This, I believe, is the best way to understand this:
The Holy Spirit and His work, have to be understood in two ways. There is the work of the Spirit in the New Birth. John 3:3-10 and then there is the work of the Holy Spirit, indwelling believers, as the Comforter.
The work of the Spirit, in giving one spiritual life, through the New Birth, has been going on since the fall of Adam. This work is necessary at all times. Without it, who would give us a "new heart" and a "new spirit"? By necessity, all of the disciples, except Judas, were Born Again. In this same vein, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given authority to baptize the infant Church/Assembly. Which took place at Pentecost.
The second portion of His work, to teach the believer and bring all things into remembrance, was not at work during Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. Indeed, it could not be. For during Christ's earthly ministry, the believers had the Divine Logos to teach them. You could not have both the Lord and the Holy Spirit providing the same role. Besides, what would the Holy Spirit add? Jesus was the one that had all the Words that the father had given Him to say. (John 14:10). But once Jesus ascended, back to the right hand of His Father, believers would no longer have His presence or His Words. So Christ comforts them:
Christ's statement in John 7:39, alludes to what our Lord said to the disciples, in John 14:16 and other verses:
John 14:16-17 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it is not beholding him, neither is knowing him: ye know him; for he is abiding with you, and shall be in you.
We can see in this verse, that believers knew Him. This was thanks to the New Birth and the Holy Spirit was an ever abiding presence but He was not "indwelling" believers at that time. This "indwelling" would allow believers to be taught of God, whereas previous to His indwelling, the memory of the believer and the understanding were not as brilliantly illuminated as they would be.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.
Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Comforter), the Disciples, could not always recall what the Lord had taught:
John 12:16 These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
The Comforter was sent after Jesus was Glorified.
I hope that helps a little, would love to give more but space is limited here.
You have a good argument. The solution hangs NOT on
"the Holy Spirit that was not yet". It hangs of the
"Spirit that they should receive".
Christianity at large, although they enter into the full benefits of rebirth, do not appreciate the massive change in God's Economy in the New Testament. The word
"Economy" is
"Oikonomia" in the Greek. It does not mean a "
dispensation in the sense of an epoch" (e.g. Eph.1:10). It means
"a household management". The sense is of a mother working in the kitchen to serve her family, or
"dispense" food and drink. It is elsewhere, like in Luke, rendered
"steward" - man responsible for
"dispensing" the Master's supply to his other servants.
If we return to Eden before the fall, God set up a plan. He had created a perfect human couple, but in order to be in the
"likeness" of God, man had to have His nature. So God set up a system whereby He would
"dispense" Himself into man via the mouth - via the fruit of the Tree of Life. That is, God's goal was to have MAN, perfect in His humanity, but permeated with the divine nature so that man would intrinsically think, feel, decide and speak like God. He would still be a man, but permeated with the divine nature.
We know the sad story. Man rebelled, refused the Tree of Life and ate of a Tree that thoroughly corrupted his HUMAN nature. Among other things, God first gave a set of privileged men - Israel, His Law. Israel demonstrated that the fallen man, even when he was willing to carry out God's Laws, always tended to evil (Romans Chapter 7). But God's councils are immutable. DESPITE man's utter failure, God set in motion an "Economy" - a system of
dispensing, whereby He would still be infused into man. But the obstacles were great. Two in particular:
- God is righteous to the uttermost, so man must pay for his sins
- Man was utterly corrupted and almost useless for God's purpose of being in His likeness
So God, ever above every situation, hatched a plan in eternity past that would overcome these two disastrous conditions. He sent His Son as a MAN. But He was unlike every other man. He was born from a woman, making Him 100% man, but His incarnation was by God in the Person of the Holy Spirit. The consequences of this are profound. Jesus was everything that God wanted from Adam. A Man fully man, but possessing the nature of God intrinsically. Then God allows this perfect Specimen to pass through the whole experience of conception, birth, life, suffering, poverty, persecution, rejection, injustice, illegal death and resurrection. And in doing so, because Jesus was divine, the whole human experience was added to Divinity. That is why we can have our Lord Jesus, Seed of Abraham, existing before Abraham. That is why we can have Jesus, a Lamb
"slain from the foundation of the world". Human experience is added to God's eternal LIFE.
Now, before John 20:20, when the disciples received the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus still had two things to do - two things to add to the Holy Spirit. They were human death for men's sins, and human resurrection. Both were crucial because it is in His death that God can judicially extend mercy and forgiveness, and resurrection is the proof that sin and sins are put away. The "wages" of sin is death, so if one little sin remained after Jesus' death, He would not, and could not, be resurrected. The word
"glory" means
"made apparent" (Strong's & Vine). So the
"glorification" of Jesus was God
"making apparent" that all sin and sins had been put away. And with that huge obstacle put out of the way, men could recieve from the Tree of life. Men could once again DECIDE whether they wanted to take the fruit of the Tree of Life. Theologians sometimes call the Holy Spirit
"the processed Spirit". Why? Because before the Holy Spirit could come into men and dwell there, He had to go through the whole perfect human process!
By John Chapter 7, this had not yet happened. It was NOT the Holy Spirit that was NOT YET, but "THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT THEY (the disciples of Jesus) WOULD RECEIVE - THE PROCESSED HOLY SPIRIT - was not yet equipped. Or, in other words, the Holy Spirit with the addition of Christ's perfect humanity WITH RESURRECTION included. Christianity at large have missed this. They have formed their worship and religion on Israel. They have a Christ that sits in heaven (which He does). But John Chapter's 14 to 17 show that Jesus, as the processed Holy Spirit, will come to dwell IN US, not WITH US like He did with Israel. Christianity worships a Christ in heaven, but Christ pointedly said in John Chapter 4:23-24 that the PLACE of worship is in the human spirit! It is "Christ IN YOU" that achieves God's plan (Col.1:27). God's Economy (Dispensing) in the New Testament is to get Christ into men to permeate men with His perfect humanity. He starts with the human spirit (Jn.3:6). then He permeates the soul (Rom.8:29; 2nd Cor.3:18), and then, in resurrection we are physically "like" Christ (1st Jn.3:2).
God does not dwell WITH us in temples made with hands. He does not replace the Law with more Laws. God DISPENSES His Son Christ, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, INTO MEN to place INSIDE the man, the very Tri-une God WHO HAS MADE THE WHOLE AND PERFECT HUMAN EXPERIENCE PART OF HIMSELF. John 7:39 PREDICTS the giving of the Holy Spirit, WHEN JESUS HAD ACCOMPLISHED HUMAN DEATH AND RESURRECTION. The Holy Spirit needed first to have Christ's resurrection added before He could be DISPENSED into men.