The Union of God the Father and God the Son
Jesus’ farewell discourse, addressed to His disciples in the upper room on the night of His arrest, teaches us some essential doctrines. We learn something of both the doctrine of God and the doctrine of Christ. More specially, we learn something of the union of God the Father and God the Son. Even more specifically, in that union of divine Persons, there is the doctrine of mutual indwelling.
God is Spirit (Jn 4:24). Prior to the incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity (Jn 1:14), the three Persons of the Triune Godhead were all identified as eternal Spirits having one substance. The Trinity is deity in community. Father, Son, and Spirit — in part — are anthropomorphic terms to help us understand God in familial relationship. Especially in John 14:7–15, the relationship between the Father and the Son is in view. This is a continuation from earlier references throughout the Gospel of John, especially John chapter 5.
Inquiries by Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot) drive the discussion (Jn 13–14). The focal point in the discourse is Jesus’ prophecy of His departure from the disciples. Jesus is leaving, but the promise of His sending the Holy Spirit is next up in the text. When Jesus departs, He will ascend to His Father’s house in heaven (Jn 14:2–3). After preparing a place for each believing disciple, He will return to take His church home to glory. Jesus returned to His Father, who had sent Him into the world (Jn 3:16). Jesus sat down on the throne of God (Rev 7:17), at the right hand of Majesty (Heb 1:3; 8:1). Entrusted with all authority (Mt 28:18), Jesus reigns over the kingdom of God, which is already manifesting in the kingdom (the world) it will soon replace (Dan 4:17, 25, 32; Rev 11:10).
Seeing God is an ambitious objective. There is no aspiration higher than this desire. Sinners are not permitted into His presence; but when God sent His Son (Jn 3:16), many looked at the face of God. Seeing the Son of God, the exact image of the Father (Col 1:15), was a daily privilege enjoyed for three years by Jesus’ 12 disciples.
In seeing Jesus, His disciples were learning God. They knew God the Father; but they did not know they knew Him. Jesus, of course, knew the Father; and the Son revealed the Father to whom He wished to do so (Mt 11:27; Lk 10:22). God the Father was in Christ revealing Himself to Jesus’ disciples, which was the will of God. Jesus assured the eleven that they had seen God the Father (Jn 14:7).
Thomas had inquired about the where (along with Peter); now Philip was inquiring about the who (Jn 14:8). Philip, and no doubt the others, had missed the view to God that Jesus alluded to in verse 7. Jesus had already called for faith in Himself, in the same sentence as His call for faith in God (Jn 14:1). No one had ever seen God the Father; but here they were face to face with the One claiming equality with the Father (Jn 10:30; Phil 2:6). There is simply no other way to see God than in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6).
To make His point, Jesus answered Philip’s question with a question of His own. Philip was not seeing the Father; and Jesus intimated that Philip did not know Him (Jesus), despite three years of living and ministering together (Jn 14:9).
The only way to know God the Father is to know Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way to see the Father, who indwells Him (Jn 14:10). Jesus’ inquiry about faith in the indwelling reveals that this is a mutual indwelling. The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father (Jn 14:10a). This reveals to us the origin of Jesus’ words (Jn 14:10b).
When Jesus spoke, it was the Word of God. God the Father was abiding in Jesus. The Word of Christ and the works of Christ were sourced in the indwelling Father. In this, all the words and works of Jesus were always glorifying to God the Father. Jesus was the perfectly obedient Son, which glorified the Father. The abiding presence of the Father glorified Jesus as the authoritative Son of God. Thus, in Jesus, we observe both dependence and obedience and authority and revelation.
Read John 5:17–30
The Jews had understood Jesus’ claim regarding His relationship to Yahweh. Jesus was claiming equality which means He was claiming deity for Himself (Jn 5:17–18). In explaining Himself, Jesus declared dependence and then obedience in John 5:19. The union was so perfect that Jesus had the direct revelation of the Father in Himself, which came with kingdom authority. This meant that to dishonor Jesus, the Son, was to dishonor the Father (Jn 5:23).
The benefits to the believer, who had ears to hear the Word, were both abundant and eternal life (Jn 5:24; 10:10). The believer in Yahweh does not come in the judgment; which reveals Jesus Himself as the Judge of the living and the dead, who are already condemned (Jn 3:18). God the Father gave the Son authority to judge because He is the Son of man (Jn 5:27).
Jesus’ works bore witness as being from God. They were stunning displays of supernatural power. Both the Jews and the disciples were encouraged by Jesus to believe the works themselves. The works of bodily resurrection of all humanity and the final judgment are yet to come.
The proverbial mantle was passed from Jesus, who went to be with the Father at His house in heaven, to His Spirit-filled disciples. Their receipt of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost assured them of more work to come (Acts 2).
The Holy Spirit permanently indwells those to whom He has been sent by the Father and the Son. After making the dead soul alive to God (Eph 2:5; Col 2:13), the Spirit wills and does His good pleasure in those born again of God (Jn 3:1–8; Eph 1:13; 1 Pet 1:3). By the Spirit, the believer in Jesus performs good works prepared beforehand for him or her to walk in (Eph 2:10). Just as the Father did His works in and though Jesus, so the Holy Spirit does His work in and through every child of God adopted into the family of God.
Jesus then instructed His disciples about their first work, which is prayer (Jn 14:13). Christians enter the divine economy of the Trinity by our union with Christ in the Spirit, who indwells us (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11). Having been transferred into the kingdom of Christ (Col 1:13), by His doing (1 Cor 1:30), every believer is positioned, “in Christ.” We are in Him; and He is in us by the Spirit.
Christians pray in the Spirit to God the Father through the intercession of God the Son. We ask for God’s will to be done in Jesus’ name. Jesus promised to answer the disciples’ prayers with performance, “I will do it” (Jn 14:14). The result of the work of prayer and Christ’s work in responding to prayer is that the Father may be glorified in the Son (Jn 14:13).
Finally, lovers of God and Christ will obey all that He has commanded (Jn 14:15). This is not burdensome as was the old covenant command to keep the Law of God. The new covenant command to keep the commandments of Jesus is met with the promise of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who causes us to walk in the statutes of God (Ezek 36:27).
Therefore, because the life of God is in the soul of the Christian, he or she walks by the Spirit (Gal 5:16, 25), in faith, and in a manner worthy of the Lord (Col 1:10). All of this was made to be a reality by Jesus’ departure from His disciples and from this world. He did not leave us as orphans (Jn 14:18); but instead; He sent us the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out to our Father and Jesus’ Father (Rom 8:15, 23), who has first loved us (1 Jn 4:19), and in whom we claim dependence and obedience based on the revelation granted to us by Him who abides in us.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
April 30, 2024
John 14:7–15
