If you love Me, keep
My commandments.
And I will pray the
Father, and He will
give you another
Helper,
(παράκλητος,
Paraclete, the one who is called to come along side: my addition)
that He may abide
with you forever–The Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot
receive,
because it neither
sees Him nor knows Him;
but you know Him, for
He dwells with you
and will be in you. I
will not leave you orphans;
I will come to you.
John 14:15–18
What a
great promise: Jesus will come to each of His children and will not leave us as
orphans. There is a requirement for all of God’s children, that is, if you are
really one of His children and making sure your election: You must keep His
commandments. We are not to just say we love God, we show our love by our actions.
As one of God’s children and in love to God we are keeping His commandments,
then, notice this: then He will pray the Father and will give to you another
Helper, the Paraclete. This One, the Paraclete is the Spirit of Truth. The
world does not know Him and cannot receive Him, the Greek is very explicit
here: “ό ό κόμος ού δύναται λαβείν, ότι οϋ θωρεϊ αύτό, ούδέ γινώσκει αύτό. This
is strong, notice the two: “ό ό” for this is important as it is the world that
He is speaking of, and almost in a poetical manner, “And, but,” “the world,”
is placed in
contrast with those who love God and keep His commandments. The world does not
have the “power,” “δύναται” to receive Him, nor can they contemplate Him:
“θωρεϊ.” Neither can they know,”γινώσκει,” Him. You can know Him for He dwells
with you and will be in you. Now, notice this: the Spirit will come to dwell in
you and then Jesus says: “I will come to you.” The Spirit is coming and
Jesus is coming, both speak of one coming and both the Spirit and Jesus are
conjoined as the One coming. You have the Spirit, you have Jesus. If you have
Jesus, then you have the Father, the Trinity exists, and as all are one, the
same essence you have God residing in you in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Now, wait!!!!!! Some would shout; the Spirit is an. it, for the word for Spirit
is neuter. Yes it is! So then, how can a neuter word represent or be either
masculine or feminine and then be a person? Great question!
Here is one
big mistake many make: they think that Greek and English are equivalent. They
are not! Greek is Greek, and English is English. In English we follow word
order: A – B – C., that is, Subject, verb, and object. We use word order to
determine what is being said. In Greek word order is not important, but the
type of word is important. It may be said in Greek: the brown on the hill house
is mine. In English we would write the My house on the hill is brown. In Greek
gender is grammatical: in English Gender is determinative: i.e., He, she, it,
her, him, and its, so forth. In English we use pronouns to show gender. In
Greek endings are used to show gender and this is grammatical: example: Church
in English is neuter. In Greek ekklesia, Church is feminine and it is always
feminine and does not mean that the Church is a girl, or consists of girls. If
it did then what about us boys, are we included? Spirit in Greek, pneuma, is
neuter, it is always neuter and does not mean, “it.” Why is this? I don’t have
a clue, but that is the way it is in Greek. So we must then look at the
pronouns to determine how we are to understand the noun. Let then examine the
above words: “because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him.” Here then is where many mistakes are made:
the word for Him: αύτό, is neuter. Or is it? “αύτό.” Is nominative, or accusative singular, or neuter. So
then, is it neuter or accusative? How can we know? Look at its antecedent that
this word is associated with: παράκλητον, Paraclete, and we find that it is
accusative; therefore the pronoun must agree with it antecedent and in this
case the antecedent is accusative, therefore the pronoun is accusative. Along
with other Scriptures which I will present in future blogs we find that it is
proper not to call the Paraclete an ‘it” as proper translation will not admit
of such a translation. Jehovah Witness would object that the Holy Spirit is a
Person, especially a Person of the Trinity and make the Holy Spirit only a
power and not God. As you can see from the above example this is wrong. When we
add to the Holy Spirit, any form of personality, i.e., sadness, to be able to
be grieved, and that the Holy Spirit speaks, we cannot hold to such a
Sabellian, or Arian view of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of God and Scriptures presented will definitely point this
fact to you. This term occurs in all parts of Scripture from Genesis to
Revelation. Let me add this: You are you, are you not? You think, do you not (I
hope so! Ha!) and by your thinking you make cause, do you not? Is your thinking
able to be grieved, sad, or happy, or in the least have happy thoughts even
though outwardly you may not be what you are thinking? By your thought, which
are able to be separated in some fashion, from you, and your actions a part, if
not in all actually you, but separate with its own personality? Yes! Can then
from you make cause for an action, and is this not you, all of you? Is it not
you, your thoughts, and the action caused by you and your thoughts that any
action then proceeds from you. In this simple explanation, we can see that a
person can have different personality within themselves, and still be one. God
is not a being like us and has all ability to be whatever He desires, and this
according to His will and purpose. And His purpose for His children is to not
leave them as orphans and will one day come back to take home His children as
the Bride of Christ His Only Begotten Son for whom the called out ones, the
Church have been given. We should bow down before Him for He is our God, our
Savior, and our Helper.
Abide in Me, and I in you,
As the
branch cannot
Bear fruit of itself, unless it
Abides in
the vine,
Neither can you, unless
You abide
in Me.
John 15:4
Prepare now to be in fellowship with you brothers and
sisters
Richard L. Crumb
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