John 14:16-20 reveals that Christ as the expression of the Father is realized as the Spirit. The Father is embodied and expressed in the Son among the believers, and Christ the Son is realized as the Spirit entering into and abiding in the believers. In order to abide in us, the Lord had to be transfigured, transformed, from the flesh into the Spirit. He came in the flesh to be among us, but He had to be transfigured into the Spirit before He could come into us. How was the Lord transfigured? He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit by His death and resurrection.
Christ realized as the Spirit is another Comforter. In verse 16 the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever.” This verse shows that the Spirit is “another Comforter.” The Greek word for “Comforter,” paracletos (anglicized “paraclete”), means “advocate,” “one alongside who takes care of our case, our affairs, and all of our needs.” The Greek word for “Comforter” is the same as that for “Advocate” in 1 John 2:1. Today we have the Lord Jesus both in the heavens as well as the Spirit within us as our Paraclete taking care of our case. The Holy Spirit, the reality of Jesus and the realization of the Lord, is such a One who is alongside us, ministering to us and taking care of all of our needs.
Christ realized as this Spirit, this Comforter, is the Spirit of reality. In John 14:17, the Lord said, “Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” He is the Spirit of reality because whatever the Father in the Son is and whatever the Son is, are realized in the Spirit. The Spirit is the realization of what God the Father and God the Son are. God the Father is light, and God the Son is life. The reality of this life and light is just the Spirit. If we do not have the Spirit, we cannot have the light of God the Father. If we do not have the Spirit, we cannot have God the Son as our life. The reality of all the divine attributes of both God the Father and God the Son is the Spirit.
Verses 16 and 17 of John 14 also reveal that Christ is realized as the Spirit to be with us and in us. Not only does He abide with the believers (v. 16) but also in them (v. 17). As we have seen, when the Lord was in the flesh, He was only able to be among the disciples, to be with them. But after becoming the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality in His resurrection, He is able now to abide not only with us but also in us. It is by being the Spirit that Christ enters into us and abides in us.
Christ is realized as the Spirit to live with us in resurrection that we may live. This is indicated by the Lord’s words to the disciples in verse 19: “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.” This refers to Christ’s resurrection. When the Lord was resurrected, we were resurrected with Him. First Peter 1:3 tells us that Christ regenerated us in His resurrection. In His resurrection we were made alive together with Him. Thus, because He lives in resurrection, we also live, for we were regenerated in His resurrection. By His coming as the Spirit, He enters into us and causes us to live just as He lives. The life He lives is the resurrection life. After His resurrection, He comes to enter into us as the Spirit. So He lives and we live by Him also (Gal. 2:20). He lives by the resurrection life, and we live by Him, sharing Him as the resurrection life.
Christ is realized as the Spirit so that we may realize that He is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us. The Lord said in John 14:20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” The day mentioned in this verse is the day of resurrection. On the day of resurrection the disciples were to know that the Lord was in the Father, that the disciples were in Him, and that He was in them. This is coinherence. As Christ is in the Father, so the disciples are also. Now where He is, there the disciples are also. He died to prepare the way that we might get into God and that God might get into us. Then by being in us and by bringing us into the Father, the Lord can build us together in the Triune God to be His eternal abode.