In the Shadow of the Cross - Another Paraclete — J. Glyn Owen

Shall we turn together in the word of scripture to John chapter 14. And we have before us tonight the passage that was read by mr. Lowe beginning with verse 15 and continuing to verse 31. I'm not going to read the passage again but you'll find it useful if you keep your New Testaments open so that we may refer to various verses as we go along now it is necessary I think to remember in order to get the ethos and the spirit of this passage it is necessary to remember that within 24 hours our Lord will be nailed on the cross of Calvary.

That is within 24 hours of his uttering these words. Such was his self-effacing self-forgetting love that he can at that stage knowing what was ahead of him concentrate not upon his own miseries that were to come but rather upon the needs of his own disciples as he foresaw them.

Never was there a picture of more totally self-forgetful grace a grace that thinks entirely and exclusively of other people. Such is the grace of the master. Such is the love of his heart at this particular point.

And of course as we as we see the the main focus of his teaching here is concerning the provision that he has made for them as he leaves them as he goes to be with the father via the cross and as he goes to take his place in the father's house he wants them to be assured that he has made ample provision for their every conceivable need.

And at the heart of that provision of course is the coming of the other paraclete. Now we've got to concentrate upon the main issues here tonight. We have no time to dwell with the more incidental matters that are involved in the text.

Nothing is unimportant. But there are some things which are of relative importance to the main thread of this passage. We are going to concentrate upon the main thread. First of all we come to the passage looking at the presuppositions underlying the teaching.

There are certain presuppositions here. If we don't have them clearly in mind we shall fail to understand and appreciate the burden of our Lord's message. So we've got to come to this passage recognizing what has gone before and what is introduced in verse 15.

Two things are presupposed at this stage and without these without these two presuppositions the recipients of the promises made by our Lord in this passage would still belong to the world. It could neither receive the Spirit nor be blessed by the Lord Jesus anymore because they have disbelieved in him rejected him now.

The first presupposition is that of an ongoing faith in God the Father and in his Son. Jesus is presupposing that at this stage when he comes to talk about the Holy Spirit he is presupposing that the people that he's addressing are a people who have an ongoing faith in himself as in God the Father an ongoing faith that believes the promises that he has made.

I'm only referring back. I cannot dwell upon them now. We have been meditating upon them previously. Look back to verses two and three to those delightful words of promise their promises that Jesus made to them.

In my father's house are many mansions or many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am now.

Jesus is presupposing faith in those promises of his and again an ongoing faith that expects the fulfillment of certain possibilities on the basis of his promises. Look at verses 12 and 14. Mr. McLeod was dealing with these last week but they're in the background now and we need to see them.

I tell you the truth. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. And notice two aspects of the expectation that our Lord's promises were meant to kindle very briefly. The expectation of doing works greater in magnitude than our Lord himself had done now.

This is breathtaking. He says calmly to those 11 disciples in front of him I'm going and you shall do greater works than I have done because I'm actually going to my father. And because of the things that will transpire in virtue of my going to my father now I don't propose to deal with that now.

But the simple truth that I want us to get is this. Jesus had created an expectation. He was arousing their faith. He was provoking their confidence and he wanted them to expect not to be incapacitated because he was leaving them but rather he wanted them to anticipate doing things that they'd never seen the like of them before and all because he was going away and he was going to the and the things that would ensue from that.

Then something else notice the further expectation of being able to ask Jesus for certain things in prayer and of receiving them. You have it at the end there of the passage from which I read I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the father.

You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Ask me and I will do it. He says he has just assured them of this blessed possibility that was opening up to them going to the father. He's not going to be beyond the range of communication with them.

Blessed truth. They've built everything around him and upon him. He's going away. Ah he says yes I'm going away physically but I want you to know that I'm within your shot of your voice. And I want you to know that wherever I'm going I'll be able to hear what you ask.

More than that you ask anything in my name and I will do it now. Jesus presupposes such an ongoing face when he comes to talk about the ministry of the paraclete. If you forget that you leave on one side the key to an understanding of the passage that we have before us the second presupposition is that of an outgoing love for Jesus himself.

