Until Jesus baptism by John and the Holy Spirt at the river Jordon, from his birth to his baptism, he did not have the promise of the Holy Spirit as we have today. Jesus grew and functioned under an Old Covenant anointing of the Spirit until Jordon. He was circumcised; tutored under the law; read scripture in the Temple, and baptized with water by John.
Acts 10:38, “How God (the Father) anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
We see this having happened in,
Matthew 3:16, “And Jesus when he was baptized (by John), went up straightway out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This marked the beginning of Jesus ministry. Though Jesus was sinless, He had not yet been glorified. He still had to, in his future 3 ½ year ministry fulfill every “jot and tittle” of the law. John declared, the reason the Spirit had not yet been given was, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:39, “But this spake he (Jesus) of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”
So, John’s gospel declares, the reason the Spirit was not yet given was because Jesus was not yet glorified. It was dependent upon Jesus to be glorified that the Spirit would come.
The Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord at Jordon to mark him as the promised Messiah, the Son of God.
John was not making a statement about the existence of the Spirit until Jesus was glorified, instead, John 7:39 shows that the Spirit would not come in the fullness of His power until the Son was glorified. John’s statement is about the redemptive-historical ministry of the Spirit, not of the Spirit’s existence.
John’s comment is interpreted in the light of Luke’s account of Jesus’ ascension and His outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. Meaning, the Spirit comes in fullness after Jesus has been seated at the right hand of the Father. It’s true that Jesus was glorified in the ascension, and that He then poured out the Spirit on all flesh. But is this what John meant?
In John’s gospel, the glorification of the Son begins with the cross, not with the resurrection or ascension. After entering Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover week in which He was to die, Jesus said,
John 12:23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man should be glorified.”
Up until this time in John’s gospel, Jesus has avoided arrest because His, John 7:30, “his hour was not yet come.”
So, the “hour” of which Jesus speaks is the hour of His death, and His death is His glorification.
Also, we have the parable of the grain of wheat that necessary part that culminates in bearing fruit. The seed’s death is as much part of the life-producing process as its growth,
John 12:24-25, “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.”
In the same context, in John 12:31, Jesus speaks of His coming crucifixion as the “judgment of this world” and as the hour when “the ruler of this world shall be cast out”
In the light of these statements, Jesus’s prediction that He would be “lifted up” on the cross takes on a more special meaning, John 12:33, to be “lifted up” is to be exalted and glorified. So, the cross in John’s writing, is the beginning of the exaltation of Jesus.
This is different from the way we tend to think about the work of Christ. It appears that John pictures the death, resurrection, and ascension as points along a straight-line inclining upward.
Phil LaSpino seekfirstwisdom.com