CHRIST ABSENT, THE COMFORTER PRESENT
[p. 475] CHRIST ABSENT, THE COMFORTER PRESENT
In taking up this part of the gospel we have to look at it in respect of those to whom the words were immediately spoken, but it is important not to limit our thoughts to those only, but to see how they apply to us. We want to find their bearing as regards us; it is plain that the things spoken of were not for the apostles only, but of a permanent character. For instance, the presence of the Comforter was not for them only, but surely for us.
There is a primary reference to the disciples, but the principles apply equally to us, because we are left here in the absence of Christ. Christianity is, as it were, based upon two things: the absence of Christ and the presence of the Comforter, and these were the things that were announced to the disciples first in these chapters. Christ announces to them, “I go”, and that the Comforter was coming and He “abides”.
The Comforter is here in Person, He is not merely an influence, and if Christ is absent, it is just as equally true that the Comforter is present. Chapter 13 shows our weakness, but chapter 14 shows our strength. The apostle could say, “When I am weak, then am I strong”; it is a paradox, and yet every christian quite understands the meaning of it. The Lord does not hide either the one or the other; in chapter 13 He shows out their weakness, and in chapter 14 the elements of their strength and the same elements of strength belong to us, and they have been proved for nearly two thousand years.
They are elements of positive strength to God’s people, so that though weak we are strong. So the apostle says to Timothy, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”. With regard to the change seen in the beginning of chapter 13, everything combined for a great change, and it has much to do with the “weakness”.
[p. 476] The chief priests and Judas and the devil all come together, you get a fearful combination of evil in connection with one man, but it was the devil who put it into Judas’s heart to betray. But then at the close of the chapter you get the Son of man to be glorified in Himself — so if you see the elements of evil, you see also the elements of good.
All the counsels of God are goodness; the Son of man was to be glorified in God. In regard of the disciples, the case was that they were to be left in a defiling world, and their fidelity to Christ and to one another was tested; that showed their weakness — they were to wash one another’s feet, that brings out their weakness. We are weak by our susceptibility to be influenced by the world, and many of us would own how poorly we carry out the obligation to wash one another’s feet, and that shows our weakness.
Now what are the elements of our strength in chapter 14? The first element of strength to us is faith in Christ, we must remember that that was spoken to a little company that Christ Himself had gathered; He had chosen them, and not they Him, and He was about to leave them. He had been content with their company here below — it might have been dull company perhaps, but He was content with it, for it was the company that He chose. How blessed! He was content with them, He knew them perfectly, for He knew all that was in man; but the Lord had had pleasure and delight in their company; and now He was going to leave them, but He was going to continue to think of them. He was not going to forget them, “that where I am, there ye may be also”. The Lord has chosen us, He has pleasure in our company: so that the first element of our strength is faith in Him — that He has chosen us and has pleasure in us.
Most of us have no such great store of this world’s riches, and it is better that you should have no place here, that thus your attention may be more turned to the [p. 477] place He has for you above. The second element of our strength is our appreciation of Christ; a divinely given appreciation of Christ: it must be divinely given, because the natural man does not receive the things of God. So if the first element of strength to us is faith in the fidelity of Christ to us in His absence on high, the second element is appreciation of Christ; He was going away, hence they were to have faith in His fidelity to them. But it is only by your appreciation of Christ that you can approach the Father. The Father was seen and known in the Son, by Him we have access to the Father, by appreciation of Christ it is that we get to the Father, He is the way, and no man comes to the Father but by Him. The true measure of a saint in the eye of God is according to the saint’s appreciation of Christ, and in the very proportion of our appreciation of Christ is our access to the Father, and it is a great element of strength to us. Now the next point is in verse 15; the presence of the Comforter is another great element of strength to us — the Comforter has come.
There are two great things for the christian connected with the presence of the Comforter — first, that by Him we live in Christ, and, secondly, that by Him Christ has His expression in christians. Stephen was just about to die, he had incurred the hatred of the Jews, and he could see what was before him from them, but he saw Jesus in glory, and he lived because Christ lived, he knew his life in this scene was but for a moment, he says, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. My life in this scene is not really now my life — as the apostle could say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God”. I live because Christ lives, so it was with Stephen, he saw Jesus, and we too see Him by the Spirit, and we live because He lives. He was going up on high, and He intended to be present here in word and work in His own, just as “the Father”, He could say, “that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works”. Christ is here now characteristically; He comes out in His people in word and work. “To me to live is Christ”, the apostle said, and the great point for us to bear in mind is that Christ should have expression in His own in word and work. You may have to pursue your business, or go on looking after your family matters, but you are left here as a vessel in which Christ is to be expressed, and this can be, and can only be, by the presence of the Comforter. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”.
Now the next point of strength is that Christ will manifest Himself to them, but this is conditional, you must keep His commandment, and Christ is the great commandment for His people; you must have Christ before you, you cannot do your own will if you have Christ before you, and then He can manifest Himself to you, so we see in many instances in the New Testament, as when the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, so also when they went fishing, and the Lord came to them and said, “Cast the net on the right side”. So also did He manifest Himself to the two going to Emmaus, when He was known to them in the breaking of bread. It tallies with the thought that has been given out in connection with “gift” that it is some divinely given impression of Christ — so is this manifestation to the one who loves and keeps His commandment. Now we get another element of strength in verse 23. The Father and the Son make their abode with the one who keeps the word of Christ. The thought in keeping the word of Christ is the separation in heart and spirit from the world, whereas in keeping the commandment of Christ it is separation from all that is of the flesh. The Father and Son abiding in you involves complete separation from all that is of the world, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. Connected with this is the thought of the Father’s love, whereas with regard to Christ it is the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and thus the two make their continuance [p. 479] with us; wonderful elements of strength, surely, though we be perfect weakness in ourselves.
Such are our wonderful elements of strength: —- Faith in Christ’s fidelity to us.
- Appreciation of Christ and thus access to the Father.
- The presence of the Comforter.
- The manifestation of Christ.
- The Father and Son make their abode with us. We have to do violence to the flesh and to our own will, but we get these elements of strength, and they are available to us.