New Thoughts (02/28/12-03/06/12)
Thinking on these verses as I have pulling my thoughts together, I find it easy to begin thinking of them as exploring two separate points. There is first that issue of the permit to ask of the Father and second, the matter of sending the Holy Spirit. The truth is, though, that these two points are integrally connected one with another. Apart from the imparted presence of the Holy Spirit, to entrust us with such a permit would be unthinkable. Even with the present Holy Spirit the evidence might suggest that such a course was riskier than might seem wise.
The access we are granted according to the first half of this passage strikes me as a far more fearsome risk than the medieval church saw in allowing Scripture to be translated into the vernacular. Indeed, that work was done in full recognition of the risks. It was possible that every man reading the Holy Scriptures might well read only his own imaginations confirmed therein. But, this was no cause to refuse the translation. It was cause to better inform those who would read the translation, to provide a higher quality of education so that they might reject the impulse to read their own opinions into the material.
Perhaps God in His infinite wisdom has run a similar bit of mental calculus, well aware of the risks of placing such power in the hands of men, and yet knowing that the steps He has taken would ensure that even such fallen men would bear the power wisely. It remains possible, though, that those who suppose themselves to be wielding the power of God are doing no such thing. It is assuredly possible, indeed certain, that a portion of those prayers that are sent His way exceed the authority granted us, and these He is in no wise required to give His attention to. But, I am perhaps far ahead of myself in this introductory thought.
Let me instead turn to considering the verses before me. In doing so, I shall in large part consider verses 12 through 15 as a block of thought, and verses 16 and 17 as another block of thought. I do, however, wish to retain the perspective of these two blocks interconnected. Hopefully, the ways in which I shall observe the first portion will reflect the necessities of the second.
I shall start, then, at the beginning: He who believes in Me. This is the foundation for what follows. It is the first condition given for the astounding promises that follow. We must believe, and we must believe in Him. But, what does that entail? I have certainly looked at and written about the foundations of faith often, but one arguably could never write about them often enough. We need the reminders. So, first I shall establish my usual point, that faith is not blind. Faith is built upon evidence. Faith has been convinced by argumentation.
Were that the whole of it, it would remain a great risk that our faith, though convinced by evidence, was convinced by false evidence and so was a false faith. A salesman of the less scrupulous sort counts on achieving just such a result. Arguably even the more scrupulous operate on the same principle. They are trying to convince you by their arguments that you not only find their product of interest, but truly need that product. It is worth the cost. Its benefits all but demand that you purchase the product whatever the cost. This is, let’s face it, the voice of sin – which is not to say that every salesman is a sinner, rather that the sin is a masterful salesman.
But, faith in Christ, faith in God, is built upon sound evidence, rational arguments, a clear exposition of Truth. It is, nonetheless, a line of argumentation that we in our natural capacities will refuse to accept as reasonable. It is needful that our hearts be regenerated, our eyes and ears opened by the hand of God before we will prove willing to accept the obvious. Yet, even with that necessary involvement of God in the process, the fact remains that the evidence continues to come in, the evidence continues to present an unchanging, unmodified statement of Truth. The theories are not found to be in need of revision based on later discoveries. Our translations of Scripture reflect a degree to which this need for revision may be present in the work of translation. Other manuscripts come to light, some confirming, some raising questions as to the specific word or phrase in this chapter or that. But, as concerns the Truth revealed in those Scriptures, no such revision is found necessary. Ever.
Beyond even this, though, there is the particular power of that faith which is set upon God. It’s moved beyond the matter of being convinced. It’s far more than simply accepting conceptually that what He claims is true. It’s a matter of those things that build upon that wonderful truth. If these things be so, then there are some truly astounding implications. If what He says is True, then what He has done for me is True. If what He has done for me is True, then (as if His being God All Powerful were not sufficient cause to impel me towards obedience) the clear depths of His love and care for me must surely bring me to trust in Him. As Thayer speaks of the matter, I find I am impelled by ‘a higher law of the soul’ to trust Jesus so thoroughly that I must give myself up to Him, that I do so willingly, and that I do so with the utmost assurance that what I have done is an absolutely safe and unquestionably wise choice. I join with Peter, saying, “where else would I go, Lord? You speak Life in me. You are Life in me.”
This faith, this absolute trust that Jesus knows what He’s doing, and that He has ordained the course of my days, is the necessary precondition for the statement which follows: You shall do as I do, and more! Now, I need to stop right there and consider the nature of that ‘more’. You shall do greater works than these! We hear that and some of us at least find ourselves pondering what we could possibly do that’s going to be more spectacular than resurrection, more spectacular than calming the seas by a word. Why, Jesus cast out demons! Jesus cured the incurable with little more than a thought in their direction. Jesus made the blind to see and the lame to walk! And we’re going to do better than that? Wow!
Right about then, it seems, the reaction veers off into one of a very few directions. A large part of us (and I think I could say it is a large part of each of us) responds not so very differently than did Simon the magician. I want me some of that! Think how amazed my friends will be! Awesome! We do, I think even in the most conservative corners of the Church, find ourselves in awe of those things we read in Acts, and something there is in us that wants to be able to do the same. Certainly, when we are faced with chronic disease in one who is near and dear to us we wish we could just snap our fingers and see that disease gone and never to return, every mark of its ravages erased. We can just as certainly imagine righting some of the more grievous wrongs in society by the power given us. What we cannot really imagine is that it’s going to work.
