A Study of John 14:25-31

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”

John 14:25-31 ESV

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

Jesus taught the disciples while He was still with them, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father sent in Jesus’ name, came to teach His followers all things and to remind them of what Jesus taught. Jesus also gave peace to His followers; He does not give in the way the world gives. Next, Jesus told the disciples not to let their hearts be troubled and not to be afraid. If the disciples really understood what it meant for Jesus to say, “I am going away, and I will come to you.” they would have rejoiced because He was going to the Father, for, “the Father is greater than I.”

Jesus told them this before it happened so that when it happened they would believe. At this point Jesus would not talk with them much longer because the ruler of this world was coming. He has no claim on Jesus, but Jesus would do as the Father commanded Him so the world would know He loves the Father. Then Jesus told the disciples, “Rise, let us go from here.”

Textual Analysis and Implication (what is being said and what does this mean?):

In John 14:16 Jesus said He would send His followers a Helper, the Holy Spirit. Now, in verses 25-26, Jesus refers to what He previously taught, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.”, and then again spoke of the sending of the Holy Spirit, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”. In saying this Jesus once again referred to the fact that He would soon leave, but also once again promised the Holy Spirit. The word translated as “Helper” is “Paraclete” in the original Greek and it describes one who comforts, advises, helps and advocates for. Importantly, God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, comes to dwell in every believer in Jesus immediately upon receiving salvation.

While the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, does many things, here Jesus emphasizes His role in teaching and providing understanding. Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry the disciples were shown to fail in many instances at understanding Jesus. One thing the Spirit does in the post resurrection period is remind the disciples of what Jesus taught and help them to understand the significance and meaning of Jesus’ resurrection. In this passage Jesus’ specifically emphasizes the Spirit’s role in doing this for this first generation of disciples, but it is also certainly a work the Spirit continues to do for all believers to this day. This tells us the Holy Spirit did not come to bring new revelation, but to bring to remembrance and reinforce the revelation brought by Jesus.

Next, in verse 27, Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” “Peace” (translated from “eirene” in the Greek) or “shalom” in Hebrew was a common Jewish term for both hello and goodbye. Here Jesus refers to it in the sense of a farewell but with much more significant meaning. The peace Jesus gives is the peace of God that was promised in the OT (Nu. 6:26; Ps. 29:11; Is. 9:6–7; 52:7; 54:13; 57:19; Ezk. 37:26; Hg. 2:9) and given in the NT (Acts 10:36; Rom. 1:7; 5:1; 14:17). This world exists in the chaos and turmoil brought about by the curse of sin, but Jesus brought the peace of God to this fallen world. His peace silences fear and anxiety and quiets troubled hearts in the midst of suffering. This peace of His goes beyond any human explanation or understanding (Phil. 4:7), and helps bring unity between His people (Col. 3:15).

Importantly, Jesus says He does not give this peace “as the world gives.” The world cannot give true and lasting peace. Because of the hatred, selfishness, malice and fear in this world, any attempt at a lasting peace is always defeated. This is because any worldly attempt at peace cannot deal with the root cause for a lack of peace, which is, sin and the resultant separation from God Who is Himself the source of true peace. This world loves to praise the virtues of peace, but is wholly incapable of providing it.

Jesus, however, is different. His peace is the peace of God and He displayed this peace most powerfully through the horrors of His crucifixion. In those moments even as He was suffering terribly at the hands of others He still sincerely cried out, “Father forgive them. They know not what they do.” And through His selfless and willing death He took all of the world’s sin and strife onto Himself, devoured it, and brought about the Messianic peace in a way no one saw coming. Everyone at the time was familiar with the “Pax Romana” or “Roman Peace” that was achieved by the sword. And they all assumed the Messianic peace would come about in the same way, but instead it came about through the suffering and death of a perfectly innocent man at the hands of the Romans, Jews, and in a sense, all of us sinful humans. And through His selfless death, Jesus, our God who became human, achieved peace with and from God for all who follow Him; the peace which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7).