Now we get right into the passage verse 15. If you love me you will keep my commandments. That's the NIV and it's probably the correct translation. Not if you love me keep my commandments. That's quite accurate theologically biblically.

But probably what Jesus said was in the indicative. If you love me then you will keep my commandments. The guarantee that you will keep my commandments is that you love me as sure as you love me you will keep my commandments.

You see Jesus envisaged that faith would always produce love. Faith activated towards Jesus you see must ultimately bring forth love towards him. For this reason whenever you repose faith in Jesus Christ he will never disappoint you.

And because he will never disappoint you you will fall in love with him more and more. Now you can fall in love with a human being man or woman. And sometimes you get some disappointments. Perhaps in most cases perhaps in all cases there is a measure of disappointment so that love may grow a little colder and wane a little occasionally but never never never.

As far as Jesus Christ is concerned you repose faith in Jesus Christ and he will so respond to your faith that he will provoke your love to blazing point. Faith always brings forth love in relation to Jesus.

I want you to notice what somebody refers to as a very subtle link between verse 15 and what has gone before. It's worth seeing. It may be may appear an insignificant point but I think it's a very important one.

Jesus has only just been saying that if his disciples ask him anything in his name he will do it. Now he says to them if you love me you will do anything that I command you have you got it. Jesus the master Jesus the Savior Jesus the Son of God says to them now look fellows he says anything you'll ask me in my name I'll do it for you.

Now he turns around and he says to them if you love me you will do what I ask you to. And because of that love relationship he depends upon their faith maturing to an affection for him that will not find his commandments grievous.

It's important to realize however that the love of which Jesus speaks is is more emotional than emotional. Now I'm not sure whether that's a correct word but at any rate you see what I mean it's more practical than emotional.

Of course we may experience something of the burning heart as John Wesley did and as others have done. But if if if if our hearts burn such heat will generate obedience. So there's not much virtue in our simply being able to come together and experience a burning heart in the pew.

And then we go out and nothing happens. If if the experience of the burning heart is genuine then it will propel us into action. It will make us obey the commands of our blessed Lord. And he says this is the way your love is to be exhibited and manifested.

If you love me keep my command. An outgoing love for our Lord then will be expressed in obedience and obedience on two levels. Will you notice these two. They are to be distinguished though they are related first of all obedience that will keep his commandments to which we've referred.

Hardly an hour has passed by since Jesus issued his new commandment in 1334 where he told his disciples love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. That was his new commandment.

Now in a sense it was not new at all it was as old as the book of Leviticus from which it is culled. But in another sense it was entirely new because Jesus added something to it that made it absolutely new.

He said you must love one another as I have loved you. Not according to the concept of love that was abroad in the Old Testament times however great however high that may have been it had never arisen to the glory of the love is exhibited in my experience and in my life and in my death for you.

And you are to love one another as I have loved you. Now says Jesus if you love me you will keep my commandment. Then there are other commandments followed here in in in the first verse of chapter 14 he had said he'd bad them as we've seen already to keep on believing in God and believing in himself and by implication at any at any rate he had he had commanded them he had urged them to ask him for certain things when he goes to the father and prove the reality of his glorious reign and rule of the father's right hand.

Now he says if you love me keep my command. But not only obedience that keeps our Lord's commands but also obedience that will obey his teaching. He said what's the difference. Well in the Greek there is a difference.

Look at the first part of verse 23 the NIV reads. If anyone loves me he will obey my teaching. You have it again at the in the beginning of 24 he who does not love me this is the negative. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

The truth is thus declared in both a negative and a positive manner. And the reference there is not to our Lord's commandments but to his far more general teaching his logos his word and the word is more than his commandments.

Let's put it like this. I have heard people say when they want to wriggle out of responsibility for certain things. Well there's no no commandment in Scripture which says I ought to do this kind of thing.

If you have a reason like that there's no command which says I shouldn't do this or I should do that. Now Jesus you see Jesus brings something in that that penetrates into the heart and beyond be beneath that mask that we wear sometimes that hypocritical mask we say there's no commandment.

Therefore we don't need to do it. No no that's all right says Jesus. But if you love me you'll not only keep my commandments that are clear but you'll do my. You'll obey my teaching. You'll obey the general principles and implications of my teaching.