This, too, is a question of believing the evidence. The examples one could bring to bear are too numerous. If it is possible for us to perform these miracles, why are they not commonplaces throughout church history? Why is there cancer if we are empowered to wipe every case of it from the planet by just the word of prayer? Why is there war, or poverty, or drug abuse, or sexual deviancy, or any other of the endless afflictions of moral decay? These should have been eradicated long ago! Why do we not hear of the miracles performed by the giants of the Church? Why is there not book listing out the wonders performed by Martin Luther or John Calvin or Augustine of Hippo or any of the myriad others whose records are unquestionably records of faithful men of faith?
I expect the answer lies in part in a misunderstanding of just what Jesus means by greater. Is He suggesting we will do things more astounding? Is He suggesting we will do miracles more significant than His own? Honestly, I think we should be ashamed to suggest such at thing, that we can do better than God. We probably don’t think of things in that light, at least not consciously. But that’s really what we’re proposing when we consider the significance of greater as lying in that direction. It’s ego rising up. Hah! I’m going to one up God! And therein lies proof of that original sin which we inherited at conception.
One could instead posit that Jesus is speaking in terms of quantity rather than quality. You shall achieve more (at least in terms of immediate temporal impact) than I have. That should still humble us in the extreme to hear suggested. But, the most basic of premises that one might suppose is that the Apostles would have a lengthier span of time in which to labor, and a wider field. Jesus, by His own confession and by His own plan, was restricted to a three year window of time spent almost entirely within the confines of Israel. The greater part of that time was spent in the Galilean districts, which were the less influential. The remainder was spent on a mission as lacking in cause to hope as was Jeremiah’s. Sent to a people all but guaranteed not to listen. In the end, there were what? 120 men out of all Israel who believed. Oh, I’m sure the number was greater, but it was nothing near what the Son of God deserved.
By contrast, the Apostles had years of service, decades in which to work, and their work spread out from Jerusalem into the full extent of the known world. Surely, the immediate impact of their work far exceeded the impact Jesus had in His brief excursion on the world stage. Of course, every last bit of that impact right down and on through our own day, accrues to His account. For, apart from Him, all ministry is futile. But, His statement holds, and the evidence is in. They did do greater things. We remain in position to do greater things, to touch more lives directly, to speak the Gospel to more ears directly. Yet, as I shall attempt to make clear further on, all that we do is nothing, for we are but ambassadors, representatives of the only One Who wills and works in men that they, too, might believe and be saved.
[03/02/12] I should just note that 03/01/12 essentially does not exist for me, certainly not as concerns this study. I say this simply because the first portion of the day was spent nodding off during flights from San Jose back to home, and the remainder, other than an hour or two around dinner time, was spent sleeping in earnest.
Picking up on the thought I was pursuing before this intermission, I think I may need to revamp my views. That ‘greater’ is a matter of degree, according to Strong, but we must consider the question, degree of what? The term in question eventually arrives back at megas [3173]: for which term, I can find further information from Thayer. The possibilities are myriad, if not endless. It could describe the dimensions of a thing, it’s area or mass. It is also used in reference to age, indicating the quantity of years. It can also take on that sense of numeric degree in other applications. It can just as easily be turned to matters of intensity, as of effort or emotion, power, and so on. Applied to rank or eminence, it of course indicates degree, indicating the more exalted, the more majestic, the more important. Then, the term can describe the scale of the thing in view. In light of all these possibilities, perhaps that revision of my views is not necessary after all. The potential for a different meaning is there, but it is a potential, not a requirement.
It seems to me, then, that the wiser course is to assume the numeric. If it please God to so use us as to surpass His own Son as to the nature or supernature of these works we do in Him, so be it. But, I dare not allow my pride the thought of outdoing God.
Now, I note that this business of greater deeds is the immediate precedent for that most awesome promise that Jesus will do anything we ask of the Father. There is much to unpack in that promise, but the first thing we ought to unpack, and then throw in the trash barrel, is the thought that we can just pray up whatever we want. The fact that such a carte blanche view of God’s answering our prayers should be thoroughly dismissed on the simple evidence of our experience does not stop everybody from assuming such a viewpoint none the less. God, they suppose, is required by this statement to do whatever I ask, so long as I remember to tack Jesus’ name to my request. If I want a sunny day today, all I need do is ask it with that little formula, “in Jesus’ name,” and He has to do it! He promised!
Of course, such a mindset leads to some serious problems in explaining just why it is that things are not always as we pray. If this is the deal, why did so and so die? Why is cancer still in the world? Why does it ever rain at all? If two believers pray for opposing outcomes, how does God resolve His promise? In short, it ought to be patently obvious that this anything is not carte blanche, but is bound about by some controlling factor beyond the mouthing of three magic words. The qualification, in this case, is Jesus Himself. When we are granted to pray in His name, the intent is that we are praying by His authority, asking as His representatives. If we ask as His representatives, we are agents of His government. That is but one of the implications to be drawn out of this promise, but I’ll try and come back to that later. On this point, if we represent His government, then our promises and our requests are only as valid as they present the official government position.