After this, in verse 28, Jesus went on to say, “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” At this point Jesus is still responding to the anxiety of His disciples in response to His telling them He is going away (John 14:2-4, 12, 18-19, 21, 23). But now He gently confronts the faults in them that are causing their anxiety and fear. Their failure to understand and trust Him is ultimately a failure of love. If they truly loved Him they would rejoice to hear He is going back to the Father. Jesus just told them His going to the Father would lead to them joining Him in Heaven forever (John 14:1-3), but Jesus also gave them another reason they should rejoice to hear this news, which is, “The Father is greater than I.”

This statement has often been used by Arians to assert the false claim that Jesus is less than fully God. But this erroneous assertion can only be made by ignoring the many other places in John’s gospel that clearly present Jesus on an equal level with God (John 1:1, 18; 5:16-18; 10:30; 20:38). This statement, as with all statements, must be understood within the context of the greater whole. Jesus, in addition to being presented as fully God, is also shown to be obedient to and to depend on God the Father (John 4:34; 5:19-30; 8:29; 12:48-49) as well as present and active in creation, revelation of God to man, and in redemption in accordance with the Father’s will (John 1:3-4, 14, 18; 3:17; 5:21-27). Arians grab hold of this one statement, rip it out of context and ignore/deny the rest of John’s gospel to assert their heretical teaching that Jesus is not fully God. On the other hand, Gnostics do the opposite by saying Jesus is God but not fully human. However, this too is false. Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He is God the Son who added humanity to His deity.

The phrase “The Father is greater than I” does not mean Jesus is not God or that He is a lesser god. The Father is greater than the Son in position or role, not in nature or divinity. The Father, Son and Spirit are not greater or lesser than one another in essence or being. They are all equally God. God is one Being Who exists as three perfectly unified Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; different in role but equal in deity. To provide a human example, if  I were to say, “The President of the United States is greater than I,” that would not mean I am less of a human being than the President. It simply means the President is greater than me in different ways such as wealth, influence and role. And it is the same with this statement from Jesus. The Father is greater than Jesus, God the Son, in role, but not in being. They are both equally God.

For this reason Jesus’ impending return to His Father is a return to where He rightfully belongs; to the glory He had with the Father for eternity past before coming to earth as human. But the disciples aren’t thinking this way. They are selfishly thinking only of their own loss or gain. If they truly understood and selflessly loved Jesus they would rejoice over His departure because it would be to His gain to return to His home in Heaven, in addition to the fact that they would receive His indwelling presence with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Their grief in this moment not only reveals a lack of trust and  understanding, it also reveals a self-centered lack of love.

This should give us pause. How often do we elevate our own sorrows above what glorifies our Lord and gives Him joy? God cares deeply about our grief and suffering, but Jesus also gave us an example to follow (and a Helper to follow it) of prioritizing the glory of God in the midst of our own suffering. As He said in John 12:27-28a, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” We live in a fallen world and we will face grief and suffering, but our love for Christ should cause us to elevate His will above our own and to trust that these temporary sufferings will give way to eternal joy. No matter how dark things may get in this world, the best is yet to come for all who trust Jesus. He has prepared a place for us, an eternal home with Him in paradise, and He will take us to be with Him forever.

After this, in verse 29, Jesus said, “And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” Jesus did not correct and exhort His disciples to shame them but to instruct, encourage, and build up their faith. His coming arrest and crucifixion would be incredibly difficult for them to comprehend, and He wanted to equip them to endure it in the same way He did in John 13:19 after speaking of the impending betrayal of Judas Iscariot.

Lastly for this chapter, Jesus then said, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.” Jesus does not mean He is done speaking to the disciples at this very moment. He says this in different ways, multiple times, throughout John 14-16 to refer to the impending “hour” that has now come. Very soon Jesus will be arrested and then He will no longer speak to them, “for the ruler of this world is coming.” While Judas Iscariot will perform the role of betrayer and is himself responsible for his treacherous action, it is the devil who is at the head of the plot to crucify Jesus.

