John 16:14

Joh_16:14

He shall glorify Me

Christ glorified by the Spirit

This is the crowning and has been the constant work of the Spirit.

He glorified Christ in the prophecies, sacrifices and promises of the ancient economy, in the sinless humanity with which He clothed Him; in the public ministry to which He set Him apart; in the holy life He caused Him to live; in the sufferings He enabled Him to endure; in His glorious resurrection, ascension and triumphs in the day of Pentecost. But the text points beyond these. Our Lord referred to the spiritual illumination which would make men acquainted with Him, so that whereas He had before been treated ignominiously would in future be honoured for ever. The Spirit would lead men to glorify Christ

I. BY THE VIEWS WHICH HE WOULD ENLIGHTEN THEM TO ENTERTAIN OF HIM. This implies that there is in Christ that which no eye can discover until opened by the Spirit of God. This our Lord intimated to Peter--flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, &c. The illumination of the Spirit leads to a saving discovery of the glory of

1. Christs Person, into the mystery of Godliness.

2. His work of redemption.

3. His offices, as Prophet, Priest and King.

II. BY THE AFFECTIONS WHICH HE CAUSES HIS PEOPLE TO CHERISH TOWARDS HIM, which are highly honourable to Him.

1. Faith. What an honour to receive the trust of a redeemed world.

2. Gratitude.

3. Love.

4. Hope.

5. Joy.

Men are honoured by these affections; but we can only exercise them in part because of the defectiveness oft he worthiest objects. It is Christs glory to be worthy of them and to receive them completely.

III. BY THE SUPREMACY WHICH HE CLAIMS AND SECURES FOR HIM AMONG ALL THE CREATURES OF GOD. Christ is now supreme

1. Over every heart that is given to Him.

2. Over His own Church.

3. Over the world.

4. Over other worlds.

This supremacy will, under the guidance of the Spirit, be eventually acknowledged.

IV. BY THE LIFE WHICH HE INDUCES HIS PEOPLE TO LIVE FOR HIS SAKE. Let your light so shine, &c. Ye are not your own, &c. In this life the believer joyfully acquiesces. How honourable to Christ the lives of saintly men!

V. BY THE PRAISES WHICH SHALL COMPASS HIM ABOUT FOR EVER.

1. Of angels.

2. His redeemed.

3. Every creature.

Conclusion: If we would glorify Christ we must

1. Be taught by the Spirit.

2. Be quickened by the Spirit.

3. Be sanctified by the Spirit.

4. Submit to a supremacy which the Spirit claims for Christ.

5. Be made meet for the inheritance of the saints to light. (J. Morgan, D. D.)

The glory of Christ in the mission of the Holy Ghost

I. CONTEMPLATE THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT

1. He awakens the attention of the thoughtless and slumbering world to the truth of God.

2. He convinces of sin.

3. He regenerates the soul.

4. He is the Comforter.

II. THE GREAT AND DIVINE AGENT IS THE MESSENGER OF CHRIST.

III. HIS MISSION ILLUSTRATES THE GLORY OF CHRIST.

1. Furnishing additional proof of the great facts which form the substance of Christianity.

2. Giving efficacy to the work already accomplished by Christs death and resurrection.

3. Enabling us to form some estimate of the blessings Christ bestows.

4. Giving hope to the world, (G. Spring, D. D.)

The Holy Spirit glorifying Christ

We shall use our text

I. AS A TEST. There are a thousand things that claim to be of the Holy Ghost; how can we know whether they are or not? Here is a simple mode. Apply this test

1. To ministries. Now, there are some ministries which clearly are not of the Holy Ghost, because they

(1) Glorify ceremonies.

(2) Extol doctrine. Against a sound creed we have not a word to say; but still we must exalt Christ rather than Calvinism, or any other system of theology.

(3) Magnify a certain experience--If you have felt thus, and thus, no words of praise can be too strong for you; but if you have been led in another way, you never knew vital godliness at all. I say not a word against experimental preaching, but it must be experience about Christ.

(4) Exalt morality. If we will do this, and that, and the other we shall be saved. But if any man put the works of flesh before the finished work of Christ, his ministry is not of the Holy Ghost.

(5) And what might I say of many who produce their pretty little essays, and high-sounding periods, but that they are as sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal, inasmuch as they forget Christ. How bitterly shall we lament much of our ministry because it hath not glorified Christ on our dying beds. What joy it shall be to remember that, however feebly, we did extol Him.

2. To doctrine. Any teaching, whatever authority it may claim, which does not glorify Christ, is most assuredly false. Socinianism must be utterly abhorred of us, for it strikes at once at the Deity of our blessed Lord and Master. If, on the other hand, a doctrine layeth man in the dust and lifteth up Christ as a Saviour, the Alpha and Omega of salvation, you may safely say that is the Holy Ghosts doctrine, for He shall glorify Christ.

3. To the conviction through which a sinner passes. In the first dawn of our spiritual life, a mighty tempest of spiritual influence sweeps over the heart. The Holy Ghost is active, and the Prince of the Power of the air is active too. How, in this confusion, can a man know what part of his conviction is of God, and what part of the devil? You have a thought in your head that you are too great a sinner to be saved. That is not of the Holy Ghost, clearly, because it detracts from the power of Christ as a Saviour. I am not fit to come to Christ. Surely this is not of the Holy Ghost. What, are you to make yourself fit to come to Christ? Why that is making you a Christ But I heard Mr. So-and-So say, that when he was converted, he seemed to be dragged by the hair of his head to the very depths of hell, lost beyond the reach of mercy. No doubt that was his experience; but do you want to experience every piece of devilry that a good man has known? Much of what your friend felt was not of God, but of his own corrupt heart. If the Lord brings thee to put thy soul just as it is into the hands of the Redeemer, honouring him by a childlike trust, thou hast an experience infinitely more precious than the ravings of thy proud heart could ever yield thee.

4. To what is called experience. Much of the experience of a Christian is not Christian experience. If any person should mount the platform and inform us that he had been five times tried at the Old Bailey, you would say, Well, you may have experienced that disgrace, but it is not fair to call it human experience. So, a Christian man may fall into great darkness, and sin. But if he shall set up his darkness and sin as being Christian experience, we say, No; you may be a Christian and know all this, but we cannot allow you to decide our spiritual state according to your peculiar method of feeling. When we get to that which cometh from beneath we ought to say Oh! wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. That only which glorifies Christ is true Christian experience.

5. To ourselves. Art thou saved or not? If saved, the tenor of thy life is to glorify Christ. What sayest thou in looking back? And what about the present and the future?