And you'll know exactly what I like and what I dislike. And you'll know what to do it if you love me. If you love me you see love is very is very keen on discovering what the beloved likes. When you love somebody you study that person and you soon get to know all the likes and the dislikes of that person.

And even when there is no positive command I like this or I dislike that I want you to do this or I don't want you to do that. You know if you love. If you love. If you love. I'm sorry to take so long with that.

But you see the point if we come to this passage without recognizing the presuppositions we're not going to get the passage at all. We're not going to get its main burden and its message to then to presuppositions an ongoing faith in the Father and in the Son and an outgoing love towards the Son of God.

Love. We love him as the Father loved him. Our love meets God the Father in Christ. And that love of ours is to be expressed not simply in an emotional way. Let's not forget our emotions. Let's make our emotions part and parcel of the self that we surrender in worship and in service.

But our love is to be expressed in the obedience that he requires to his commandments and in the obedience that he requires to his logos to his teaching generally. Now then that brings us to the heart of this passage.

The promise is made for the undergirding of the obedient and the loving. First of all there are two promises here. Two things I will want to concentrate upon. One the promise of another counselor to the promise of a richer communion.

First of all then we look at the promise of another counselor verses 15 16 and the beginning of verse 17. If you love me you will keep what I command and I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever.

The spirit of truth. That's the NIV. Now our Lord has just encouraged his disciples to ask him for whatever they might need. Now he assures them that he will then match their petitions to himself with his own request to the father on their behalf.

Moreover he assures them without any doubt whatsoever that the father will grant his request as mediator. And then when the father grants his request as mediator he will send forth the Holy Spirit the other paraclete just as he's promising them.

Now nothing can go wrong he says nothing can go wrong. Oh the faith of the Son of God in his father would to God that we had something of that confidence in God that he had. Jesus seems to be saying that the answer to every need of the 11 men before him would be met in the coming into their lives and into their hearts of the other paraclete the other counselor that he's going to send.

Now most of us are familiar with the King James designation comforter and it's a very beautiful one. But it really doesn't represent the main thought in the underlying Greek word. Not that the absence of comfort is missing in in the Greek word.

It isn't. It's there but it's rather it's rather incidental. It's a by-product. The term paracletus transliterated paraclete basically means someone who comes alongside other people and stands with them in their needs and and helps them and provides what is lacking whatever it is.

It was a word that was very especially used in a court of law where the the counsel for the defense would come to the aid of the defendant and and not only plead the case generally but whatever accusation might arise in the case of the proceedings he would deal with everything you see and the defendant could put everything into his hand and that the advocate the advocate the counselor would would bear the brunt of the whole case.

He would plead the case of the defendant. You have that the word translated in 1 John 2 1 of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an advocate with a father. It's the same word exactly. We have a paracletus with a father Jesus Christ the righteous believer when you sin.

It's true we should be sad sad enough to acknowledge our sin and to confess it to Almighty God. But not so sad as to break our hearts and wallow in self-pity and never get up again and go on again. We need to remember that at that very point when we're a disappointment to ourselves as we are a disappointment to God.

We have an advocate with the father one who represents us a counselor in glory and he pleads our case with God. But now notice we Christians have two counselors two paracletes. One in the presence of God pleading for us there one right here come down to earth into the hearts of the redeemed people of God the blessed Holy Spirit to plead the case of God and provide the mercy of God and the grace of God for us.

Right down here I want you to notice two or three things as we pass. Two things that are said here about the paraclete about the Holy Spirit. First of all I think we ought to notice the qualifying terms used in this in this passage.

The paraclete or counselor needs to be recognized also as the spirit of truth in verse 17 and as the Holy Spirit in verse 25. Now you say what really do. These two designations add to the title paracletus paraclete or counselor.

Well it relates the spirit very especially to truth and to holiness. And we need to see that the Holy Spirit is at one and the same time the spirit of truth and the spirit of holiness he is concerned with truth.

Jesus said I am the truth. The spirit is also the spirit of truth. He brings the truth and makes it known and reveals it in Christ and through Christ he is the life that lies in the truth. The truth of God.

