John 16:26

At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) At that day ye shall ask in my name.—Comp. Notes on John 16:23-24. When guided by the Paraclete, the life will be subject to the will of Christ, and the prayer will be in His name.

And I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you.—These words have often been taken to mean, “That I will pray the Father for you, is a matter of course, of which I need not tell you; but this sense is excluded by the following verse. The thought is rather, “I do not speak of praying for you, because in the presence of the Advocate you will yourselves be able to pray in My name to the Father.” His prayer is thought of as not necessary for them, and yet the form of the words implies that He will pray for them if it should be needed. While their hearts are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and they maintain communion with the Father, they will need no other Advocate, but “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1John 2:1). Comp. John 14:16; John 17:9, which refer to the time which precedes the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:23-27 Asking of the Father shows a sense of spiritual wants, and a desire of spiritual blessings, with conviction that they are to be had from God only. Asking in Christ's name, is acknowledging our unworthiness to receive any favours from God, and shows full dependence upon Christ as the Lord our Righteousness. Our Lord had hitherto spoken in short and weighty sentences, or in parables, the import of which the disciples did not fully understand, but after his resurrection he intended plainly to teach them such things as related to the Father and the way to him, through his intercession. And the frequency with which our Lord enforces offering up petitions in his name, shows that the great end of the mediation of Christ is to impress us with a deep sense of our sinfulness, and of the merit and power of his death, whereby we have access to God. And let us ever remember, that to address the Father in the name of Christ, or to address the Son as God dwelling in human nature, and reconciling the world to himself, are the same, as the Father and Son are one.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I say not unto you that I will pray ... - In John 14:16, Jesus says that he would pray the Father, and that he would send the Comforter. In John 17 he offered a memorable prayer for them. In Hebrews 7:25, it is said that Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us; and it is constantly represented in the New Testament that it is by his intercession in heaven now that we obtain the blessings of pardon, peace, strength, and salvation. Compare Hebrews 9:24. This declaration of Jesus, then, does not mean that he would not intercede for them, but that there was no need then of his mentioning it to them again. They knew that; and, in addition to that, he told them that God was ready and willing to confer on them all needful blessings.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. I say not … I will pray the Father for you—as if He were not of Himself disposed to aid you: Christ does pray the Father for His people, but not for the purpose of inclining an unwilling ear.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

When the Spirit shall come, then you shall fully and clearly understand how to put up your prayers to the Father in my name: hitherto have you done it imperfectly, not fully understanding what you did; but when I shall have poured out my Spirit, then you shall fully understand what it is to pray in my name, and you shall accordingly do it. He doth not deny that he would ask the Father; for the Scripture elsewhere plainly expresses it, Romans 8:34 Hebrews 7:25; but he only tells them, that he said not so to them; the reason of which he tells us in the next words.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

At that day ye shall ask in my name,.... For when the Spirit was poured upon them, they not only received his extraordinary gifts, and had a larger measure of his grace bestowed upon them; but were also blessed with him, as a spirit of grace and supplication, in a more remarkable manner than ever they had been before: they then better understood the throne of grace, and the advantages of it; had greater enlargements and assistances at it; and were better acquainted with the mediation of Christ, and the necessity of making use of his name, blood, and righteousness, in all their petitions and requests.

And I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. This Christ had promised before, John 14:16; nor was there any occasion to repeat it now, of which they might be strongly assured: besides, at that day the Spirit would be given to them by virtue of his intercession; so that there would be no need of praying to the Father for them on that account. This is said, not as if the intercession of Christ for his people would then cease; for he is always their advocate with the Father, and ever lives to make intercession for them; though it may not be carried on in the same manner, by prayer, as when he was here on earth, his personal appearance, and the presentation of his blood, sacrifice, and righteousness, being sufficient; but to declare the disposition and readiness of his Father to hear them, and grant unto them whatsoever they should ask of him in his name.