II. A DIRECTION. How are we to glorify Christ? We must have the Holy Spirit. Let our text, then

1. Be sanctified to our humiliation. Here are we saved, and yet such weak things that we cannot glorify Christ without the Holy Ghost. Thou hast ten talents, but those ten talents shall make thee ten times a worse defaulter to thy Master unless the Holy Ghost help thee.

2. Be an excitement to earnest prayer.

3. Teach us entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit. All the farmers in England cannot make it leave off raining, but when it does leave off, and the sun shines, they can get their wheat in as quick as they can. All the sailors on the ocean cannot make a capful of wind; but when the wind does blow they can crowd on every yard of canvas. So all the Christians in the world cannot make the Holy Spirit work. The wind bloweth where it listeth, &c., but when we have the Holy Spirit, we can use Him; when He is with us we can work.

III. A STIMULUS. Does the Holy Ghost glorify Christ? Then

1. How should we aim to do it! You have been in a large way of business. Could you say that your object was to honour Christ in it? You have come down in the world; but suppose you can glorify God more. Then you are in a better position than you used to be.

2. While we make this our aim, let us take every opportunity of glorifying Christ. We throw thousands of opportunities away. Whether ye work at a lapstone, or drive a plough, or lay the stones in a building, or are diligent with the pen, or buy and sell, do all, even to your eating or your drinking, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and so, like the Holy Spirit, let it be said of you, He shall glorify Me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Holy Spirit the Revealer of Christ

We are living in the dispensation of the Spirit. What does that mean? It means that we are living on a higher plane than ever has been occupied before. We gather this

1. From a comparison of this dispensation with others that have preceded it. True religion is more widely disseminated in this than it has been in any preceding dispensation.

2. We know that this Dispensation is an advance, because God Himself is advance--progress. He never goes backward.

3. The same fact is clear from the structure of Scripture.

4. The whole historic development of man, looked at in the line of the plan of redemption, is clearly enough in this upward direction. The work of God is from matter toward spirit. The child leaves his playthings behind, and comes to despise them. The college student turns his back on the pleasures and games of his boyhood. The professional man has forgotten the rivalries of college life--as narrow as its walls; and the mellowed and matured philosopher lives already amid the peace and the power of invisible scenes, and draws from above and beyond him the springs of incentive and action. The same principle holds throughout nature. Time and again our attention is drawn to the fact that there is an invisible world, and that that invisible world bears down upon and overpowers the visible. That thought and feeling and volition are stronger than substance and quality and force, and that from within what is unseen and supersensible and supernatural flow the upper springs of all inferior energy and action.

5. But we are not left to gather up an inference from observation, nor speculation, nor from logic. Our Saviour Himself now assures us, that if we believe in Him we shall do greater works than even those which He performed on earth, and that we shall do them precisely because He goes to the Father.

I. THE ONE ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION IS THE REVELATION OF CHRIST. How essential this is may be gathered from reason, from conscience, and from the light of the Scriptures.

1. From reason. Nowhere, outside the radius of Christianity, is there either holiness or peace. Look at Africa. Look at China. He who knows anything of the history of moral light knows that it has followed, as its centre, the planting of the cross of Christ--that just as races have receded from the light of God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, so they have sunken to a brutish level, and have died in the distractions of an utter unrest.

2. Conscience affirms the same truth. Conscience, in every man, says: You are guilty! You are a sinner! God is holy. He cannot acquit! Conscience, whatever modern thought may say, cries--Eternal Justice is Eternal Fact, and God is just; and How can justice clear the guilty? and to this cry of conscience is no answer but in Christ and in the sacrifice of Christ.

3. And these deductions of our reason and our conscience are confirmed by Scripture. Now the Bible affirms. It comes straight out and says: Apart from the knowledge of Christ there is no salvation.

II. THE HOLY GHOST IS THE ONLY REVEALER OF CHRIST. He alone makes Christ glorious. The Holy Ghost has given us all the knowledge that we have of Jesus Christ. Where do we get that knowledge? How do we know that there is such a thing as a Saviour? From the Bible. Outside the covers of this Book there is not a hint of a Christ. And whence came the Bible? It was inspired. Who inspired it? God, the Holy Ghost. Not only so, but, with the Bible in our hands, how can we know anything of Christ, save as the Spirit reveals Him? Miracle never changed any man. Appearances--like that of the angels to Abraham. Abraham saw Christs day. How did he see it? By illumination--by the Holy Ghost. Moses recognized God at Horeb. How? By the fire? No, but by God speaking out of the midst of the bush. Ezekiel was transformed at Chebar. How? By the wheels? No, but the Spirit, he says, entered in me. Israel was to be revived under Elijah. How? By the wind? By the earthquake? By the fire? By any sensible or ocular demonstration? No; but by the still small voice. That was the lesson taught to the prophet. The same fact comes out in the New Testament. How many saw Christ--touched Christ--said they believed on Christ in the flesh, who never went beyond impressions of their outward senses. What makes a Christian is the spiritual apprehension of Christ, and the Holy Ghost alone can reveal Him. Take the Levitical sacrifices how without these could we explain the Atonement? Yet only a few who read them under the Old Dispensation saw Christ in these Scriptures, and why? Because they needed more than the most perfect description. They needed light on the light. They needed, like David, to have their eyes opened to see wondrous things out of Gods law. The same thing is true of the New Testament. The Holy Ghost reveals Christ. He glorifies Christ. Notice: He does not create Christ; He shows Him. When we were sailing in the Grecian Archipelago we came, at dawn of day, to the Island of Rhodes. At first we saw only a grey indistinctness--the shapeless outline of vast rocks rising out of the water. Then as the sun came up, how glorious! There lay the harbour once bestridden by the famous Colossus, the sapphire ripplings of the water touched with rose and gold--the ships, the flappings of their sails stirred lightly by the morning breeze. There stretched away the green fields and the mountains round which poetry had thrown her charm; midway in the perspective rose the ancient castellated ramparts of the fortress of the Knights of St. John, all flashing, glowing, burning, touched and transfigured by the ministry of light. That which doth make manifest is light. The Holy Ghost is the only revealer of Jesus. And the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ or reveals Him in His true glory now, as He could not possibly do were Christ present. The apostles loved Christ too much, as the carnal loves the carnal. That is the error of Rome, with her crucifixes, her Mass, and her sensuous ecstasies. Read the memoirs of Santa Teresa and of St. John of the Cross, and you will find the love they express for the Saviour is sensuous--carnal There is something lurid about it. You are afraid of it. It was necessary that that sort of thing should be broken--that there should come an experience, which, permit me to say it, should emancipate Christ--should burst the tomb and the grave-clothes, and set Him Infinite, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Heavenly--working above, as ever in, and through His Church--an experience like that of St. Paul when he says: Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. We only know Him as the Spirit reveals Him. You have known a man by his clothes--by his face--now you come to know him by his character. Something reveals him in his abilities, in his integrity, in his truth, as your friend. The Holy Ghost reveals Christ. But let us come closer; the ulterior and special object of the Spirits revelation is Gods glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

III. He shall glorify MAKE ME GLORIOUS. St. Paul expands our Saviours statement in these words: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The world without Christ, or Christ in twilight--beneath the dawn-line of the Old Testament--beneath the histories, and types, and prophecies--beneath the horizon of an Arctic winter, and then, and all at once, and for ever, the Sun of Righteousness is visible perfection of His glory--the Mystery of Godliness--the Day-spring from on high! The statement of this point involves, of course, three. That there is such a thing as the knowledge of the glory of God--that this knowledge is unfolded in the face of Jesus Christ, and that it comes by a Divine in-shining.

