John 14:16-18

Jesus was preparing the apostles for his death and ascension to the right hand of the Father. He consoled them with these words: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18).

Some believe that the Spirit’s work on earth ended when the New Testament’s last word was written. Those who take this position must accept the truth that we are now orphans—left to our own hermeneutical and exegetical abilities to understand God’s word and produce the fruit of the Spirit. We shall let the Word speak to us.

We begin with the text: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18).

Jesus began this discourse, saying that he would be going away, and they could not follow (13:33), but that he would be going to prepare a place for them. While he is away preparing, the Holy Spirit will be given to them so that they will not be orphans. He said that the Spirit was with them and would be in them. It was not necessary for the Spirit to be in them for them to speak by inspiration, heal the sick, and raise the dead, for they did all of this when he sent them out on the limited commission, which was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:1-20; Luke 12:12). The Spirit could empower them to do what they did without being in them in the sense he promised, and the Spirit can be in us without empowering us to do what they did. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a power, which can only function in one way. Even in the age of undisputed miracles, the Holy Spirit did not manifest his power in the same way to every individual.

If the promise does not extend to us, then we are orphans indeed. “We have the words of Jesus and the writings of the apostles,” one might argue. The oracles of God had been entrusted to the Jews (Romans 3:2), and Jesus raised the standard of righteousness, so how would we be any better off than the Jews. We would be worse off because Jesus raised the standard of conduct from the mere act to the thought behind the act (See Matthew 5:21-48).