COMFORTER

As the Lord Jesus was about to depart out of this world, and go to the Father, He left His disciples a promise, ‘I will not leave you orphans (comfortless, AV); I will come to you’, John 14.18 NKJV. He repeated this promise to His disciples when He said, ‘If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him’, 14. 23. He showed in the context of His dissertation to the disciples that the means whereby He and the Father would come to the disciples was in the coming of the Holy Spirit. Because of His work and ways, He is here called ‘another Comforter’. The word the Lord used for ‘another’ is not heteros, meaning another of a different kind, but is rather allos, meaning another of the same kind. It is a clear reference to the Tri-unity of God.

We have noticed the promise. We have considered briefly the persons. Consider now His presence. The Lord Jesus said of this other Comforter, ‘he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you’, 14.17. He was with them during the entire ministry of the Lord. However, He did not indwell them until Pentecost. Paul spoke of our being indwelt with the Holy Spirit when he wrote, ‘in whom (Christ) also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise’, Eph. 1.13.

Why is He called the Comforter? The word refers to one who is called alongside to help. It is, ‘one who carries on the cause of anyone and helps him’, JND margin. In the absence of the Saviour on earth, the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete of the saints. Paul said of one of His works, ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities’, Rom. 8. 26. The Lord said of Him, ‘He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you’, John 14. 17. Because of His indwelling, His ministry is unchanging and uninterrupted. ‘He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance’, 14. 26. His is a teaching ministry. ‘He shall testify of me’, 15. 26. His is a ministry of presenting Christ. ‘He will reprove the world’, 16.8. ‘He will guide you into all truth’, 16.13. ‘He will shew you things to come’, 16.13. ‘He shall glorify me’, 16.14. He is the Counsellor, the Comforter, the Guide, and the Glorifier of Christ.