When the Comforter Has Come

Regeneration is the first work necessary for the Holy Spirit to do in the souls of sinners, in order to their conversion (see John 3:5-8). Only those who are born again will repent of their sins before God and believe in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without regeneration, there will be no true faith or repentance.

The Lord Jesus Christ reveals the Holy Spirit to be “the Comforter”.¹ The Holy Spirit’s work is a spiritual work in those to whom he is sent. This name Comforter explains the mission of the Holy Spirit: “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (John 15:26). And what the Holy Spirit, as Comforter, testifies is good news concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why is the New Testament Greek word παράκλητος here translated Comforter in our Bible, the Authorised (King James) Version? The word Comfort is an English word adopted from the Latin, combining cum (meaning “with”) and fortis (meaning “stong”; “strength”). The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, comes down to be with the Lord’s people as their Strong Helper to strengthen them. In this strengthening, the Spirit first regenerates us—because we must be “born again” (John 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:3, etc.). Regeneration is necessary before the Holy Spirit’s own testimony of Christ (John 15:26) will be believed by us. Or, to put it another way: the Spirit of Truth’s testimony in our souls involves God’s effectual calling of irresistible grace² within us.

Christ also informs us that the Holy Spirit is “another Comforter,” whom he has asked the Father to send after he himself had ascended: “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter…” (John 14:15-16).³ The Lord Jesus Christ himself is our first Comforter.⁴ The Spirit will be a Comforter to them even as the Lord himself had been.

The Holy Spirit’s ministry of comfort will never cease in the souls of the Lord’s people, because he will “abide with you forever”—“for I will not leave you comfortless,” Jesus assured his disciples (see John 14:16-18). This is why the Holy Spirit’s ministry is still being extended around the world even today, as the Church grows.

The Holy Spirit’s Ministry of Comfort

But what is this ministry of comfort? Christ describes it as threefold: “And when he is come, he will reprove⁵ the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:8-11).

This “world” to whom the Holy Spirit is sent is composed of God’s chosen people, both Jews and gentiles; whereas the non-elect world “cannot receive” him (compare John 14:17). The Holy Spirit’s ministry to reprove is a ministry that inevitably brings comfort to those who are reproved.

Let us consider the Holy Spirit’s threefold comforting ministry:

Reproof for Your Sins

Firstly, People who receive the Holy Spirit’s reproof of sin before God will learn to fear the justly deserved hell that they stand under ecause of our sins. This real fear will be theirs because “they believe not on” Christ—not yet.

If they knew the Lord’s salvation, then they would know no such condemnation, because “There is…now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). But at this earlier time-point in their life they have not yet been brought to know and to believe in Christ their Saviour.

The Holy Spirit enables them to understand something of the trouble they deserve to be in: their awful predicament as sinners before the righteous God (e.g. Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:10, 12). And this is why their quickened conscience stirs them up to cry, with all seriousness and with increasingly great distress, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” (compare Isaiah 6:5). Whether they are brought to tears, or to fall on their face before God, or to their knees, or whether they keep this cry inward—this is indeed the greatest concern of their heart.

Reproof from the Righteous God

Secondly, The Holy Spirit then reproves newly regenerated souls “of righteousness”⁶—that is, of the righteousness of God, and therefore of his justice against the unrighteousness of fallen mankind, and against themselves in particular. The Holy Spirit reproves them for their unrighteousness. They have no righteousness of their own, for “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). The Holy Spirit makes them understand that all their so-called “righteousnesses” (so-called good deeds) are, as it were, “filthy rags” in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6).

It is the Holy Spirit who makes them to cry out as the Philippian jailer did: “What must I do to be saved?”—and God, in his providence, sends the same gospel to them as Paul preached to his jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:30-31).

In Christ’s saying, “because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more” (John 16:10), he was referring to his forthcoming sacrificial death for his people (compare John 13:33). The Holy Spirit convinces them of the total moral perfection—the righteousness—of Christ, and he enables them to believe in him.

