This Spirit, this Comforter, is the Spirit of reality (v. 17). Why is He 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 you do not have the Spirit, you cannot have the light of God the Father. If you do not have the Spirit, you cannot have God the Son as your life. The reality of all the divine attributes of both God the Father and God the Son is the Spirit.
The Spirit of reality is the Spirit referred to in 7:39 as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. At that time, this Spirit was “not yet” because Jesus had not yet been crucified and resurrected. Even while the Lord was speaking here in this chapter, this Spirit was still “not yet.” It was not until the Lord passed through death and was glorified in resurrection that this Spirit was brought to the disciples.
The Spirit promised here and referred to in 7:39 is “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2) as the breath. This promise of the Lord was fulfilled on the day of the Lord’s resurrection when the Spirit as the breath of life was breathed into the disciples by the Lord (20:22). This Spirit of life as the breath is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.
This Spirit of life as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus is the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ (Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:9). After the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Christ. The Spirit of God is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ implies Jesus in His suffering and Christ in His resurrection, whereas the Spirit of Christ emphasizes only Christ in His resurrection. The Spirit of God had only divinity, but now the Spirit of Jesus Christ has both divinity and humanity as well as crucifixion and resurrection. All of these elements are included in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He is the all-inclusive Spirit with the bountiful supply to meet our every need.
In this section, 14:16-20, the Lord refers first to the Spirit of reality, as “He” in verse 17. Immediately after this, He refers to Himself in verse 18. The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This means that after His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit of reality. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection it says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The Comforter, the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of life as the breath, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the life-giving Spirit all refer to the same Spirit. Today, the Spirit of God is the Comforter, the Comforter is the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of reality is the Spirit of life as the breath, the Spirit of life as the breath is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the life-giving Spirit.
Eventually, the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Today some Christians accuse us of being heretical because we believe and teach that the Lord Jesus is the Spirit. But this is not our concept; it is a clear revelation in the clear word of 2 Corinthians 3:17. Our accusers only take care of their traditional concept of the Trinity, but they neglect and even would not care for the clear word in 2 Corinthians 3:17, which says, “And the Lord is the Spirit.” By the mercy and the grace of the Lord, we do not care for any traditional concepts but only for the pure word of the Bible. We believe and say strongly that according to the Bible the Lord Jesus today is the Spirit.