18The Holy Spirit Reveals the Truth  (John 16:12–15)

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (16:12–15)

Although he lived in a time when books were laboriously written and copied by hand, Solomon still observed that “the writing of many books is endless” (Eccl. 12:12). In the modern era of high-speed printing presses, the trickle of books published each year has become a torrent. But of the countless millions of books that have been written, the Bible remains truly unique. It alone is the Word of God, inspired by the Spirit of God and invested with the power and authority of God. As such it is infallible, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, and effective. Psalm 19:7–11 declares of God’s Word,

The value of the Bible is unsurpassed. As the Word of God, it is to be believed (Ps. 119:42), obeyed (Ps. 119:11, 17, 67, 101, 105, 133), studied (Ps. 119:169; 2 Tim. 2:15), honored (Ps. 119:38, 82, 140, 162), and defended (Phil. 1:16; 1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3).

The Bible repeatedly claims to be inspired by God. The Old Testament refers to itself as the Word of God more than three thousand times—with the phrase “the word of the Lord,” describing God’s revelation through His spokesmen, appearing more than 250 times (e.g., Num. 30:1; 36:5; 1 Chron. 15:15; 2 Chron. 34:21; 35:6; Isa. 1:10; 28:14; Jer. 1:1–2; Ezek. 1:3; Dan. 9:2; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Amos 7:16; Jonah 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1, 3; Zech. 1:1; Mal. 1:1). No wonder the prophet Amos declared, “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

The New Testament writers also viewed the Old Testament as inspired by God, quoting from it more than three hundred times and clearly denoting it as Scripture (cf. Rom. 4:3 with Gen. 15:6; Rom. 9:17 with Ex. 9:16; Gal. 3:8 with Gen. 12:3). Paul told the Roman Christians, “For whatever was written in earlier times [the Old Testament] was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). And Peter told the believers gathered in the upper room, “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus” (Acts 1:16). Not only did apostles regard the Old Testament as Scripture (cf. 3:18; 4:25; 8:32, 35; 17:2, 11; 18:24, 28; Rom. 1:2; 4:3; 9:17; 10:11; 11:2; 15:4; 1 Cor. 15:3–4; Gal. 3:8, 22; 4:30; 1 Tim. 5:18;2 Tim. 3:16; James 2:8, 23; 1 Peter 2:6), they also declared that the Holy Spirit inspired those writings. Thus Peter wrote concerning the inspiration of the Old Testament, “No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21; cf. 2 Sam. 23:2; Neh. 9:30; Ezek. 11:5; Zech. 7:12; Mark 12:36; Acts 28:25; Heb. 1:1;3:7;9:8; 10:15; 1 Peter 1:10–11).

The New Testament also testifies to its own inspiration. In 1 Timothy 5:18 Paul wrote, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’” The first quote is from the Old Testament (Deut. 25:4). But the second, which Paul also refers to as Scripture, is taken from Luke 10:7. Peter wrote concerning Paul’s epistles, “Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15–16). Peter thus declared Paul’s inspired writings to be Scripture.

Paul himself was conscious that what he wrote in his inspired letters was Scripture. “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual,” he challenged the rebellious, unruly Corinthians, “let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment” (1 Cor. 14:37; cf. 2 Cor. 13:2–3; 1 Thess. 2:13). Earlier in that letter Paul had written,

The book of Revelation similarly claims to be inspired by God. In its opening verse it declares itself to be “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John” (1:1). In the letter to the church at Ephesus, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7). In 19:9 an angel declared, “These are true words of God,” while in 21:5, God Himself reiterated that “these words are faithful and true.”

The Bible, in its entirety, unambiguously claims to be the Word of God. But can that claim be verified? What supporting facts can be marshaled to demonstrate that the Bible is divinely inspired? In answering such questions, several lines of evidence can be surveyed.

First, consider the Bible’s remarkable unity. Critics delight in pointing out “plot holes” (inconsistencies in the story lines) of movies, TV shows, and novels. But although the Bible was written over a period of about 1,600 years by forty or more human authors from widely diverse backgrounds—including kings, priests, physicians, fishermen, shepherds, theologians, statesmen, tax collectors, soldiers, scribes, and farmers—it contains no “plot holes.” The specific facts and truths of the Bible are perfectly consistent from beginning to end, signifying the veracity of its claim to be authored by the all-knowing and true God.

