John 16:8-15
When our Lord in this passage speaks of the Holy Spirit “coming,” we must take care that we do not misunderstand His meaning. On the one hand, we must remember that the Holy Ghost was in all believers in the Old Testament days, from the very beginning. No man was ever saved from the power of sin, and made a saint, except by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Abraham, and Isaac, and Samuel, and David, and the Prophets, were made what they were by the operation of the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, we must never forget that after Christ’s ascension the Holy Ghost was poured down on men, as individuals, with far greater energy, and on the nationals of the world at large, with far wider influence than He was ever poured out before. It is this increased energy and influence that our Lord has in view in the verses before us. He meant that after His own ascension the Holy Ghost would “come” down into the world with such a vastly increased power, that it would seem as if He had “come” for the first time, and had never been in the world before.