The Holy Spirit in John's Gospel.

The Gospel of John is evidently quite different from the Synoptic Gospels in its presentation of the Son of God, although each of the Synoptic Gospels has its own peculiar presentation of Jesus; and it can be added that the presentation of the Holy Spirit in John is different, in the main, from that of any other writing. Apart from the first mention of the Spirit in chapter 1, every other remark concerning the Holy Spirit is from the lips of the Son of God Himself, although there is the comment of the Evangelist on the words of Jesus in chapter 7:39.

The Spirit … abode upon Him

As in Luke, the Spirit of God descends from heaven like a dove, but here it is the testimony of John Baptist who says. "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him" (John 1:32). It is not merely the record of the event, but the witness of John concerning it: he tells us what he saw. Here also are added the words "it abode upon Him." In the Son of God there was a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. One upon whom He could rest with deepest pleasure, and remain for the carrying out of all God's will.

The descent of the Spirit, and its abiding on Jesus, was a sign from God to John 'Baptist as to who Jesus was, so that Jesus as Son of God was seen and witnessed to in His glory by John. The One on whom the Spirit came and remained was to baptize with the Holy Spirit, and from this John perceived the divine glory of Jesus. Who else but a divine Person could be the resting place of the Holy Spirit? Who but a divine Person could baptize with the Holy Spirit? There was divine intelligence in John to discern that One with these marks was none other than the Son of God.

Born of the Spirit

Already, in John 1:12-13, the writer of this Gospel has spoken of the children of God as born of God. Those who believed in the Name of the Son were now able to take their place as God's children, but this blessed relationship was not on account of any natural privileged place that they enjoyed, but because they were born of God. Now, in John 3:3-8, the Lord Himself takes up this subject with Nicodemus, the learned master of Israel. Jesus tells him that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"; and, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This was something foreign to this learned teacher, for he had no doubt always thought that it was enough to belong to the family of Israel to have the blessing of God. Nor could he conceive of a new birth apart from a repetition of what was natural.

Nicodemus had to learn that the things of the Spirit were of an entirely different order from the things of the flesh. The Jew as well as the Gentile belonged to the flesh order of things, and by the new birth God was bringing into existence an entirely new order of spiritual things. The Holy Spirit using God's word cleansed the one in whom He wrought from the moral pollution in which he was as born of Adam, and formed within him an entirely new and spiritual nature which was of God.

This divine work was the sovereign action of God, for "thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth." There was the sound that proclaimed the child of God to belong to a different family from the family of Adam, but there was no natural understanding of how the great change had been wrought. Believers in the Son were God's children, and entered into God's kingdom, but the Son had come that they might also have the eternal life in which there was the knowledge of the Father.

The well of living water

How richly divine grace shines in the Son of God's dealings with the woman of Sychar, in the tender way in which He reaches her conscience and exposes to her the deepest recesses of her heart, and unfolds the Father's desire to have worshippers who should worship Him in spirit and in truth. She had come to seek water to quench her thirst; the Son of God had come to give her from God that which would satisfy every desire of her heart. The water of Jacob's well, like all belonging to the natural realm, could never bring lasting satisfaction, but the water provided by the Son of God would meet every spiritual desire divinely implanted in the soul.

Gladly would the poor Samaritan have found a resource to meet all her temporal needs, but her conscience must be reached if the spiritual desires of her poor heart were to be met. A well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14), living water which was the gift of God, could only be known to one born of God, and received by faith in the Son of God.

Living water is the Spirit in the soul as the power for worship, the divinely implanted spring that brings life to the one who believes in the Son of God, and enables him to enter into all the blessings of eternal life that subsist in Jesus. Life in the Spirit of God within makes the believer independent of every creature spring, the springs that gratify a nature born of the flesh. But abiding satisfaction for the heart, for the desires of the divine nature, are met by the well-spring of living water.

It is the Spirit that quickens

The Jews, as is written in John 6, had been supplied with bread by Jesus in a miraculous way, and this greatly appealed to them. They would gladly have as their king one who could so readily meet all their temporal needs, freeing them from labour and all anxiety; but there had not been any spiritual apprehension as to who was present with them. They had not perceived in the miracle, a sign from God, that there had been a fulfilment of the divine promise of Psalm 132:15, "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread." Their thoughts were entirely of what was natural and temporal.

When Jesus said, "My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (John 6:32-33), they had replied, "Lord, ever-more give us this bread." But their subsequent attitude to Jesus in murmuring "because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven" (John 6:42-43), clearly manifested that they knew Him not, and cared not for things heavenly and spiritual. Even those who professed to be His disciples murmured, and many "went back, and walked no more with Him."

Such had not come under the quickening power of the Spirit of God, their whole life was bound up with the things of the flesh, with what belonged to the natural man in the realm of nature. They might be very religious, but it was the religion of the flesh that has no place for the Son of God, even if there might be the outward profession of His Name, and the claim to be the people of God. Present things, the whole circle of things that engage the man of the world, might seem very important to him, but the Lord said, "the flesh profiteth nothing." That is the divine sentence on all that belongs to man after the flesh. In wondrous contrast His words bring to us the things of the Spirit, and they are spirit and life, the things in which there is both present and eternal profit for the soul.

