4. (Chap. 13:-17:) Faith Furnished for the Path through the world, with Christ absent as rejected.
The last section of this central portion of the book consists mainly of the Lord's discourses with His disciples before the cross, in view of His speedy departure to the Father. In these, therefore, He speaks of what would furnish them for the time of His absence, the one great feature of it being the coming of that other and abiding Comforter, whose presence with us-alas, how little understood and realized!-is the character of the dispensation in which we are. Thus we are not left to orphanage (14:18, marg.), but see Christ while the world does not see Him; yea, through Him both the Father and the Son come and make their abode with us (5:23).
There are seven divisions:-(I) Chap. 13:1-17, the purification needed to have part with Christ; (2) 10:18-38, the enemy's work in the traitor, only issuing in the glorifying of the Son of Man, and of God in Him; (3) chap. xiv, the Father's house, the revelation of the Father, and our present part with Christ by the Holy Ghost sent down; (4) 15:1-16, the fruit the test of abiding in Him; (5) 15:17-16:II, the doom of a world which has rejected Him;
(6) 16:12-33, access to the Father in His name;
(7) chap. xvii, the prayer of the Intercessor for His own.
(I) Chap. 13:1-17. Purification to have part with Christ. The order of the truth in these chapters is important:first, purification; then, communion; then, fruit; then, testimony. Without purification, no communion; without communion, no fruit in the life; without fruit, no real testimony. The first thing of all, then, is purification, the washing of the feet, the application of the Word to free us from all defilement by the way. This is not cleansing by blood, as in I John 1:7, which of course must go before it; nor the bathing of the whole person (the washing of regeneration), which the Lord distinguishes from it in His words to Simon Peter (5:10). Neither of these can be, nor needs to be, repeated; while the washing of the feet must be repeated constantly, not merely to bring back if we have strayed, but to maintain the soul with Him. Moreover, it is not a provision merely for known, but for unknown, evil. He must cleanse, He must judge; otherwise the most ignorant and least exercised in divine things would have the least need of purification. Absolute surrender to Christ, inviting His inspection, is the prerequisite for all real "part with" Him-communion.
As Revelation 1:gives the Lord as occupied with our collective state, so does this chapter show Him caring for our individual state; and in this He gives us also to be imitators of His grace, and to care for one another (10:12-17).
(2) Chap. 13:18-38. The enemy's work in the traitor, which only issues in the glorifying of the Son of Man, and of God in Him. And to this grace, all things perforce serve (5:3). So if the enemy's work be now seen, and the familiar token of love bring out the enmity of the heart of the traitor (5:27), the Word of God had already anticipated this (5:18), and the final result is the glory of the meek Sufferer. The Son of Man is glorified in that humiliation in which none other could have stood with Him (5:36), and in which God Himself was glorified as no where else. This leads, for Him, to the glory of God, the glory for which He had descended; while He leaves for His disciples the "new covenant" of love to one another, illustrated and enforced by His proved love to all.
(3) Chap. 14:Part with Christ. And now He unfolds what is "part with" Him, first, in its final, and then in its present, form. In its final form, it means place in the Father's house eternally, as children, beholding the Father's face, already seen, by faith, in Christ down here. For the Father and He are One. He is "the Way," the One, and the only One, in whom the Father is accessible by men,-"the Truth,"-the fruit of the Light, God manifest in the world,-"and the Life," needed to receive the revelation.
He goes on to speak of "part with" Him, as now we have it, communion by the Spirit sent down from the Father, (after His own work accomplished, and ascension,) to take abidingly with us the place of Guardian* of His people in the time of His absence. *The word translated here "Comforter," and, in 1 John 2:1, "Advocate," is perhaps better rendered by this, though still inadequate, term. "Comforter" is too vague, "Advocate "too narrow. The eighteenth verse, in the margin, shows the Reuse-"I will not leave you orphans." As the Lord had charged Himself with them while on earth, and was going now to care for them above, so the Spirit of God would now assume the charge of them below*. As Christ had come into the world, so the Holy Ghost was now to come, not, as incarnate, simply to dwell with us as the Lord had done, but to be in us as well as with us (5:17). In His coming, the Lord would, as it were, Himself return; for the Spirit of truth would make Christ known as in the Father, His people in Him and He in them. To those showing, in a spirit of obedience, their love to Him, He would (by the Spirit) manifest Himself. Yea, with those keeping His word, the Father and Son would thus come and abide (5:23).
His words on earth also would all be brought to remembrance, and all things be taught them effectually by the Holy Spirit. And dowered with the peace made for them by His work, and with that peace of communion in which He Himself had walked, their heart need no trouble and no fear. Nay, they might rejoice that He was going to the Father.
