New Thoughts (05/01/12-05/09/12)
This strikes me as a passage that requires particular care in arriving at proper understanding. The same could be said for all of Scripture in one sense. But in this case, the implications of what Jesus says are not immediately obvious, not entirely. Further, there are parts of this piece of the message that, if misunderstood, lead to a potential for great error. Then, there are questions as to how widely applicable some of His points are intended to be. I hope to address each of these issues as I arrive at the proper place for doing so, but as ever, it is entirely possible that I shall find myself unable or redirected before the study completes.
The unifying topic under which I have organized these verses is that of the Holy Spirit’s work in the world. He is sent. He is sent by a purposeful God and as a purposeful God. That He is sent, that He proceeds from the Father, does not make Him somehow less than God any more than the fact of Jesus’ taking on of humanity, and setting aside certain of the prerogatives of the Godhead make Him less than God. We must settle that in our thinking lest we wander into egregious error. The Spirit is wholly God even as the Son is wholly God. That said, His coming is not frivolity. It is not an entertainment for the saints. He is purposeful. He is obedient as Jesus is obedient. This is made quite clear. Yet we should understand that this obedience is not subservience. Father, Son and Spirit are One. The plan and purpose being pursued is that which He, in His persons, devised and determined, and the roles that each play in that plan is according to plan. Just as all three persons of the Trinity are evident in the act of Creation, so they are in the activity of redemption.
What Jesus is relaying here pertains to the division of labor in those separate roles. He has had His part in the work, and continues to do so. The Spirit also has His role in the work, which likewise continues to our day. Now, as Jesus more fully introduces the Apostles to the Spirit, He explains the Spirit’s role. That role, we shall see is twofold. He has a role to play as regards the world at large, and He has a role to play in the development of those chosen out of the world. Both are fulfilled in similar fashion, by reminding us of the Son – what He said, what He did, Who He IS. The impact of those reminders, however, and the particulars of the reminding, are distinctly different.
Before we look at the mission of the Spirit, let us pay respect to the introduction Jesus provides for us. It is to your advantage. Why it is that the Spirit cannot come except the Son depart, is not said, nor am I able to speculate upon that point in any useful fashion. Let us satisfy ourselves with saying it is so because God has determined it shall be so. We have seen previously that the Son makes request for the sending of the Spirit, and that the Spirit ‘proceeds’ or is projected from the Father. Don’t get lost on that, or wander into some erroneous conclusion based on the idea of projection.
We are also informed that He is the Spirit of Truth. This establishes Him as one who cannot lie, for a being Who is Truth can hardly lie can he? It also distinguishes Him from amongst many other spirits to whom we may prove susceptible, and that is a point worth dwelling on. We who have been in the more ‘Spirit-led’ neighborhoods of church life have been inclined to accept most anything with a spiritual flavor as being clearly of the Spirit. We have been horribly negligent, dangerously negligent in considering whether the spirits that inform our practices have been spirits of Truth, the Spirit, or spirits of error masquerading as messengers of Light. This, in spite of the severe warnings of Scripture in that regard! We have been guilty of looking at the church in Corinth as an example of church life at its finest, rather than at its most misled.
Recognizing this reality, though, we are at great risk of over-reacting, of refusing the true working of the Spirit in our fear of being again misled. I have seen myself caught in that very trap in recent months, and found cause to repent of my own error of undue caution. But, the time is right – it is always right! – to consider what our source of Truth, the record of the Scriptures actually has to say on this subject. To that end, this passage is particularly appropriate.
The Holy Spirit is sent for our advantage. Now, this is clearly a message first and foremost delivered to those first Apostles, seated or reclining at table with Jesus, brought low by much of what He is telling them at this graduation ceremony. It is they who will feel the particular pain of separation at His departure. It is they who, as no others, have known this immediate fellowship with the Son of God, and who will therefore most bitterly feel His absence. It is they who will face the sorrow, the horrible nature of His death as a part of their own lives. We can commiserate only after a fashion. Even with the efforts of cinema to convey the full horror of those hours of Jesus’ final day do not allow us to arrive at a truly complete appreciation of what the disciples underwent, never mind what Jesus underwent. We can empathize to a degree, but only to a degree. We have nothing in our experience to which we can truly relate the full magnitude of loss, bewilderment, anger, pain, sorrow, hopelessness and despair in which these eleven men (and those women who were so much a part of the ministry as well) would experience.
Yet, they are told this is to their advantage. Better this, then that Jesus should stay. It’s going to be awhile before they can really understand and accept the truth of that statement. Indeed, I suspect it did not really strike them as true until after that Pentecost outpouring. Even then, it probably took a bit longer for some. But, this is the thing: Jesus says that as He takes up His throne, returns to the full duties of King of kings, only then shall He be in position to send the Spirit on His great assignment, an assignment that is to persist so long as life in this world persists, or nearly so.
I am mindful of the warning of Scripture that there will come a time when His presence is no more upon the earth to restrain the evil of that dark prince who still wields some power here. The Spirit will be removed, the restraints loosed, and the full effort of that usurper allowed to come. This, in order that the full weight of his sins may be brought to the light and the judgment which Jesus says has already been proclaimed can be meted out in full. But, now I am clearly getting ahead of myself.
Let me say this, though. It is very difficult to see that time which must come about, and still suppose that it applies that, “it is to your advantage.” Certainly, it is advantageous that the Spirit is come, that He abides, that He is present to do those things which He has been sent to do. There can be no question of that, and I would hope that this particular advantageousness continues to apply to all who believe down through the ages. But, that period in which He is withdrawn, when whatever believers may yet remain must walk without His presence? I pray there are none who must come to faith in so terrible a situation. On the other hand, I would pray that those who find themselves in that situation might yet come to faith and find eternity with God rather than eternity without Him.
The Spirit and the World (05/02/12-05/07/12)
It is intriguing that Jesus, having stated so clearly that the coming of the Spirit was to the advantage of His apostles, turns immediately to the impact of the Spirit’s coming on the world at large. This ought not to be seen as an interjection of some vaguely related point. Rather, those things the Spirit does as concerns the world ought to be considered for how they are an advantage to the believer, or to the Apostles. I throw that last qualifier in because there is an underlying necessity for us to determine just what scope this passage has. Is it strictly for those eleven to whom it was first spoken? Is it intended for the general population of believers? Or is it for a somewhat wider, but not wholly inclusive audience? There may be an ancillary question as to whether the nature of the intended audience changes at some point during the discussion.
Let me start there, then. Who is this intended for? Who it was spoken to seems a pretty easy question to answer. We are still at the Last Supper. The twelve, less Judas, are at table. Jesus has been speaking, throughout these last few chapters, as one addressing the graduating class. So, those to whom these words are delivered directly are very few in number. However, this need not restrict the intention to those original hearers. Indeed, if I consider the subject, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and I consider the record we have of His arrival, it would seem to indicate that the intended audience is at least as large as the record of His reception. What do I mean by that? The arrival of the Spirit amongst the first group of believers was a magnificent event. I should note right away that this first arrival was not restricted to the eleven remaining Apostles. There were, by the report of Scripture, 120 people gathered in that upper room (Ac 1:15) when Matthew was chosen to fill the role of 12th apostle. Introducing the day of Pentecost, Luke simply records that ‘they were all together in one place’ (Ac 2:1). Whether that ‘they’ means the twelve or the 120, it would be hard to say based on that statement. But, this is only the first appearance.
We know well that the visible and audible effects of the Spirit’s vigorous presence amongst believers was a mark of valid conversion during this early period. By some lights, the purpose of such displays was to give evidence to the Apostles that God’s work was spreading farther than they might otherwise allow. I.e. they would need some sort of sign to accept that a Samaritan could be a true believer, let alone a Gentile! Yet, the signs continued long after those points were made. Indeed, judging by Paul’s writings to the church in Corinth, those manifestations commonly referred to as gifts of the Spirit were still highly active even at that late stage of development. There was assuredly no longer any need to convince the Apostles of the global scope of Christ’s kingdom by that point.