Just as an American ambassador can only offer such terms as are truly authorized by the President he represents, so we can only offer or seek such terms as are truly authorized by Jesus, whom we represent. The ambassador can go too far. He can make promises that are nonbinding But, he does so to his own embarrassment. If the government refuses to honor that promise, it is no stain to the government’s reputation. It is the ambassador whose standing suffers. He failed to exercise his office appropriately, and thus fails to be an ambassador. His word is not to be trusted, because it is not backed by any authority.
This is the application we must take for our prayers. The prayer that exceeds the authority vested in us, the prayer that ignores the will of the heavenly government we represent and seeks instead our own interests is an invalid prayer. It cannot and should not be expected to prevail. God is not in breach of His promises if He chooses to ignore such a petition. It is not authorized and therefore has no power whatsoever. Worse still, the enemy knows full well. To pray such an unauthorized, invalid prayer when facing down the enemy is worse than frivolous. It is suicidal. God may choose to act to preserve you for His own reasons, but there is no assurance to be had based on such prayers of personal desire.
It is a never ending task to resolve in our own minds that when we are instructed to pray in the name of Jesus it is not a formula we are handed. That name is not a word only, but a recalling to mind of everything that Jesus is. It must put us in mind of His ways, His character, His instructions, and perhaps most importantly, His majesty. He is Lord. He is my King. The things I do as His representative must represent Him truly, else I have failed in my mission. If my prayers, then, do not accurately reflect His will, I have failed in my mission. God will not be mocked, certainly not by His own.
Notice, right off the bat, why Jesus says He will do this thing: That the Father may be glorified in the Son. Well, now: The request you have put in; did you request something that honors the Father? Did you request something that will cause His excellence to be displayed? Or did you ask for something that will make you look good, or feel good, or simply amuse and entertain? Seriously, if we would consider before praying whether the thing we pray for is to God’s glory, honestly to His glory, how many of our prayers might we set aside without another thought? Does this glorify God?
Of course, before we can honestly answer such a question, we must first clarify our understanding of God. We must be mindful, for instance, that God is glorified in the punishment of sin just as much as He is glorified in the redemption of the sinner. He is as glorified in the exercise of justice as in the exercise of mercy. He is as glorified as the Old Testament God of war and avenging wrath as He is as the New Testament God of hope, love and forgiveness. Indeed, He is both! There is no divide except in our own thinking. God is God. He is everything He is all the time, and He does not change. Only in the degree that we hold an honest and accurate view of His greatness can we discern whether our prayers truly magnify and exalt Him. There is every reason then, in our limited knowledge, to qualify our requests with the understanding, ‘if it be Your will’. This is no cop out for weak hearted, faithless prayer. It is the profound humility of recognizing our place and His place, knowing we are nowhere near so smart as we like to think we are, and that His ways are still far and away above our own. In the end, His word is the only word. I, as His representative, am not authorized to assure outcomes based on my views, only on His. If He says otherwise, I can only accede to His greater wisdom.
In this regard, the Living Bible really misses the mark when it provides its paraphrase of the passage. “You can ask him for anything, using my name, and I will do it, for this will bring praise to the Father because of what I, the Son, will do for you.” Wrong! It is not His doing what you ask that glorifies the Father. It is that those things you ask are reflective of the Father, allowing Him to answer as you would have Him do that glorifies the Father. The Father is not glorified by being bound to the commands of His own creation. What do we think He is, some genie out of a child’s tale? No, we can’t rub the Bible and make three wishes. We cannot demand. Far be it from us! We can represent, and we can seek to represent faithfully.
This will not only glorify the Father, but it will glorify Him in the Son. Why is that? Is it because the Son can do what we ask? No. It is because what we ask reflects the character of our Teacher, and therefore of the Father. In so much as our prayers are of this nature, it reflects well on our Teacher, demonstrates that He taught us well, and this glorifies the Father indeed, for it proves once more His wisdom in speaking of His Son as one in whom He is well pleased. His judgment is indeed proven sound.
Far better, then, the positions given by others of the less literal translations. The Message, for instance, says, “whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it.” The Amplified Bible offers the phrasing, “as presenting all that I AM.” That’s the thing we need to keep firmly in mind whenever we contemplate the gift of being granted to pray for anything. Yes! Anything representing all He IS, anything that reflects and echoes who He is and what He is doing. If you ask anything that is in keeping with My character and example, I will do it. If it is not in keeping with what I have taught you and shown you, then no promise.
Now, I had commented that there is much to unpack in this short statement of promise. Let met turn back to that. First, we might want to consider to whom we are advised to direct our requests. Is it asking Him or asking Father? In verse 14, Jesus makes it explicit: “If you ask Me.” But, back in verse 13, it is unstated to Whom we direct our requests. I maintain there is a reason for this. To begin with, Jesus is not inclined to speak unnecessarily, and we have just been told that what He speaks are not His own words, but the work of God the Father within Him. Arguably, that statement was intended to apply with particular aptness to the present discourse. Jesus is not just repeating Himself here while He gathers His thoughts for the next point. Neither is this simply a case of Jewish poetic style. There is a parallelism of thought, to be sure, but there’s a point made by the distinctions.