Rivers of living water

If the well of Living Water within the believer is a life by the Spirit of God that satisfies every desire of the heart, and in which we worship the Father, the rivers of Living Water are that divine life manifested in all our ways, bearing witness to Him who has brought to us the knowledge of the Father, and who, after having glorified God in His death upon the cross, lives in the presence of the Father on high. The inspired apostle leaves us in no doubt as to the meaning of the words of Jesus, for he says, "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39).

This testimony borne to the Son of God in the power of an indwelling Spirit is not preaching, though preaching might be included in it for those who are gifted to preach; it is the divine life that we have by the Spirit manifesting itself in all our ways, walk and words. It is in this way that God is continuing the life of His Son in this world, a life that powerfully witnesses to those around the features of Him whom men refused, and that gives pleasure to the Father. The well of water is no doubt God's answer in the believer to the type of Numbers 21:17, when "Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye to it"; and no doubt the rivers of living water anticipate the rivers that bring life and healing in the coming day, as prophesied in Ezekiel 47:1-12.

Receive ye Holy Spirit

In John 20 the risen Son of God had sent by Mary Magdalene the blessed message that told the disciples of their association with Him as His brethren, and of their relationship with the Father. Then He had appeared in their midst, showing them the marks His deep love for them had left upon Him, and bringing gladness to their troubled hearts. He had spoken peace to them when He came into their midst; and as He was sending them forth as His messengers in this world, "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."

Here was the Last Adam breathing into His own the breath of a heavenly and spiritual life, just as God in Eden had breathed into Adam the breath of his natural life. It was not the communication of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, as the indwelling Spirit, the earnest of the divine inheritance, and the seal of God's own work; that awaited Pentecost: but it was the Spirit in the character of life identifying His own with Him on the risen side of death, the life that would be manifested in them as His own in all that He had given them to do and to be for Him in the world out of which He was going.

The section upon which we now enter, John 14 – 16, has much to say of the presence and function of the Holy Spirit in and among the people of God, and all from the lips of the Son of God in view of His departure to be with the Father. When the Lord spoke to His disciples of the Spirit, they were not able to enter into the blessed significance of the coming of the Holy Spirit, but with the words of the Lord on record for us, and as now having the Holy Spirit, we can understand and value His presence in us and with us, and all that He brings before us of Christ, whether from the Old Testament writings, the record of the walk, words and ways of the Son of God on earth, His present place with the Father, and all that belongs to the future.

Another Comforter

In each of these three chapters the Lord speaks of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, and when He speaks in John 14:16 of "another Comforter," we can readily understand what the Lord means. He had been the Comforter of the disciples during His sojourn with them on earth, but now that He was going away to be with the Father, they needed someone to care for them as He had done. Instead of losing by His departure, they would gain; the Holy Spirit would care for them as being down here with them, and the Son would look after their interests where He was going, for through His work on the cross, and according to the counsels of the Father, they would have new interests in heaven as being associated with Him there.

It is well known that the word translated Comforter here is the same word as Advocate in 1 John 2:1, and there we learn something of the Lord's present ministry for His own. While above He is watching over us, maintaining us in communion with the Father, and supplying all that is needful to this end. On earth the Holy Spirit has all the divine resources to sustain us in our witness for God, and to direct us in the path of God's will. The Son was only on earth for a very limited period, but the Holy Spirit would be with God's people for ever. The Comforter is the Father's Gift, but given at the desire of the Son, which manifests the great present interest of the Son in His own, and, indeed, the community of interest of the Father and the Son in the saints down here. When we have left this world behind, it would seem from this Scripture that the Holy Spirit will be with the saints for all eternity.

The Spirit of Truth

The Holy Spirit not only brings the truth of God to us, but in Himself He bears the character of truth, so that He is able to form this same character in those in whom He dwells. It is not that the world does not receive Him, but it cannot receive Him. He is not presented in testimony to the world to be accepted or refused: He brings to the world the testimony of a heavenly Christ, the One who, with all the Father's grace, they have rejected. It is impossible for the world to receive Him, for it has not the capacity for His reception; it only receives what it sees and knows, and it does not see Him, nor does it know Him whom the Father has sent. The world is only concerned with what the natural senses of man live in: the Spirit and His things are outside the realm of man's things.

Those to whom the Spirit came would know Him in a double way, first, as being in them, secondly, as being with them. He would indwell every true believer in the Lord Jesus, being the seal of God's work, the earnest of all that God had promised them, and the anointing to empower them to carry out the will of God. Added to this, He would dwell among the saints, in the habitation that God would form, and there direct all the interests of Christ for the accomplishment of God's pleasure. This two-fold function of the Spirit was clearly indicated on the day of Pentecost, when He "filled all the house where they were sitting," and "sat upon each of them." The Pauline Epistles give us consider-able detail of these functions.