All of this is to say that as the scope of the Spirit’s outpouring and manifestation clearly exceeded the Apostles and, by what appearances we have, would appear to have been a nearly universal aspect of the early faith community, this description of the Spirit’s mission or ministry ought likewise to be assumed as a universal message. It is not just for the twelve, or for some elite cadre gathered around them. It is not solely for the Jewish church, nor even for the Semite church. There remains room for debate as to whether those gifts endure into our own time. For my own part, experienced demands that I accept their continuation. Experience also demands that I acknowledge that not all, perhaps not even the majority, of what passes itself off as the Spirit’s outworking today is so in truth. The Truth remains the test.
What is needful for that community which so pursues the gifts of the Spirit is to learn carefully from the example of the church in Corinth, lest the pursuit of the gifts become idolatry, and this great good from God be turned to another base camp from whence our enemy sallies forth with sinful temptations.
Let me now set a boundary on the other end of the scale. What is said of the Spirit here is clearly not indication that He is sent to indwell one and all indiscriminately. He is not, to be sure, sent to abide with the reprobate, with those who reject the grace of God and refuse the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice. Thus, as we consider this work of the Spirit in the world at large, we must not suppose this requires that He abides in everyone. There are those who would insist on such a view, but they who do are promoting heresy, not Truth.
With all that as a rather longwinded introduction, let me turn to verse 8. Here, we have a word which is particularly challenging to translate appropriately to the context. That this is so can be seen from the numerous variations that appear in the translations extent. In the NASB, it is rendered as ‘convict’. In the BBE, which I was reading this morning, it is given as ‘make conscious’. The NET offers that the effect is to ‘prove wrong’, and the Message provides the idea of exposing the error of the world’s views. The actual term in view is elengxei. At base, so far as I receive the various definitions provided, the term indicates a certain correction or conviction, a proving of the error of one’s ways. Yet, it does so in such fashion as my leave the corrected one unconvinced and unrepentant. It is not a court verdict. It is not ‘the judgment’. That comes as part of it, as the final outcome, but it is not the immediate point. How, after all, does it make sense that the Spirit comes to judge the world about being judged? It just doesn’t work.
It would seem that the idea of exposing the error in their own perspectives provides the best application in context. The Spirit comes to expose just how wrong the world is in how it defines sin, what it perceives as righteousness, and its judgment in general between right and wrong, good and evil. This, the Spirit does without indwelling those who are thus exposed. As I have pointed out, He does not indwell the reprobate. It is already sufficiently overwhelming to recognize that God Who cannot abide even the near presence of evil is able to indwell His chosen ones in spite of their being works in progress. To suppose He would do so with those in whom no work is in progress nor ever shall be is simply not possible.
So, then, this exposing of error comes from outside those who are thus corrected. And how is that to be, if not through the presence and example of those who are indwelt by He Who exposes? It is the light of Christ, borne in us by the Spirit that shines out from us and exposes the issues yet shrouded in darkness. This is the thing that will, as the NET said, prove the world wrong. We stand as the evidence. We believe in Christ. This does not render us instantaneously sinless, nor are we to suppose that it is our spotless example that will expose the spots on our reprobate neighbors. Not at all! We will be spotless. But, this will come about because of Christ and His work, not because we’re so committed. It is not our example that convicts. If anything, it tends to convict us, doesn’t it?
But, at the closing curtain, when those who believed are presented before Christ, the work finally complete, every vestige and trace of sin finally washed away, that will certainly furnish proof to those about whom this cannot be said. Is that the application here? Ought we to assign these works of the Spirit in the world to that final judgment? It is not unthinkable. Yet, there is something more immediate to the evidence by which the Spirit convicts and corrects.
Look at verse 9. On this matter of how the world measures righteousness, what is said? “You no longer behold Me. I go to the Father, and that is the conviction all by itself.” Isn’t that interesting? It’s not even because they don’t see Him (for all that it’s served them, they never saw Him to begin with. They just saw a man of no repute.) But, we understand why the Apostles will no longer behold Him, observe Him, watch and learn from Him. He’s going home. He’s been accepted by the Father. The work He was sent to do, He completed, and He completed to the complete satisfaction of He Who sent Him. The sacrifice is pleasing in God’s sight, and His righteousness is proclaimed not only by His resurrection, but even more so by His Ascension.
Go back to that point of God not tolerating the least whiff of sin in His presence. That One, that pinnacle of Purity, accepted Christ back into His presence forever, and not only welcomed Him back, but set Him upon the very throne of heaven to reign and to rule over His perfectly pure provinces for all eternity! That is indeed a testimony to righteousness. That is indeed a declaration that here is the One Who is Righteous and True. And, this testimony transpired in the midst of world history. It was a real event played out in real time before real people. Flesh and blood stood witness to that ascension of the Christ. Real fingers felt the real wounds in His real body. Real eyes looked in upon that empty grave in wonder. Real guards experienced the overwhelming presence of God as the stone was rolled away. For all the lies that were spread then, and all the foolish theories propounded since, the witness to the reality of His return and His departure are simply too numerous to discount. The proof is there. The error of the world’s sense of righteousness is made very clear, unarguably clear. Whether the world accepts the rebuke has no real bearing on the accuracy of the rebuke.
Jesus expands upon the three rebukes the Spirit applies to an unbelieving world. Yet, in expanding on those points, He may well leave us a bit confused. What does it mean? He will convict them of sin because they don’t believe in Him? That’s the definition of sin? Well, yes, after a fashion, I suppose it is. What is not of faith is sin (Ro 14:23), and what is faith, but believing? And, what belief matters except that in the Truth, and He, the Christ, is Truth. Yet, it might do us well to understand things differently as concerns this verse. There is another point of Truth of which we are quite certain, which is that all men are sinners (Ro 3:23). This, after all, was at least a part of the reason why no man could be involved in the procreation of Jesus. Sin is in the very seed of man. Yet, it is not every man that will be convicted of sin. It is the world. Now, I must note once again that the conviction we are discussing in this verse is not that of verdict, of justice served. It is the argument which might in the course of time lead to such justice, but it is not the justice itself. That comes in verse 11. All the same, it is the world that is reproved, shown wrong in its estimation of sin, and this comes about primarily in their failure to believe the Christ God provides.
Is this the unforgivable sin? I believe I came across something suggesting it might be, and it’s certainly easy to see how it could be. If one’s capstone sin is refusing to believe in the Christ, through Whom alone salvation may be obtained, how, then, shall that one be saved? If you reject the singular offer of forgiveness, how shall you be forgiven? It would seem a logical impossibility on the face of it.
The primary point, though, seems to be that their rejection of Jesus demonstrates their failure to truly comprehend their own sin. And, here, I suspect, is where we arrive at the most serious point. It is a problem so severe that it continues to plague even those of us who have come to faith. Perhaps, this mission of the Spirit is more universal than I at first suppose! You see, if we have an honest assessment of our sinful estate, and if we have a clear perception of what must come of such an extensive criminal record when we come before the throne of God, it cannot but drive us to our knees in despair. This is the problem. It doesn’t! We allow ourselves to become convinced that we can wrestle our sins down. We can cope. We could let go of them any time we wanted to. This attitude, though it often convinces us to do nothing, only proves the situation is worse than we let on. For it requires that the only reason we continue is because we want to. We continue to revolt against God because it is our preference. We continue to do those things we know offend Him, cause His nose to wrinkle in disgust whenever we are present, because even apprised of the facts, we prefer to continue on, and could not possibly care less what God thinks about it.
That’s one aspect of the problem. The other, as we see with the Pharisees throughout the Gospels, is that we become convinced that we can correct for our sins. Eventually, we convince ourselves that we are actually quite sinless. Why, just look at what we do for God! See how careful we are of those rules that we choose to define sinlessness by. Ahem. We shan’t look at those others, but they’re optional, don’t you know. We have watered down the Law, but now that it’s thinned out a bit, just look how well we’re doing with the observing of it. Of course God is pleased with us!
And to all such mindsets, Jesus comes. He comes and reminds us of the whole Truth of the whole Law of God. He reminds us of the absolute impossibility of our compliance with that Law in its totality. He reminds us that inasmuch as we have already failed, even once, even though it be the least serious of offenses, we have already brought upon ourselves the full penalty of that Law. Indeed, that Law admits of only one penalty, and all the obedience we can muster from this day forth will not change the fact of the earlier fault. We must needs avail ourselves of another way, and the only other way that God has allowed is the Way which is the Son. In Him we live because by any other avenue we are already dead. We may walk. We may continue to breathe for our fourscore and ten. But, we are already dead, and can in no wise change that fact. They do not believe in Christ, and this shows clearly just how wrong they are about their own sin, and the impact of that sin.