Let’s go back to verse 13. If you ask, I will do. But, whom would they naturally ask? To whom have they always directed their prayers? And, indeed, to whom has their Teacher directed His? We see, then, that the natural inference, where no specific target of these requests exists, is to presume the Father. Given no other specifics, this is where the mind will go. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to hear that verse as saying, “If you ask the Father in My name, I will do.” This is a stunning point. This starts to drive home the full reality of what it means to know Jesus as the Son of God. Those prayers you pray? By all means, pray to the Father, for it is proper that you do so. He is the appropriate party to address. And whatever in your prayers is by My authority, I will assuredly be doing. I will do! I authorize, you ask, He approves, I do.
There are two points to draw from this. First, and building upon what Jesus has been saying previously, He and the Father are One. That is amplified by the repeated phrasing, where He specifies to ask of Him by His authority. Ask the Father, ask Me. The two are One. If each is in the other, intimately connected and inseparable, then it would be impossible to ask the Father without asking the Son, or to ask the Son without asking the Father. They are individual in Person, yet One in being: the ultimate one-flesh relationship.
The second thing that jumps out at me in considering the whole chain of events is that it is Jesus start to end. See it again: I authorize, you ask, He approves, I do. With the amplification of verse 13, it becomes: I authorize, you ask, I approve, I do. Now, given the previous point, every I in that could also be construed as a He. But, there is reason to leave it with Jesus. He is assigned that role of command. The Father is surely over all things, and Jesus being One with the Father is similarly over all things. Yet, He has submitted Himself to the Father’s command. He is the General. He deploys as best suits the goals of Government, as most directly achieves the desired ends. He authorizes us, in this regard, to call in from the field, from the front lines, if you like, to request more firepower or what have you.
But, the thing to bear in mind is this: that in that chain of events, my involvement is really minimal, and the involvement of my particular desires and preferences are less even than that. I am able to ask only what accords with His will. That is to say, I can ask for what is not in accord, but not with any expectation of results. And we should certainly be aware that what is in His will, He will do with or without our request. It’s not like He’s paralyzed up there on the throne until we think to raise an alarm. Not at all! That we are part of the equation at all is, to my thinking, one of the greater aspects of His grace. We are granted to be a part of the redemption story, not because that story fails without us, but because He Who writes the story chooses to offer us a part, so that we can feel useful.
This matter of the Oneness of Father and Son is possibly reinforced by the terms Jesus uses to describe the asking being done. In these verses where we are doing the asking, Jesus uses the term aiteo. When He comes to His own request in verse 16, He switches to erotao. Why? There is some debate as to what the precise distinction is between these two terms, but I feel certain we can ascribe more than rhetorical style to the shift. Jesus isn’t just displaying His breadth of vocabulary. One of the older theories as to the distinction holds that aiteo refers to requests made of a superior, where erotao is a request made of an equal, or of one with whom the requestor is particularly familiar. Let me stick with the equal aspect.
Thayer seems to dissuade us from accepting this distinction and draws the line elsewhere, suggesting that aiteo indicates a request made out of need, as seeking a material boon, where erotao is a request more simple in nature. Given the trend of this discourse, though, the idea of indicating the relationship between requestor and grantor would seem more natural. If you ask God, you are clearly asking of one infinitely superior to yourself. As we have seen, the inferred addressee of verse 13 and the explicit addressee of verse 14 emphasize that Father and Son are One to such a degree as to be interchangeable in our thinking. If you ask Father, you ask Son. Adding this matter of verse 16, it would seem there is also an equality of person in the doing part. If you ask, I will do. I will ask, He will do. The emphasis is on this Oneness. So, then, when He asks, it is no longer aiteo, no longer the inferior seeking aid from the superior. It is a request between equals, erotao, King asking King, God asking God. If you choose to see instead the familiarity of one with the other, I don’t think the point is much diluted. I do, however, see that Jesus is really stressing the equality of Father and Son through this whole message, particularly as it has been made clear to Him that the Apostles haven’t really grasped the implications of that equality.
Now, I note that I have been jumping around somewhat, when it comes to the order in which I thought to address things. So be it. I want to go back to that phrase, “in My name”. It is interesting to note that this name, nomos, actually shares a root with ginosko. Ginosko, we will recall, is knowing. Indeed, it is that form of knowing to which the Hebrew might assign the particularly intimate knowledge of intercourse. It is, as the phrase goes, ‘knowing in a Biblical sense’. Or it can be. The thing that strikes me, in recognizing this shared root, is that the intimacy potentially implied in ginosko, is likewise implied in nomos. It’s not just that you happen to know His name. It’s that you know Him. Intimately. You are aware of His depth of character. You know how He thinks, why He acts as well as how. In light of that, the things you ask are asked in full consideration of what you know of Him. They are asked with the assurance that what you ask is pleasing to Him. It is what He would seek to see done Himself. It will glorify Him, even as He seeks to glorify the Father by answering. It will warm His heart to know His disciple has understood Him well enough, taken the lessons to heart, and asks intelligently, giving evidence of not only the aptness of the student, but more to the aptness of the Teacher.