1. The knowledge of the glory of God. If God be God, He is glorious, for glory is manifested excellence, and God is most excellent, and cannot be hid. The glory of God is not only His greatness, but the equipoise of His character. Satan is great, i.e., in faculties, but he is in no wise glorious, but infamous, because of the defect of his character. Gods glory is the equipoise of His attributes. With Him nowhere is there too much--nowhere a deficit. It is important to put emphasis upon the fact before us, because the effort of to-day is to destroy the balance of the attributes of God--to posit in that justice, for example--and in measurement and in adjustment everything comes back to the straight line--that justice in God is a merely optional attribute. How can God, says one of our modem neologians, how can God be free if He be the slave of His own justice? As well ask, How can I be free if I cannot rid myself of my backbone? I am the slave, then, of my backbone. But how can I be a man and have no backbone? For God to be free from His justice would be for Him to be free from Himself as moral, and therefore immoral; for justice is simply looking on things as they are, and treating them accordingly, and to deny this is to deny rectitude, and to deny rectitude is to deny God and make Him immoral. Justice optional! What should we think of a man to whom it were optional to be just, or to be unjust? The moral grandeur of God is His balance, His poise, that He rights Himself. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

2. The glory of God then, as it stands revealed in vast concentric haloes, circles upon circles of immeasurable excellence, is at its brightest spot--its centre--and when focalized and gathered to one burning-point, nothing more, nothing less than conciliation of justice and grace. How can God be just and justify the guilty? lies at the root of the gospel. The answer to that question is the gospel, and Christ on the cross is its sum. Christ on the cross, not Christ in pre-existence, transcending thought as is the mystery of everlasting generation. Not Christ again in all the grand kaleidoscopic aspects of His ministry, as miracles spring up beneath His footsteps like fresh flowers. Not Christ in any, nor in all, these revelations, glorious as they are, but still subordinate, but Christ upon the tree. It was there seen that God could not swerve--that sin must be punished. What is the upshot of this? The upshot is that from the instant you and I look away to Christ as our Substitute, we are eternally saved. Is not that glorious? Bursts there not a glory from that torn flesh which hangs and writhes upon those ragged nails, which challenges all suns to rival it in splendour? Is not here Gods glory focalized, as it swings low and kisses even your and my horizon? When we were at the North Cape, at midnight, a French gentleman took out a sun-glass and burned a hole in his hat with it. Low as the sun was, he was still clothed with all his burning power. So it was with our Saviour on the cross. For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth.

3. This glory hath in-shined--that is the third point. It hath shined not historically--not in the face of a physical Christ, although these, of course, are included; but through the veil of the heart. Christs glory to mere worldly men is a veiled glory; the veil says the Apostle, is upon their heart. That veil has been rent--not from our side--from Gods side. God hath shined in--not into the world only, that is not enough--could not be, for the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. Into believing hearts God hath shined. It is not simply knowledge, but it is the light of the knowledge. It is not Church instruction, but heart-work--interior regeneration. When it pleased God, says Paul, to reveal His Son within me, immediately I took no conference flesh and blood.

How then do we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

1. One way, by faith. Faith is the great opened eye of the soul.

2. Another way the light shines in us is by the witness of the Spirit. What is that witness if not a supernatural spiritual emphasis put on the assurances and promises of God, which makes them true to us without a question?

3. A third way light shines in is by consciousness. Consciousness of breathing goes with breathing. Consciousness of walking goes with walking. Consciousness of life and vigour goes with power. A man full of the Holy Ghost knows what he is full of, and that he is not empty. He knows that his light is not darkness--that his joy is not despair, and that his power is something other and more than physical elation or physical energy. Can He not, through some interior eye which we know not, and for which we have no name, pour into us the radiance of His own infinite glory, though He be the King invisible, whom no man has seen, nor can see? Can He not manifest Himself to the eye of interior consciousness with a distinctness of spiritual presence as satisfying as that which His bodily form gave to the external vision of His disciples? This revelation of Christ--fresh revelation I mean, satisfying our souls, filling, flooding--enlarging us with the light, and the love, and the joy, and the strength of the Lord is what we need. (G. S. Bishop, D. D.)

The promise of the Spirit--the fulness of Christ

He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, &c., might be liable to misconstruction, and indicate that Christ would have Himself to be glorified, apart from the Father, and His own fulness drawn upon independently. As if to obviate this, Christ hastens to account for His having said it. It is of the Fathers after all that He takes, when He takes of Mine. It is the Father whom He glorifies when He glorifies Me. But the Lord had undoubtedly another reason. It is for their sakes, rather than His own, that He announces this truth, I would not have said that were it not that all things which the Father hath are Mine; for otherwise it would have been poor consolation to you. We are therefore naturally led, first, to consider what Christ has before examining the promise concerning what the Holy Ghost is to do.

The Lord might say, All things that the Father hath are Mine, in respect of

I. HIS ORIGINAL GODHEAD; and but for this He could not, without blasphemy, have said it. This the Jews well understood, when, for similar language, they took up stones to stone Him, and when they cried out at His trial, He hath spoken blasphemy. For it is impossible to explain away this claim of a right of property in all that is the Fathers, or to justify it if made by a creature. Often, during the days of His flesh, do we find Him dwelling with a holy and blessed complacency on thoughts connected with His being in the bosom of the Father.

II. HIS SUFFERING MANHOOD. It is this consideration, indeed, which makes the statement practically important in its application to us, viz., as being in our nature. Such is the glory of His person, as combining the Divine nature with the human; and such the value of His work that whatsoever is comprehended in the fulness of the Godhead is centred in the Man Christ Jesus, considered as obedient to the Father, even unto death. And as the recompense of that work, He receives, in His human nature, an interest in all that the Father hath. Hence the blessedness of His assurance, that as the Son of Man He has power on earth to forgive sins. Hence also the value of that deed of grant, by which, as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, that the Son also may quicken whom He will. And hence the importance of the Fathers surrender, as it were, of the right of rule or judgment into the hands of the Son, for this very reason, that He is the Son of Man. These are among the things which the Father has, and these He has given to the Son. Now, in respect of His original Godhead, these things cannot be said to be given to Him. They belong to Him by necessity of nature. But as the Son of Man He receives this threefold prerogative as the gift of the Father.

