With this blog being about the Truth, or perhaps more correctly, the quest to find it, the question naturally arises of who or what is the “Spirit of Truth” that we read about in the Bible. This passage from John:16 gives more than a few hints:
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 16: 7-12 (New International Version)
Jesus speaks about His return to the Father, and of the Advocate who will come afterwards. In reading these words there is no way that anyone could get the impression that Jesus and the Spirit of Truth are the same Person. While they are One according to the Trinity, also being a Unity in the Father, yet He is clearly speaking of another. Moreover, the Spirit of Truth is described as being not merely a force or presence but as being someone personally; Another Who will come. He will also speak to humanity and will glorify Christ (“He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”).
To glorify Christ means to get rid of all that is false and untrue that has been said about Christ.
It is He, The Spirit of Truth, who is promised to bring the Judgment. We can draw from this that Christ was proclaiming:
1) Another than Jesus will come
2) He will speak to humanity and make known the Whole Truth
3) He will bring the Judgment
I will pick up this thread again soon as it is very beneficial to look into it further.