The truth of the gospel is is a living truth. Let me put it to you like this without dwelling anymore upon it. You remember Jesus speaking about the parable of the seed and the sower. Do you remember the seed sowing the seed of the gospel.

And it brings forth fruit wherever there is terrain that receives it and is prepared for it. That little seed brings forth fruit. Why. Because it's a lie. God's Word is alive. It is quick says the the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews.

According to King James it is quick. It's alive. You never know what the Word of God is going to do when it falls into the soil of a human heart. There is nothing that it cannot do. And it does so because of the relationship between the truth and the spirit.

The spirit of truth is involved there in the world. And he is the spirit of course that gives us an understanding of the truth gives us the illumination that we need in order to enter into the knowledge of the truth and the experience of the truth.

The spirit is integrally and intimately related to truth but now tempting as it is to dwell upon that. I want you to notice the other side of the coin. He's not only the spirit of truth concerned with accurate thinking but he is also and equally thus the Holy Spirit concerned with our quality of living.

Not only thinking but living. The Holy Spirit is concerned to bring forth holiness in our lives to separate our thoughts and our hearts and our living basically for God to set us aside for God and our hearts and our affection.

Truth and holiness then are his special areas of concern. Of course the rest of Scripture casts much more light on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is here only giving a kind of briefest outline for his disciples in the little time at his disposal.

In reading this last week I came upon a very beautiful passage which seems to summarize what the New Testament has to say about the rest of the ministry of the Spirit. Can I read it to you. I had such blessing in reading it myself.

I think I ought to share it with you. Need. I dwell says the writer on the great thoughts that spring from the metaphor the paraclete. How how we have to look for a person not merely a vague influence a divine person who will be by our side on condition of our faith love and obedience to be our strength in all weakness our peace in all trouble our wisdom in all darkness our guide in every perplexity our comforter our cherisher our righteousness when sin is strong our victor over our temptations and the companion and the sweetener of our solitude.

Blessed word isn't it. And the sweetener of our solitude. The metaphors with which Scripture represent this great personal influence capital I for influence this personal influence are full of instruction and beauty says this writer.

He comes as the fire which melts which warms which cleanses which quickens. He comes as the rushing mighty wind which bears health upon its wings and sometimes breathes softly as an infant's breath. And another time sweeps with irresistible power.

He comes as the oil gently flowing lubricating making every joint supple nourishing. He comes as the water of life refreshing vitalizing quickening all growth. He comes fluttering as the dove of God the bird of peace that will brood upon our hearts.

The predicates which Scripture attaches to that great name are equally various and are full of teaching as to the manner in which he is the comforter the counselor the advocate of his people. He is the spirit of holiness the spirit of truth the spirit of wisdom the spirit of power the spirit of love the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of sonship the spirit of supplication and of many great things beside.

And this sweet strong all-sufficient person is offered to each of us and waits to enter into our hearts to abide said Jesus to those 11 men looking into his face wistfully wondering what was going to happen to them.

I've made provision he says for the other counselor the spirit of truth the Holy Spirit the spirit of all grace to come and to take my place with you. The qualifying titles just a word about his equality with Jesus as well as his continuity of the work that Jesus began.

I think both are involved in these two words. Another counselor you see up until that point Jesus himself had been his disciples parakletos his disciples counselor. He had been their helper in their every need intellectual moral spiritual physical material.

He'd been everything to them and he'd been there at their side. They were able to touch him and handle him and hear him speak with these physical years of theirs following upon the disciples plea to Jesus and Jesus requests to the father the father was going to send forth the Holy Spirit to become their paraclete on earth in the place of Jesus that is this other paraclete will be in a very real sense Jesus successor.

He will assume the same basic role as Jesus performed. He will walk alongside the same disciples and he will be with them and do exactly what Jesus had done. He's assuming the role of Jesus and he's continuing that role after Jesus.

Now we need to see that Jesus God leaves no gaps in the lives of his people. When he takes Jesus away he sends the Holy Spirit from his peculiar vantage point within the disciples not only alongside of them the Holy Spirit will be able to perform such ministrations for weak men and women that as we have seen Jesus could say to them greater works than I have done.