Next, He turns to righteousness. Again, as Jesus is looking at the world as over against believers, we should understand that He is particularly concerning Himself with how the world defines righteousness. This gets back to those same works by which men think to justify themselves. We think of the fairly standard eulogy – he was a good man. Well, no. He wasn’t. He may have done some good in his life. He may have done rather a lot of good in his life. He may have been the greatest philanthropist and humanist in history. He may have been kind to his parents, and to the elderly in general, built orphanages and organized soup kitchens, built shelters for the poor and given them opportunities for employment to bring their poverty to an end. He may have invented cures for manifold illnesses that plague mankind. He may have done all of these things, but he is not a good man. There is none good. No, not one!
Righteousness, much to our chagrin, is not determined by man or even the cumulative assessment of mankind. We are ill equipped for such measurements because the only standard we have for measuring is our own condition, and that condition is so fundamentally flawed as to render it worthless as a measure. The sole measure of righteousness is God. That is the underlying basis of what it means to be righteous. To be righteous is to be found living in perfect (and I will stress perfect) accord with God’s requirements. He is the Law. We are to be the Law-abiding citizens. We can’t even manage that in simple matters of civil law.
Find me a citizen in the state of Massachusetts who has any regard for speed limits unless they are fully certain that they are being monitored at this precise moment. Find me one who has not, at some point in time, knowingly slid through a stop sign. After all, it was perfectly obvious that no other cars were crossing the path. And, even if they were, any fool could see that there was plenty of room to merge. It’s not my fault the city was too foolish to put up a merge sign instead of a stop sign. It’s not my fault they didn’t build a proper ramp here, but chose to butt end the roads together. Besides, they don’t really care about public safety anyway. They just use this to fill the coffers when funds are running low. I mean, they know everybody runs this one and most of the year, they cheerfully ignore the fact. It’s just that revenues have been down this month. So, why should I obey? There’s no sin in following the crowd. Why, yes! There’s my perfect defense, right? I was just going with the flow of traffic. That’s a safety concern, certainly!
And, we carry this exact same disregard for the rules into the kingdom with us. Don’t you go thinking that only unbelievers have this problem. No, no. To borrow from the old Uriah Heep album title (which I’m sure they borrowed from elsewhere, anyway), look at yourself! I recall the cover of that particular album well, that it was effectively a framed mirror, albeit a very poor mirror. Enough to recognize that there was a reflection, but quite distorted. But, isn’t this exactly what we are told Scripture is to us? It is a mirror, that we might see our real condition, that we might recognize our own filthy condition and find in that reflection the incentive to wash. All our righteousness, Scripture tells us, is as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). And yes, we could take that in the vernacular. We are that disgusting.
Return to the point of a holy God, a being so Pure that He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. And He is hereby proclaiming in graphic terms that we are so intensely unclean as to be beyond hope of purifying. We are not even fit to be flushed! We need to be taken out and burned to ash. It is the only way to remove the offense. And over against this we have what? “I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me.” He was accepted. He was brought up into heaven, welcomed with open arms. More than this, He was immediately installed as heaven’s rightful King! Interesting that this very morning, Table Talk took up consideration of His Ascension. Yes! This was the proof given of His acceptance, of His having been chosen. It was the proof positive that the sacrifice He made, the Righteous One for the unrighteous many, had been accepted by that same perfectly holy God. In spite of spending thirty some years in the flesh, walking the earth as any man before had walked it, He had done the impossible: He had come through it all sinless. He had remained clean. He came to the end in perfect righteousness. And yet, He was put to death, judged as though the most vile of criminals. He suffered the severing of fellowship with God – with Himself – on our behalf, He who by no means deserved it.
And the world thinks it understands righteousness? But, no! The world was handed proof of Who was truly righteous as human eyes witnessed His ascent. The world will once again have that proof thrust into sight when He returns. And, on that occasion, there shall be no hope of suppressing the facts. He will be seen by all, not just by hundreds. Coast to coast, continent to isle, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, there shall be no place found in all of creation where His return is not plain to see. Hide yourself ever so deep in the earth, and yet you will not miss it. Cast yourself ever so far into space, and yet when He comes, you will know it. All will stand witness to that event. Every knee shall bow. His majesty shall be undeniable. It may be unwelcome, but it won’t be unknown.
With that, we arrive at judgment. It should be observed that these three aspects of the Spirit’s mission are distinctly connected. Sin is only definable because of righteousness. As darkness is the absence of light, so sin is the absence of righteousness, although the analogy is necessarily imperfect. Judgment also requires the presence of righteousness. If there is no foundation of righteousness, there is no basis upon which to judge. If there is no righteousness, there can be no sin, no failure of righteousness, and therefore there is no cause for any, not even God, to seek or render judgment. Who can do wrong if right is undefined? Who can punish wrong if wrong is undefined?
But, the Spirit comes, has come, remains present. He continues in this three-fold purpose as concerns the world. Righteousness, I would note, takes the central position in what Jesus says, although it arguably comes first. So, the Spirit points out, particularly to those who count themselves righteous (apparently having some conception of sin, whether correct or not), that their measure is off, and the real measure has found them wanting. How does He do this? He points to the risen Christ, restored to heaven and exalted to the throne. There, He says, is the One God counts righteous. Can you, who think yourself righteous, follow?
He thereby points out the folly, the sinful folly, of their rejecting that One Whom God accepted and even acclaimed. The false righteousness being set aside, the real sinfulness lies exposed. And again, though I’ve now detoured for a paragraph or two, we arrive at judgment. Here, it is perhaps more difficult to see how the indicated means are put to work. He will show them the erroneous nature of their concepts of judgment by showing that the ruler of the world has himself been judged. How does that work? How many amongst the darkened multitudes even accept that there is a ruler of the world? And, if they fail to even possess that much understanding, who among them will believe he has been judged? Particularly as he still appears to maintain his power.
This is indeed difficult to come to grips with. A thought comes to me that this might actually refer to the True Ruler of this world and not that evil usurper who plagues the earth at this stage. It’s not impossible that this is His idea. However, I would have to note that the term He uses for judgment typically bears a negative connotation. It is usually a judgment arriving at condemnation and punishment. Yet, even this could be found fitting as applied to the work of the Cross. The True ruler of this world (and of every world that is) was put to trial on the cross. He was condemned. But, not for His own sins, rather for ours. And, again, there was the Ascension that lay on the other side of punishment. He was condemned, but He was also accepted. The judgment of the Court was not against Him, but rather upon us. He took the punishment that was our due, not so as to minimize our crimes against heaven, but in the recognition that there was no other way to save us. And, God Who judged accepted His work on our behalf. He is Risen, yes! And that is a marvel. But, He is more than Risen. He is Ascended!
Am I really so far off to see things in this fashion? Perhaps not. But, let me explore the other side of that picture. If the idea is that He will prove the world wrong in its conception of justice by proving that the ruler of this world has been judged, how is it that He does this? How do you prove the man judged who appears on the street, having escaped judgment so far as any could tell? What is it about the devil’s present situation that would lead anybody other than himself (and those who know what really happened there on the Cross) to believe that he is suffering judgment, being punished? By appearances, he has a free hand in what he decides to do. In truth, his hand has never been entirely free. But, we see nothing in the world around us that would suggest he has been limited in any way. The darkness seems to be getting darker. Even those who dwell in it occasionally take note of that fact.
Okay, let me take note of this. The Spirit has a mission in the world at large. Yet, He is clearly not given to the world at large. He does not indwell every man indiscriminately. Neither, we can suppose, does He speak to one and all. He speaks to the sons of God. Even they can have issues with listening to Him, with accepting that He actually speaks and they can actually hear. The world? Any who claimed to hear Him would immediately be marked off as insane, hearing voices, clearly in need of medication and other help.
