Expository Thoughts
the day of Christ's second coming. Then and then only will the promise receive its complete fulfillment— "At that day you shall know."
Technical Notes:
18. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.
19. Yet a little while and the world sees me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall live also. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
18.—[I will not leave you comfortless.] The word we render "comfortless" means literally "orphans," and is so translated in the marginal reading of the English version. It beautifully describes the helpless, solitary, friendless state, by comparison, in which the disciples of Christ were left when He died and was withdrawn from their bodily eyes. "In that condition," says Jesus, "I will not leave you. You shall not always be orphans." It adds to the beauty of the expression to remember that He had already called them "little children." Hence, there was a special fitness in the word "orphans."
[I will come to you.] The verb here is in the present tense: "I do come." About the meaning of the sentence there is much difference of opinion. Even the Fathers, as Burgon says, "explain the words diversely." There is no more unanimity, we must remember, among the Fathers than among modern divines. The "consent of Catholic antiquity," about which many make so much ado, is more imaginary than real.
Some think, as Chrysostom, that the "coming" means only the reappearing of Christ after His resurrection from the grave on the third day. Others think, as Hutcheson, that our Lord only means His coming by His Spirit, as a pledge of his presence.
Others think, as Augustine and Bede, that our Lord looks far forward to His second coming at the end of the world and speaks the words to the whole company of believers in every age: "I am coming again. I come quickly." I decidedly prefer this last view. The first and second seem to me to cramp, narrow, and confine our Lord's promise. The last is in harmony with all His teaching. The second advent is the great hope of the Church. In the last chapter of the Bible, the Greek for "I come quickly" is precisely the same verb that is used here.
In saying this I would not be mistaken. I admit fully that Jesus came to His Church after His ascension, invisibly, does come to His Church continually, is with His Church even to the end of the world.
But I do not think this is the meaning of the text.
19.—[Yet a little while...ye see me.] Again the meaning of our Lord is somewhat obscure. I think He must mean, "Very shortly the wicked unbelieving world will no longer behold and gaze on Me, as I shall be withdrawn from it and ascend into heaven. But even then ye see Me and will continue seeing Me with the eyes of faith." I cannot think that the present tense here, "Ye behold Me," can apply to the second advent. It must surely refer to the spiritual vision of Christ which believers would enjoy. The world could not prevent them seeing
Him. The Greek word for "ye see" implies a fixed, steady, habitual gaze.
Bishop Hall says, "Ye by the eye of faith shall see and acknowledge
Me."
[Because I live, ye shall live also.] This great deep saying of Christ seems to admit of a very wide and full signification: "Your spiritual life now and your eternal life hereafter are both secured by my life. The life of the Head guarantees the life of the members. I live, have life in myself, can never die, can never have my life destroyed by my enemies, and live on to all eternity. Therefore ye shall live also. Your life is secured for you and can never be destroyed. You have everlasting life now and shall have everlasting glory hereafter."
That word "I live" is a great full saying, and we cannot fathom it all.
It does not merely mean "I shall rise from the dead." It is certainly far more than the future tense. It implies that Christ is "the Living
One," the source and fountain of life. It is like "In Him was life," and "as the Father has life in Himself, even so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself" (John 1:4, 5:26).
20.—[On that day ye shall know, etc.] Here again I believe (with Cyril and Augustine) that our Lord specially refers to the day of His own second advent. Then, and not till then, His disciples will have perfect knowledge. Now they see and know in part and through a glass darkly. Then they shall fully understand the mystical union between the Father and Son and between the Son and all His believing members. To confine the "day," as Chrysostom does, to the resurrection of Christ from the dead seems to me to fall short of its full meaning.
JOHN 14:21-26 "The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him."
"Lord," Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me."
"I have spoken these things while staying with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you."
We learn from these verses that keeping Christ's commandments is the best test of love to Christ. This is a lesson of vast importance and one that needs continually pressing on the attention of Christians. It is not talking about religion, and talking fluently and well too, but steadily doing Christ's will and walking in Christ's ways, that is the proof of our being true believers.
Good feelings and desires are useless if they are not accompanied by action. They may even become mischievous to the soul, induce hardness of conscience, and do certain harm. Passive impressions which do not lead to action, gradually deaden and paralyze the heart.
Living and doing are the only real evidence of grace. Where the Holy
Spirit is, there will always be a holy life. A jealous watchfulness over tempers, words, and deeds, a constant endeavor to live by the rule of the Sermon on the Mount, this is the best proof that we love Christ.
Of course such maxims as these must not be wrested and misunderstood. We are not to suppose for a moment that "keeping
Christ's commandments" can save us. Our best works are full of imperfection. When we have done all we can, we are feeble and unprofitable servants. "By grace are you saved through faith—not of works." (Ep. 2:8.) But while we hold one class of truths, we must not forget another. Faith in the blood of Christ must always be attended by loving obedience to the will of Christ. What the Master has joined together, the disciple must not put asunder. Do we profess to love
Christ? Then let us show it by our lives. The Apostle who said, "You know that I love You!" received the charge, "Feed my lambs." That meant, "Do something. Be useful—follow my example." (John 21:17.)
We learn, secondly, from these verses, that there are special comforts laid up for those who love Christ, and prove it by keeping His words. This, at any rate, seems the general sense of our Lord's language— "My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
The full meaning of this promise, no doubt, is a deep thing. We have no line to fathom it. It is a thing which no man can understand except he that receives and experiences it. But we need not shrink from believing that eminent holiness brings eminent comfort with it, and that no man has such sensible enjoyment of his religion as the man who, like Enoch and Abraham, walks closely with God. There is more of heaven on earth to be obtained than most Christians are aware of. "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." "If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and dine with him, and he with Me."
(Ps. 25:14; Rev. 3:20.) Promises like these, we may be sure, mean something, and were not written in vain.
How is it, people often ask, that so many professing believers have so little happiness in their religion? How is it that so many know little of "joy and peace in believing," and go mourning and heavy-hearted towards heaven? The answer to these questions is a sorrowful one, but it must be given. Few believers attend as strictly as they should to Christ's practical sayings and words. There is far too much loose and careless obedience to Christ's commandments.
There is far too much forgetfulness, that while good works cannot justify us they are not to be despised. Let these things sink down into our hearts. If we want to be eminently happy, we must strive to be eminently holy.
We learn, lastly, from these verses, that one part of the Holy
Spirit's work is to teach, and to bring things to remembrance. It is written, "The Comforter shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance."
To confine this promise to the eleven Apostles, as some do, seems a narrow and unsatisfactory mode of interpreting Scripture. It appears to reach far beyond the day of Pentecost, and the gift of writing inspired books of God's Holy Word. It is safer, wiser, and more consistent with the whole tone of our Lord's last discourse, to regard the promise as the common property of all believers, in every age of the world. Our Lord knows the ignorance and forgetfulness of our nature in spiritual things. He graciously declares that when He leaves the world, His people shall have a teacher and remembrancer.
Are we sensible of spiritual ignorance? Do we feel that at best we know in part and see in part? Do we desire to understand more clearly the doctrines of the Gospel? Let us pray daily for the help of the "teaching" Spirit. It is His office to illuminate the soul, to open the eyes of the understanding, and to guide us into all truth. He can make dark places light, and rough places smooth.
Do we find our memory of spiritual things defective? Do we complain that though we read and hear, we seem to lose as fast as we