III. HIS HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH. In one sense, it is true, even as regards the wicked, that all things which the Father hath, He hath given unto the Son. The impenitent and unbelieving are consigned to His disposal; and on Him it devolves to award and inflict eternal judgment. But it is His own people that Christ has chiefly in His eye here.

1. They themselves belong to the Father. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me. All that the Father giveth Me, shall come unto thee. All that the Father has are dear to Him as belonging to the Father, and as the gift of the Father, pledged to Him in the everlasting covenant, and bestowed in recompense of His making His soul an offering for sin.

2. And taking this people as His own, uniting Himself to them, identifying Himself with them, He says All things that the Father hath are Mine, for them, as His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. For them, when He ascended up on high, He received gifts. He has righteousness for them so that in Him the righteous God is well pleased. He has life with the Father, so that they may live also. He has the everlasting love of the Father. So that the love wherewith the Father hath loved Him may be in them. He has glory that they may behold the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Conclusion: The Father entrusts His all to Christ, and so surely we might venture to entrust our all to Him. The Fathers glory is safe in His keeping; the Fathers riches of wisdom and grace and love are well and wisely expended by Him. Is it to such a Saviour that you, oh sinner, will hesitate about committing your soul? If He can take charge of all that is the Fathers as His own, may He not take charge of all that is yours? (J. S. Candlish, D. D.)

The promise of the Spirit--taking and showing what is Christs

In the words, He shall receive of Mine, &c., the Spirit stands in a twofold relation and discharges a twofold function--towards Christ on the one hand, and toward His believing people on the other.

I. HE SHALL TAKE OR RECEIVE OF MINE.

1. He is well entitled to take of what is Christs, because He is Himself a Divine person. The manner in which the Holy Ghost is here associated with the Father and the Son clearly shows that tie is such. In truth, for any other than a Divine Person to take part in this transaction were a liberty not to be tolerated. But the Holy Ghost, being Himself God, is a party to the whole arrangement by which all things that the Father hath become Christs: nay, more, He is a party to the carrying of that arrangement into effect. For consider how large a share the Holy Ghost had in the whole of that mediatorial work of Christ, which is the main ground of His saying, All things that the Father hath are Mine. His very coming into the world was by the Holy Ghost, by whom a body was prepared for Him. He was anointed by the Holy Ghost without measure, for the doing of His Fathers will. Through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself, without spot, to God; and He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness. In all the critical circumstances of His arduous undertaking, in His birth, His baptism, &c., the Holy Ghost stood by Him sustaining His human soul, and conveying to it the Fathers love.

2. Nor is He less qualified and able, than He is entitled, to receive of what is Christs. For, having been with the Father and the Son in the ordering of the plan from all eternity, and having been with Christ all along in the accomplishment of it, He searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God: and in dealing with what is Christs, He is in His element, so to speak, and at home (Joh_16:13). He can make us know the things which are freely given to us of God; past, present, and future; opening our eyes to behold wondrous things out of Gods law.

3. He is One whom Christ is, altogether willing to have taking of His. It is not a stranger who disposes of anothers property, or builds on anothers foundation. It is no rash or rude hand, indifferent to His interest or honour, that rifles His treasury and steals from His unsearchable riches. He shall glorify Me, says Christ Himself. He is of My council, and His sole aim is to carry out My work and to exalt My name.

II. WHAT THE SPIRIT THUS TAKES OR RECEIVES OF CHRISTS, HE SHOWS TO HIS PEOPLE.

1. What kind of showing is it that we need? How is it that what the Spirit takes of Christs must be revealed? Will it suffice to set before our eyes what is to be shown? Alas! the experience of the Lords actual sojourn here below gives but a sad reply. Nor is the case altered now. In the written Word, in the preaching of the gospel, in all the means and ordinances by which Christ and His salvation are brought before the minds of men and pressed upon their regard, the Holy Ghost is taking of what is Christs and showing it, and every time you open the Bible, or wait on the preaching of Christ crucified, if you continue unaffected and unmoved, you are resisting the Spirit. But there must be a showing of another kind; a work of discovery within, an opening of the eye of the carnal mind; a dispelling of the darkness of the evil heart, that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ may shine. Now for this kind of showing, the Holy Ghost is the fitting agent. For being pure Spirit, He has access immediately to your spirits: and being almighty, He turns them whithersoever He will.

2. Mark the progress of the Spirits work, in showing you what He takes of Christs.

(1) Call to mind the first awakening of your soul to the apprehension of things divine. Think on the time, when, after a sudden and decided call perhaps, or a slower and more doubtful process of conviction, you have felt as if, all at once, the clouds broke and the sky cleared. What of Christs was it that the Spirit was then showing you? Did He not show you the Son obedient, and the Father well pleased: the righteous and holy love of God, which is Christs as the reward of His obedience unto death, in all its fulness and freeness?

(2) Or again, if you go back to any season of peculiar spiritual prosperity, what was it that quickened your holy graces, filled you with hatred of sin, and made duties a delight? What did the Spirit show to you of Christs then? What of holy beauty, or meek endurance, or tender sympathy in Christ? What of venerable authority and benignant complacency in God His Father?

(3) Learn to note in some such way as this the agency of the Holy Spirit in you, by observing what it is that He shows you of Christs and of the Fathers, in the critical periods of your Christian pilgrimage. See how He has used the unsearchable riches of Christ for the satisfying of your wants; how in your ignorance He has opened to you the riches of His wisdom and knowledge; in your waywardness and backsliding; the riches of His forbearance in your grief and despondency the riches of His grace; and amid the terrors of death the riches of His glory. Thus you will be able to stir up the gift that is in you, and to improve the Spirits gracious dealings with you to the uttermost.

3. Observe as an encouragement how this whole work of the Spirit is carried on, not against, but by means of our natural faculties of understanding and conscience. If He shows you must look. It is in the Word that Christ is set forth. Let the Word of Christ then dwell in you richly. Then will the Spirit be ever showing you out of the word by His inward teaching, more and more of what is Christs and opening your eyes more and more to behold wondrous things out of His law. And this the rather because

4. The work is according to the mind of Christ. He is the Spirit of Christ--the Spirit that dwelt in Him. And if the very Spirit that dwelt in Christ, and was intimately cognisant of all that passed through His soul in all His life of sorrows, and His death of shame, and His resurrection to glory, dwell in you; have you not here a connecting link which will give you a quick understanding and discernment of all that is Christs, and cause you to realize it as your own?