Thus, we must come to the understanding that the asking is indeed constrained, the anything is not a wildcard. It is anything that is authorized, anything that is in keeping with His command, His character, His cause. It is anything asked as being on His behalf. This point should be driven home for us by the inclusion of verse 15. If you are asking what is pleasing to Me, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. If you are acting for love of Me, praying for love of Me, then those prayers must necessarily reflect My commandments, which you seek to keep out of your love for Me.
The NET comments on this verse that, “obedience is the proof of genuine love.” This is not to suggest that we should go around stressing over our efforts to obey, lest Jesus decide we don’t love Him. The whole point is that where the love of Jesus is, that obedience will happen. In our fallen and imperfect state, it will not happen as consistently as we would like. We shall not be 100% obedient in this life, much though we may wish we were. But, add the commentary John offers on this obedience of love. “This is love of God, that we keep His commandments, and find them no burden” (1Jn 5:3). That last clause speaks volumes to me!
Listen, the little failures that bespot our day do not mean that we don’t love God. The devil will try and convince us of that, will seek to sway our thinking into the spiritual depression of uncertainty about our own love. Down that path lies uncertainty about God’s love for us. We are so used to conditional love that we can easily convince ourselves that God’s love is just as conditional as our own. If I blow it, He won’t love me anymore. One slip up, and I’m out. There’s that song (how I wish I hadn’t lost that tape!), “Was it for life You made the promise? Was it for life, or just so long as my nose stayed clean?” We think this way! But, that’s not the point. Far nearer the point is the very fact that we care what His opinion of us might be. Far more to the point is that, while we may fail in upholding His commandments moment to moment, we still find them no burden.
That’s the key. We don’t consider it some onerous task demanded of us, that we should obey His commands. It’s not an annoyance. It’s not like all that TSA stuff at the airport, something we have to do if we want to get where we’re going, but burdensome in nature, aggravating to have to put up with, a petty intrusion of a petty government. No. We are pleased to obey when we do. It blesses us to bless God so. In those moments when we find we are indeed keeping His commandments, there is great joy. It’s not that we are straining and working ourselves up to comply. We aren’t sweating to try and remember every detail of what’s required. It’s starting to come naturally. It’s just the expression of that love we have towards Him that causes us to emulate Him, to seek as best we may to be like Him. And thus we arrive at that other point John makes about the relationship between love and obedience. “We know we have come to know Him by the fact that we keep His commandments” (1Jn 2:3). It’s reassuring! It helps to remove our doubts when we see that we are indeed doing things His way. It would otherwise be a most unnatural act for us, and well do we know it.
I think with the morrow, I can turn to the second clause of this passage: the matter of the Holy Spirit. This promise of the Holy Spirit to come is of a piece with that promise of answered prayer. Consider the last part of verse 17. “He is staying with you and will be united with you,” reads the CJB. Who? The Paraklete, the other Advocate, the Spirit of Truth. Think about the whole arc of what has been said. I am in the Father and He in Me. We are as One, and what you ask, whether of Him or of Me, I will do it, so long as it’s in keeping with My character. Now, then: I am sending of Myself to you as I go. I send you another Advocate, like Myself to be with you forever, to inform you and instruct you. Power!
They are being told of unimaginable power being placed in their hands. Immediate and guaranteed access to God! Even the priests dared not suppose such privilege. These men had seen what Jesus could do, and He has told them that they can do the same and more simply by asking it of Him. And here’s the thing that speaks volumes about the character of these men Jesus selected: They never ever treated this power as something to play with. They never abused the privilege done them. No! They saw this power which had been entrusted into their hands as a thing to be exercised with utmost care. If we consider the example of that encounter with Simon the magician, we see that seriousness come to the fore. What? You would have us impart to you the power of God so you can entertain with it? So you can charge admission? May you perish right along with your coin, to think so little of God!
How many, in our day, are assigning all manner of foolishness to being evidence of God’s power? We’ve had the gold-dust movement (not such dust as any might collect, mind you, only the visuals). We’ve had the bark like a dog movement. We’ve had the magical gold filling thing. We’ve heard about bars of light bouncing around the church or the arena. And all of these things are chalked up to the power of God. But, go through the Scriptures. Where do we ever find God’s power put to such frivolous uses? Where do we ever find God seeking to entertain His people? Where, in short, do we ever find Power manifested without Purpose? We don’t. The nearest you might come to an example is the Wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-11). Even there, however, there was purpose and no frivolity.
The apostles had learned from their Teacher. He didn’t play games and neither would they. Nor would they allow that which had been entrusted to them to be used so lightly. May we maintain that same depth of solemnity and concern in our own efforts. If we have a share in those gifts commonly spoken of as the charismata, then let us bear them in dignity. Let us use them with a seriousness of intent, not as an amusement. I call myself out as guilty in this regard, for I have not always held my own use of tongues in proper perspective, but have allowed it to become something of a means of letting of steam, or merely impressing / amusing my brothers. This ought not to be, and I resolve to set such light thinking behind me as God is with me.
