poured out upon all flesh, but Christ departing to be in heaven and the Spirit as Advocate sent and abiding with the saints.
“And when he is come, he will convince [or, afford proof to] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my [or, the] Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” (Vers. 8-11.)
The world cannot receive the Spirit of truth, because it sees Him not neither knoweth Him. He is the object of neither sense nor intellect. Whatever the effects or displays of His energy, He abides invisible in Himself and outside the ken of the world. But the saints know Him, and that their bodies are His temple, even as they by Him know all else that they really know. God has revealed to us by His Spirit what is beyond human intelligence as such; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, His depths; and just as the spirit of man knows the things of a man, even so the things of God no man knows, but the Spirit of God. And Him we as Christians have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. And not only so, but they are communicated in words by Him, and received by His power in the believer, as truly as they are by Him revealed: all is by the Holy Spirit of God.
Here we have His present relation, not to the saints, but to that world which is outside. And the Lord tells us, that, when come, He ἐλἐγξει τὀν κόσμον. It is difficult to convey justly the force of this. “Reprove,” as in the Authorized Version, is too narrow a meaning, if not false. “Rebuke” is here out of the question. “Convict” hardly applies even to the first, not at all to the second and the third clauses; and supposes an effect produced which may not really be in any case. Nor is one satisfied with “convince,” save in the sense of affording proof by His presence, rather than by His action. For by His coming and abiding in the saints, apart from the world, He gives demonstrative proof of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
The law dealt with Israel as those under it. But now it is the Spirit who demonstrates the sin of the world; and this not because they violate that divine measure of a man's duty, but because they reject the Son of God: “of sin, because they believe not on me.” (Ver. 9.) That was grace, this fatal. It is not merely failure in obligation, but despite of grace. And such is the true and actual gauge of the world before God, who tests and proves the guilt of the whole system which opposes Him by its unbelieving ignorance and refusal of His Son, spite of the fullest testimony to Him.
Further, He affords demonstration of righteousness. Where is this? In the race or first man? On the contrary, there is none righteous, no, not one. And as for the Righteous One, even Jesus, He as we have seen was despised and rejected of men, by none so keenly as by the Jews, but in fact and to the uttermost by the world. Where then is the Spirit's proof of righteousness? “Because I go to my [or, the] Father, and ye see me no more.” (Ver. 10.) Righteousness is on God's part only. Man condemned and killed the Just One; God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand. The Son “going to the Father” is the standing witness of righteousness there, and not here; for man He who came into the world in love is clean gone. They would not have Him, and “ye see me no more.” He returns for the world as Judge; but this is a wholly different and most solemn affair. But He is lost to men: all is closed with His mission to the world as He came. And the Spirit testifies and demonstrates only divine righteousness in Him on high, and man lost in casting Him out no longer to be seen as before here below.
But again the spirit gives proof of “judgment;” and this, “because the prince of this world is judged.” (Ver. 11.) Here again it is not a question of the kingdom in power and glory when Jehovah shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and slay the dragon that is in the sea. The Christian knows what will be for the earthly people's deliverance and the joy of all nations, but he sees already by faith that Satan is judged in Christ's death and resurrection and ascension. The Holy Ghost sums up all in Christ's person; and this is the grand demonstration for the world. Its ruler is already judged in rejecting Him who made known the Father, glorified God, and is glorified of God. All is closed for the world in Him who came in love, and is gone up in righteousness. The ruler of the world is judged in His cross.