What does Comforter mean?

The word translated Comforter, sometimes rendered Advocate or Helper, means one called alongside to help. It pictures the Spirit as a counselor, strengthener, and friend who never leaves.

Why did Jesus say it was better for Him to go away?

Because only when He returned to the Father would the Comforter come to dwell within all believers everywhere at once, rather than being present in one place. Through the Spirit, Jesus is with His people always.

The Holy Spirit

The Promise of the Spirit: The Comforter

Q: What is the promise of the Spirit?

In John 14 to 16 Jesus promised His disciples that the Father would give them another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would abide with them for ever, teach them, remind them of His words, guide them into truth, convict the world, and testify of Christ.

On the night before He died, Jesus promised His grieving disciples that He would not leave them alone. He would ask the Father to give them another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would abide with them for ever. In the upper room discourse of John 14 to 16, Jesus unfolds who the Spirit is and what He would do: teach, remind, guide into truth, convict the world, and testify of Christ Himself.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;John 14:16 (KJV)

Another Comforter

The disciples were frightened. Jesus had told them He was going away, and their hearts were troubled. Into that fear He spoke one of the tenderest promises in all Scripture: And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. The word translated Comforter means one called alongside to help, an advocate, a counselor, a strengthener and friend. Jesus calls Him another Comforter, of the same kind as Himself, for the Spirit would be to them everything the presence of Jesus had been, and would never depart.

Notice that word for ever. Under the old covenant the Spirit came and could go. Now Jesus promises a Comforter who will abide for ever, no longer merely alongside them but, He says, in you. This is the great advance of the new covenant: the Spirit not visiting but indwelling, not for a season but for always.

The Spirit of truth who teaches

Jesus tells them what the Comforter will do. He is the Spirit of truth, and He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. It is a promise that stands behind the very Gospels we read, for the Spirit would bring the words of Jesus faithfully to the memory of the apostles. And He will guide you into all truth, Jesus says, not speaking of Himself but taking the things of Christ and showing them to us.

This means the Spirit and the Word of God always agree. The Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is the same Spirit who opens them to the heart. He does not lead people away from what Jesus taught but deeper into it. Any spirit that contradicts the plain teaching of Christ is not the Spirit of truth.

Convicting the world

The Comforter has a work toward the world as well as toward the church. Jesus said that when He is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. The Spirit presses the truth upon the conscience, showing men their need, unsettling the comfortable, and awakening the careless. No preacher can create that conviction; it is the Spirit's own work. When someone who once shrugged at the gospel begins to feel the weight of sin and the beauty of Christ, the Comforter is at work.

This is a mercy, not a cruelty. Conviction is the Spirit's way of turning a person toward the only place healing is found. He wounds in order to heal, disturbs in order to save, and never leaves the awakened soul without pointing it to the Savior.

The Spirit and the peace He brings

In the same discourse where He promised the Comforter, Jesus made a striking connection between the Spirit and peace. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, He said, not as the world giveth. The peace of Christ is carried to the heart by the Spirit He would send. The disciples were about to watch their Lord be crucified, and their world was about to fall apart, yet He promised them a peace the world could neither give nor take away, ministered by the Comforter within.

This is one of the Spirit's tenderest works. He does not remove every trouble, but He brings the peace of Christ into the middle of it. When a believer is calm in a storm that ought to overwhelm them, when there is a quiet in the soul that circumstances cannot explain, the Comforter is doing exactly what Jesus promised He would do.

Better that He should go

The disciples could not imagine anything better than having Jesus beside them, so His words must have stunned them: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. How could His going be gain? Because the Jesus who walked beside them in one place at a time would, by His Spirit, come to live within every believer everywhere at once. Nearness gave way to indwelling.

So the promise of the Spirit is not a consolation prize for the absence of Christ. It is the very way the risen Christ keeps His word to be with us always, even unto the end of the world. Through the Comforter, Jesus is closer to His people now than He was to the disciples then, not walking beside them but dwelling within them.

The world cannot receive Him

Jesus said something sobering as He promised the Comforter: the Spirit of truth, He said, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. The Spirit is not given to the world at large as a general blessing, but to those who belong to Christ. The world cannot receive Him because it will not receive the One He testifies of. To know the Spirit and to know Jesus go together; you cannot have one without the other.

Yet the same words are full of comfort for the believer. But ye know him, Jesus said, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. What the world cannot have, the humblest Christian is freely given: the abiding presence of God within. The promise is not that we will feel Him constantly, but that He will dwell in us truly, teaching, comforting, and drawing us to Christ, whether we feel Him or not.

This is a steadying truth on days when the Spirit seems far away. His indwelling does not depend on our feelings, nor come and go with our moods. Jesus promised He would abide with us for ever, and the promise holds when the heart is dull as surely as when it is warm. The believer does not need to work up an experience to prove the Spirit is present; He is present because Christ has given Him, and He is quietly at work whether the day is bright or grey.

Sent by the Son to glorify the Son

Above everything else, Jesus said the Spirit would testify of Him. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, He shall testify of me. And, He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. The Spirit is not given to make us fascinated with the Spirit. He is given to make us love and follow Jesus. This is the heartbeat of the whole promise.

It was better, Jesus told them, that He go away, for only then would the Comforter come. The Christ who had walked beside them in one place would, by His Spirit, dwell within all of them in every place. The promise of the Spirit is really the promise that Jesus, through His Spirit, would never leave His people, but be with them always, even unto the end of the world.

The Spirit points you to Jesus

The whole work of the Holy Spirit is to make Christ known and to draw you into the family of God. Come and meet Him: read the Word, pray, and walk with His people on The Living Bread. Free, with no ads, for all people.

Get the app Who is Jesus?