The final days of Advent bring to mind a passage from Jesus’s Last Supper discourse in John. The night before his death, a new exodus, Jesus looks ahead to God’s presence among His people in a new way, through “another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.” The Holy Spirit poured into the hearts of believers will become a New Law, linking law and love in a way contemplated by the arresting statement: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, 17 the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
John 14:15-21.