You shall do whatever precisely was meant by that. But notice also the element of continuity which is matched by the assurance of of equality. When Jesus says that he's going to send forth another counselor this other counselor the Holy Spirit is not simply going to continue his work he's going to do that but he is going to be equal to Jesus equal with Jesus.

The very word for another a loss implies that it means that the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth will be another paracletus of the very same kind the very same nature as Jesus himself not inferior. And that had he been inferior then it would have been quite impracticable impossible for Jesus to say to the disciples as he does in chapter 16.

Because I go to the father it is expedient for you. It's a blessing for you. It's for your profit because the Holy Spirit whom the Lord Jesus is going to send forth having requested the father that the father would agree because the Holy Spirit is coming Jesus can say it is expedient for you.

It's for your benefit that I leave you. How could he say that. Because the one he was going to send was equal to himself inferior in nothing. Indeed there are certain senses in which he is able to do what Jesus could not do.

Now I can almost see some of your eyebrows moving. How could he do something that Jesus could not do. Well for this reason our Lord Jesus was in one place at one time whilst he was in the body and whilst he was with the 11 disciples or the 12 as the case may be or three on the mountaintop he was not down at the bottom of the valley.

And the nine disciples down in the valley could flounder and be unable to do what they were asked to do to heal a poor boy who was demented because Jesus was not with them. You see Jesus was in the body he was in the flesh.

He was on the top of the mountain and he wasn't down at the bottom when he was up on the top. But the Holy Spirit is not confined. He can be with every one of his people. He can be everywhere at one at the same time.

And this is the glory of it. He has all the power of the Godhead at his disposal. And he can be with each one of the redeemed at one at the same time. And the fact that he's with you in his fullness does not mean that he's any the less with me in his fullness.

So there was an advantage to Jesus departure and more over. He says the Holy Spirit will not leave you anymore. I have to leave you. This was in the plan this was in the purpose of God. I'm leaving you but but but he the spirit of truth is going to remain with you forever.

There will never be another farewell like this. He says the spirit will be with you forever. He will be equally with you in all circumstances. Now you add to this the concept of our Lord Jesus Christ being our paraclete in heaven whilst the Holy Spirit is our paraclete on earth.

And you see what a prophet it was. You see what an advantage it was for the Lord Jesus to go away then the Spirit's ministry of teaching and of reminding. We need to say just a word about that. Look at verses 25 and 26.

All this as Jesus I have spoken while still with you. But the counselor the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Jesus focuses attention upon a twofold ministry which was so very crucial to those first disciples because it did not only promise to capacitated them to live effectively but also to write infallibly.

Now this we owe entirely to the ministry of the Holy Spirit apart from the Holy Spirit. The feeble mind could not understand what Jesus had said and the feeble memory could not remember what Jesus had said anyway.

But Jesus says to the disciples the Holy Spirit will bring back my teaching to your remembrance. And later on he says he will lead you into all truth. He'll give you an understanding of the truth and he will bring back everything to your remembrance so that they could be teachers they could be preachers they could be evangelists in the fullest possible sense they could represent their Lord.

And when the time comes to write the story down by the Holy Spirit's reminding them and leading them into the truth they could do precisely that so that not only would the Spirit minister to them the 11 of them but in and through the minister at the same time to successive generations of men and women right down to the 20th century.

For we have the written Word of God made possible because of the ministry of the paracletus. The other counselor the promise of another paraclete. Just a word about this other matter. A promise. The promise of a richer communion.

Now this is important. You and I often yearn and long for a deeper communion with God. I'm sure of that. I wonder whether some of us are here tonight. And this is our this is our basic yearning. I should not be at all surprised.

Now let's look at this albeit briefly. Let's look at it very clearly and let's pray that the Spirit of God would help us see the promise of a richer communion. It would seem that the purpose of much that is contained in the passage before us is really our Lord's desire to persuade the disciples that his pending departure was not a loss but a gain.

Now we've referred to that. But let me stress it again. At least three segments underscore this very important truth. One Jesus says I'm going away. But now listen he says I want to add something to that Jesus will come to them in a way that will counteract his physical departure.

