12 "“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”"
John 16:12-16
In 16, an interesting use of words pinpoints a profound truth that emerges in the discussion of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The word 'see' occurs twice. Reading the words in the AV makes them sound like a riddle or puzzle. But the real force of what Christ is saying is seen in the fact that two different words are used in the Greek. The first means to 'behold', in the obvious, literal sense. The second, however, involves the idea of experience. What Jesus meant was: 'In a little while you will not see Me, for I am going to the cross; but in a little while you will see Me in a new way, see Me with new eyes, because I go to the Father'. This, again, is the sovereign work of the Spirit. He interprets Christ to men's hearts, so that they see Him in a new way. This is one of the things Paul means in 2 Corinthians 5:16 when he speaks of no longer 'knowing Christ after the flesh', i.e., no longer seeing Him as a mere historical figure but as He is, the Lord of glory, a living, unseen, eternal and unchanging Presence. It is all a question of 'seeing the significance' of Jesus, and, in this connection, one appreciates more fully His words in 7 about the expediency of His going away, for it is as if He had said, 'If you do not stop seeing Me in this kind of way (i.e. as a mere historical figure), nothing is going to happen; but if you see Me in the new way the Spirit will make possible, this will open the door for you into a new world'. As indeed it did; for when the Spirit came to them to indwell them, they became new creatures, and a new world became theirs (2 Corinthi- ans 5:17).