A second argument for the Bible’s veracity is its scientific accuracy. While it was not intended to be a scientific treatise, its descriptions of observable facts and natural processes are completely accurate. This is obvious, since the author is also the creator of all that exists and knows the way things truly are. For example, Isaiah 55:10 describes the hydrological cycle: “The rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth” (cf. Job 36:27–28; Eccl. 1:7). It was not until the seventeenth century that William Harvey discovered the vital significance of the human body’s circulatory system. Yet thousands of years earlier the Bible declared that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Gen. 9:4). In the ancient Mesopotamian world, the earth was believed to be flat. But Job 26:10 says that God “has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness,” thus describing the earth as a circular globe. Similarly, Job 38:14 likens the earth to a cylindrical seal rolled over soft clay, indicating that it rotates on its axis, and Isaiah 40:22 declares that God “sits above the circle of the earth.”

The Bible also records truths unknown until the advent of modern scientific discoveries. Genesis 22:17 compares the number of stars to the number of grains of sand on the beach, while Jeremiah said that there are so many stars that they cannot be counted (Jer. 33:22). Yet less than five thousand stars are visible to the naked eye—hardly an overwhelming, uncountable number. But using powerful modern telescopes, astronomers now estimate that there are at least 100 billion stars in our galaxy and billions more in numberless other galaxies.

The first and second laws of thermodynamics are foundational to all of science. But although they were not formulated until the beginning of the industrial revolution, both are implied by Scripture. The first law states that energy is conserved; that is, it can be neither created, nor destroyed. Genesis 2:2–3 gives the reason that energy cannot be created: God’s creative activity has ceased, while His work of preserving His creation (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3) ensures that no energy can be destroyed.

The Bible also affirms the second law of thermodynamics, the principle that entropy, or disorder, is constantly increasing. Thus, everything in the universe is constantly deteriorating. The origin of the second law lies in the fall (Gen. 3:1–24). Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience not only plunged the human race into the ruin of sin, but also had a catastrophic effect on the physical universe. “The creation was subjected to futility,” Paul wrote, “not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope … For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (Rom. 8:20, 22).(For more examples of the Bible’s scientific accuracy, see Henry M. Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984]).

The Bible’s historical accuracy verified repeatedly by archaeological discoveries, offers further evidence of its truthfulness. One of the “assured results” of nineteenth-century rationalistic biblical higher criticism was that the Hittites, mentioned nearly fifty times in the Old Testament, had in fact never existed. Archaeological discoveries since then (including the unearthing of 10,000 clay tablets in the ruins of the Hittite capital city), however, have revealed vast amounts of information about their history, culture, religion, and language. The Hittite Empire, centered in Asia Minor, is now known to have been extensive, and powerful enough to have challenged Egypt militarily.

Unbelieving skeptics claim that the book of Daniel was written during the Maccabean period (second century B.C.), after many of the events it prophesies had already taken place. But there are several copies of Daniel among the Dead Sea Scrolls (discovered at Qumran), the earliest dating to only about half a century after the critics allege Daniel was written. Thus a second-century date for the book becomes untenable, since the community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls clearly regarded Daniel as a prophet in their own writings—something they would not have done if a mere fifty years had elapsed since the book of Daniel was written. The only reasonable conclusion is that it was composed much earlier (in the sixth century B.C.). Commenting on Daniel’s prophecies, Harvard-trained linguistic scholar Gleason Archer explains,

Summarizing the contribution archaeology has made to substantiating the Bible’s historical accuracy, archaeologist J. A. Thompson writes,

An even more dramatic piece of evidence that the Bible is God’s Word is fulfilled prophecy. No human can predict the events of the future, yet the Bible writers predicted future events with a detailed accuracy that is impossible to attribute to mere human insight, anticipation, or coincidence. Astronomical odds exist against their being fulfilled by chance; yet biblical prophecies come true. Among them are the hundreds of Old Testament predictions fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. (For a detailed treatment of fulfilled prophecies in Scripture, see Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, vol. 1 [San Bernardino, Calif.: Here’s Life, 1986]; John Ankerberg et al., The Case for Jesus the Messiah [Eugene, Oreg., Harvest House, 1989; James E. Smith, What the Bible Teaches about the Promised Messiah [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993]; and Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974], 2:710–41.)