And, He is with me. These promises we are hearing are not for the Twelve alone. They are for the Church through the ages. The Holy Spirit is still with me today, staying with me, united with me! I wonder, sometimes, if I shall ever be able to consider that reality without being set fully aback by it. The Spirit of Truth indwelling a liar like me, who could imagine? The purity of the Trinity taking up His abode in a sinner like me! I don’t even understand how He can do it. How can this One Who cannot and will not abide even the near approach of sin to His holiness accept the conditions of the temple that is my being? I am assuredly not holy, not in the perfection His presence should demand. I am yet a sinner, and well do I know it. Yet, He is here, and well do I know that, too! He is here, and in that is all my hope and confidence.
He is here, He is staying with me, and He is united with me. For those sitting and listening to Jesus in that moment, the last clause remained just a little bit future. There was some heavy stuff they would have to go through first. Yet, even as they weathered the most terrible of spiritual storms which lay ahead, they had the first half of that promise to bear them through. He is with you. He’s already here as I am going, and He’ll be staying when I must leave. At the same time, Jesus sets His arrival in the future. Looking forward a bit to the conversation as it continues in John 15:26, we find Jesus speaking of that time, ‘when the Paraklete comes, the Spirit of Truth.’ But, He is here already. Yet, He is coming later. It’s not as thought the Spirit hasn’t been present in the world all along. How could He not be? He is God every bit as much as Father and Son. He is One as they are One, and where any one Person of the Trinity is, rest assured the others are there as well. Just as Jesus had been in the world all along, and did not make His first entrance with birth, so, too, the Spirit has ever been here, but would arrive in a special and significant manner in that time Jesus is indicating.
Now, there are things we should understand about the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks of Him as another Advocate, another Paraklete. Here, I thank R. C. Sproul for emphasizing this point. Do you ever think upon Jesus as your Paraklete? He is. The Spirit could not be another such Advocate except there was the primary instance to be added to. He is another in number only. He is not a different Advocate with a different set of skills and a different mission. He is another of the same kind. This is only as it should be, for the Lord our God, He is One! The Triune majesty on high is One, though three in Person. There is unity in the Trinity, and this we can never lose sight of. It is not as though the Father has one mission and the Son another, with the Spirit on yet another course. No! There is One: one mission, one plan, one Godhead.
That unity of the Trinity is on display in that verse I brought up a few paragraphs back. “When the Paraklete comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, and Whom I will send from the Father, He will bear witness of Me” (Jn 15:26). All three persons are involved here, and the purpose is One. Son asks, Father commands, Son does, Spirit comes. Spirit’s mission? To witness to Jesus. Jesus’ mission? To glorify the Father. It’s all One. He, the Spirit, will remind us of what He, the Son taught us about He, the Father. Truth!
Recall what I mentioned earlier about Jesus asking the Father as an equal. I would note, as well, that when Jesus speaks of this asking, there is not the least hint of doubt as to whether His request will be met. I will ask. He will give. Neither the asking nor the giving is clouded by any question. They are absolutely certain events. It is already written. Now, add to this, that the Spirit, in answering the call to come to us and abide, is also responding as an equal. He is not some low grade messenger obeying orders. He is obeying, but He is obeying voluntarily. He is obeying because His purpose is One with the Father Who commanded and the Son Who requested. He proceeds from the Father as Jesus sends Him, but in all of this, He is One. If there is rank to be discerned in the Godhead, it seems to me it is as a matter of convenience and organization, and not a matter of degrees of exaltedness. Yes, Jesus speaks of the Father as being greater than Himself. Yet, the Father is Himself. The Lord our God, He is One.
This sending of the Advocate, the Paraklete, is spoken of again in John 16:7. His coming, Jesus says, is to our advantage, though His coming is predicated on Jesus going. Is it too much to suggest that Jesus is assigning a greater worth to the Spirit than to Himself? After all, in that setting, He is speaking of the possibility of His staying. If I stay, He won’t come. If I go He will. The latter case is of greater advantage to you. Wow! The Holy Spirit is more advantageous to us than Jesus. It seems wrong to suggest such a thing, yet it is Jesus Who has suggested it. Perhaps Jesus is speaking only as regards His earthbound condition at that time. Recalling that He had willingly set aside the greater part of His prerogatives as God, the Holy Spirit comes without having set aside any of that. The Holy Spirit comes as God in full. Jesus, though wholly God even while wholly man, had accepted limits upon Himself for that thirty year period. Those limits were still in effect as He spoke these words to His Apostles. I dare say that were the choice between Jesus in His fullness and the Holy Spirit in His fullness, the advantage of which Jesus speaks would be mooted.
This whole discourse is one of the stronger expositions on the subject of the Holy Spirit, and one thing to be observed is that He, too, is proclaimed in a fashion that makes clear that He is equal to both Father and Son. There is unity. We pray to the Father, the Son acts, and comes to us the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, sent by the Son (Jn 15:26). He is another of the same kind as the Son. Jesus has asked this deed of the Father as being His equal, and again I would note that the way He speaks of that request allows no doubt that it shall be granted. I will ask. He will send. He will send, Spirit will come. They are equals. Each is wholly God, yet God is not wholly God except all three persons be accounted to His name.
