Gospel of John [Joh 16:7]. The advantage of the HS. Heb 10:7-18.

Title: Gospel of John [Joh 16:7]. The advantage of the HS. Heb 10:7-18.

 

Christ again begins to explain to them why it is to their advantage that He go away.

 

Joh 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

 

After the ascension of Christ the Holy Spirit will be sent to all believers. Why is the HS more of an advantage to them than the presence of Christ?

 

There are at least four reasons.

 

1. They had to first see in the reality of His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension and then understand it through GHS.

 

That by his departure, his death, and ascension-by having these great facts before their eyes they would be led by the Holy Spirit to see more fully the design of His coming than they would by His presence. While He was with them, notwithstanding the plainest teaching, their minds were filled with prejudice and error. They still adhered to the expectation of a temporal kingdom, and were unwilling to believe that He was to die. When He should have actually left them they could no longer doubt on this subject, and would be prepared to understand why He came. And this understanding was accomplished by God the Holy Spirit within each of them.

 

It is often needful that God should allow us to be visited with severe affliction before our pride will be humbled and we are willing to understand the plainest truths.

 

God will accomplish all His good pleasure. His word will not return to Him empty, but will accomplish what He desires. Not the smallest part of God's sovereign, directive will, will be compromised. And with it, will come the greatest blessings to creatures that has ever been imagined. Sometimes it is needful for us to abandon all the noise of our own desires through affliction so that our ears are clear to hear the plain truth of the word of God. He doesn't need sin from us or others against us to reveal His light. Blindness in us causes us to stumble. The reality of reaping what we sow causes us to see and feel the misery of stumbling. The reality of affliction brought upon us by others shows us the futility of this world system. What good will be accomplished within it that God did not cause? So then, our flesh and the world system are revealed for what and who they really are.

 

2. The Church needed power, instruction, and guidance all over the globe. The humanity of Christ could not be in two places at once.

 

While on the earth the Lord Jesus could be bodily present but in one place at one time. Yet, in order to secure the great design of saving men, it was needful that there should be some agent who could be in all places, who could attend all ministers, and who could, at the same time, apply the work of Christ to people in all parts of the earth.

 

3. The Trinity is unified and each Person has a part in redemption, Christian experience, and resurrection. The Son accomplishes atonement, the Spirit applies it, and the Father plans it.

 

It seems an evident arrangement in the great plan of redemption that each of the persons of the Trinity should perform a part. As it was not the work of the Spirit to make an atonement, so it was not the work of the Savior to apply it. And until the Lord Jesus had performed this great work, the way was not open for the Holy Spirit to descend to perform his part of the great plan; yet, when the Savior had completed his portion of the work and had left the earth, the Spirit would carry forward the same plan and apply it to men.

 

[Principles of Theology (p. 24), Dr. W. H. Griffith Thomas]

"The doctrine of the Trinity is the correlation, embodiment, and synthesis of the teaching of these  passages. In the Unity of the Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons working out Redemption. God the Father is the Creator and Ruler of man and the Provider of redemption through His love (Joh 3:16). God the Son is the Redeemer, Who became man for the purpose of our redemption. God the Holy Spirit is the “Executive of the Godhead,” the “Vicar of Christ,” Who applies to each believing soul the benefits of redemption. We see this very clearly in Heb 10:7-17, where the Father wills, the Son works and the Spirit witnesses.

 

Heb 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come

 (In the roll of the book it is written of Me)

To do Thy will, O God.'"

 

Heb 10:8 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

 

Heb 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

 

Heb 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified [perfect participle plus indicative verb - the strongest means to convey our being sanctified forever] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

Heb 10:11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

 

Heb 10:12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God [finished work in contrast to the standing priests who are never done],

 

Heb 10:13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

 

Heb 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

 

Heb 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying [Jer 31:33-34],

 

Heb 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them

After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart,

And upon their mind I will write them,"

 

He then says,

 

Heb 10:17 "And their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more."

 

The prophet Jeremiah was revealing the New Covenant with Israel which would be for them during the Millennial reign of Christ. What is important is that this is after the sacrifice of Christ, the one true sacrifice.

 

Heb 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

 

The elements of the plan of redemption thus find their root, foundation, and spring in the nature of the Godhead; and the obvious reason why the full revelation of the persons of the Trinity were reserved for the NT, after redemption was accomplished.

 

The Son reveals the Father but His own revelation awaits the testimony of the Holy Spirit, as He energizes with and through the saints that make up the holy and mystical body, the Church.

 

It is no wonder that the Spirit's ministry would begin here in a fantastic way. The Son must reveal the Father and this full revelation cannot be accomplished until He completes the Father's plan of redemption.

 

In an introduction to Dr. A. J. Gordon's book, The Ministry of the Spirit, Dr. F. B. Meyer writes:

In some quarters it seems to be supposed that the Holy Spirit himself is the solution of the perplexities of our time. Now what we may witness in some coming age we know not, but in this it is clear that God in the person of Christ is the one only and divine answer. Here is God's yea and amen, the Alpha and Omega, sight for the blind, healing for the paralyzed, cleansing for the polluted, life for the dead, the gospel for the poor and sad and comfortless. Now we covet the gracious bestowal of the Spirit, that he may take more deeply of the things of Christ, and reveal them unto us. When the disciples sought to know the Father, the Lord said, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. It is his glory that shines on my face, his will that molds my life, his purpose that is fulfilled in my ministry. So the blessed Paraclete would turn our thought and attention from himself to him, with whom he is One in the Holy Trinity, and whom he has come to reveal. Throughout the so-called Christian centuries the voice of the Holy Spirit has borne witness to the Lord, directly and mediately.  Directly, in each widespread quickening of the human conscience, in each revival of religion, in each era of advance in the knowledge of divine truth, in each soul that has been regenerated, comforted, or taught. Mediately his work has been carried on through the church, the body of those that believe. But, alas how sadly his witness has been weakened and hindered by the medium through which it has come.

 

This third point is really an oversimplified expression of the interwoven work of the Trinity in bring redemption, life, and resurrection to mankind. There are many, many subtleties that cannot be expressed in such a brief statement. The wisdom of God is multifaceted (Eph 3:10) and we will spend a lifetime and an eternity figuring out the magnificence of what they have done, what they are doing, and what they are going to do. 

 

4. The world must be convicted only after the work is finished and the Savior ascended and the disciples will be the vehicles of the spreading flame.

 

It was to be expected that a great spreading flame of the gospel would occur after the finished work of Christ than when He was alive on earth. The disciples were to be the vehicles of this and there is no greater joy to be had in the Christian life than to lead a sinner to salvation through the good news of the finished work of Christ.

 

As we will see in the ministries of God the HS to the world, that it is the office of the Spirit to carry forward the work of conviction of the world only after the Savior had died and ascended. Act 2 is the reality of this.

 

It was expedient that the Lord Jesus should go away, that the Spirit might descend and apply the work of Christ to sinners in communication as well as in baptism when the gospel is mixed with faith.

 

The departure of the Lord Jesus was to the apostles a source of deep affliction, but had they seen the whole case they would not have been thus afflicted.

 

God often takes away from us one blessing that he may bestow a greater one. All affliction, if received in a proper manner, is of this description.

 

If the afflicted people of God could see the whole situation as God sees it, they would think and feel, as He does, that it was best for them to be thus afflicted.