If, then, the avenue of direct communication is apparently removed from consideration, what remains? What remains is that His mission to the world is accomplished through intermediaries, which is to say, through those who have received the gift of faith. In other words, His mission to the world is a product of His mission to the believers, or to the Apostles, depending how we seek to restrict the application here. I am inclined towards expanding it to all believers.
So, then, it is not that the Spirit somehow makes every man to observe their unbelief. It’s not as if they are unaware of it. Indeed, these days, it seems the unbeliever is particularly proud of his unbelief. What they remain unaware of, though, are the consequences of unbelief. They don’t believe, and therefore, it becomes impossible for them to believe their unbelief is a sin. They don’t even believe in sin! How can they? If there’s no god to offend, how can they offend against god? But, the Spirit doesn’t suddenly come into the midst of the local atheists’ convention and shout to them of their sins, listing them one by one for all to hear. Neither does He seek to somehow provide them with proof positive that this Jesus they deny truly did ascend in the clouds. They’ve had sufficient witnesses to the event that they ought to accept it. But, like the people of Jesus’ own day, even were Abraham or some other to return from the dead to proclaim Truth to them, they still wouldn’t believe it. And, since they neither believe there is a usurper on the throne of the world (not accepting the reality of such a throne to begin with), it would be quite a challenge to address them on the topic of that usurper being under judgment as he continues in that throne.
No, the Spirit addresses the world through us, through the children of God, through the servants of the Most High. The only other way to understand this, it seems to me, is to assign it all to the final day, to the great judgment at the end of the age. But, this does not fit the setting. He comes as Jesus goes. He comes to abide and remain, lo even to the end of the age. He doesn’t sit on the sidelines waiting for that end and then stop by. He is with the Apostles throughout their lives. He is with more than the Apostles. He is clearly, manifestly with those to whom the Gospel has come, be they Jew or Samaritan or Gentile. And so it continues even to our own day. He is with us. And, if it be that our words and our efforts have any effect upon the lost, it is because He has been in those words and efforts. It is because He is working through us. It is certainly nothing in ourselves.
One last point I would make regarding this issue of judgment is that the term used here was also a term applied to the Jewish courts. Now, depending which lexical reference you choose to follow, that might be construed as being the Sanhedrin, or a more regional court operating apart from the Sanhedrin. However, even in the latter case, one would expect a certain connection to that higher court to remain. This was the court of Israel, of God’s people. It was first and foremost a religious court. Yes, it dealt with civil matters, but the entirety of Israel’s civil code was predicated upon the religious code, upon the Law of Moses. It was God’s righteousness applied to life. Or, it was supposed to be. As with all things human, it had devolved. It had been cheapened, modified and manipulated. But, as to judgment, the ruler of this world has been judged! It is he who caused that cheapening. It is he who brings corruption on all the ways of man. Not that we aren’t willing participants in the process, but the whole mess has its source in his lies.
And, he has been judged. The judge who now sits in the courts of man is himself judged and found wanting. He stands condemned by the True Judge. The very courts to which man turns for justice are shown to be utterly corrupt and contemptible. These are the very courts who judged the Son of God to be unrighteous and worthy of death! These are the very courts that punished the innocent while allowing the guilty to run roughshod over their fellow countrymen. These are the very courts who are in themselves cause for the judgment of God against the nations. They know and yet they suppress knowledge. They, above all others on the earth, ought to uphold the righteousness that was explained and entrusted to them. But, instead, there is this. Instead, there is the oppression of righteousness and the promotion of evil.
Well! There I am back at Amos again. There I am back in the present. If it held for the religious courts of that time, it assuredly holds for the church in our own time. Does the church still uphold righteousness? Does it even understand righteousness? Clearly, in many cases, perhaps even the majority, it does not. Much of the church has followed the same path of descent the Pharisees and Sadducees did. They have become nothing more than empty ritual. There is a reason we have seen the crimes of the clergy exposed, and it’s not solely because of an anti-Christian mindset in the population at large. No! Look beyond the worldly motive! Look to what God is doing. God proclaims that He will not be mocked (Gal 6:7). Men will reap what they sow, even if they wear the alb. What is done in secret will be exposed, particularly what is done under the cover of Christian religion.
Rest assured that those who are preaching tolerance for sin, and even promoting sin, from the pulpit will likewise stand exposed by God in the end. Wherever the activities of the purported clergy are such as cause the unbelievers to blaspheme, rather than bringing conviction and the possibility of real repentance, know that God is coming. He is coming not to praise the way He has been made accessible to the masses, or the way He has been made more human. He is coming with the rod of correction in His hand, to visit Truth upon the heads of those who would promote the lie under His name. He is coming to uphold His own good name, for He will share His glory with no other, least of all the devil and his false prophets.
There will be a correction coming. Rest assured of that, you who continue to cling to the Truth of God. Rest assured of that, you who labor against the tide of popular influence to uphold the ancient way. You shall indeed have your reward, as will they who oppose you. To the one, Life eternal. To the other? A condemnation equally eternal.
All of this harks back to what Jesus had said a bit earlier. “If I hadn’t come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now every excuse for sin is removed. He who hates Me hates My Father as well. If I hadn’t done such works as no other has ever done, they would not have sin. But I did, and they have seen it. Yet, they hated Me and My Father, too” (Jn 15:22-24). Jesus, by His presence on earth, made their sin perfectly clear. They could not react to Him except they expose their own hatred. The Spirit, coming as He does to witness to Jesus, has the same impact. He is not typically visible even by the evidence of those particularly spectacular gifts associated with Him. Those are exceptional, whether we view them as continuing or not. They are not the moment by moment experience of even the strongest believer. They are certainly not the moment by moment experience that an unbelieving world has of God’s people in the world.
Yet, it is exactly there that the Spirit is manifested to the unbelieving world: in God’s people. It is as we give evidence not of the gifts of the Spirit, but rather of the fruits of the Spirit, that the world will learn just how far off their views on sin and righteousness truly are. I can turn again to that command Jesus gave His followers: Love each other. He’s not calling for affection or for a mutual admiration society to be formed. He’s talking about that real love that exceeds even the love of parent for child. It’s that sort of love that sees to the needs of the other, that is willing to speak the hard word when necessary, that holds the loved one accountable and encourages the loved one’s growth. And it is consistent. It is unconditional. It is merciful beyond any scale the world can fathom. And, it is evident. It is not a display, but it is on display. It can’t help but be seen because it’s the very fabric of who we are. Behold! How good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity (Ps 133:1)! It is the rarest of sights, yet all who see it are pleased by its presence – even if they feel that inward conviction because they are not like that themselves.
Thus the Spirit works upon the world as He works within us. It is a kindness, after its fashion. For, having shown the world how far off it is, He has given the world opportunity for a course correction. He sets us as examples, not of perfect righteousness (for there is only the One Who is Righteous!), but as those in whom righteousness is growing. More than anything, He sets us as examples of repentance, of hearts that may not always do the right thing, but want to have done so, of minds that may not always think aright, but are swift to seek correction when the thinking has gone wrong. We are set as an example not of what godly men can be, but of what God can do in the ungodly man.
Having spoken of this, Jesus demonstrates His own mercy, in what He says next. “I have much more to say, but you can’t bear it right now” (verse 12). This is not to be heard like that line from ‘A Few Good Men’. Jesus is not shouting at them that, they can’t handle the truth. What He is saying is that they are nearly on overload given all that He has already been saying, particularly in the course of this last lesson. You can’t sustain it. It’s too much for you just yet. When it comes to understanding God and heaven, Jesus is like the trainer down at the gym. You may be all gung-ho to try bench pressing some ridiculous weight, but he knows better. You’ve made progress, but not enough for that. It’s more than you can lift, more than you can sustain. You would do yourself great harm in trying. Just so, Jesus is careful not to provide us with so much information that we choke on it. He does not reveal so much of our situation nor of our mission that we are overwhelmed and refuse to move.
I am ever mindful of that artist’s trick my grandmother taught me in my youth, using a grid to break down the picture because the whole picture is too hard to draw, has too many details and is simply way beyond our ability to capture well. But, one quadrant of the picture? Or perhaps a quadrant of that quadrant? Eventually, we are able to reduce the task to a matter small enough to handle. With that piece done, we move to the next, and then the next, and eventually the whole picture is truly and properly captured. Yet, had we attempted to capture the whole picture as the whole picture, we should never have got there.