Conclusion:

1. The doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity is brought out in this, as it generally is in other passages of the Word, not abstractly and in the way of a naked statement of the truth, but practically, and with reference to what they severally do in the economy of grace.

2. The manner of intercourse between heaven and earth is here presented. The chain is formed--fixed on the throne of God at one end, twined round your heart at the other--waiting but the touch of the heavenly fire, the swift and secret influence of the Heavenly Spirit, to make it all instinct with life and meaning, so that signs and tokens may pass between. The ladder is set--reaching from the sanctuary above to the sanctuary of every church, home, and closet. And not angels only are ascending and descending on this ladder, which is none other than the mediation of the Son of Man--but the Lord Himself--the Spirit-As moving to and fro, communicating the fulness of the Father, through the Son. (J. S.Candlish, D. D.)

The Holy Spirit revealing the things of Christ

As the page may bear upon its surface writings traced in viewless ink, which are there, and yet are aa if they were not, until the nearness of the fire shall call them out into a new distinctness, so may all truth be written on the mind of man, and yet be dead and meaningless, until called into power and being by the falling on it of these rays of the heavenly fire; and then every word of Scripture, every voice of God in His Church, every sacrament, comes forth into shape and completeness, as Christ is seen by the soul to be there. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 16:14. Ἐκεῖνος ἐμὲ δοξάσει, He shall glorify me) This is the economy of the Three Witnesses: the Son glorifies the Father; the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son. See ch. Joh 14:13, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son;” Joh 17:4, “I have glorified Thee on the earth”—ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ, of Mine) Hence it was the Holy Spirit who taught the apostles to say and do all things in the name of Jesus Christ.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_16:14-15. For me, with a view to glorify me (ἐμέ, with emphasis), will the Paraclete, as is said in Joh_16:13, operate, for the advancement of my δόξα among men, since He will announce to you nothing else than what is mine, what according to the identity of substance is my truth, of which I am the possessor and disposer.[179] Justly do I designate the divine truth, which He is to announce, as my property, since all that the Father has, i.e. according to the context, the whole truth possessed by the Father (Col_2:3), belongs properly to me, as to the Son, who was in intuitive fellowship with the Father (Joh_1:18), went forth from the Father (Joh_8:42), was consecrated (Joh_10:36) and sent for the accomplishment of His work, and, moreover, continually lives and moves in the Father, and the Father in Him. Comp. Joh_17:10. Calvin, in opposition to the ontological interpretation, well observes, that Christ speaks: de injuncto sibi erga nos officio. Note further, the emphatic, all-embracing πάντα ὅσα, κ.τ.λ., as major premiss in the argument from the universal to the particular; hence all the less is Joh_16:14 to be referred, with Grotius and Hengstenberg, merely to the announcement of what is future.

λαμβάνει] Conceived as a constant relation.

[179] Every claim that anything belongs to what Christ terms τὰ ἐμοῦ must necessarily, according to the analogia fidei, be measured by His and His disciples extant word; hence the present passage, in like manner, as ver. 13, excludes all the pretended claims of fanaticism.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 16:14 . ἐκεῖνος ἐμὲ δόξασει , “He will glorify me”. The fulfilment of this promise is found in every action and word of the Apostles. Under the Spirit’s guidance they lived wholly for Christ: the dispensation of the Spirit was the Christian dispensation. This is further explained in ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ λήψεται … “because He shall take of that which is mine, and declare it unto you”. The Spirit draws from no other source of information or inspiration. It is always “out of that which is Christ’s” He furnishes the Church. So only could He glorify Christ. Not by taking the Church beyond Christ, but by more fully exhibiting the fulness of Christ, does He fulfil His mission.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 14, 15. “He shall glorify me, for He shall take of what is mine and shall announce it to you. 15. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine and shall announce it to you.”

The asyndeton between Joh 16:13-14 proves that Jesus only reproduces under a new and more emphatic form in Joh 16:14 the thought of Joh 16:12-13. The work of the Spirit introducing the apostles into the truth will be only the increasing glorification of Jesus in their hearts. After the Father shall have exalted Christ personally to glory, the Holy Spirit will cause His celestial image to beam forth from on high into the hearts of the disciples, and, through them, into the hearts of all believers. There is a mysterious exchange here and, as it were, a rivalry of divine humility. The Son labors only to glorify the Father, and the Spirit desires only to glorify the Son. Christ, His word and His work—herein is the sole text on which the Spirit will comment in the souls of the disciples. He will, by one and the same act, cause the disciples to grow in the truth and Jesus to grow greater in them. For the understanding of this word glorify, comp. the experience admirably described by St. Paul in 2Co 3:17-18; 2Co 4:6.

In designating the source from which the Spirit will draw as that which is mine, Jesus seems to contradict what He has said in Joh 16:13; at least, if “from the Father” is understood after shall hear. Jesus gives the explanation of this apparent contradiction in Joh 16:15, by means of the words: “All that the Father has is mine.” The Father’s treasure is common to Him with the Son. This word reveals, as does no other, the consciousness which Christ had of the greatness of His manifestation. The Christian fact is the measure of the divine for humanity. There is nothing essentially Christian which is not divine; there is nothing divine which does not concentrate and realize itself in the Christian fact.—“Therefore I said” means here: “Therefore I have been able to say.”—The present takes is better attested by documentary evidence (Joh 16:15) than the future shall take, and it is more in accordance with the present tenses, has, is; the future is a correction in accordance with Joh 16:14, He takes: it is the present of the idea, designating the permanent function. After the present takes, the future will declare signifies: “and, after having taken, He will announce in each particular case.” Westcott cal s attention to the three: and He will announce to you(Joh 16:13-15), which form, as it were, a consoling refrain. Thus there is not a real breath of the Spirit which is not at the service of the person of the historic Christ. So St. Paul makes the cry of adoration: “Jesus Lord!” the criterion of every true operation of the divine Spirit (1Co 12:3); comp. also 1Jn 4:3. If we recall to mind how the glorifying of the creature constitutes in the Scriptures the capital crime, we shall understand what such words imply with relation to the person of Christ.

All these discourses, and in particular this masculine ἐκεῖνος, he, Joh 16:14, rest on the idea of the personalityof the Holy Spirit. As Weiss says on account of Joh 15:26 : “The Spirit is conceived as a personal manifestation like to that of Christ Himself.”