Look at verses 18 to 20. Have you ever been puzzled by these words. Let me read them to you says Jesus I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. I will come to you before long. The world will not see me anymore.

But you will see me because I live. You also will live. And on that day you will realize that I am in my father and you were in me and I am in you. Now there's too much there to try to elucidate everything.

Earlier in the chapter our Lord assured his hearts or disciples that he would eventually return to bring them into the Father's house to be with himself. Verses 2 3. Now that was a reference as we saw when we were meditating on that passage an unquestionable reference to to his second coming to wind up the affairs of the universe to consummate the purposes of God and to bring his redeemed people home to be with himself.

But now look in verse 18 he says that he will come to his disciples long before that. And the clear implication is that he himself he himself will be present with them by the Holy Spirit. I will not leave you as orphans.

He says I will come to you. Now we rightly distinguish between the three persons of the Godhead father son and Holy Spirit. And there is basis for that Jesus has been doing it in this context though we never fully understand the mystery of the Godhead at the Trinity.

Jesus distinguished between the father the son and the parent. And we do the same because we believe that he knew what we don't and understood what we don't. But what I'm getting at is this. We rightly distinguish between the persons of the Godhead.

But there is one thing which we sometimes do that we shouldn't. When we think of the one person of the Trinity we think almost of one third of the Trinity. When we think of the son we think of the son as in isolation from the father and the spirit.

And we think that when we've got the Lord Jesus Christ well then the father and the spirit of someone else you see that's not the case. There is this essential unity between the members of the Godhead that really whether one is the others are two.

And what Jesus is saying here is this. The Holy Spirit is not such a separate entity from me that whilst he is with you I'm away from you. Not at all. He says when the spirit comes I'm coming to you. I'll be with you and you will see me.

And you will realize that I am in the father and the father in me and I in you and you in me. You will realize my union with the father and the father's with me and my union with you and yours with myself.

You will know certain things you never knew before because I'm with you and the spirit is with you. And later on we'll see the father is with you too. Oh men and women there are depths to these truths that you and I need to dig up for our profit.

You and I never have a third of the blessed Trinity to depend upon but the whole of the Godhead. If the spirit is in your heart Jesus is alive in your heart and the father is with you. Jesus addresses his disciples therefore that his physical departure is not to be interpreted as his total withdrawal from this earthly scene far from it is I'm coming to you now such as the first ingredient in the richer communion the Holy Spirit.

The other paracletus equal to Jesus is coming but Jesus himself is coming to. The second ingredient is the fact that they can now expect a richer revelation of Jesus then they've had hitherto now that takes us by surprise.

Look at verse 21. Whoever has my commands and obeys them he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love him and show myself to him. Now brothers and sisters don't miss that.

Don't miss that. I hope you're not too tired to take this in. You need this. I need this. Don't miss it. That last bit. I too will love him and show myself to him. I lick pardon me. I'll expose myself to him.

This is not a physical thing it's a spiritual thing. I'll open up to him. I'll open up my heart to him. I'll open up my mind to him. He will see me. He will understand me. He will recognize me. He will appreciate me as he never appreciated me before.

He who loves me. Jesus here repeats and underscores the two prerequisites which we considered earlier on. You see his promise here is essentially the promise made by the divine lover to those who love him.

Now please don't miss that. If you love me and keep my commandments then this is the kind of thing will happen. He who will love me will be loved by the father. And I will love him and show myself to him.

Love and keep his commandments. And I will show myself to him. Now the disciples might very well have turned to Jesus and say well what are you going to tell us. We've been living with you for three years.

Surely we know everything about you. Oh they didn't know the half. They didn't know the quarter. They didn't know or know a fragment of what was to be known about him. And he says I will make myself known to you.

I'll show myself to you. How as a lover shows himself reveals himself opens his heart opens his mind opens his whole being and pours it all out. Not upon a student of theology but upon a lover. See there's nothing.

There's nothing strange about this principle. It's the most simple. It's the most universal principle. If you want to know something about a person then you must love that person for him or her to open his mind or his heart.

You come and ask me questions about my life and I may shut shop. You know what that means. Don't you shut my mouth. I'd be so inquisitive. What are you interested in my life for. But where there is our love relationship.