Geneva Study Bible

{8} At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

(8) The sum of the worship of God is the invocation of the Father in the name of the Son the mediator, who is already heard for us, for whom he both abased himself, and is now also glorified.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 16:26-27. Ἐν ἐκ τ. ἡμ. ἐν τῷ ὀν. μ. αἰτήσ.] Because enlightened by the Paraclete. Comp. John 16:24. Bengel’s remark is apt: “Cognitio parit orationem,” and that the prayer to be heard in the name of Jesus.[183]

ΚΑῚ Οὐ ΛΈΓΩ, Κ.Τ.Λ.] and I say not, etc.; I would therewith promise something for that coming time that may be dispensed with. For on my part (ἐγώ) an intercession on your behalf in order to the hearing of these your prayers will not at all be needed, because, that is, they are just prayers in my name (see on John 14:14). The opposite meaning is deduced by Aretius, Grotius, Wolf, Rosenmüller, Kuinoel: that οὐ λέγω ὑΜ. means: I will not mention at all, so that the intercession is thus designated as a matter of course. Against this the following αὐτὸς γὰρ, κ.τ.λ., is decisive. There is no contradiction, however, with John 14:16, John 17:9, since in these places the intercession of Christ belongs to the time prior to the communication of the Paraclete.

αὐτός] ipse, from the proper divine impulse of love, without my intercessory mediation being required to that end.

φιλεῖ] “amat vos, adeoque vos exaudit,” Bengel. The present denotes that the future is represented as present. They have then the πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας, Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; along with which, however, the intercession intended in 1 John 2:1, Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34, on the part of the exalted Jesus, is not excluded. This intercession is not required in order to the hearing of prayer, if it is made in virtue of the Spirit in the name of Jesus, but rather generally in order to the continued efficacy of the atonement on behalf of believers.

The reason of that ΑὐΤῸς … ΦΙΛΕῖ ὙΜᾶς is: ὍΤΙ ὙΜΕῖς, Κ.Τ.Λ.: “for He will not thus remove Himself out of the midst, that they should pray without and exclusive of Him,” Luther. Note ὙΜΕῖς ἘΜΈ: because ye are they who have loved me. πεφιλ. is placed first as the correlate of φιλεῖ; and with logical correctness, since faith, in this definiteness of development (ὍΤΙ … ἘΞῆΛΘΟΝ), could in its progress gradually unfold itself only in their loving bond to Christ, by means of the exercise and experience of this love. On the perfects, as the presents of the completed act, Bengel says, and rightly: “amore et fide prehensum habetis.” Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 543, incorrectly explains them from the standpoint of the Parousia, from which a glance is taken backwards to the love that has been borne to the close. The entire promise has nothing to do with the Parousia; see on John 16:16; John 16:22; John 14:18.

ἐξῆλθον] See on John 8:42.

[183] “For thou comest not in thine own name, work, or merit, but on this, that it is announced to thee by the Holy Spirit what God’s will and command is, which He has performed through Christ,” Luther.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 16:26. ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ. “In that day,” in which I shall tell you plainly of the Father (John 16:25, ἔρχεται ὥρα), “ye shall ask in my name”; this is the natural consequence of their increased knowledge of the Father. καὶ οὐ λέγω … ἐξῆλθον “And I do no say to you that I will ask the Father concerning you”—περί, almost equivalent to ὑπέρ, here and in Matthew 26:28; 1 John 4:10, “in relation to,” almost “in behalf of”—(John 16:27) “for the Father Himself loves you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God”. The intention of the statement is to convey fuller assurance that their prayers will be answered. The Father’s love needs no prompting. Yet the intercession of Christ, so emphatically presented in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in Romans 8:34, is not ignored. Jesus says: “I do not base the expectation of answer solely on my intercession, but on the Father’s love, a love which itself is quickened and evoked by your love for me”. “I do not say that I will ask” means “I do not press this,” “I do not bring this forward as the sole reason why you may expect to be heard”. The mediation of Christ has here its incidence at an earlier stage than in the Apostolic statements. The love of God is represented as intensified towards those who have accepted Christ as the revealer of the Father.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. At that day] As in John 16:23 and John 14:20 from Pentecost onwards.

ye shall ask in my name] With the perfect knowledge just promised they will discern what may be asked in His name (see on John 14:13): ‘cognitio parit orationem.’