God knows us. He is more aware of our limits than we are, certainly His assessment of us is far more accurate than our own. How often have I said that I can’t take any more only to discover, thanks to my God’s training, that yes, yes I can actually take more. I’m stronger than I think, and able to handle more than I would, perhaps, prefer to. We don’t any of us want the training that comes of sorrow and suffering, yet it does indeed train us and strengthen us. By His training, we are empowered to lift more, sustain more, endure more. By His training, we are prepared to hear the next lesson He has to impart.
It is like this for the unfolding of our lives, our future. God does not typically reveal the whole scope of what’s ahead. He may not reveal much of it at all beyond the very next step to take. Sometimes, even that may be left a bit murky, as He trains us to think for ourselves and yet think rightly. Here is a bit of a mystery for us. We are a people wholly dependent upon our God for all things. Yet, at the same time we are being fashioned and matured into His image. As such, even as we rely on Him entirely for all that we do, we are to be arriving at a degree of independence. We ought to be thinking as He thinks, deciding as He decides, choosing as He chooses, if indeed we are becoming more like Him. We really ought not to need to spend long, agonizing hours of prayer over every decision if we are truly maturing. Much of what needs to be determined ought to be coming to us as second nature. That is not to say that we are truly independent of Him. After all, it is by His working in us that we are even able to attain to this point of thinking like Him. It is only by His willing in us that we are empowered to choose the right thing, having recognized it. But, there remains that matter of maturity.
May I just say that when Joshua faced the nation of Israel and said, “choose you this day,” he did not append, “pray about it.” He did not advise the people to go to their tents, pray together, see if they could get a sense of the Lord’s leading on this matter. No! He said, “Choose!” In essence, he said, “Choose right now.” The time for deliberations are long past and the time for certainty is come. You know what you should do, now do it. Pure and simple. Stop playing this game of poor, helpless child. You are neither poor nor helpless. For, the Lord is with you. He lifts what you cannot. He bears and sustains what you cannot. He endures and therefore you will endure. Though this flesh be destroyed, yet with my eyes, my eyes, I will see God (Job 19:26-27).
Meanwhile, He remains mindful of our limits. There is more, so much more, but you’re not ready for it yet. He is so gentle, this God of ours, at least towards His own. Towards the rest? Severity. But, towards us, mercy beyond measure. He will not allow us to be overwhelmed by what He has for us. He knows what we can take, and He will give us what we can take. If it is more than we suppose we can, so be it. But, it will never exceed our true capacity. It is so with the burdens of life. It is so, also, with the knowledge of heaven. Were He simply to burst into our heads with all that is True, we might well be as some supposed Paul to have been, made mad by knowledge too great for us. But, no. He gives what we can take, and allows that to take hold, to grow to understanding. Then, He will impart the next bit.
It is by and large for this reason that the Spirit is come. That, of course, segues me into the other half of the Holy Spirit job description: His purpose in the believer. So, let me turn to that on the morrow.
[05/07/12] OK. Not so fast! As it happens, I was reading the Living Bible this morning, and I find something in their rendering of verse 8 that deserves a few moments of thought. “When he has come he will convince the world of its sin, and of the availability of God's goodness, and of deliverance from judgment.” Now, that’s an interesting perspective. I’m not totally convinced it’s compatible with the sense of the Greek, but it’s interesting. He comes not to convict and condemn, but to convince and correct, to make possible a different future. Well, there’s certainly truth to the statement conceptually. But, I had not, for example, considered the idea that by judging the prince of this world, He has made it possible for us not to be judged. I just don’t tend to view those two points as connected.
The explanation for righteousness almost fits, the idea that righteousness is available because He goes to the Father. I could be picky and note that it is more the case that the Father accepted Him back which proves He is accepted as righteous. But, I suppose that if we roll in the crucifixion and resurrection which precede that going into the fact of going, one might arrive at such an understanding. The crux of the problem remains, though. If the world’s sin is unbelief, then the rest of it cannot matter. Until the issue of unbelief is dealt with, the availability of righteousness is for naught, and the possibility of escaping judgment may as well not exist. Unless and until the worldly man is truly convinced of his sin of unbelief, and empowered to truly repent thereof, nothing else matters. Once that sin has been handled, and the act of repentance made an established faith, then the availability of righteousness and deliverance from judgment are wonderful indeed. But, I highly doubt that any man ever arrived at faith in Christ because he had first learned of these benefits that accrue to the believer. What? I get out of jail free? Well, then, I’ll believe! I can be counted righteous by a god to whom I don’t lend any credence? Hey! Of course, I’m with you then. It just doesn’t work that way. Faith in Christ must come first if it is to come at all.
The Spirit and the Believer (05/07/12-05/09/12)
Turning to the work of the Spirit with the believer, I must return to the question of application. Do these words in verses 13 through 15 apply to all, or strictly to those eleven apostles then seated with Him? One wants very much for it to be universal, at least I do. I like the idea of the Spirit Who indwells me guiding me and informing me of what He hears, what is to come. Honestly, what’s the value of being indwelt by God if He won’t let us in on things? OK. The benefits are infinite, quite apart from that bit of window dressing. But, honestly, would you rather a God who dwells within you but remains aloof, unwilling to speak with so lowly a being? Or would you rather a God who seeks relationship with you, who not only listens to your prayers but also answers? More properly, I ought to ask which God is described in Scripture, for His being is hardly a matter of what we would prefer.
Clearly, God does not reveal His plans and purposes to all indiscriminately. On the other hand, it is clear that He does disclose sufficient of His nature in just such a universal fashion. This lies behind the universal guilt that Paul lays out in Romans. Ignorance is no excuse for the simple reason that there is no excuse for the ignorance. It is a deliberate ignorance, a willful suppression of the obvious truth.
So, here we have what has clearly been a very private lesson. The private nature of it can be seen once again in verse 16. In a while, you won’t see Me anymore. But then, a short while later, you will. That is clearly not a universal, down through the ages message. I have never seen Him, let alone ceased to do so only to be reunited later. That’s not the way of things with us. So, clearly that passage applies solely to those gathered with Him, right? Or at least, it is limited to they who were alive at the time, and happened to dwell in Israel. Even within that subset of humanity, there were doubtless many who had not seen Jesus in spite of His notoriety.
But, I am more interested in these things spoken of the Holy Spirit. Here, it is one of two very critical questions for us to answer. This particular task of the Spirit involving the impartation of the whole of Truth and the disclosure of what’s ahead: Is that a perpetual office, at least for the duration of this present world? Or, is it a one time mission to the Apostles? Is there anything other than tradition which would limit this to the Apostolic application? I’m not certain there is.
Of course, if we are dealing with this question, we are also dealing with questions of canonicity, of the bounds of revelation, of the completeness and authoritativeness of Scripture. If the Holy Spirit is perpetually adding more Truth to our understanding, how can we deem the canon of Scripture closed? And, how can we reject all these more modern claims of revelatory knowledge? It becomes more difficult than we might initially suppose to settle upon an answer, for the implications and dependencies are numerous!
If revelation has not ceased, then we must take all claimants to such revelatory knowledge more seriously. It need not be the case that we blindly accept all claims. But, it certainly requires that we not blindly reject them without a hearing. This is part of the standard Reformed issue with the charismata. If the charismata reflect a continuing, direct injection of the Holy Spirit into the conversation, then is that not revelatory? And, if that is revelatory, where then is the authority of Scripture? If the canon is not closed, how are we to discern what is True and what is vanity and wind? These are, to be certain, very valid concerns.
Now, let me attempt to look at those concerns in the reverse. If the text of the New Testament is the result of this ministry which we see assigned to the Holy Spirit, of leading these men into all Truth and revealing what is to come, is that the sole effect of it? Were these men aware, as they wrote, that they were writing under inspiration? Were they aware that they were in the process of penning the final chapters of God’s Scriptures? Honestly, I rather doubt that John, recording the things he saw out there on Patmos, thought of himself as writing the final book of the Bible. When he wrote about not adding or subtracting from the prophecy, it seems to me inconceivable that he had the entirety of everybody else’s writings in view. Was John really thinking about Paul at all in that moment? Or of Peter? I rather doubt it. I think John was contemplating that which he was writing at the time. I would doubt he even thought to include his own gospel or his letters in that admonition.
