John 14:16 Commentary and Bible Study

Note that this is about the person of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is referring, as he says in verse 17, to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the person of the Holy Spirit.How much had the disciples understood about the Holy Spirit before this last night? ‘I will pray the Father, and he shall give you [he is also called Christ’s Spirit] another Comforter.’ This is a person of the Godhead. Christ is their comforter. The word translated ‘Comforter’ may be variously translated. Some translate it, protector, and others, helper. Others translate it according to its literal sense, advocate, but that is not the primary sense intended here. That is obvious. Our King James translators translate it ‘Comforter’ and we will soon see why.This protector, this helper, this comforter, well, they already have one. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is a member of the Godhead, one with the Father, one God, three persons. He is a divine person. But he is leaving them, and so they are going to receive another comforter, helper, protector, advocate. The one they will be given to replace Christ is like Christ himself, a divine person. It is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, equal with the Father, equal with the Son.And this is probably the first time that the disciples really understood that. They knew about the Holy Spirit, a term which was in fairly common use among the Jews at that time, but in all probability, they would have thought among their many misunderstandings that the Holy Spirit was just a force, a way of describing a force emanating from God – God in action, another name for the power of God. They probably never thought of him as a distinctive, distinguished, wonderful, glorious, divine person, one with the Father and the Son. But here it is. ‘I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.’ ‘He’ – that little word signifies that he is a person, a divine person, with his own identity. Now it is being unfolded to them by Christ. I am going, but in my place you will have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who will be resident within you and who will work within you spiritually, impressing on your mind and heart divine things as clearly as if I were with you as your physically present teacher. Now we are going into the age of the Holy Spirit, the Lord tells them. I am absent, but I am with you by my Spirit.