¹⁴ “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

The Holy Spirit’s role is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Does this make Him lesser than the Son? Not in the least. The Spirit is fully God, just as the Son and the Father are fully God. Each has His role as a distinct person, yet at the same time are one God. This is the historic, what theologians call the orthodox, understanding of the New Testament teaching: There is one true God (Monotheism) who exists in three persons (Trinitarianism), all of whom are equally God. There are not three Gods, but one. Christianity could never have gained a foothold in Judaism that was fiercely monotheistic. Interestingly, the early Christians were called atheists by the Romans because the followers of Christ refused to worship or acknowledge the plurality of Roman and Greek gods. Their tenacious holding to the belief in one God is why they were persecuted so severely.

Some (like Muslims, Jews and others) charge Christians with a contradiction, that essentially Christians worship three gods, yet claim to be monotheistic. But we don’t believe in three gods. And indeed, it would be contradiction to believe there are three gods, yet one God. Further, it would also be a contradiction to believe there are three divine persons, yet one Person. Rather, we believe there are three divine persons, but only one Divinity, that is, one God. That is not a contradiction. To be sure it stretches our human mental limitations, but it is not logically contradictory. Jesus accepted worship as God (John 20:28-29, see also Col 1:19, 2:9, etc). That the Holy Spirit is fully God is supported throughout the NT (see for example 2 Cor 13:14, 1 Peter 1:2, etc.)

In our passage, Jesus teaches that the Spirit’s role involves two related things: “to glorify Christ” and to “take of Mine and … disclose it…” First, His task is to show, demonstrate, reveal, expose, magnify how great the second person of the Trinity is. This is in keeping with the Father’s focus on the Son, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am pleased” (Matt 3:17). What the Father said concerning the Son, was an act of glorifying Christ. As Peter wrote, “For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’ ” (1 Peter 1:17). So both the Father and the Spirit work closely together to glorify Jesus, to show the world and all of creation how great He is. The second thing the Spirit does is expose, magnify, make known the teachings of Jesus, which He has done both through the inspiration of the NT writings, as well as the enlightening of our minds and hearts as we read it.

Lord, thank You for the enlightening work of Your Spirit in showing me Christ.