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God told Adam that on the day he ate fruit from the forbidden tree that he would die. Did he? Absolutely. He didn’t die physically, not at that moment. But he did die spiritually on the spot. What does that mean?

The serpent didn’t stop lying after his conversation with Eve in the garden. He told her that if she ate she wouldn’t die at all. Now he works to misrepresent death itself. The serpent is still lying about death and murdering the life out of us. Because we don’t understand death, we can’t understand life.

We relate death with stopping. The heart stops beating, the brain waves stop signaling. For us a funeral means the end of a man’s life; he is finished. Spiritual death, to get back to our question, must mean that there is no movement, no pulse for spiritual things. If that accurately defines death, then life must be motion, activity, being not done. So salvation must mean that God starts what was still. He gets going what had no ability (or interest) to move.

The wages of sin is a divinely imposed end-stop. The free gift of God by grace through faith is getting to never stop for eternity, to and fro forever. Surely there’s more to it than that.

Though we can connect death with the cessation of certain processes, we should associate death more as separation. Physical death is the separation of body and soul. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. Adam died the day he ate as he lost fellowship with God. The relationship was broken. Because of Christ we can be reconciled, we can have fellowship with God, we can have eternal life. Life is union, life is attachment, life is being joined together. The Trinity aims at our life which means that the Trinity aims at our togetherness.

God took on flesh and lived among men to reveal the priority of this relational togetherness. Jesus lived with 12 men in particular and showed them and helped them. But the mission of divine fellowship didn’t end when Jesus died on the cross or when He ascended into heaven after His resurrection. Both His death and His ascension were part of a more elaborate plan to increase our intimacy with God, not only later (in heaven) but now (on earth).

This is part of Jesus’ encouragement to His men on the final night before crucifixion Friday. In chapter 14 Jesus urged His men to trust Him, to trust His promises, and to pray for help (verses 1-14). Now in verses 15-24 He tells them about significant help on the way, another Helper who would be with them forever. The Helper was only a third of the blessing, since the Father and Son will make their home with all who love Jesus. We’ll see the Fellowship of the Spirit (verses 15-17), Fellowship of Love (verses 18-21), and Fellowship in Union (verses 22-24).

Fellowship of Spirit (verses 15-17)

Maybe the disciples still weren’t feeling the encouragement. Not that Jesus preparing a place for them was bad, but that place wasn’t here. Not that Jesus coming back to get them was bad, but that wasn’t now. They needed help here and now and Jesus was leaving. What should they do?

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15–17, ESV)

I spent a lot of time last Lord’s day on the nine words in verse 15. It was because I believe we often miss the relationship between obedience and love and end up employing a scab replacement that messes things up down the line. We love to do what the other person desires because we love the person. Jesus tells His disciples if they love Him, they won’t do anything different just because He’s gone. Even though love can’t be defined as obedience, love does drive obedience. They’ll keep cherishing and following His word. They should do it, but should won’t be a burden because they love Him.

They’ll also have help. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever . This isn’t a reward for their good behavior. Their obedience isn’t a condition for Jesus to ask the Father to send the Spirit. (If anything was conditional about it, it was His death and resurrection.) The sending of the Spirit is part of the eternal, Triune plan. Even though the Spirit worked in and among men in the Old Testament, something changed at Pentecost.

The Greek term for Helper is παράκλητον, related to parakaleo meaning “to encourage” (or “to call alongside”). It is translated a variety of ways: Helper (ESV, NASB), Comforter (AV, KJV), Counselor (NIV), Advocate (NRSV). It’s only used here in John (14:26; 15:26; 16:7) and it’s tempting just to transliterate it as Paraclete because our English vocabulary doesn’t have one great word.

We learn a few things about the Helper’s identity, His work, and His relationship to us in verse 17. (Even more will be said about the Spirit in the rest of chapter 14, as well as in chapters 15 and 16).

First, He belongs with truth. Verse 17 offers a name and qualification, the Spirit of truth . Jesus said that He Himself is the truth and the Helper He asks for is the Spirit that belongs with truth. The Spirit regenerates men (John 3:5-8), gives them life (John 6:63), and helps them worship in truth (John 4:23-24).

Second, He is unknown by the unbelieving world. The world (of unbelievers) loves darkness. They are of their father who was a murdering liar since the beginning (John 8:44). So the world cannot receive [Him], because it neither sees him nor knows him . (See also 1 Corinthians 2:14.)

Third, He lives among and in believers. Jesus told the disciples, You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you . The Spirit was already at work and would take up powerful residence in them shortly.

Jesus was leaving and sending His men out to obey Him as they loved one another and proclaimed His message. He told them that they would do “greater things.” In leaving, Jesus also asked His Father to send the Spirit to enable and help the disciples on their mission. Jesus helped them when He was with them, that’s why He said that the Father would send another Helper .