I say not unto you] This does not mean ‘I need not say unto you; for of course I shall do so;’ which does not harmonize with John 16:27. The meaning rather is, that so long as through the power of the Advocate they have direct communion with the Father in Christ’s name, there is no need to speak of Christ’s intercession. But this communion may be interrupted by sin, and then Christ becomes their Advocate (1 John 2:1; Romans 8:34).

that I will pray] The pronoun is emphatic. On the word here rendered ‘pray’ (erôtân) see on John 14:16.

for you] More literally, concerning you.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 16:26. Ὀνόματι, in My name) knowledge of God [which they were to have in that coming day] produces prayer.—οὐ λέγω, I do not say [I say not]) comp. οὐ λέγω, 1 John 5:16, where, I do not say, is similarly used for, I say that He is not to, etc.; a courteous (i.e. expressive of affection) and Attic mode of expression. Jesus declares that the love of the Father needs not then, as if for the first time, be conciliated for them by His request, so as that they should be heard. It is rather owing to the very fact that they belonged to the Father, that now He makes request for them: ch. John 17:9, “I pray for them, whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine.”[367]

[367] In this verse we have αἰτήσεσθε used of the disciples’ prayer, ἐρωτήσω, of Jesus’ request. Ἐρωτάω, rogo, interrogo (see note, ver. 23) implies a certain equality in the asker, as of king with king (Luke 14:32), or at least familiarity. Jesus never in the New Testament uses αἰτεῖν of Himself, which would mean the petition of a creature, but ἐρωτῶ, which implies the request of an equal—of the Son to the Father. Ἐρωτῶ is therefore never used in the New Testament of the prayer of man to God. See Trench Syn. N. T.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - In that day - pointing to "the hour" of these open declarations - ye shall ask (make petitions, not ask or demand of me, in the tone of equality) in my Name. The opportunity will come when all my Name will be appreciated by you, and your spiritual reception of me will teach you to approach the Father, who is thus revealed to you. Calvin in these verses calls attention to the familiarity of Israel with the idea of a Mediator, one by whom they drew near to God, and that Christ places himself here in the stead of the whole propitiatory service and ritual of the temple. "His Name" was the Divine equivalent of all the work of the high priest from one Day of Atonement to another and for evermore. And I do not say to you, that I will make my request to the Father concerning you (see note on ἐρωτάω and αἰτέω, Ver. 23, etc.). It will not do to argue, with Grotius, that this is just as if he had said, "To say nothing of my own intercessions for you," or, "You may take these for granted;" because the very next verse gives his reason for the assertion. Nor is it satisfactory to say, with Meyer, that the "prayers" of which he speaks (John 14:16; John 17:9, 20) are before the gift of the Paraclete, and not inconsistent with the higher condition of the disciples after the Paraclete should have been given; because John had received the Paraclete when he wrote, "We have an Advocate with the Father" (1 John 2:1). Nor can we suppose that the great utterances of Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 9:25 are vain imaginations, and that there is no sense in which the Lord does augment and complete our prayers, taking them upon his heart and going in his high-priestly prerogative into the holy place with his own blood; but the words must nevertheless be pressed, and their meaning held to be compatible with what Paul and John say of the" intercession of Christ." They reveal the perfect access to the Father's heart which he has secured for his disciples, the full reconciliation effected as well as devised and consummated by the Father's own love (cf. Ephesians 2:18, "By Christ we both [Jew and Gentile] have access (προσαγωγήν) in one spirit to the Father"). The end of the whole ministry of Christ is, in the power of the Holy Ghost's revelation of him, to bring men to the Father and let them know it. There is no need that Christ should (ἐρωτᾶν) make special prayer to the Father, as though he were merciful and the Father needed to be appeased towards those for whom he had prepared so great a salvation (see Romans 8:34, where Philippi, Calvin, and others show that Christ's ἐντυγχανεῖν is the effect of his own glorious and eternal work). His appearance in the presence of God for us is the perpetual pledge of the completeness of his sacrifice. These very passages in Hebrews and Romans have to be interpreted in harmony with this great statement of his own, viz. that there is no reason to ask the Father concerning them; all has been asked and answered, the intercession is complete; his whole work will have reconciled the Father with his children, and that by reason of the Father's own love. John 16:26

Vincent's Word Studies

Ye shall ask - I will pray

Note again the use of the two verbs for asking. Ye shall ask (αἰτήσεσθε); I will pray (ἐρωτήσω). See on John 16:23.