Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
7. Yet I tell you the truth. That they may no longer wish to have him present before their eyes, he testifies that his absence will be advantageous, and makes use of a sort of oath; for we are carnal, and consequently nothing is more difficult than to tear from our minds this foolish inclination, by which we attempt to draw down Christ from heaven to us.
As it was usual with the Old Testament prophets to comfort the church in its calamities with the promise of the Messiah (Isa 9:6; Mic 5:6; Zac 3:8); so, the Messiah being come, the promise of the Spirit was the great cordial, and is still. Three things we have here concerning the Comforter's coming: - I. That Christ's departure was absolutely necessary to the Comforter's coming, Joh 16:7.
Commenting on John 16:7-15
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth,.... Christ was truth itself, and could say nothing else; but he makes use of this way of speaking, to raise the attention of his disciples, and to engage their belief of what he was about to say, and of which they were not easily persuaded; which was, that however overwhelmed they were with grief and sorrow, because of his...