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The holy Ghost bringeth no new doctrine, but teacheth that which was uttered by Christ’s own mouth, and imprinteth it in our minds.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you--Thus the whole design of the Spirit's office is to glorify Christ--not in His own Person, for this was done by the Father when He exalted Him to His own right hand--but in the view and estimation of men. For this purpose He was to "receive of Christ"--all the truth relating to Christ--"and show it unto them," or make them to discern it in its own light. The subjective nature of the Spirit's teaching--the discovery to the souls of men of what is Christ outwardly--is here very clearly expressed; and, at the same time, the vanity of looking for revelations of the Spirit which shall do anything beyond throwing light in the soul upon what Christ Himself is, and taught, and did upon earth.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14. He will glorify me Christ now reminds them that the Spirit will not come to erect any new kingdom, but rather to confirm the glory which has been given to him by the Father. For many foolishly imagine that Christ taught only so as to lay down the first lessons, and then to send the disciples to a higher school. In this way they make the Gospel to be of no greater value than the Law, of which it is said that it was a schoolmaster of the ancient people, (Galatians 3:24.)

This error is followed by another equally intolerable, that, having bid adieu to Christ, as if his reign were terminated, and he were now nothing at all, they substitute the Spirit in his place. From this source the sacrileges of Popery and Mahometanism have flowed; for, though those two Antichrists differ from each other in many respects, still they agree in holding a common principle; and that is, that in the Gospel we receive the earliest instructions to lead us into the right faith, but that we must seek elsewhere the perfection of doctrine, that it may complete the course of our education. If Scripture is quoted against the Pope, he maintains that we ought not to confine ourselves to it, because the Spirit is come, and has carried us above Scripture by many additions. Mahomet asserts that, without his Alcoran, men always re-main children. Thus, by a false pretense of the Spirit, the world was bewitched to depart from the simple purity of Christ; for, as soon as the Spirit is separated from the word of Christ, the door is open to all kinds of delusions and impostures. A similar method of deceiving has been attempted, in the present age, by many fanatics. The written doctrine appeared to them to be literal, and, therefore, they chose to contrive a new theology that would consist of revelations.

We now see that the information given by Christ, that he would be glorified by the Spirit whom he should send, is far from being superfluous; for it was intended to inform us, that the office of the Holy Spirit was nothing else than to establish the kingdom of Christ, and to maintain and confirm for ever all that was given him by the Father. Why then does he speak of the Spirit’s teaching? Not to withdraw us from the school of Christ, but rather to ratify that word by which we are commanded to listen to him, otherwise he would diminish the glory of Christ. The reason is added, Christ says,

For he will take of what is mine. By these words he means that we receive the Spirit in order that we may enjoy Christ’s blessings. For what does he bestow on us? That we may be washed by the blood of Christ, that sin may be blotted out in us by his death, that our old man may be crucified, (Romans 6:6,) that his resurrection may be efficacious in forming us again to newness of life, (Romans 6:4;) and, in short, that we may become partakers of his benefits. Nothing, therefore, is bestowed on us by the Spirit apart from Christ, but he takes it from Christ, that he may communicate it to us. We ought to take the same view of his doctrine; for he does not enlighten us, in order to draw us away in the smallest degree from Christ, but to fulfill what Paul says, that Christ is made to us wisdom, (1 Corinthians 1:30,) and likewise to display those treasures which are hidden in Christ, (Colossians 2:3.) In a word, the Spirit enriches us with no other than the riches of Christ, that he may display his glory in all things.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(14) He shall glorify me.—The pronoun is here full of emphasis. The thought is that the future guidance of the Spirit promised in Joh_16:13, will be the revelation of the many things of Christ Himself which they cannot bear now (Joh_16:12).

For he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.—Better, as in Joh_16:13, . . . . announce it unto you. This is the test of the Spirit, “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God.” (Comp. Notes on 1Jn_4:1-2.) The revelation of Christ is not an imperfect revelation which the Holy Spirit is to supplement. It is a full revelation imperfectly received, and His office is to illumine the heart, and bring home to it the things of Christ.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. He shall glorify me] Both pronouns are emphatic; ‘Me shall that Spirit of truth glorify.’ Just as the Son glorifies the Father by revealing Him (Joh_1:18; Joh_17:4) both in word and work, so does the Spirit glorify the Son by revealing Him. In both cases to reveal is necessarily to glorify: the more the Truth is known, the more it is loved and adored.

for he shall receive … unto you] Better, because He shall take of Mine and shall declare it to you. The verb rendered ‘receive’ is the same as that rendered ‘take’ in Joh_16:15, and ‘take’ is better, as implying that the recipient is not wholly passive (lambanein, not dechesthai). Comp. Joh_10:17, Joh_12:48, Joh_20:22.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A little while and ye shall not see me,.... Meaning, that he should be quickly taken from them by death. And in a very little time after this, having put up a prayer for them, recorded in the next chapter, he went into the garden, where he was met by Judas with his band of men, who laid hold on him, bound him, and led him first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, and from him to Pilate, when all the disciples forsook him and fled, and saw him no more in this mortal state, except Peter and John. He took his trial, was soon condemned, and crucified, and laid in the dark tomb, and silent grave, where, for a while, he was out of sight.

And again, a little while and ye shall see me; referring either to his rising again the third day from his death, as was prophesied of, Hos 6:2; and was typified by Jonah's lying three days and three nights in the whale's belly, when he appeared to, and was seen by his disciples, to their great joy; or else to the short time in which he was to be, and was seen by them; namely, forty days between his resurrection and ascension; a longer stay it was not necessary he should make, for he had other work to do, for himself and them:

because I go to the Father; to give an account of the work he had finished on earth; to carry in his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; to present himself to his Father on behalf of his people; to appear in the presence of God for them; to be their advocate, plead their cause, and make intercession for them, and take possession of heaven in their name; to take his place at the right hand of God in their nature; to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Ver. 14. He shall glorify me, &c.] And if the Holy Ghost could not use any better means to glorify Christ, than to take his excellencies, and hold them out to the world, what should ministers, the mouth of the Holy Ghost, do rather?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall glorify me - Shall honor me. The nature of his influence shall be such as to exalt my character and work in view of the mind.

Shall receive of mine - Literally, “shall take of or from me.” He shall receive his commission and instructions as an ambassador from me, to do my will and complete my work.