Nowhere in John, or the other Gospels, is the Son called the Paraclete, only the Spirit. John does call Jesus the Paraclete in 1 John 2:1, “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

But what is it that the Spirit gives now that Jesus gave the disciples? Fellowship. It isn’t just strength to obey. It isn’t just understanding of truth. It isn’t just a down-payment for the future. If our lives were curling rocks trying to get home, the Holy Spirit isn’t detaches from us sweeping the broom to smooth and turn our path. It is fellowship in Spirit right now.

Fellowship in Love (verses 18-21)

Now only do we have another Helper from the Father, we have the love of the Father and the Son.

”I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:18–21, ESV)

It is hard to know when and how Jesus means for the coming to them and their seeing Him. Does He mean that He will come in the Spirit and that they will see Him by faith (verses 16-17 and 25-26 refer to the Spirit)? Does it mean that He will come on Sunday, after His resurrection and before His ascension? Or does He mean, as He did in verse 3, that He will come again after His ascension?

Here I think He means that I will come to you after His resurrection. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me . After His crucifixion He did not show Himself to everyone, only a few more than five-hundred brothers (see 1 Corinthians 15:6-8). Then Because I live, you also will live fits with the resurrection. And In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you could also be Sunday or Pentecost when the Spirit came.

Already note the unity that they would know. Jesus wouldn’t only be with them, He would be in them and they in him . We’ll see more of that in verse 23, and even more in chapter 17.

Then Jesus returns to the love and obedience and fellowship. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me . There isn’t much difference from verse 15 except that it expands to whoever .

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love Him and manifest myself to him . This does not mean that we love first and then He chooses us to be on His team. John wrote in his first letter that we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Dead men need the Spirit to regenerate them before they can do anything, including love. God’s love goes first. But it also continues and it continues in relationship between persons. There is a sense in which His love is known by us more when we are loving and maintaining fellowship from our side.

God revealed Himself and God can reveal Himself more. Not that He manifests new revelation outside of His Word, but He enables us to understand more of the revelation He’s given. We ought to be growing in our knowledge of Jesus, but less like we grow in our understanding of the Chilton Manual for a 20 year old truck and more like the relationship with a spouse of 20 years. Love is a master teacher. More than facts about Him, Jesus wants our fellowship with Him and that is a fellowship in love.

Fellowship in Union (verses 22-24)

Even if all this sounded good to the disciples, it mostly sounded confusing. Another Judas raises a question.

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. (John 14:22–24, ESV)

Judas (not Iscariot) —since he had already left—probably spoke for many of those who remained. It didn’t make sense. Their expectation wasn’t for the Messiah’s death and resurrection and departure in relative obscurity. Their Messianic expectation was for His conquering and for increasing global praise for Him. So how could Jesus say that the world wouldn’t know the Spirit or see Him anymore? How could that fulfill the OT prophecies?

It really seems as if Judas missed an opportunity to ask about some more critical things such as “you will live because I live”…what? Or, “you will be in me and I in you”…how? Or, “My Father will love you and me too”…what will that be like? When will it happen? Regardless, Judas asks about the worldwide non-manifestation.

Jesus answers but doesn’t answer the question about worldwide renown. He presses further the fellowship using the three-part formula found in verse 15 and 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him .

The only other time home is used is verse 2, but instead of talking about our home with Him, now He makes His home in us. We are the many “mansions” of God. It isn’t a future reality either, it is a present experience. Somehow the omnipresent God dwells in us. Jesus already spoke of the Helper’s coming to be in us, but here He explicitly names His Father and Himself. This is the only place in the NT that speaks of both the Father and Son dwelling in believers. We have union with the Triune Godhead, all three persons. We have fellowship with Him and it all happens within the context of love and relationship and obedience. This is part of how He is manifested to the world.

However, Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me . Fellowship with God changes everything. Being out of fellowship with God does too. The disciples would understand this antithesis even more when the Spirit came.

Conclusion

If the disciples could have asked for anything they wanted that would encourage them and strengthen them, could they have imagined this? It’s doubtful that they realized the direct, divine fellowship they could have. The Helper, the love, and the union with the Triune God.

How about you? Are you confused by the darkness and deceiving messages of the world? You have the Spirit of truth. Are you afraid of being alone, abandoned? You are not an orphan. The Father and the Son love you. Do you wonder why you seem to know things that the world doesn’t? It’s because God has made His home in you. He is manifesting Himself to us and then through us.

We are far too easily satisfied with ethical consistency rather than divine intimacy. How we believe we are related to God affects how we believe we should be related to one another. We ought to want Trinitarian relationship, not behavior that matches rules. Jesus offers us life, and that is not merely a righteous pulse for ongoing obedience. Life is togetherness with Him.