However, unknown to the devil, by this very act he will be overthrown for, as Jesus said, “He has no claim on me.” These words of Jesus reflect a common Hebrew idiom used in legal contexts. The devil has nothing on Jesus because while he may have been the ruler of this world, Jesus “is not of this world,” (John 8:23) and never sinned (John 8:46). The devil could only have a claim on Jesus if there were some justifiable reason. Then the death of Jesus would have been justified, and the devil would have won, but such is not the case.

Although the devil thought he was about to triumph, the death of Jesus is actually the very moment of the devil’s defeat, and the ultimate proof that Jesus loves the Father and does all the Father commands Him. Just as Jesus told the disciples their love for Him will be shown in their obedience to Him, Jesus’ love for the Father is shown in His obedience to the Father. The most profound example of Jesus’ love for the Father is seen in His willingness to obey even to the point of death on the cross.

Importantly, Jesus adds that He does as the Father commands Him so that, “the world may know” He loves the Father. In seeing Jesus’ death on the cross the world might think Jesus has been defeated, but the world needs to learn Jesus’ death on the cross is actually the moment of His victory, and His willing death, exaltation and resurrection are in fact built on His love for the Father and willingness to obey even to the point of death. The perfectly unified and loving relationship that exists within the Triune Godhead has existed for eternity and therefore pre-exists the world, and the rebellion, selfishness, sin and overall lack of love in the world that condemns the world will be overthrown by the perfect and eternally existent love of God seen in Christ’s loving and selfless obedience.

In His death on the cross and resurrection Jesus, God the Son, showed the world a perfect example of what a right relationship with God looks like, and in so doing accomplished the redemption and freedom for all those who the Father has given to Him. All the world will learn this, either by coming to faith in Jesus or on the day when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).

Finally, Jesus said, “Rise, let us go from here.” At this point Jesus and the disciples stood to begin heading toward the Garden of Gethsemane. They did not immediately leave at this moment (John 18:1), but they began to leave.

Response (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

The first part of this passage teaches us again that Jesus has not left His followers alone. The third Person of the trinity, God the Holy Spirit, dwells in the heart of each and every believer, and one of the things He does for us is bring to our remembrance all that Jesus taught and helps us to understand it. Jesus also gives us peace, no doubt also imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus we have both peace with God (an end to our enmity with Him), and peace from God that quiets our fears and stills our frantically beating hearts as the storms of life in a fallen world continue to rage. We may still face suffering in this world for the short time we are here, but we have the peace of God to carry us through and the joyful, certainty of a future with no more sorrow or pain, spent with Him because of His redemptive work for us on the cross.

We also see in Jesus’ willingness to obey the Father, even to the point of death on the cross, an example for us to follow. Jesus prioritized the glory of the Father over His own desire for  comfort and rescue from suffering. He showed us how to trust in God even in the darkest times, and, in His resurrection and exaltation, that God can and will bring eternal good out of the temporary suffering we face in submission to His will. A life lived like this is impossible for us on our own, but Jesus has not left us alone. Every single believer in Jesus has the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to help and enable us to carry on and trust God as we follow Him bearing our own mini-crosses. As we follow Jesus and obey His commands, by the power of His Spirit in us, we not only draw near to Him, but we also display our love for Him and His love for us to a watching world and in this our Lord is glorified. None of us will follow and obey Jesus perfectly in this world, but “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

Self Reflection:

1. Do I realize God Himself dwells in me in the Person of the Holy Spirit from the very first moment of my salvation?
2. How does the knowledge that my eternity is secure in Christ because of His sacrifice for me give me peace in the difficult circumstances I face? (Though I fall, I shall rise again)
3. Where am I struggling right now to remain steadfast and obey? How does my love for Jesus and His love for me help motivate me to pursue obedience in dependence on His Spirit?