“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 (Read John 14:15-24)

Do you love Jesus? It’s easy to say yes, but if we truly love Jesus, we will hear and do what He taught and commanded. Jesus said in John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.”

Among Jesus’ disciples, many loved Him and heard His Word, but one failed to love Him and keep His Word. He even betrayed Jesus for financial gain and did not know Jesus’ love for him well enough to look to Jesus for pardon and forgiveness. But for those who loved Jesus and kept His Word, Jesus had words of comfort as He went to the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of God the Father.

Though Jesus would no longer live and dwell with them as He had over the past three years, Jesus would not leave His true disciples as orphans in the world; He would come to them and dwell in them. “How?” we might ask. Jesus explained that when He said, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

Jesus told His disciples who loved Him and kept His Word that, when He was glorified and at the Father’s right hand, He would ask the Father to send them another Helper, God the Holy Spirit, who would dwell in them forever. This Helper (Parakleton in the Greek original) comes alongside believers and comforts and consoles them with the Gospel of forgiveness and life in Jesus and His cross. He leads and guides believers into the truth through reading and hearing His Word (the Bible), and He coaches them and encourages them as they live their lives in this world while awaiting the return of Jesus, their Savior. The world does not know Him, but believers know Him; He dwells in them and works in their lives.

Jesus did what He promised on the day of Pentecost, when He poured out His Holy Spirit upon His disciples, giving them a right understanding of the Scriptures and emboldening them to bear witness to Jesus and the salvation He provided for us when He suffered and died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again. And Jesus still gives His Holy Spirit to all who believe and are baptized into His name today.

It is as Peter said on the day of Pentecost: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39). The Apostle Paul also wrote to Titus: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).

Jesus has not left us as orphans in this world. He comes to all who know Him, love Him, and trust in Him and His Word by the indwelling Holy Spirit. His Spirit teaches us from God’s Word, brings us to a knowledge of the truth about our utter sinfulness, and points us to the cross of Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), for pardon and forgiveness. Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit leads and guides us in the truth, coaches us as we live out our lives for Jesus in this world, and preserves us in the true and saving faith unto life everlasting in the mansions of our heavenly Father’s house.

Jesus has not left us comfortless; He comes to us and dwells in us as believers, and He will keep us safe in His hands until we are with Him forever in heaven.

O gracious Savior, give us Your indwelling Holy Spirit, who has been with us and brought us to know and trust in You as our Savior, that You may dwell in our lives and lead and guide us safely through this world to Yourself in heaven. Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]