There is no doubt at all within me that Scripture is indeed God breathed, that these men, knowingly or not, wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But, is that the sole criterion for being accounted Scripture? To ask it differently, does the inspiration or influence of the Holy Spirit necessitate that the result is Scripture? I think not. We have plenty of evidence for His speaking through men, both before and subsequent to the advent of Jesus, through men and women whose words are not preserved as books of the Bible, only given the briefest notice at all. I have no doubt that there are many others to whom and through whom He spoke whose messages are not preserved to us at all. This would not render His words any less true on those occasions. They were, perhaps, more local in application, more specific to the lives of a very few individuals, and therefore not matters to be set in the Word of God. Perhaps there was no lesson for us in what was revealed on those occasions, nothing so universal as to require preserving.
There is also the aspect that the Apostles, if they are to become authors of the New Covenant, if they are even to become willing to consider that their words might be on par with Torah, must needs have evidence to that effect. Honestly, put yourself in their place! Would you be willing to submit that some opinion you held bore the full weight of God’s authority behind it? Would you want a letter you wrote to some missionary somewhere preserved for all ages? Would you wish the responsibility of being held as an authoritative spokesman on God’s behalf not only to those in your immediate locale and time, but forever? I, for one, would want some backup. I would want something from God that made clear to me that what I was claiming was His Truth and not my imagination. And, I expect that anybody who knew me would need even stronger proof that I should be taken so seriously as all that.
These verses would certainly come in handy for establishing such authorization. On the other hand, the only record we have for these words comes from one of those who requires such authorization. Hardly what one would consider convincing proof! Yes, you say He authorized you to write whatever this disembodied Spirit happens to put into your head. Sure, John. I’m afraid we’re going to need a little more than that to convince us. Even Paul would have to provide better. And, coming with that vision from Patmos? John, really! You are going to need more than your own word to get buy in on that bit. We can’t even understand it. It’s not even clear to us that the whole thing connects in any way. Yet, you want to call it a revelation given you by the Spirit of God…
My point is simply that if this is the authorization note from Jesus, it’s not one that is designed to convince more than the eleven. Even they would be hard pressed, I think, to recognize it as anything of the kind. What seems more reasonable is to see this as a further explanation of Who the Holy Spirit is and what He is about.
Before I turn to that, though, I mentioned one other question that would prove critical to understanding how to take this portion of Scripture. This is a question I don’t see any signs of others noticing, which is a bit disconcerting to me. And, it may simply be my lack of training in matters of Greek style and syntax that raises the question at all. However, when I come to verse 13, and the statement that the Spirit will disclose ‘what is to come’, I notice that the underlying terminology is ta erchomena. Ta is but the neuter of ho, which is to say that it is the definite article. When we consider the intended application of ‘spirit’ in the text of Scripture, this is one of the things that we consider. Is there a ho preceding. Is it spirit, or the Spirit? I know I have read it being suggested recently that we would not go far wrong in simply capitalizing every instance of spirit in the New Testament, at least. But, I’m not certain I would fully accept that view.
Yet, it seems significant to me that what we have here is the coming. Let me parse that a bit further. We are looking at the middle voice of the verb to come. Typically, in the middle voice, the subject acts on itself. It is neither active or passive. It is in between. It may be that the subject cats in his own interest. It may be that the subject causes or allows a thing to be done for himself. Or, it may be that the meaning remains more nearly akin to the active voice. I will note that we have the accusative case, indicating a focus on the verb’s goal or direction. I’m not sure what conclusions I might draw from this. But, I am inclined to construe it as restricting the application of what Jesus is saying. He is not, in my opinion, talking about a general practice of revealing the future to us. If, on the other hand, I look at this as indicating that the Holy Spirit will disclose the Coming, does it make sense? I need to set this aside for today, and perhaps send question to one or two who might be able to shed some light on the matter.
In the meantime, there is one point that can be settled without that information, and that is the matter of just what it is that the Spirit will impart for knowledge. This is very clearly spelled out for us. He will speak only as He hears. In doing so, He shall take of that which belongs to Jesus, and it is this that He shall disclose. This is actually a very important statement. He will take of what is Mine. There is a point so powerful in that choice of pronoun that Jesus decides to explain it by way of emphasizing it. “Everything that the Father has is Mine. That’s what I mean when I say the Spirit will take of what is Mine.” The completeness of Truth into which He shall lead you, is Truth as God defines Truth (and Who else is fit to do so?) It is God’s Truth being revealed, not some random bit of imagination. It is God speaking, not some fever dream. And, it is I, Jesus, Who speaks, for I, Jesus, AM God. Behold, I and the Father are One. Behold, Father, Son and Spirit, we am one.
This is very clearly a claim to the godhead. There can be no denying that point, and neither has it any dependency upon the intended scope of application for what Jesus is speaking. Whether the Spirit reveals to the apostles alone or to all who believe, what He reveals and from Whom remains unchanged. He speaks what He hears, and what He hears is Jesus imparting of the Father’s wealth of wisdom. Whether the Spirit provides a running stream of knowledge as to what lies ahead day by day, or only a specific body of knowledge about a very specific day, the knowledge comes from the same Jesus, from the same store of what is the Father’s and is therefore also the Christ’s.
There is another aspect of this that deserves keen attention. Jesus, in all the course of His ministry, was careful to say and do only as He saw the Father say and do. He made it a point to spell out that He did nothing of His own initiative. He moved as the obedient Son to the Father, seeking in all things to be a true Son. Succeeding in all things by being a true Son, as well, it must be said. He was the perfect Ambassador of heaven, the True Representation of the Father. In Him it could truly be said that to see Him was to see the Father. He meant it.
Likewise, we are now presented the person of the Holy Spirit, and He comes with this same understanding, with this same boundary set about Himself. He shall speak only as He hears. He shall impart only what comes from the One upon the throne. He will not speak on His own initiative. What a powerful declaration this is! He cannot be cajoled into revealing things that are not to be revealed. He cannot be bribed into speaking when He is not authorized to speak. Neither can He be prevented from speaking when He has been given that which God would have said. I am reminded of that marvelous thing Amos says. God has spoken. Who can but prophesy (Am 3:8)?
The obverse ought also to be observed by the man of God. God has not spoken. Who would dare to put words in His mouth? This is the thing that strikes me as concerns the way that first Son and then Spirit have set bounds upon themselves during the course of earthly ministry. They speak only as it is assigned, only as it is observed in heaven. They set safeguards upon their ministry by rejecting and refusing any urge to offer mere opinion. Neither will speak with the predicate clause of, “I think,” or, “I believe it’s like this,” or even, “I feel God is saying.” No! To them belongs the certainty. “God says.” Indeed, they feel no need to preface their message with such authorizations, because for them, it is a given!
Yet, there is this care shown. They are so concerned for preserving the Truth in perfect accuracy that they feel it necessary to spell it out. Why? It is clear that when God speaks, He speaks only from Himself. So, why this note of dependency? It is timely that I am reading, both in the articles from last month’s Table Talk, and in some degree, the daily devotionals of this month’s edition, much that pertains to the nature of the Trinity, and particularly to the nature of the God-man, Jesus the Christ of God. These are, to be sure, difficult subjects to understand, and in certain degree impossible. How are we to fully comprehend Him Who is at once completely and utterly human, and completely and utterly God? How are we to fully understand that His humanity, being as ours, has nothing of the godhead in it, nor His godhead, being as the Father’s, any of human limitations upon it; and yet, He is wholly human, wholly God? Who can really claim to comprehend? Yet, this is He Whom we worship.
Similarly, who can really think to completely grasp the triune nature of God? Who can fully explain how it is that these three persons are completely God in each of their unique persons, yet incomplete without the other two? How is this God of three persons One? If He has communion with Himself, how does this work? If the three persons are each fully God, Who is in charge? What happens if there’s disagreement? Is that even possible? Who makes the assignments? If the Son is eternally begotten, does this not make Him inferior in some way to the Father? If the Spirit proceeds from Father and Son, as we profess, does this not set Him even lower on the scale? Yet, each is fully and completely God. How can God be lower than Himself? He cannot be. As I say, the full meaning of the Trinity remains beyond us to comprehend.