But of all the evidence that demonstrates that the Bible is the Word of God, none is more significant than the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament documents containing His testimony are the most well-attested documents from antiquity. There are far more early manuscripts of the New Testament in existence today than of any other ancient writing, and the time gap between them and the original documents is much shorter. Thus, “to be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament” (John Warwick Montgomery History and Christianity [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity 1974], 29; cf. F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1973]).

As God incarnate who cannot err and only speaks truth, (cf. John 5:18; 8:58; 10:30–33), Jesus established the veracity and authority of Scripture. Quoting from it more than sixty times, He taught that the entire Old Testament is the infallible, authoritative Word of God. He declared that “the Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), and that “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail” (Luke 16:17; cf. Matt. 5:18). Jesus was absolutely certain that “all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished” (Luke 18:31; cf. 24:44).

Christ also confirmed the historicity of numerous Old Testament people and events, including Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush (Mark 12:26), Moses’ receiving of the Law (John 7:19), God’s provision of manna for Israel (John 6:31–32), the bronze serpent by which the Israelites were healed of snakebite (John 3:14), Jonah’s mission to Nineveh—including his having been swallowed by a large sea creature (Matt. 12:39–41), the queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon (Matt. 12:42), Elijah’s ministry to the widow of Zarephath (Luke 4:25), and Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks (Matt. 24:15). Jesus also believed that Genesis 1–11 records actual historical events, in contrast to many people today who view those chapters as myth or allegory. He taught that Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of history (Mark 10:6)—not billions of years later as some contend. The Lord also affirmed the historicity and universality of the flood (Matt. 24:37–39), the destruction of Sodom (Luke 17:29), the death of Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32), and the existence of the patriarchs (Matt. 8:11; 22:32; John 8:56).

Either Jesus knew the Scripture was without error and said it was, or He did not know, and said it was when it is not; or He knew it was not free from error, and lied. In the first case, He is God; in the second case, He is not God; in the third case, He is the Devil!

But Jesus did more than just authenticate the revelation already given in the Old Testament. He also promised to reveal new truth to the disciples through the Holy Spirit, whose post-Pentecost ministry He had been discussing since 15:26. This passage, with its promise of further Spirit-given revelation, is the capstone of that section. It reveals the need, extent, and goal of the Holy Spirit’s revelation.

THE NEED FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT’S REVELATION

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (16:12)

At first glance it seems surprising that after three years of intensive instruction Jesus would still have many more things to say to the disciples (cf. John 21:25). And if He did, why did He not take this opportunity to tell them what they still needed to know? The reason, as the Lord went on to explain, was that they could not bear those truths at that time. That was partly because they were overcome with sorrow because He was leaving them (16:6). A more important reason than their sorrow, however, was the disciples’ inability to understand the significance of the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension before those events took place.

Like most of their fellow Jews, the disciples viewed the Messiah as a political and military deliverer. They expected Him to drive out the hated Romans, restore Israel’s national sovereignty, and bring in the messianic kingdom with the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises. They simply could not grasp the concept of a dying Messiah, who came not to vanquish the Romans, but to conquer sin and death.

For example after the transfiguration, “as they were coming down from the mountain, [Jesus] gave [Peter, James, and John] orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant” (Mark 9:9–10). Later in that chapter Jesus was “teaching His disciples and telling them, ‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.’ But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him” (vv. 31–32). On the way to Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus

Jesus predicted His resurrection in John 2:15–21. But it was not until “He was raised from the dead, [that] His disciples remembered that He said this; and… believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken” (v. 22; cf. 20:9). John 12:16 says concerning the triumphal entry, “These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.”

Jesus also did not give the disciples further revelation because apart from the Spirit’s indwelling, they lacked the power both to grasp and to live out the implications of that revelation. But after the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, the disciples were ready to receive the further revelation they needed.

THE EXTENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S REVELATION

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; (16:13a)

The agent of Christ’s further revelation to the disciples would be the Spirit of truth. In addition to activating Christ’ promises in the disciples, convicting the world of sin, and comforting Jesus’ followers, the Spirit would also guide the disciples into all the truth. That promise, like the one in 14:26, refers to the Spirit’s supernatural revelation concerning Christ’s person and teaching. It serves as the Lord’s preauthentication of the New Testament writers; the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Old Testament (see the discussion above), would also inspire the New. In 1 Corinthians 2:9–10 Paul wrote of the Spirit’s inspiration of the New Testament writers,

Only the Holy Spirit, since He is God, knows all that God knows, and thus is qualified to reveal divine truth to man.

