First Comforter

How many persons? Three. But friends, how many names? One. “Baptizing them in the name of. . .”

But some want to do math. “How,” they ask, “can God be one and at the same time be three? It doesn’t make sense; it is not reasonable.”

Why do we believe in such an “unreasonable” thing?

Let’s think about that. We start with a presupposition about God. God knows and tells the truth. We start with a presupposition about the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word. God gave the Bible. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The writings of the Bible were prepared by inspired people, people specially influenced by the Holy Spirit. We believe that they wrote in their own human language but that God guided their thoughts. God protected what they were thinking and what they were writing so that the end result would not return to Him empty. The Bible was given in such a way, inspired in such a manner as to fully meet God’s purposes. Therefore, we hold that the Bible is an infallible revelation of God’s will to man. It gives an accurate and true account of the creation of the world, the flood, the power of God manifest through Jesus in healings and other mighty deeds, and so on. We accept, as a starting place, that the Bible is infallible. The Bible is true. The Bible is from God. The Bible contains divine thoughts mediated through human minds, overseen by the Holy Spirit. But everything human is imperfect. Even human language is imperfect. And yet, God inspired these consecrated people who thought thoughts that accurately reflected the way things are in His universe. These thoughts were inscripturated, written down, and became the books that we have in the Bible.

Therefore, the starting point for what we believe is, What does the Bible say? And what does the Bible say? That there are three divine persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And, that there is one God. And so, inspired writing reveals that God is one, and yet that there are three actual distinct persons. In other words, we are caught between truth A and truth B. Either the Bible is self-contradictory, or, these two revealed facts actually do fit together in a harmony.

If we choose to uphold truth A and disregard truth B, we would be unbiblical. If we choose to uphold truth B and disregard truth A, then we would be unbiblical. Our commitment, as Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventist Christian people, is to uphold all that the Bible teaches. And so, we uphold truth A and truth B, side-by-side. So, we believe that there is one God, and that there are three distinct persons in the Godhead or Trinity. We do not believe it because it is tradition, but because the Bible presents to us truth A and truth B and we are committed to upholding truth A and truth B. We have no license to exclude one truth at the expense of another.

And so, why do we believe such an “unreasonable” thing? Because actually we are being very reasonable. And I’ll tell you what is unreasonable. It is when mere finite humans try to mark out in detail the truth of the infinite God and start ruling out one thing or another because they do not seem reasonable to us.

“But,” some say, “the Adventist pioneers did not believe in the Trinity.” Actually, some Adventist pioneers did believe in the Trinity and others did not. Ellen White was one Adventist pioneer. She had before that been a Methodist. Methodists are Trinitarians. Ellen White throughout her life also believed that God is one, and that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three distinct persons. So I think we are in good company when we hold to this as Bible truth.

Second Comforter to First

But let’s carry on now where we left off last evening. Let’s open again to John 14:16:

“And I [Jesus] will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.”

Jesus said He was going away, but that He would not leave His disciples orphans. He would send them—not a nine-volt or 400,000 volt battery—but that He would send them another Comforter. That is, another paraclete. The meaning of the component parts of the word paraclete, is, one who is called (KLEYTOS) beside (PARA) you. He is one who comes to your aid, who strengthens you.

When you go with your spouse to the physician, many times you do not both need to be there, just one is being examined. The other goes as a paraclete. When you go to your daughter’s program at the school, you are being supportive. You are being a face in the crowd that she can see and trust as she plays her violin in front of the crowd. You are being a paraclete. When you come to the church business meeting and take a part of the work of your local church, when you are involved and providing a sound Christian example to others, you are being a paraclete to them. When you witness to your friend at work about Jesus and the improtant truths He is calling Christians to uphold at this time, you are strengthening him, you are standing beside him. You are being a paraclete.

But, if you have a bad leg and you walk with a cane, is that cane a paraclete? Actually, it does not strengthen your leg, it merely provides temporary, lifeless support as you move your weight onto that leg. It is not a paraclete. What about a pacemaker for your heart? Does it make your heart stronger? No, it just provides an electrical charge to help the muscle fire, contracting and expanding at just the right time. If the battery runs out, no help. It is inanimate, not alive; it is a helping device, but it is not called to be beside you, and coming of its own free will. it has no free will. It has no personality. It has no life. It is not a paraclete.