On this matter of the Paraklete, the Helper, Zhodiates suggests that His primary role lies not so much in being a helper to us as in being a help to Jesus in His absence. While this is an intriguing viewpoint, I wonder how it is arrived at. The term in question appears only five times in the New Testament, three of which we’ve already touched on. I should note right away that in this passage, in verse 16, Jesus states that He is giving this other Comforter to us, and in explaining the point, He says in John 14:26 that He is sent to teach us and remind us of what Jesus has said. Now, Jesus being wholly God and having risen to take up His throne, He could surely do these things Himself even ‘in absentia’. Being God, He is omnipresent. The fact that He is upon His throne does nothing to change the fact that He is here in me. So, in what wise did He require the Spirit’s assistance while He was in heaven? Omnipresent is omnipresent. No, it seems clear that His emphasis is on our need. He will teach. He will remind.
Again, Jesus could be doing these things Himself. In a sense, given that whole each in the other relationship of the Godhead, it could be argued that where the Spirit is teaching, Jesus is teaching. Where He is reminding, Jesus is reminding. Yet, there remains that self-assigned specialization of persons in the Godhead. Equal but different. Equal, yet willingly organized along a chain of command, each taking His assigned task to achieve the common goal.
The final reference we have to the Paraklete is in 1John 2:1. Shall we make something of the fact that this term seems to be unique to John? There is doubtless something that could be made of that, but I do not see any value in pursuing it at this point. What is interesting in this final reference is that we are not, in this case, discussing the Holy Spirit. “If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, that being Jesus Christ the Righteous.” We have an advocate. His name is Jesus, and He argues our case before the Father. The Holy Spirit, recall, is another advocate of the same kind. I suppose it could be said that He argues the Father’s case before us, or presents His case. But, then, we are believers, are we not? We need no convincing. What we need is guidance, instruction, correction on occasion. We need that wisdom which He was sent to impart. Who, then, is helped by that wisdom? Is Jesus helped or is it we who are helped?
Were we to say that the Holy Spirit is primarily concerned with heaven’s agenda, I should agree wholeheartedly. Were we to say that He takes His direction from Father and Son, I should shout the amen. But, to say that He is primarily helping Jesus seems to overstate the case. Given certain aspects of Zhodiates’ theology, I could easily suppose this part of his definition reflects more of his own anti-Charismatic bias than anything reflected in Scripture. Admittedly, I can be rather critical of Charismatic practice myself. Yet, I must at the same time accept a very real power in God. He has determined that these gifts should be imparted to fallible man. He has, of course, also warned of those counterfeited shows of ‘the miraculous’ that will be put on by agents of the enemy. Signs and wonders have their place, but they are hardly the guaranteed seal of approval that many treat them as being. No, the proof is not in the display, but in something far different.
Notice that as Jesus imparts these most marvelous promises of access and power to His disciples, there is this comment planted firmly in the middle: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” This is both the controlling factor and the true proof of the follower. It is the conditional to be understood in bounding the, “I’ll do anything you ask.” It indicates that what we will ask will necessarily reflect His commandments, pursue His assignments and not our whims. In this same fashion comes the Holy Spirit! He assuredly loves Jesus, far more than we can presently manage. He, too, attends to the commandments Jesus speaks, and these He carries out to perfection, just as Jesus, in ministering to man, did solely and perfectly what the Father commanded.
All for love! Love impels us to obey. It is not even so much for the purpose of proving our love, for love has nothing to prove. No! It is simply that love desires to give joy to the loved one, and where there is power and authority involved, that joy is given in heeding instruction, in carrying out the things our loved one seeks to see done. Love gives joy to the loved one by working alongside him, by partnering with him, by seeking to make his labor lighter. The Paraklete – The One who comes alongside – is that not the very thing He models even by His title? He comes as companion, but more as aide. He tutors. He cajoles. He empowers. Ever and always, He acts on heaven’s orders, yet ever and always, He acts for our benefit, that we, too, might pursue heaven’s orders and thereby express the love we have for heaven’s king.
[03/06/12] Reading in God’s Word this morning, something occurs to me regarding those greater things Jesus speaks of in verse 12. Something in the phrasing they chose brings this idea to mind. Jesus starts by saying those who believe will do the things He is doing. Interesting that they should say “I am doing” where the NASB has, “I do”. That may actually be the clause that triggered this thought. At any rate, He goes on to say that they will do greater things because He is going to the Father. Now, here’s the thought: The first clause shall continue to hold. We shall continue to do those things He is doing. They become greater because His doings become greater. As He ascends to heaven and returns to His fullness, His works are greater. Thus, what we witness in Him is greater, and what we therefore do as His proxies reflects this greater fullness of God we witness.
As regards the Holy Spirit, I should just like to note the recurrence of that little word ‘in’ as we finish verse 17. He abides with you and will be in you. Note that this joins present and future, as applies to those listening to Jesus that day. The sending of the Holy Spirit of which He speaks remains a few days future yet, for He has not yet ascended with His mission accomplished. Yet, the abiding is already real. He does now, this moment, abide with you. The change is not in His presence, for He is just as always and omni-present as the Father. The change is in the intimacy of that presence.