Because it is impossible for the Spirit of truth to inspire error, the Bible is inerrant (cf. John 17:17). To argue otherwise is an affront to the holy nature of the God who inspired it. Inspiration includes all of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16), and extends to the very words used by the writers (1 Cor. 2:13; cf. 2 Sam. 23:2). Thus, as R. C. Sproul illustrates, it is absurd to claim to believe in the Bible’s inspiration while denying its inerrancy:

The Bible’s inspiration also excludes all extrabiblical writings; the sixty-six books of the Bible alone comprise God’s complete and final revelation to man. The Bible concludes with a solemn warning against tampering with or adding to Scripture:

Because Revelation describes the entire sweep of history from the end of the apostolic age to the eternal state, to add to it would be to add to Scripture:

Scripture was given “so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17); hence there is no need for any further revelation to supplant or supplement it.

The Lord’s promise that the Spirit will guide believers into all the truth has primary reference to the writers of the New Testament. But it also extends in a secondary sense to the Holy Spirit’s work of illumination (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10–16). He instructs and teaches believers from the inspired Scriptures, as John notes:

That does not, of course, eliminate the need for the diligent study that is a prerequisite for “accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), especially since there are things “hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort” (2 Peter 3:16). But studying the Bible apart from being filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) and walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) is fruitless.

THE GOAL OF THE SPIRIT’S REVELATION

for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (16:13b–15)

During His incarnation the Lord Jesus Christ did not act on His own initiative, but always did the Father’s will (cf. John 5:19; 7:16; 8:26–29; 14:10). In the unfathomable unity of the Trinity, the Spirit likewise will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak. Like the Son, the Spirit always acts in complete harmony with the Father (cf. Rom. 8:26–27). Thus, the Holy Spirit’s leading will always be consistent with God’s revealed will in the Bible; He will never lead anyone to violate the principles of God’s Word. When He speaks, He speaks through the Scriptures that He inspired. After all, to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) begins with letting “the word of Christ richly dwell with in you” (Col. 3:17; compare Eph. 5:18–6:9 with Col. 3:16–4:1) since the “sword of the Spirit” is “the word of God” (Eph. 6:17).

Specifically, the Holy Spirit would disclose to the disciples what is to come. Like the Lord’s earlier promise that the Spirit would guide the disciples into all the truth, that phrase refers primarily to the New Testament. The New Testament encompasses the entire sweep of history from Pentecost to the eternal state, as well as containing “everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Having promised that the Spirit would reveal the truth to the disciples, the Lord then gave them the ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit’s revelation. He will glorify Me, Jesus said, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to glorify Jesus Christ by disclosing the truth about Him, just as Christ glorified the Father by revealing Him. He does not point to Himself, but to the Son—a truth some Christian groups miss when they focus more on the gifts and blessings of the Holy Spirit than on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Spirit

It is Christ’s glory revealed on the pages of Scripture that the Holy Spirit uses to mold believers into the image of Jesus Christ: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18; cf. Rom. 8:26–30).

If it is the Spirit’s purpose to glorify Christ in revelation, how can it be any less our purpose to glorify Christ in proclamation?

Finally, it is the witness of the Holy Spirit that ultimately testifies to the truthfulness of Scripture. Though the coherent unity, scientific accuracy, historical verifiability, and fulfilled prophecy of the Bible all mark it as unique (as noted in the beginning of this chapter), in the end only the Holy Spirit can convince lost sinners of its divine inspiration. The Spirit therefore testifies to the truthfulness of Scripture in the hearts of men. Just as in regeneration (John 3:5–8), the Spirit must work in people’s lives for them to change their views of both the Bible (the written Word) and Jesus Christ (the incarnate Word). That sovereign work in the heart and mind convinces men and women that the Bible is from God, that all its words are reliable, and that its message about Jesus Christ is indeed the good news of salvation.

The true believer loves the Word of God (cf. John 8:31–32; 14:15; 2 Thess. 2:10; 1 John 5:2–3) and believes it because of the work of the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:4–5, 14–16; cf. Matt. 16:16–17; John 6:64–70; Rom. 8:5–8; Gal. 1:15–16). Evidences confirm and validate that divine gift of confidence in Holy Scripture.