A paraclete must be a distinct person in himself. A paraclete responds to a call. He comes to you. He comes to help you. He comes to strengthen and Comfort you.

Jesus said that He would send another Comforter, one who would teach, testify, guide, intercede. The divine Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, must be a person.

Jesus was a distinct person. He would send in His place another distinct person. Otherwise, He would not in truth be sending a paraclete. He sent the Holy Spirit.

Notice too, that Jesus sent “another” paraclete. That is, this would be a person distinct from Himself. He was not sending Himself; he was sending “another.” Some want to say that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal power source. Or, that He is just Jesus or just the Father coming in some other guise. But Jesus said He would send another.

And so, last evening we spoke about the second paraclete, we may say, the second Comforter. And we can and should learn even more about the second Comforter by considering some truths about the first Comforter.

Who is that?

The first Paraclete, the first Comforter, is Jesus.

Our text, John 14:16 as much as tells us this. The contrast in the passage is clear. Jesus is going away. But He will send another Comforter. He will not leave us orphans; He will come to us. How? Through the Second Comforter, the distinct, personal, divine Agent He sends to us. Remember, Jesus, hanging dying on the cross did not leave His mother like an orphan. He gave John, the beloved disciple to her. “And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:26, 27). Jesus did this for His mother. In John He gave her a human paraclete. Jesus does not leave us as orphans either. He sends us a divine Paraclete.

Jesus was going away, but what was needed was a personal presence, not an impersonal source of power. He did not leave His church orphans. He, God in human flesh, sent them God apart from human flesh. He had been their Advocate and would continue to be so in the heavenly sanctuary. But He sent them another Advocate, one who would be with them in their trials on earth. Remember, we are here, trapped in the cage with Satan. We are here in this cosmic war zone. Jesus was going into the Father’s presence in heaven to intercede for them. Now he was going away. But the Holy Spirit was coming. He would not leve them orphans. He would come to them. How?

When any person of the Trinity comes to us, all the others are with Him. When Jesus took upon Himself human flesh, the Father and the Holy Spirit did not abandon Him. Just as they are everywhere present to our human flesh, so they were to His. They remained in communion with each other, since Father and Holy Spirit both continued to be everywhere present. For Jesus, limited to human flesh, the Father and Holy Spirit were already present. Although voluntarily Jesus had limited Himself to our humanity, He remained in full communion with the Father and Holy Spirit. True, the capabilities of His humanity were limited as the capabilities of ours is limited. But the capabilities of the Father and the Holy Spirit fully remained. They did not limit themselves or incarnate. They remain as always they have been, everywhere present.

And so, Jesus can come to the disciples even though He is not present with them. He can come to them through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But let’s go back for a moment. Maybe some are still wondering about our saying that Jesus is the first Comforter. John 14:16 seems like it says this. Do we have other Bible evidence? Open your Bibles now to the little book of 1 John. And let’s look at the first verse in chapter two.

What does it say?

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” What does it say in Koine Greek? If any man sin, we have a PARACLETE with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

The Bible, very clearly, very unambiguously, here plainly calls Jesus our PARACLETE. And now think again of this text (Matthew 1:21-23), adding this insight:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. He is the first Comforter. In the plan of God, Jesus waited 4,000 years. He came to Adam and Eve in the garden, of course. And, at other times He appeared to humans in His self-existent form but not in human flesh. But He waited four millennium to actually come and stand beside us and strengthen us as one of us. John states this in this way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. . . and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-3, 14).

Jesus, John says, literally came and went tenting with us—that is what the biblical word means. Jesus pitched his tent beside all the rest of us. He laid-aside planet-making and the fashioning of the stars in the heavens and came to earth, to Satan’s cage. And He entered the cage, and took up residence here right beside us in a humanity as our own humanity. He took up residence in our kind of flesh. Paul in Romans 8:3, 4 describes this in these words:

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The first Paraclete came to do something that could not otherwise be done. Human flesh had been damaged. When Adam and Eve had sinned, their humanity became disordered. What God had designed perfectly ordered was then bent. Every member of the human race now entered existence in a distortion of the human design. The working of reason, of conscience, of the emotional faculty, was deranged. But truth was still truth; righteousness was still righteousness; sin was still sin; obedience still obedience. God still required holiness. But now, how could man obey? Now He was damaged. Surely now an exception could be made. Man need not obey, man need not stop sinning. God would understand.