Yet, there is this: This care to speak only as is heard. Father is left clearly at the helm in this regard. He initiates. He determines what is to be said and revealed. The Son, in the course of His earthly ministry, serving as our Advocate, our lawyer, if you please, is careful to advise only as He hears from the first Authority, the Father. He will give no bad advice, only what is promulgated from the source of the Law. Now, our first Advocate is returning to heaven, there to take office as the sole judge in the Supreme Court of heaven. Yet, He has sent this other Advocate our way, another legal representative on our side, and One Who demonstrates the same carefulness of counsel. He will only instruct as He is given to instruct by that same One Who shall judge our case, and He speaks only as the Father Who instates the Law has spoken! Who could ask for better advice! We have the Author of the Law, and the Adjudicator of the Law explaining the Law to us, applying the Law in us. What greater safety could we seek?
But, there is this for the teacher: If God is this careful about what He says (and He knows Himself perfectly), how careful ought we to be? Where is the place for imagination or opinion when handling His word? I find great cause for concern here. For, I come of a tradition that is rather free-wheeling in its handling of Scripture. We seek to impart truth, yes, but we feel free to read what we will into the text, and that is a great danger. Imagination, given free rein with the text, will almost inevitably lead to error. And, then I am reminded of the Scriptural warning for teachers, that we shall be held to a higher standard. Oh, my!
This is something I am seeking to correct in my own practice. Yet, I have not the training to fully and accurately parse the texts before me. I am left to resort to the tools of the layman for the most part. It is to this end that I am holding off on really exploring the significance of what is said in verse 13. I know my inclinations, and I know I cannot allow them room here. It is necessary to get the verse right, to get the message of Jesus right. Too much hinges on this, and the part of the message that is clear is clearly telling me to take greater care in what I teach.
This applies not only to what I teach in a more or less official role during classes at church, but also what I am teaching myself, as it were, during these morning times. It’s well and good to seek to recapture the mood of those who were hearing these words at the first, to try and ‘get inside the heads’ of the apostles, or whoever the audience may have been on any given occasion. But, this must be done with great care. It’s acceptable to wonder if perhaps certain phrases might be understood differently, whether we ought to hear some secondary meanings in what is being said. But, the rule of taking the plain meaning must be upheld. Imaginations are a risky foundation for theology! And, surely, we can trust that whatever meaning we find in one section of Scripture, it will fully accord with what we find elsewhere. The True meaning of Scripture will brook no contradiction. This is part and parcel of what it means that the Ones who have revealed Truth, revealed only what was heard in heaven, at the source of Truth. Truth must be consistent to be Truth, and we must be consistent in our comprehension thereof.
Lord God, Holy Spirit, place these same bounds upon my thoughts, upon my tongue! Let me be one who takes as great a care in presenting Truth as You do. Truly, as I look about at my circumstances today, I am in awe of You. I am in awe of the trust you have in me, for I do not feel in the least bit worthy of that trust. You have set me with a wife who seeks to hear Your voice through my own. How am I to stand up to that expectation, except You truly do speak through me? How can I possibly be prepared to render Your decisions on so many matters about which I know nothing? God! I am more dependent on You than I know! And, to teach Your people, even a few! To teach them from the words of Your prophets, who spoke as You spoke through them: In all my unpreparedness, how am I to teach this truly except it be that You teach me first, and teach through me as well!
Holy Lord, I know it is from Your choosing that I have come to be teaching Amos in this season, yet I feel I am not doing enough. I am not sufficiently prepared or organized in my own view. I have lost some of the spark I felt in first combing through that text, first reading from others on that text. But, I need this: What would You have said in this time and this place? Will You, my Teacher, teach me? Will You please set those same bounds about me as You set for Yourself, that I might teach truly, and only what is True? In the course of this, my Lord and God, I assuredly offer myself a servant, and I pray that I be found a willing servant, open to what You would have me to say and do, and closed off to every other thing. Do as You must, my God, that I might be faithful in this.
[05/09/12] Well, it appears my effort to sort out the potential significance of the phrase ta erchomena is going to prove inconclusive. I would note that very few translations seem to place much emphasis on the definite article. Most settle for stating that the Spirit will disclose things yet to come, or words to that effect. The nearest I come to a more finite understanding is in Young’s Literal Translation, which renders it “and the coming things He will tell you.” Even that does very little to set any sort of limits on the application.
Let me turn, then, in a different direction, and consider the sum of what we are told of the Spirit’s mission. Jesus has mentioned several things in this regard, as He has been delivering this final message to His disciples. He abides in, and will be in, you (Jn 14:17). He will teach you everything, and remind you of what Jesus said (Jn 14:26). Jesus relayed all that He heard from Father (Jn 15:15). The Spirit will bear witness of Jesus (Jn 15:26). Yet, the Spirit will guide you into all truth, taking from Jesus and speaking what He hears. And, He will disclose that which is coming (verse 13). The promise of the Holy Spirit was received by Jesus from the Father, and poured out at Pentecost (Ac 2:33).
Now, all of this except the Pentecost outpouring is drawn from the current discourse, which is clearly, at least in its original audience, delivered to the eleven disciples. Thus, every ‘you’ of those verses might easily be taken as limited to those eleven men. Yet, this position runs into problems almost immediately. The first point, that He abides in you, quite plainly expands beyond the eleven in application. This is shown in the course of development laid out in the book of Acts. Indeed, it is that very indwelling and plainly active Holy Spirit that marks those who are coming to Christ. It is not necessary to hold that the experiences of those who are commented upon are normative. We needn’t suppose, as the Assemblies of God hold, that speaking in tongues is a necessary mark of the true believer. We needn’t suppose that every person in all of history who was truly indwelt by the Holy Spirit will necessarily display one or more of the charismata. We should, however, insist that every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He is, after all, the promise, the down payment on eternity, if you will. I hope it does not seem to diminish Him in any way to say such a thing. For, He is fully God, and surely far and away more to us than merely a down payment!
My point is that His presence is made evident, in the pages of Scripture, in many more than just the eleven disciples who heard this message from Jesus. Indeed, His presence is made evident in so many believers, that it is the presumed norm for all believers. To be a Christian is to be indwelt by the Spirit, every bit as much as it is to be possessed of faith in the Risen Lord, Jesus the Christ of God, and to know oneself truly loved of the Father whom we are blessed to know as our Father.
If, then, that is the case with the first of the ‘you’ references regarding the Spirit, is there just cause to suppose any other ‘you’ limited to the eleven alone? Consider the very next point made. He will teach you everything. Well, let’s just let John answer us on this point! “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you” (1Jn 2:27). Hmm! Sure sounds like the Holy Spirit, doesn’t it? I mean, John is clearly discussing something more than a feeling, more than that tingling in the hands or what have you that many take as evidence of the Anointing! Consider how John proceeds. “His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie.” Well, there you have the combination of John 14:26 and John 16:13-15. It seems clear enough to me that the Anointing of John’s letter is the Holy Spirit of Jesus’ discourse. It comes from this that the promises Jesus makes about the Spirit in this discourse were seen by those He spoke to as applying to the Christian population at large, or at least some greater portion thereof. Who, after all, is John writing to in this letter? Is it directed at the pastorate or the teaching staff? Not so far as we have reason to believe. No, it appears to be directed to the congregation at large, and the statement he is making in this verse ought to be seen as applying to the congregation at large. This, in turn, leads me back to supposing that what Jesus is saying in this Last Supper discourse can likewise be applied to the congregation at large.
Now, that presents some potential problems, doesn’t it? Let me consider the specific points made in the second half of the passage before us. He will guide you into all truth. OK. John has already established for us that this part is global. He will speak only what He hears, thus ensuring truthfulness. Again, John has confirmed this as applying to the whole of the body. He will disclose what is to come. How can we suddenly take this to be a more narrow application? It’s practically the same breath! He shall takeoff Mien and disclose to you. Again, why would there be a change of application when there is no change of focus?
