HE SHALL GLORIFY ME (John Chapter 16)

John 16:14, “He shall glorify me.”

These four words speak to the primary purpose and intent of the person of the Holy Spirit in this age.  His ministry is to glorify Jesus Christ.  Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “It is the chief office of the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ.  He does many things, but this is what he aims at in all of them, to glorify Christ.”

The term translated “glorify” here is the Greek, doxazo, which means “to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged.”  His ministry therefore is to manifest the dignity and worth of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is what He is ever endeavoring to do.

In his book, “Keeping in Step with the Spirit,” J. I. Packer speaks of what he called the “floodlight” ministry of the Spirit: “I remember walking to a church one winter evening to preach on the words “he shall glorify me,” seeing the building floodlit as I turned a corner, and realizing that this was exactly the illustration that my message needed.  When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are so placed that you do not see them; you are not in fact supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained.  The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize the dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you see it properly.  This perfectly illustrates the Spirit’s new covenant role.  He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.  Or, think of it this way.  It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us.  The Spirit’s message to us is never, “Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me,” but always, “Look at Him, and see His glory; listen to Him, and hear His Word; go to Him and Have His life; get to know Him, and taste of His gift of joy and peace.”

The Spirit of God works in the lives of God’s children to accomplish this purpose.  He is ever-working to open our eyes to the glory of Christ.  It was He who first unveiled to us the truth regarding the glory of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).  He has ever since been working to make Him better known to us.  It is He who opens our eyes to the “the hope to which he has called (us),“ “the riches of his glorious inheritance,” and “the immeasurable greatness of his power” (Cf. Ephesians 1:18-19).  By His strength and presence alone can we “comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth and…know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Cf. Ephesians 3:15, 18-19).  It is He who causes us, “in the beholding the glory of the Lord,” to be “transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Glorious Christ-like virtues are replicated in us by Him (Galatians 5:22-23).

For worship to be acceptable it musts be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).  Consistent to His Christ-exalting ministry those who “worship by the Spirit of God” are those who “glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).  This spiritual axiom is helpful when it comes to the practice of discernment.  If any work fails to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ it cannot be a work of the Spirit of God!  Charles Spurgeon once spoke to this, “There are many ministries in the world, and they are very diverse from one another; but this truth will enable you to judge which is right out of them all.  That ministry which makes much of Christ, is of the Holy Spirit; and that ministry which decries him, ignores him, or puts him in the background in any degree, is not of the Spirit of God.  Any doctrine which magnifies man, but not man's Redeemer, any doctrine which denies the depth of the Fall, and consequently derogates from the greatness of salvation, any doctrine which makes sinless, and therefore makes Christ's work less,—away with it, away with it.  This shall be you infallible test as to whether it is of the Holy Ghost or not, for Jesus says, "He shall glorify me."  IT WERE BETTER TO SPEAK FIVE WORDS TO the GLORY OF CHRIST, THAN TO BE the greatest orator who ever lived, and to neglect or dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“He shall glorify Me!”  Praise God for the Christ-revealing and Christ-exalting work of the person of the Holy Spirit!  If our endeavor is to behold the glory of Jesus, we find, in the Helper who indwells us, One who has been appointed to that very task!