Would that do? No, it would not. Sin is toxic. It must be ended. Sin would destroy God's universe. His plan in which free beings live in selfless communion with other gentle, unselfish beings, was placed in jeapardy. Sin must be addressed. But here was a significant argument. “We cannot overcome now because we are too damaged.” And so, the Father sent Jesus. He would take a human body, one that like ours, was weakened. A humanity that, in itself was incapable of obeying—that is the kind of humanity that Jesus would take. And, in that kind of humanity, Jesus would obey. Jesus took our kind of humanity and condemned sin in that flesh, that the righteousness of the law might fulfilled in us—in us.

God made a demonstration of what can be done in your and my humanity. Jesus took our infirmities, He took our liabilities. And, like us, He lived by the power of the Holy Spirit and overcame. Jesus in His humanity had a Helper; the very same Helper that we may have. And by the strength of His communion with that Helper, He overcame.

We overcome in the same way that Jesus overcame. We have damaged humanity but an undamaged Holy Spirit. Jesus sent Him to us, to stand beside us, to paraclete us, to strengthen us, to help and deliver us. And that is good news. That is the gospel.

Jesus took our flesh and lived. Jesus took our flesh to the cross and died. His body was broken for us, His character was tested for us, His example was given to us, the Holy Spirit was sent to us. We can overcome.

There is one more key insight that we should consider before closing this study. And that is this: This great sacrifice that was given for us by Jesus, is also a revelation of what the Father is like and what the Holy Spirit is like. Everything that we see Jesus do is a revelation of the character of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, too. Remember, all three members of the Godhead are perfect in character. All three are infinite in knowledge. All three are perfect in love—no, not just Jesus&mdsh;all three.

We may feel some distance between us and the Holy Spirit, because He is so different from us. He is an immaterial being, everywhere present. He has no form. He has never skinned His knee, stubbed His toe, or experienced a dental drill with the novacane wearing-off. How can we relate to Him? He is so different.

But Jesus is the revelation about what He is like. What’s more, He has experienced these things through Jesus. The Father has too. If they are all knowing, then they must know, they must perceive what we experience. When you are in the room with a loved one who is dying and you feel the deepest pain a human can feel, your heavenly Father is present; the Holy Spirit is present; Jesus through His communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit is present. They all perceive what you perceive. You feel alone. But God is there. Jesus promised, “And lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The Holy Spirit knows what we need before we pray and ask for it, doesn't He? Well, recognize that He truly feels your pain. He is not you and you are not Him; he is separate from you, distinct from you, but He is infinite and all-knowing.

Jesus took our humanity. We can relate to Him. Hebrews 2:16, 17:

For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behonved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

And Hebrews 4:15:

“For we have not an high priestwhich cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

This was not only to make atonement for us, to destroy the devil (Hebrews 2:14). Jesus did this. The holy Spirit would have done this. The Father woould have been willing to do this. There was a larger purpose. It was so that finite men could know that the infinite God could actually relate to them. That is, the incarnation of Jesus, the first Paraclete, was so that man could be fully confident of the connection of His other Helpers—God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

And so, my brother, my sister, Jesus is our Jesus; the Holy Spirit is our friend the Holy Spirit; and the father is our friend, our Father. We do not need to stand far off and indulge in doubts about the Father and the Holy Spirit. either onpe of them would have taken human flesh and died for you, either one would have become our Paraclete taking human flesh. So when you think about the Holy Spirit, when you want to know just exactly what He is like, when you want ot know about the Father and just exactly what He is like, it is very simple. Just think of Jesus, the first Paraclete. There is your answer. And there is why we can understand the Holy Spirit with new eyes and a refreshed heart. No need to fear Him. He is just like Jesus. Halleluyah! GCO

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Larry Kirkpatrick has served in the ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1994. He is a pastor of the American West, having led churches in Nevada, Utah, California, and Idaho. His writings include the books Real Grace for Real People, and Cleanse and Close. Larry and wife Pamela presently serve in the Upper Columbia Conference, ministering to the Bonners Ferry and Clark Fork churches in the incomparable beauty of Northern Idaho.