John 16:7

John 16:7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Advocate will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you. Sorrow filled the hearts of the disciples at the thought of the departure of their Lord. Now, therefore, in these His crowning teachings, not only must their sorrow be dispelled, but they must be sent forth with the joyful assurance that, so far from His departure's being a just cause of sadness, it is rather that which shall secure to them the most glorious strength in their conflict with the world, and the final possession of the victory. The great truths set forth, then, in the deeply-important verses on which we now enter are: (1) That the departure of Jesus is the indispensable condition of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit; (2) That through such bestowal the world with which the disciples must contend shall become to them not only a conquered, but a self-convicted, foe. The first of these truths comes before us in John 16:7, the second in John 16:8-11. The first thing to be observed in the former verse is that in it, along with John 16:5, no fewer than three different words are used to express the idea of ‘going away' or ‘going.' Between the first two there is probably little difference, although the second may bring less markedly into view than the first the mere thought of departure. The third, in the words ‘if I go,' is distinguished from both of them in that it distinctly expresses not so much the thought of departure as that of going to the Father (comp. chaps. John 14:2-3; John 14:12; John 14:28; John 16:28). The glorification of Jesus, then, is here clearly in view; and this passage teaches the same lesson as chap. John 7:39, that upon that glorification the bestowal of the power of the Spirit was dependent (comp. on chap. John 7:39). Not that the Holy Spirit had been given in no degree before. He had certainly wrought in Judaism, and had even been the Author of all the good that had ever appeared in heathenism: but He had not been given in power, had not been the essential characteristic of an era in which He had made only scattered and isolated manifestations of His influences. It was to be different now. The era to begin was the era of the Spirit, in which He was to breathe a new life into the world. Various reasons may be assigned why this gift of the Spirit could be bestowed only after Jesus was glorified; but we omit them for the sake of that which seems to us the main consideration upon the point. The end of all God's dealings with man is that he shall be brought into the closest and most perfect union with Himself, and that, in order to this, He shall be spiritualised and glorified. This is effected through Him who took human nature into union with the Divine, and the end of whose course is not the Incarnation, but His being made ‘the first-born' among many brethren so spiritualised, so glorified. Only, therefore, when this end is reached is Jesus, as not only Son of God but Son of man (chap. John 3:14-15), in full possession of the Spirit: only then is He so set free from the conflicts and the troubles of the time of His ‘sufferings' (Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 5:8) that His Own spiritual power and glory are illimitable and unconditioned; only then can He bestow in His fulness that Spirit which, as the essential characteristic of His Own final, perfect state, is to raise us to the similar end which the purpose of God contemplates with regard to us. In this sense the Holy Spirit not only was not but could not be given so long as Jesus was on earth, unglorified. But then, when, as Son of man glorified, and still, because Son of man, in closest fellowship with us who are men, He should have in Himself all the power of the Spirit, then would He be able and how could they who knew His love doubt that He would be willing? to pour forth upon His disciples that ‘Spirit of glory and of God' which should make them more than conquerors over all their adversaries. Surely it was ‘expedient' for them that He should ‘go away,' and, in going away, ‘go' to the Father. Nay, it was better for them that He should ‘go away' than that He should remain; for not only was this fulness of the Spirit connected with His glorified condition, but the disciples, instead of leaning upon Him as they had done, would gain all that strengthening of character which flows from working ourselves rather than having work done for us by another.