Looking at the things Zhodiates has to offer on this little word, he tends towards the concepts of being ‘in the presence of,’ seeing it as pointing to that which surrounds or envelops. OK. That last bit starts to suit. He abides with you, but He will soon do so in such a way that He surrounds and envelops you. There is something to that. Yet, in abiding with us, is He not already in much that same relationship? Now, add to that what Thayer says of the term, how it is used to indicate, “that in which any person or thing is inherently fixed, implanted, or with which it is intimately connected.”
That begins to paint a picture. He already abides with you. He lives with you, next to you. He’s been sharing this journey all along. Yet, you don’t know Him all that well. You’re not that aware of His being here, perhaps because you’ve been so thoroughly caught up in watching Me. But, We are One. Just as you’ve seen the Father in seeing Me, you’ve known the Spirit in knowing Me. But, the intimacy hasn’t been there. You haven’t been so firmly planted in Him that you see yourself as inseparable from Him. That day is coming!
Surely, after the amazing events of Pentecost, those who were there felt just such an inseparable intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Having once found His purpose surging through and around them, how could they face the possibility of trying to fulfill the Gospel mission without Him? Think about the Peter who suddenly shows up as the Spirit comes onto the scene. Compare him to the Peter that we see through the Gospels. He is a different person, and it’s not just his friends who notice. He knows it. Believe me, he knows it. And, having been so used by God, so empowered by God, he also knows that if he had to do this in his own power, he’d be lost. No way does he have any intention of ministering apart from the Holy Spirit ever again.
Paul, to be sure, felt the same thing, although he came to it in a different way. Likewise John. John, who so particularly recognizes the Paraklete nature of the Holy Spirit. How would he not? Having spent that time on Patmos, with none but the Holy Spirit for company, having been handed that stunning revelation as to what lay ahead, having, if we are to believe the stories, been preserved from several attempts on his life by this One Who comes along side; of course he’s rather impressed by the Spirit.
What about us? I know I spend perhaps too much time critiquing the Charismatic movement of which I have been a part for so many years. Yet, there are issues with the more conservative corners of the Church as well, which might well be characterized by a certain fear of finding the Holy Spirit in so intimate a connection. What would happen if we found ourselves speaking in some language unknown to us? What would we do if we suddenly felt this overpowering necessity to speak an uncomfortable word. What will we do, should we feel the undeniable sensation of God impelling us to action? We’d just as soon stay in this more comfortable area of theological discourse. We rather pride ourselves in our careful reading, our careful exposition. But, theology can become little more than words and ideas, the reality gets lost in the discussion. We become expert at announcing what we should be doing, and yet become powerless when it comes to actually doing it.
I can take as example the Great Commission, which happened to come up in Table Talk this morning. We all know it’s there. We’ve all heard it preached and taught, and we all recognize the implications. Jesus says, “Go and make disciples.” It’s not terribly ambiguous is it? There’s nothing there to suggest we should limit the application to some specific office of the church, or some subset of believers. Nope. It’s a pretty all-inclusive ‘you’ that is commanded to go. And, it is a command. It’s not the Fine Suggestion. It’s the Great Commission. We know we are commanded. We know what we are commanded. We can deliver some fine training on how to do what we are commanded. There’s only that one thing missing: The going and doing. Somehow, when it comes to that part, we’re all aback. Oh, we couldn’t do that. Too scary. We’re too nervous. We lack the skills to really impart the Gospel to strangers, and besides, isn’t that more the pastor’s job?
Here, then, is the place where we really need to know the intimate relationship of being planted in the Spirit. More than just knowing it, we need to allow it, to encourage it. This is more important, quite frankly, than all those charismata that get the attention. Tongues and prophecy and healing and every other spiritual gift are of no value if they are not being trained on the mission we are supposed to pursue. If they are but entertainment for the faithful, or even just encouragement for the faithful, they fall short. No. We fall short. The gifts are not diminished by the misuse to which we may put them. But, the goal, whether by gifts miraculous or gifts mundane, is to go and make disciples. Not to stay and hope they decide to stop by. Go and make. This will need the Holy Spirit willing and working in us, for we are frankly unwilling and unworkable apart from Him.
I feel quite certain that this theme shall be coming up repeatedly as I go through these next few chapters from John’s Gospel. But, for now, the reminder, the admonition to do something with all that God has imparted to me is enough to point me towards my own failures in that department.
Lord, I ask Your forgiveness for I know I have allowed this to become too much an intellectual pursuit with no real application beyond maybe some self-improvement. I have not cared for the lost. I have not been proud to proclaim my faith in You to the unbelievers in my community. I have allowed myself to become satisfied in my own faith, my own standing, and left it at that. Each man for himself is not Your way, yet it has been my way. Forgive me. Help me, Lord, though I know I have prayed this too often already. Help me to walk in the boldness of Your Spirit within me. I know You are in me, always with me. Yet, I have remained more inclined to spout off from my own wisdom, rather than to seek Yours. May this change going forward from today. May I not fear to be used by You, Holy Spirit, nor be dull of hearing when You seek to direct.