(4) Chap. 15:1-16. Fruit the test of abiding in Him. "By their fruits ye shall know them" are the Lord's own words, and to this test of fruit He now submits all professed faith in Him. Israel had been Jehovah's vine of old, had failed utterly, spite of His care of it, brought forth but wild grapes, and been set aside. Now, Christ is the true Vine, and by abiding in Him alone is all fruit found. He had already spoken of being and abiding in Him. He now uses the figure of the vine and its branches to illustrate this. The vine is nothing if it has not fruit:for the branch to be fruitful, it must abide in the vine; thus alone the sap, the life, the source of fruitfulness, abides in the branch:"Abide in Me, and [so] I in you."
That the Lord speaks of "abiding"shows that it is of grafted branches He is speaking, and this alone explains the language used. Here, if the graft remains and develops, you know that it has struck-that vital connection has been formed. No man is naturally a branch in Christ, but of the wild stock; and while it is (as the apostle says of the olive,) "contrary to nature" to graft a wild branch on a good stock, spiritually this is what must always be. Here, then, abiding is what is necessary for fruit. The branch learns to draw from the new tree, and how beautifully this illustrates that life in Christ which is essentially a life of dependence-of faith. The branch that abides not lives upon itself, is exhausted, and withers away.
The fruitful branch, then, is the object of the Father's care; He purges (or prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Concentration of the sap into fruit is what He seeks-s most important lesson for us all. "Already are ye clean "-purged -says the Lord to His disciples, "through the word which I have spoken unto you." It is the Word that sanctifies, or separates, to God, judges what is not of Christ, keeps us in to Him from whom alone our fruit is found. "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing. If any one,"-He will not, by saying "ye," make a doubt of already fruitful branches,-"if any one abide not in Me, he is cast forth as the branch [is], and withered ; and they gather them, and east them into the fire, and they are burned."
On the other hand, "If ye,"-He returns to the "ye" here,-"if ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,"-for your will be (so far as this is true,) in conformity with God's will,-"and it shall be done unto you." Thus will the Father be glorified also; thus shall we be Christ's disciples, and, keeping His commandments, abide in His love, as He kept His Father's commandments, and abode in His love. Thus, too, will the joy He knew in His blessed path be in us, and be full.
Again He returns to tell us that His commandment is love to one another, "as I have loved you;" and then commends to us that love of His, than which none could be greater, proved in laying down His life for His friends; friends, as those to whom now He has made known all that He has heard of the Father. Sovereign love, which has chosen us out of the world, has ordained in us this fruitfulness, "that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He may give you."
(5) Chap. 15:17-16:II. The doom of a world which has rejected Him. But this love on His part to us draws out to us the hatred of the world, which, as it has rejected Him, rejects His people for His sake. As in Him God has been fully revealed, the true state of men is revealed as hatred-awful, unimaginable hatred-to the Father and the Son. In this world the Spirit of truth was now going to take up a testimony to Christ, in connection with which human lips would be permitted also to testify. In opposition to this, the fury of man would burst forth, blind enough to suppose that in killing His saints it did God service.
But the judgment of the world was fixed. He was going out of it to the Father; and the coming of the Spirit-so blessed for His saints that it was expedient for Him to go away that He might come to them,-would be in itself a positive demonstration to the world, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. It is not a question of a work in men's consciences, but of what in itself this coming proved. For it proved Jesus gone out of the
world-and how? Sent out-rejected:"of sin, because they believe not on Me;" God therefore, who has taken Him out of the grave men gave Him, and taken Him away to heaven, against the world which has rejected Him:"of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more," finally, Satan judged, but judged as prince of this world, which he has succeeded in gathering together against Him.
(6) Chap. 16:12-33. Access to the Father in His name. Again the Lord speaks of the coming of the Spirit, and that He would guide them into all truth, declaring to them things to come, and taking of the things of Christ to show them. How wondrous the sphere of this when He can add, "All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show them unto you." For this He must depart to the Father, and they be plunged into sorrow by His death, a sorrow soon ended in the joy of His resurrection. And then by His work accomplished they would have access to the Father in the value of His name, -direct access, though through Him, The day of dark sayings would be over. He would teach them plainly of the Father. Tribulation in the world would indeed be their portion, but in Him peace, and the fruit of His victory over it.
(7) Chap. 17:The prayer of the Intercessor. The Lord now presents. His own to the Father as those to whom, according to the authority bestowed on Him, He has given eternal life. His work just finished, He claims to be glorified as Man with the glory which was His with the Father before the world was. He is glorified too in these disciples, the Father's gift, whom He is leaving now in the world. For them He sanctifies Himself-sets Himself apart in a new position, that as a heavenly Object He might sanctify them whom now He was sending into the world (no more of it than He was) as He had been sent into it by the Father. Moreover, all those believing through their word He prays for in like manner, that they may be one in the practical development of the divine life possessed by them, that the world through them might believe in Him. The glory given Him He gives also to them, that the world may know when it sees them in it with Him, that the Father has both sent Christ and loved them as He loves Him.
He closes by stating His request for them, that they may be in heaven with Him to behold His glory. The righteous Father He looks to distinguish between the world that has not known Him, and Himself; uniting also with Himself those who on His testimony had believed in Him.