The Spirit As Comforter

The word for Comforter is used only five times in scripture and all are recorded in John’s gospel with the exception of one found in I John 2:1, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” (Emphasis added is mine).  In reality then, we have two advocates with the Father on our behalf.  Jesus Christ, the righteous One who sits at the right hand of God having finished the work of redemption, is making intercession for us, and the Holy Spirit or Comforter who intercedes and dwells with us forever.  The one is dwelling in heaven to appear in the presence of God for us, and the other is dwelling on earth with us for our aid.  In human terms, we think of advocacy as getting support from another person to help express one’s views and promote their cause.  In biblical terms, the Comforter dwells with you to give the strength and help needed to promote the cause of Christ in the world through you.  How does the help of His advocacy give us strength?

According to Jesus in John 14:17, the Comforter is “even the Spirit of truth” that would come.  He also used this expression in John 16:13, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;…” This comfort or help first comes by means of objective truth.  He will not speak about himself because His aim is the glory of Christ.  When referring to this text, the Scottish minister Martin Lloyd Jones compared the Holy Spirit’s ministry to that of a flood light.  Like the lights mounted on the exterior of your home, the Spirit illuminates the glory of Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture.  The words Jesus spoke to the disciples are the words the Comforter brought to their remembrance as promised in John 14:26 and have been deposited to the church today. When you read, remember, meditate, or hear preaching from God’s word, you are receiving the Advocate’s help when you receive it by faith.

Receiving the Comforter’s help by faith means receiving His truth as your guide.  The primary purpose of a guide is to provide direction and assistance to someone, leading them towards a specific goal or helping them navigate an unfamiliar situation.  The disciples would be confronted with unfamiliar situations and circumstances when Jesus left that would confuse and bewilder them. There are two critical elements for this guidance.  First, there is the skill, wisdom and ability of the guide. In this case, the infinitely wise Spirit who is God guides you by inspired, inerrant truth.  The second element is placing your confidence and trust in the guide.  That would mean banking your life and your hope on the counsel of the guide and living and speaking in sync with His guidance.  Do you follow the guidance of the Comforter as close and exact as you follow the counsel of your financial guide? Does your life reflect your confidence the guidance of the Comforter?

Jesus also promises the disciples that He would not leave them comfortless but that He would come to them (John 14:18).  The word for comfortless is orphonos from which we get our English word orphan.  As you know, an orphan is a homeless child without the benefit of parents and provision.  His coming by another Comforter would mean they would not be left homeless, without the love and provision of family.  However, in this context the family is that of the Father and the Son while the residence is not a street address but a heart address. (John 14:23).  If you have trusted in Jesus Christ, you have become the abode or the street address where God the Father and God the Son abide.

Think of the implications for assurance.  Your home is that one place on the planet where you always feel at ease.  The Comforter has come to make us feel at home with God (not to feel like orphans)!  Likewise, through the transforming work of the Spirit, God might say about you, I feel at home here!  Do you struggle to believe and grasp this assurance offered you from God’s word in verse 23, “and my Father will love him…?”

During trials and difficulties, we can be tempted to believe lies about God’s love that discourage and disable us.  “God has forgotten about me.”  “God does not take notice of my pain.”  Or “God sees and knows about this, but He doesn’t really care or love me.”  Have any one of these thoughts ever lingered in your mind?  This kind of doubt is often rooted in attaching God’s love to our circumstances or what we have done rather than what He has done and what He has said.  As a result, when the stormy winds of difficulties come, we question God’s love.  Do you still struggle with God’s love as if it was based on what you did yesterday and what you will do tomorrow?  The Comforter has come to give you the strength and help of assurance by looking away from yourself to look to the finished work of Christ.

Though Christ’s work is finished, there is also a challenge implied with the Comforter’s assurance in John 14:15 as follows: “If ye love me keep my commandments.” Likewise, in verse 23 when answering Judas 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.”  Perhaps you have heard and enjoy singing the hymn by J. Wilbur Chapman who wrote, “Jesus! What a friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul.” Did you know that in the same upper room discourse Jesus attaches a condition for His friendship? “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:13 – 14).  This is not perfect obedience without sin, yet it is the kind of obedience that flows out of faith in Him. The obedience that Christ is calling for is only found in and through the assistance or help of the Comforter.

The Comforter’s help in your obedience to Christ's commands is linked to love for Christ.  Jesus confirms this in John 15:9 where He more clearly establishes the relationship between love and obedience as follows, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”

There are two things that are important to see here about this link. First, when He said, “even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love,” He used a verb tense that means a completed action in the past that will never be repeated but has ongoing results.  What has been completed? Jesus has totally satisfied the demands of the righteous law by His perfect obedience. By trusting in Him, you are attached to all that He accomplished in His obedience. His righteous life and obedience is charged to your account and your unrighteous life and disobedience was charged to him in His death.   This is the gospel!  By faith in Jesus Christ you have already obeyed the law in Him. Truly, it is finished!

Secondly, the Lord said in John 15:11, “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and your joy might be full.”  While you can’t see this in the English, Jesus repeats the word meno from verse 10 in verse 11 which is translated “remain.”  When you are abiding or remaining in His love, the experience of that love is His joy abiding and remaining in you.  “These things have I spoken unto you.” What things?  Again, the words of Christ’s love the Comforter has recorded in scripture for our strength.  What is the result of Christ’s love and joy remaining in us?  In verse 12 he tells us, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Any obedience the Comforter works through you today or tomorrow in loving others will come by trusting in the love of God in Christ.  Following the resurrection of Christ, the Father sent another Comforter to guide, help and assure the disciples of His love in Christ Jesus the Lord. The same Comforter is here to abide with you today.