What follows in John 14:18-23 are the consequences of the Spirit's presence. Because the Holy Spirit is here, the Lord can come in Spirit to His own; He is the power that gives the saints to know the reality of the Lord's spiritual presence with those that are gathered to His Name. We live in the life of the risen Son of God as having the Spirit of life, and it is by the Spirit that we know "that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." The manifestation of the Lord to the individual saint who loves Him, and the abiding with us of the Father and the Son, are only known because of the Spirit's presence with us.

The Spirit our Teacher and Remembrancer

Already we have learned that the Comforter is the Spirit of truth; now He is brought before us as the Holy Spirit, to be sent from the Father in the Name of the Son (John 14:26). How the Name Holy Spirit speaks eloquently to us of the character of all that belongs to God, and what is required in all in whom the Spirit dwells, and with all connected with God's dwelling place in His people. Even as the Son came from the Father, so has the Holy Spirit; but He has come in the Name of the Son to look after all His interests among His own.

All things were to be taught to the disciples of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. This would embrace all that had been written in the Old Testament Scriptures as well as all that would come to us in the writings of the New Testament. If the Spirit teaches all things, it would make us independent of every other source of teaching, and this is what we are taught in 1 John 2:27, "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." The Christian is not made dependent on any teacher, though he will value any teaching that brings the true Christ before him.

For the disciples it was indeed blessed to be assured that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance what the Lord had spoken to them; and how valuable for us has been this service of the Spirit of God, as He has inspired the writings of the four Gospels, and in them brought to the remembrance of the disciples of Jesus the precious words He spoke to them while with them on earth. We can also count on the Holy Spirit bringing to our remembrance the things we have learned of Christ. In dependence on Him we learn of the things He teaches, and when they are needed He will bring them into our minds again.

"He shall testify of Me"

How blessedly the unity of the Godhead shines out in the coming of the Holy Spirit as spoken of by the Lord in John 15:26. The Spirit comes, but He is sent by the Son from the Father to His disciples. Of His own volition the Spirit comes to do what He has deep pleasure in; but even as the Son had come as the Sent One from the Father, so the Spirit delights to come as the Sent One of the Son and the Father.

As being sent from the Father, and as proceeding from with the Father, it surely conveys to our hearts and minds that He is acting for the Father in His interests, and in unity of mind and purpose to give effect to all that lies in the Father's will and counsels. He comes to testify of the Son, to tell of His present place of acceptance and glory in the Father's presence, the answer to all that He sustained on the cross, and the measure of the Father's delight in all that He is and what He has done.

The Spirit and the World

The Lord told the sorrowing disciples in chapter 16 that they would profit from His going away, for the Spirit would not come so long as He was upon earth; but on departing He would send the Comforter to them to care for them in every way. If, for His own, the Spirit would undertake all for them, it would be different for the world, for His presence would bring demonstration "of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:7-11).

Had the world accepted the Son He would still have been in the world, but in rejecting Him the Holy Spirit had come to care for His interests here; but His presence was the evidence of the world's sin in rejecting the Son of God. The world had not believed in the Son of God in spite of all the witnesses that God had given, and this was its crowning sin, of which the presence of the Holy Spirit in and among the believers is the evidence.

Jesus Christ the Righteous had been in the world, but there was no place found for Him in the affairs of men. He was unrighteously refused by the leaders of the religious world, the Stone that was set at naught by Israel's builders. The rulers of the political world also had publicly proclaimed their own unrighteousness in the manner of their sentencing to death One whom they knew and said was innocent. But He has been received on high by the Righteous Father, who sent the Holy Spirit to tell of His thoughts of the righteous One refused by the world. His going to the Father plainly declared that there was no righteousness in the world's system.

The presence of the Spirit down here also demonstrated for all who had eyes to see that the world was under the sentence of divine judgment. Urged on by the god of this world, men had crucified the Son of God; they had chosen Satan as their prince instead of Jesus, and the triumph of Jesus over Satan ensured his judgment, and the judgment of the guilty world that had accepted him as its prince.

The Guide into All Truth

We not only need the teaching of the Holy Spirit, but also His guidance, that we might understand and enter into all the truth. As a teacher, the Holy Spirit expounds and explains the truth, but as a guide the Holy Spirit leads us into it. He takes us into the truth of all that God has revealed, past, present and future; into all connected with God's ways and His counsels, into all relating to the revelation of Himself in Jesus here, and to all that belongs to Jesus in the glory above (John 16:13).

Coming from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit does not speak as being the source of His communications, but tells of what He has heard. The Spirit, in guiding into all the truth takes us back to the Old Testament, and above into the presence of God; but He also came to show to His own "things to come." By the Spirit God has opened out the future to His people, and this is seen in a special way in the Book of the Revelation.

Even as the Son had come to glorify the Father, so the Spirit would glorify the Son, for, said the Lord, "He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Does not this remind us of Abraham's servant speaking of all that belonged to Abraham being given to Isaac, and of his showing the golden and silver jewels in the house of Rebekah? Paul's epistles, in a special way, bring to us by the Spirit of God the glories of the heavenly Christ at the right hand of God (John 16:14-15).