Reproof for Your Deserved Condemnation

Thirdly, Jesus said that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will also reprove the elect throughout the world of judgment: “he will reprove the world…of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” The entity whom the Lord Jesus Christ here refers to as “prince of this world” is Satan (see Luke 4. 5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; Ephesians 2:2; compare “the god of this world,” 2 Corinthians 4:4; see also Job 1:6-7). Not that the Devil is the real God or Prince of this world, but be began to be served as though he were the prince and ruler of this world when Adam started believing the serpent’s words rather than God’s words concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil (Genesis 3:1-7), thereby transferring his allegiance from God to Satan.⁷ Even now the Devil falsely reigns as the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9).

Knowing that God has judged (condemned; damned)⁸ the pretended, evil prince of this world, then he shall certainly judge all people who likewise reject God. Satan is evil, and therefore he is worthy of condemnation to hell by the true God, who is the Righteous Judge of all the earth, who shall do right (Genesis 18:25). And the elect will likewise come to admit that they themselves deserve the same condemnation to hell.

But then the Holy Spirit comfortingly teaches the elect how, at the cross, Jesus Christ triumphed over Satan and all his works—and how, by this sacrifice, he delivers his people out of Satan’s dominion and doom. The Lord referred to his triumph three times, as recorded in John’s Gospel (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). The apostle Paul repeats this doctrine (Colossians 2:14-15).

Appendix

David Dickson and James Durham, The Sum of Saving Knowledge.

The chief general use of Christian doctrine is, to convince a man of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 14:8) partly by the law or covenant of works, that he may be humbled and become penitent; and partly by the gospel or covenant of grace, that he may become an unfeigned believer in Jesus Christ, and be strengthened in his faith upon solid grounds and warrants, and give evidence of the truth of his faith by good fruits, and so be saved.

The sum of the covenant of works, or of the law, is this: “If thou do all that is commanded, and not fail in any point, thou shalt be saved: but if thou fail, thou shalt die” (Romans 10:5; Galatians 3:10, 12).

The sum of the gospel, or covenant of grace and reconciliation, is this: “If thou flee from deserved wrath to the true Redeemer Jesus Christ, (who is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him,) thou shalt not perish, but have eternal life” (Romans 10:8, 9, 11).

David Dickson and James Durham, The Sum of Saving Knowledge.

As for convincing a man of sin, and righteousness, and judgment, by the gospel, or covenant of grace, he must understand three things:

1. That not believing in Jesus Christ, or refusing of the covenant of grace offered in him, is a greater and more dangerous sin than all other sins against the law; because the hearers of the gospel, not believing in Christ, do reject God’s mercy in Christ, the only way of freedom from sin and wrath, and will not yield to be reconciled to God.
2. Next, he must understand, that perfect remission of sin, and true righteousness, is to be had only by faith in Jesus; because God requireth no other conditions but faith; and testifies from heaven, that he is well pleased to justify sinners upon this condition.
3. He must understand, that upon righteousness received by faith, judgment shall follow, on the one hand, to the destroying of the works of the devil in the believer, and to the perfecting of the work of sanctification in him, with power: and that, upon refusing to take righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, judgment shall follow, on the other hand, to the condemnation of the misbeliever, and destroying of him with Satan and his servants for ever.

For this end, let these passages of scripture, among many others, serve to make the greatness of the sin of not believing in Christ appear; or, to make the greatness of the sin of refusing of the covenant of grace offered to us, in the offering of Christ unto us appear, let the fair offer of grace be looked upon as it is made: “Incline your ear, and come unto me, (saith the Lord:) hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 40:3). That is, If ye will believe me, and be reconciled to me, I will, by covenant, give unto you Christ, and all saving graces in him (repeated Acts 13:34).

Again, consider, that this general offer in substance is equivalent to a special offer made to every one in particular; as appeareth by the apostle’s making use of it: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31). The reason of which offer is given: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Seeing then this great salvation is offered in the Lord Jesus, whosoever believeth not in him, but looks for happiness some other way, what doth he else but “observe lying vanities, and forsake his own mercy,” which he might have had in Christ? (Jonah 2:8-9). What doth he else but blaspheme God in his heart? as it is said: “He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:10-11). And that no sin against the law is like unto this sin, Christ testifies: “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin” (John 15:22). This may convince a man of the greatness of this sin of not believing in Christ.