Jesus' Greatest Gift to Us
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, 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. John 14:16, 17, RSV.
With this passage we have arrived at another great theme of the fourth Gospel. More than in any book in the Bible, it is in John's Gospel that we find the most explicit and detailed understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will return to the topic repeatedly in chapters 15 and 16 as He seeks to prepare His disciples for leading His church after His death. The emphasis on the Spirit will climax on the day of Pentecost when the disciples are more fully empowered to carry out their task of taking the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is absolutely central to the Christian life. Not only are true Christians born of the Spirit (John 1:12; 3:3, 5), but every act of their lives is guided by what Ellen White calls the "divine" "third person of the Godhead" (Evangelism, p. 617). "This promised blessing," we read in The Desire of Ages "brings all other blessings in its train" (p. 672). As Jesus prepared His disciples for His soon departure, it is no accident that He repeatedly taught them about the gift of the Spirit. It was their greatest need. And it remains the greatest need of those followers of the Lamb who live in the twenty-first century.
In John 14:16 Jesus does not give the promise of the Holy Spirit in isolation. In the previous verse He had told His followers that if they really loved Him they would keep His commandments. Given the perverseness of human nature, that is no easy task. In fact, fallen humans cannot obey them in the spirit of love without divine aid. Thus it is that the next words of Jesus are the promise of "another Counselor." "Counselor" is not a very meaningful translation of parakletos, which literally means "one called to the side of." The most helpful rendering in English is "Helper" (NASB). The parakletos is someone brought in to help when a person needs guidance and strength and direction. Jesus has performed those functions for His followers up until now. But His departure is at hand. So He promises them "another Helper."
Here we need to pause for a moment to think seriously about our own needs. It is all too easy for us to assume that we are self-sufficient--that we can make a success of our Christian experience through our own will and strength. But with such a perspective we are just as deceived as the disciples. Our greatest need is the divine parakletos.
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, 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. John 14:16, 17, RSV.
With this passage we have arrived at another great theme of the fourth Gospel. More than in any book in the Bible, it is in John's Gospel that we find the most explicit and detailed understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will return to the topic repeatedly in chapters 15 and 16 as He seeks to prepare His disciples for leading His church after His death. The emphasis on the Spirit will climax on the day of Pentecost when the disciples are more fully empowered to carry out their task of taking the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is absolutely central to the Christian life. Not only are true Christians born of the Spirit (John 1:12; 3:3, 5), but every act of their lives is guided by what Ellen White calls the "divine" "third person of the Godhead" (Evangelism, p. 617). "This promised blessing," we read in The Desire of Ages "brings all other blessings in its train" (p. 672). As Jesus prepared His disciples for His soon departure, it is no accident that He repeatedly taught them about the gift of the Spirit. It was their greatest need. And it remains the greatest need of those followers of the Lamb who live in the twenty-first century.
In John 14:16 Jesus does not give the promise of the Holy Spirit in isolation. In the previous verse He had told His followers that if they really loved Him they would keep His commandments. Given the perverseness of human nature, that is no easy task. In fact, fallen humans cannot obey them in the spirit of love without divine aid. Thus it is that the next words of Jesus are the promise of "another Counselor." "Counselor" is not a very meaningful translation of parakletos, which literally means "one called to the side of." The most helpful rendering in English is "Helper" (NASB). The parakletos is someone brought in to help when a person needs guidance and strength and direction. Jesus has performed those functions for His followers up until now. But His departure is at hand. So He promises them "another Helper."
Here we need to pause for a moment to think seriously about our own needs. It is all too easy for us to assume that we are self-sufficient--that we can make a success of our Christian experience through our own will and strength. But with such a perspective we are just as deceived as the disciples. Our greatest need is the divine parakletos.
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