Shall show it - Shall announce or communicate it to you. This is always the work of the Spirit. All serious impressions produced by him lead to the Lord Jesus 1Co 12:3, and by this we may easily test our feelings. If we have been truly convicted of sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit, the tendency of all his influences has been to lead us to the Saviour; to show us our need of him; to reveal to us the loveliness of his character, and the fitness of his work to our needs; and to incline us to cast our eternal interests on his almighty arm, and commit all to his hands.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That is, he shall make me famous in the world; as by the extraordinary gifts which he shall dispense and give out, so particularly by showing you things to come: for he shall guide and lead you into no other truth, but that which I have revealed, or which it is my will he should make known and reveal.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Shall glorify me—The Spirit shall exhibit the Son in all his Messianic glory, as Head of the Church, and Judge of the world. Nay, he shall exhibit him as possessing “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Col_2:9.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He shall glorify me. Christ has spoken of being straightway glorified, lifted into the fullness of the Godhead, glorified in God himself. (Joh_13:32) This statement is partly explanatory of that, but is also an addition to the previous assurance. The Spirit will glorify the God-Man, will augment the luster of his blessed Name, will crown him with honor, and multiply the mirrors of his majesty and the subjects of his power; and the reason is given: For he shall take of mine, and (for the second time, anaggelei umin) declare it to you. Christ is here profoundly conscious of the abundance of truth and reality involved in himself and in his functions, in the work he is doing and will continue to do. He is mournfully alive to the fact that the disciples were not able to perceive what there was in him without supernatural aid. The Spirit of God will augment Christ"s glory in the Church, seeing that he will reveal to men the Person and glory of the Christ, by inward processes, by vivid spiritual intuitions, by mental exercises which we are quite ready to confess are far beyond the compass of logic, and break through all laws of induction or evolution. This is the high function of the Spirit in inspiration to take of that which belongs to the Son of God, and so to quicken the spiritual faculty of men that they can and do understand it. "The Spirit searcheth all things, even the depths of Deity," and reveals them to those who receive the Holy Ghost. Our Lord declares that all truth is implicitly contained in himself. In John 14 he said, "I am the Truth" about God and about man, and about the relation of man to God. The Spirit will draw aside the veils which hide this truth, will draw forth the hidden harmonies contained in this wondrous Personality. Such continuous revelation is from glory to glory. (2Co_3:17, 2Co_3:18) St. Paul at the close of his ministry was aware of unfathomed treasures still hidden in the Christ, and he put before himself, as the goal of his highest ambition, "that I may know him". (Php_3:10)

HOMILIES BY GEORGE BROWN Ver. 14. The Christ glorified by the Spirit.

"He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Thus our Lord sums up the work of the Holy Spirit within the Church. He had just said that the Comforter is not to come as it were on an isolated and independent mission. "He shall not speak of himself." For, though he is another Comforter, he is not a second Mediator between God and man. He is not a second Redeemer, Prophet, Priest, and King. No; there is but one Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The office of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us that Name. He is to limit himself, if we may so speak, to bearing witness concerning Christ. This may be said with perfect reverence. Doubtless to the infinite Spirit of the Eternal all secrets of creation and providence, and all the most hidden things of the Divine counsels, lie open; they are all his own. But mark! it is not to reveal these that he comes as the Church"s Comforter, the one economy of grace that is the sphere of his mission, the one mystery of godliness that he has taken upon himself to disclose. He is to continue Christ"s own instructions. He is to guide the disciples, step by step, "into all the truth," the whole truth as it is in Jesus.

I THIS PROMISE WAS LARGELY FULFILLED IN THE MINISTRY OF THE APOSTLES THEMSELVES AFTER PENTECOST. They knew all the facts of our Lord"s history already his birth of a virgin, his death on the cross, and his resurrection and ascension into glory. But they were not left to themselves to interpret these facts and explain their spiritual meaning. Far from it; their eyes were opened, and their understandings guided from above. They and the Apostle Paul, who was ere long to be added to their company, had the mighty work entrusted to them of explaining to all ages the true significance of the mission of Christ in the flesh. They were inspired to do this. A wisdom not their own was given to them. They were no longer "fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken." Formerly they had been like children; now they were men of full age, and became the authoritative heralds and expounders of the gospel. Paul was fully conscious of this when he said, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,". (2Co_4:6) It is important to observe the order, so to say, of the Spirit"s revelations concerning Christ. The great outstanding facts, as just noted, of our Lord"s manifestation to men are

(1) his incarnation;

(2) his cross;

(3) his crown.

It is around these that all the doctrines of the faith are clustered; out of these facts they may be said to grow. From the very first that is to say from Pentecost the Holy Spirit bore a certain witness concerning them all. But in what order did he bring them into prominence? Which did he first show forth in light and glory to the eyes of men? Plainly it was not the birth of Christ, but his exaltation to the right hand of God. This was the great and urgent theme of Pentecost and of the days which immediately followed (see the Book of Acts). The words of the Apostle Peter," God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ, these words were the beginning of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Andthen, as time went on, the full meaning of the cross was unfolded, and the Apostle Paul, who, above all things, preached Christ crucified, was inspired to declare it as no one else had done. And, last of all, the deep mystery of Christ"s incarnation, how "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, that in its turn was chiefly explored by the beloved disciple John. Thus, through the illumination of the same Spirit, the crown shed its light upon the cross, and the cross and the crown shed their united light on the cradle. The ripe fruit, the imperishable record of all this, is to be found in the Scriptures of the New Testament. How did the Spirit of truth glorify Jesus in guiding and inspiring their human authors! What a revelation do they contain of the Person and work, the mind and heart, of the Holy One, never to be superseded by any newer Testament so long as the world lasts!

II THIS PROMISE HAS BEEN FURTHER FULFILLED IN THE SUBSEQUENT HISTORY AND LIFE OF THE CHURCH. It was by no means exhausted when the eyewitnesses and first ministers of the Word had gone to their rest, leaving behind them the memory of their oral teaching and the Books of the New Testament. So far from this, it has ever been by the Spirit of truth that the voice of Christ, even in the Scriptures, has continued to be audible and mighty, and that his presence in any of the means of grace has been realized. We are warned that the letter killeth; and, alas! there have been Churches whose candlestick has been removed out of its place. But in each living Christian community there are men whose lips and hearts are touched by fire from God"s altar, that they may interpret the gospel to their own times and their own brethren. Like householders, they bring forth out of their treasures things new and old. By their spoken words, by their written treatises, perhaps by their hymns of faith and hope, they declare afresh to those around them the unsearchable riches of Christ. In its essence and substance their message is still the same which was from the beginning;" in its form and expression it varies with the aspects of providence and the problems of human life. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and the age will never come when these treasures shall be exhausted, or the Spirit"s ministry of revelation shall cease. "The world will come to an end when Christianity shall have spoken its last word" (Vinet). Great, indeed, is the responsibility of Christian pastors and teachers, called as they are to be fellow-workers with God. The means of grace, the lively oracles, are committed especially to their trust. It is theirs to trim the lamps of life in a dark world; it is theirs to feed the flock of Christ, to stand by the wells of salvation and draw water for every one that is athirst. And who is sufficient for these things? But it is the Master"s work, and here is the promise which he has given for the encouragement of all his servants. Light and power from on high are assured by it, and God will give his Spirit to them that ask him.

