The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 123

rndicnl clumges and conferred the most amazing powers, is reckoned by St. Pa11l to be the Spirit of Christ, anrl the Spirit of him that raised Christ from the dead (Rom. viii. !J-11), Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot, and he was declnred to be Son of God by the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead (Rom. i. 4). 'fhis Spirit can be resisted, blasphemed, quenched, obeyed, loved, and adored; and, while unquestionably Divine, is nevertheless disLinct from the Father and the Son. What new teaching does ihe Fourth Gospel introduce on this s11bject? We learn that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit (eh. i. 33), and that the Holy Spirit rested on Christ (eh. i. 32), and was given to him in unmeasurable abundance (eh. iii. 34). When God was said to be Spirit (eh. iv. 24), it would seem that the whole Godhead (whether Father, Son, Logos, or Spirit) was Spirit, and nothing can be gathered hence of any hypostasis or ousia, but rather a hint is given of the supreme character of the very essence of Deity, as antithetic to theories of his impersonality, of his corporeal limitation, of ritual observance, or of idolatrous localization of his energies. Christ had often spoken of the" living water" which he could and would give to quench all human thirst. He promises the great abundance of this gift, and describe8 it as a kind of blessedness which would make each recipient a perennial supply of it for others ( eh. iv. 14). St. John says this was Christ's.description of the Holy Spirit, which those who fhould believe on himself would receive, for the "Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified" (eh. vii. 37-39). In other words, when Christ should, as the Victor over death, have taken his place on the throne of God, then the whole material wherewith the Spirit would deal with men would so immeasurably transcend all that had ever been previously vouchsafed, that in comparison with what had gone before the Holy Spirit had not yet been (given) at all. The entire "ministra- tion of death [and of the letter, and of the body] had no glory by reason of the glory that excelleth." When the hour at length drew near that the brief manifestation in the flesh was to be removed from human eyes, our Lord declared more fully the substitute for his own constant care which he was about to send to them, One who should "abide with them for ever," "whom the world would not see, or receive, or take away from them" ( eh. xiv. 17). This " other Paraclete" is described as the "Holy Spirit," whom the Father would send in his Name, whom he too would send from the Father (eh. xiv. 25, 26), whose coming to them for all gracious purposes was identical with the coming of Christ himself. Nay, more, his advent would prove a coming to them of both the Father and the Bon. As he had glorified the Father, the Holy Spirit would glorify him; for he would take of the things of Christ, and show these t.o the disciples ( eh. xvi. 13-15). He, like the Son himself, would not speak from himself. He would declare that which he knew of the Father. He would so quicken the understanding of the disciples as to bring all things to their remembrance, and thus perpetuate the primary imtruction they had received, but the power of which they might lose sight of. The glorious gift of the Spirit is ea.id to be in answer to his own prayer as the exalted and glorified Christ, and as co-operating with them, not only for their own solace and refreshment, but also as a testimony to himself, and (eh. xv. 26, 27) a convicting and convincing power on the outside world (eh. xvi. 7-11). 'l'he exaltation, the departure of Christ, the cessation of the manifestation in the likeness of the flesh, wa.s indispensable to the full bestowment of the spiritual gift. Then the world should be convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment (eh. xvi. 7-11). In anticipation of this new dispensation, he symbolically breathed on his disciples, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (eh. xx. 22), thus pre- paring the way for the great manifesta.tion of the Day of Pentecost. The teaching of the Fourth Gospel was in harmony with the biblical idea throughout, and it explains the intensity with which Paul had already dwelt on this sublime theme, and the detail into which he had expanded the fundamental idea. John had not borrowed from Paul, nor from Alexandria, nor from Gnostic notions of reonic develop- ment, but set forth those positions out of which both revelation and superstition and the speculative tendencies of the age have severally developed so much. To suppose these Johanuine doctrines to have been the crystallization of Pauline, or Gnostir, or Montanistic thought is contrary to all probability. If Christ himself bad given forth (as John says he did) this idea of the relation of the H ..ly S1-irit to his own Person and to his prospective work, and if many hints of this specific teaching were circulating in the Church, the entire Pauline representation and that of the Act~  cxxxvl lNTRODtJOTION 'l'O