It must be admitted that as the subject changes slightly in verse 16, and Jesus speaks of you no longer seeing Him and then later seeing Him again, the apparent scope of you is certainly not universal. We who came to belief even so much as a year later, or in a place beyond Israel’s borders, were unlikely to have ever seen Him, and this side of heaven, it is unlikely we ever shall. So, unless that ‘again a little while’ is intended to cover the full period from His ascension to His return, this is hardly a universally applicable point. Even with that scope in view, very few could be numbered amongst those who would no longer behold Him. That implies a period when you did, doesn’t it? And the timeframe for that opportunity was rapidly drawing to a close. Even Paul was going to have difficulty on that account, as that preceding period of observation was deemed a prerequisite for the office of Apostle (and rightly so!)
However, verse 16 is a shift of focus, a shift of topic. We are no longer considering the work of the Holy Spirit, but rather the immediate future of these eleven men specifically. So, it does no harm to my argument, I think, that I allow the you to become more restricted at that point while retaining its more universal sense in the preceding three verses.
The great challenge, and the great danger, lies in our understanding of just what is meant by disclosing what is to come, disclosing what is of Jesus. OK. Let me start with this, the term in question when Jesus speaks of disclosing is anangelei. When John would later set down the Revelation of Jesus Christ, he declares it the apokalupsis. These are different things. The anangelei is an announcement, a proclamation, if you will. It is bringing back word from heaven and making known to man. Theologically speaking, we might better term that inspiration. The apokalupsis is true revelation, a peeling back the covers and exposing what has to date been hidden from sight.
Much is made of the distinction between these two concepts. The specifics of revelation are reserved to the Apostles, those who were with Christ from the beginning and personally appointed such by Him. As noted, even Paul faced great challenge in proving the authenticity of his election by Christ to that office throughout his ministry life. To suppose that there could be any in our day, or in any day subsequent to the death of John, the last Apostle, is to defy the clear teaching of the Apostles, and therefore, the clear teaching of Jesus. Inspiration, though, is and should be the constant experience of faith. The Word of God is infinitely rich, and there is none so well-studied in its content as can fail to be taught of something new. It is not, however, the peeling back of the lid to reveal what no man has ever known. No! It is the Spirit guiding further into the Truth, taking what is Christ’s and delivering it to your ear.
If one were to read widely enough, it is all but guaranteed that he will discover this new understanding is ancient indeed. There is great value in this regard to considering not only the text of Scripture, but also the writings of great men of God. The commentaries do us a fine service in allowing us to confirm that what we are seeing is no strange new doctrine, but a fresh, personally delivered understanding of ancient truths. I am put in mind of the work of Dr. Lawson in bringing forth the development of what we speak of as the Doctrines of Grace throughout not only Scripture, but also those down through the ages who have been of particular importance to the Church. The same truths, the same Truth, delivered and maintained, made fresh to new minds in every age, is something that really oughtn’t to surprise us, but rather ought to be our expectation. God’s mercies are new every morning, but His Truth is as unchanging as He is unchanging.
This understanding serves to safeguard us against possible abuse of the things we are told in this passage. He will guide you into all Truth, but it is not to be understood in a fashion that reveals something never before known to man. It is certainly not in such a fashion as overturns what has been known of God. Again: He is unchanging, ergo Truth, which He is, is also unchanging. God will not suddenly be something other than He has always been. Even with the advent of the Son, and His taking upon Himself the life of a man, God was not changed of a sudden. The Son is eternally begotten. There has never been a time when the Son was not. We cannot come to some understanding of a period in the development of God when Father had yet to bring forth Son, had yet to emit Spirit. The words here are failing me, but one can hopefully follow my point. Indeed, it is foolish to even speak of there being a development of God. He Is Who He Is! He is unchanging. He is perfect and ever has been. What is there to develop?
It remains, then, to ponder how we ought to construe the ‘what is to come’, or the ta erchomena. Is this a disclosure, specifically of the final day, the end times? Such an understanding might lead us back to supposing the disclosing of which Jesus speaks to be revelation, and then we arrive at a very specific application, perhaps restricted to John alone, and more or less predicting and authorizing that Revelation of Jesus Christ which would be given to him. However, such a restricted view is not allowed. The you is plural. At the very least, it must be applied more widely than to John alone. Indeed, there is nothing to indicate that it should be reduced to anything less than all to whom Jesus is speaking, and as we have seen from John’s later writings, they themselves took it to apply far more widely than themselves.
The disclosure, remember, is not revelation, but more nearly inspiration. What are those things to come, then? Is Jesus saying that the Holy Spirit shall be our crystal ball? Perish the thought! And, may we never be so foolish as to seek to reduce the third person of the Godhead to so lowly a place. Is it possible that there will be included in His ministrations certain aspects of the future, perhaps even the immediate future, that He will bring to light? Certainly. We have testimony to that very thing in the book of Acts. Yet, it is not so widespread as to be supposed the normative experience. There are clearly those in the early church who are known as prophets, and exercise a prophetic gift which is different in many important aspects from the prophetic office of the Old Covenant.
We can look, for an obvious example, to Agabus, who ‘by the Spirit’ spoke that there would assuredly be a great famine throughout the world known at the time (Ac 11:28), and we know with certainty that this transpired. This same Agabus, again speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, announced to Paul that he would be delivered into the power of the Gentiles by the Jews if he continued on to Jerusalem (Ac 21:10-11). Both of these occasions demonstrate a forth-telling of the near future. Neither of them, at least as they read in Luke’s accounting, take on the full office of prophet as we see it exercised in the Old Testament. There is no pronouncement of judgment involved, nor promise of redemption on the far side of events. There is no proclaiming that these things are coming as God’s response to actions past or present. It is merely, this is coming up. Prepare yourselves.
That’s a pretty distinct difference. It also admits of a much wider understanding of ‘what is to come’ as it would apply to Jesus’ words here in John 16. I would have to say that my own experience supports this conclusion. I can point to times in my own life when I have perceived the Spirit whispering warnings of a car ahead that I could not yet see, or an obstacle about to come across my path. I have seen those things play out with full accuracy, and known myself protected by His warning. I would also have to confess that there have been many times when I supposed, or convinced myself, that I was acting upon the advice of the Holy Spirit only to discover that either I wasn’t listening very well, or I was merely setting His imprimatur on my own benighted thoughts.
In short, the reality of this promise, and its wider application in the life of faith is no guarantee that everything we wish to construe as the Spirit’s leading truly is. There remains great need for the test of the Word. Not so much in matters of protection while drive, certainly. I do not need to review my understanding of Pauline doctrine to heed the advisory to get over towards the curb because the road is narrow, and there’s a car approaching behind the hill ahead. I don’t need to seek a fully developed eschatology to acknowledge the warning about that car’s hubcap falling off and careening towards me. I need to accept the word of the Spirit and act! But, at the same time, I need to test those spiritual inspirations that lay claim to imparting Truth. Does the claim accord with what has been revealed? Does inspiration properly align itself with revelation? Is Truth being upheld in a consistent fashion, or is it being overturned?
We are, sadly, highly susceptible to infiltration by things that sound good to us, that strike our fancy, or suit our dispositions. We are strongly inclined to accept as Truth anything with which we happen to agree at the moment, and having done so, we are hardly shy about claiming God’s backing on the matter. Take care! Think it through thoroughly. Seek the ancient way. Don’t just look for word of mouth confirmation, other spiritual encounters that appear to confirm one another. There’s more lying spirits out there than True, I suspect, and they are perfectly capable of conniving together to your detriment. No! Seek out the revealed Truth. See if it isn’t the case that other, better minds than yours have arrived at the same conclusion in previous decades, previous centuries. “There is nothing new under the sun”, reports the Teacher (Ecc 1:9). Why, then, are we forever thinking we have found that new thing? Why are we so insistent on hearing something new and fresh? What is our problem?
God save us from novelty! Satisfy us, oh Lord, with Your goodness, with the You that is and ever shall be. Guard us, Holy Spirit, from our self-deceptions, and indeed, guide us into all Truth and only Truth. For we are easily led astray, and overly fond of our own imagined wisdom. Let us not be so. Let us find our Truth in You alone, and know our wisdom from You alone. Let us take care to be as You have been to us, our Advocate: accepting only what we find in You, and imparting as Truth only that which You have given to us. Teach us to ever observe Your ways, oh Lord God. Train us to walk in Your ways, never to depart, that we may be true sons of the True and Only God.