III THIS PROMISE IS CONSTANTLY FULFILLED IN ALL TRUE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE; for in the case of each individual believer the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to his soul. It is no doubt true that the gospel record is the common property of all mankind, and that any man in the mere exercise of his natural intelligence can see clearly enough how the great doctrines of the faith are founded on the record, and grow out of it. And thus, in point of fact, there are thousands who look upon Christ as a great historical Teacher, and content themselves with making what we may call an intellectual study of his own words and those of his apostles. But his true disciples go further, much further than this. How shall we express the thoughts of their hearts about Christ? May we not say that these correspond to his own words, "Behold, I am alive for evermore;" "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world"? They think of him not as a Being separated from them by eighteen long centuries of time, but as One who is really, though spiritually, present with them, at once human and Divine. They habitually rejoice in his exaltation as "Lord of all." They feel a present peace in the blood of his cross. They bow before the mystery of his taking on him our nature. His authority over them is supreme, and altogether welcome. His example is ever immeasurably in advance of them, though they humbly seek to follow it; and his words are like no other words spirit and life to their hearts. And we may say that these feelings and convictions of Christ"s disciples are altogether reasonable that is to say, they are entirely in accordance with the supernatural fact that Jesus is the Son of God. But whence came these convictions? Whence their depth and their permanence and their power? There is but one explanation, and we find it in the promise before us: "The Spirit of truth shall receive of mine," etc. Not that he brings any fresh tidings from the invisible world concerning Christ, or adds a single fact or truth to what the Scriptures contain; but to those who resist not his teaching he manifests what is already known in its reality and glory. He opens their eyes, purges their vision, sweeps away the veil that comes between them and their Lord. And it is ever the same Christ that the Spirit of truth reveals to the soul of man; and yet under his teaching what room there is for variety and progress of spiritual apprehension! The same sun puts on a different glory every hour of the longest day. His light is as various as the lands on which he shines; and so it is with Christ, our unchanging Sun of Righteousness himself "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." He has an aspect for every period of life, and for all life"s great vicissitudes, to those who believe. In childhood he may chiefly appear as a gentle Shepherd, in youth as an earnest Counselor, in manhood as a mighty King, and in the evening of life, when its battles are well-nigh over, and its companions scattered, as a faithful, never-dying Friend. What is the result of this teaching of the Spirit of truth? Under his illumination the soul cannot remain unchanged. It is true that here below Christians see through a glass darkly not yet face to face. Still, amid all the imperfections of the life of faith, what they do see of the glory of Christ makes them see all things in new light, and judge all things by a new standard. The world cannot be to them what it was before, for their horizon widens out far beyond its frontiers. Self can no longer be their idol, for they have become conscious of a Presence which raises them above themselves. In their own measure and degree "they have the mind of Christ." Grandly and powerfully does the Apostle Paul describe the ultimate effect of the Spirit"s teaching: "We all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed," etc. (2Co_3:18)

IV In conclusion, WHO SHALL PUT BOUNDS OR LIMITS TO THE FULFILLMENT OF THIS PROMISE IN THE FUTURE? We know that men shall be blessed in Christ, and all nations shall call him blessed. On this earth, where he was despised and rejected, he is yet to be crowned with glory and honor from the rising to the setting sun. Human life in all its departments is to be gladdened by his presence, inspired by his example, molded by his will. Through what means, or after what convulsions or shakings of the nations, this is to be brought about we cannot tell; but it will not be by human might or power, but by the Spirit of the Holy One, that the grand result will be achieved. It is written that "he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations;" and when that veil is rent from the top to the bottom, then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. G.B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here Christ shews the advantage which would redound to himself by the coming of the Comforter; he declares that the Spirit should glorify him by his testimony, gifts, and miracles, and shall in all things accord with him, and thereby evidence that he hath his mission from him: He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. And, all things that the Father hath are mine.

Hence learn, that, although the union in essence amongst the persons in the Trinity is the same, yet the order of their subsistence and operation is distinct: the Son being from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son; For all things that the Father hath are mine; And the Spirit shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Observe farther, that these words afford a strong argument to prove the divinity of Christ: All things which my Father hath are mine. Where Christ challenges to himself the incommunicable attributes of God, and consequently that essence which is inseparable from them.

Doth the Father know the secrets of all hearts? So doth Christ, All the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts. Rev 2:23

Is the Father eternal? So is Christ, I was set up from everlasting, &c. Pro 8:23

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14, 15. He shall glorify me. “All things that the Father hath are mine,” and the Spirit “shall receive of mine and shew it to you.” “These three are one;” a striking illustration of the unity of the Godhead. They are so united that what proceeds from one proceeds from all.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

14, 15, 24. λήμψεται for λήψεται: Winer, p. 53.

14. ἐκεῖνος ἐμέ. Both pronouns are emphatic; ‘Me shall that Spirit glorify.’ Just as the Son glorifies the Father by revealing Him (Joh 1:18, Joh 17:4) both in word and work, so does the Spirit glorify the Son by revealing Him. In both cases to reveal is necessarily to glorify: the more the Truth is known, the more it is loved and adored. Λήμψεται here and λαμβάνει in Joh 16:15 must be rendered alike, and by take rather than ‘receive;’ it implies that the recipient is not wholly passive: comp. Joh 10:17, Joh 12:48, Joh 20:22.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14.] Notice the emphatic ἐμέ, prefixed to the verb.

This is in connexion with ver. 12—and sets forth that the Spirit guiding into truth is in fact the Son declaring the truth, for He shall shew forth the glory of Christ, by revealing the matters of Christ,—the riches of the Father’s love in Him (ver. 15). “Œconomia trium testium: patrem glorificat filius, filium Spiritus sanctus.” Bengel.

This verse is decisive against all additions and pretended revelations subsequent to and besides Christ; it being the work of the Spirit to testify to and declare the things of Christ; not any thing new and beyond Him. And this declaration is coincident with inward advance in the likeness and image of Christ (2Co 3:17, 2Co 3:18), not with a mere external development.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. ἐκεῖνος ἐμὲ δοξάσει. The Spirit was not to come until Jesus had been “glorified,” i.e. in His Passion (7:39); but thenceforth every fresh revelation of the Spirit, all new insight into the meaning of Christ’s gospel, would be a fresh “glorification” of Christ, an enlargement of man’s sense of His majesty. As the Son had “glorified” the Father while He was on earth (17:4), so the Spirit will “glorify” the Son after He has departed from human vision.

ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἐμου λήμψεται καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν. This “glorification” will be brought about by the Spirit’s revelation of Christian truth. The advanced Christology of the Pauline Epistles, and of the Fourth Gospel itself, as compared with that to which the apostles had attained before the Passion, is a signal illustration of this.

See 14:22, where the question of Jude shows that very different thoughts as to the future “glorification” of Jesus filled the hearts of the apostles. They expected a visible manifestation in glory, which should convict the world and put it to shame.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall receive [ληψεται] . Rev., take. See on 3 32.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.