Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Jesus is one with the Father by living in Him while the Father lives in Him, so that knowing and seeing Jesus is knowing and seeing the Father He perfectly reveals. He does not speak or act on His own, but the Father dwelling in Him speaks through His words and works through His deeds. If His claim to this union is not believed on His word, His works of healing, feeding, caring and raising the dead give reason to believe it. The call is to trust Him as Saviour with a living faith that purifies and makes obedient, a faith by which believers are joined to Him and become one with Him as He is one with the Father. Those who so believe will carry on His work, doing His works and greater works because He has gone to the Father to intercede and work through them.
Setting and Occasion
Jesus spoke these words to Philip after Philip asked to be shown the Father, following Thomas's questioning about the way, declaring that to have seen Jesus is to have seen the Father. He was in the upper chamber after Judas had left, alone with the eleven, looking upon them with divine love and tender sympathy just before telling them of His approaching separation. He gave this instruction there before leading them toward the Mount of Olives, near the close of His earthly ministry with a cruel death before Him.
The saying belongs to the connected farewell teaching of John 13 through 17, especially chapters 14 through 16. That larger discourse holds His important lessons on faith and love and on the claims of heaven and earth. It reveals God's provision for the human race and what God desires to do for humanity.
It was spoken as comfort and courage and hope to keep hearts from being troubled, when He was about to close His work on earth and return to the Father and drink the bitterest cup. Forgetting Himself and His own suffering and the terrible ordeal awaiting Him, He sought to comfort and console His sorrowing disciples, understanding their feelings at losing their beloved Master after three years of labor to prepare them. He knew the trials and temptations and severe testing soon to open before them, including the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and gave this encouragement to strengthen them to endure without failing and to stand fast in the most trying hour. Its lessons bring hope and comfort and strength and assurance to true believers as long as time lasts, to be received by living faith.
Its words are so simple that all, even children, may understand them, yet they were contrary to the wishes and desires of the disciples, who could not comprehend them.
Father and Son United
Believe that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Him, for the two dwell in one another and are united as one. Christ came from God to represent the Father, to speak and to act as His representative. The Father dwells in Him and does the works seen in His ministry, so His words and miraculous works reveal that He is the Sent of God. Philip should have recognized this after walking with Jesus and seeing His words and works, and when words about this unity do not persuade, the works themselves give reason to believe it.
Jesus does not speak independently and does not act independently, for the words He speaks are not of Himself. The Father dwells in Christ and works through Him, doing the works that Jesus speaks and performs. He works in dependence on the Father to do the Father's will rather than His own, so His unity with the Father is shown both by His words and by His works. His works reveal the Father and testify to His divine identity and oneness with Him, and He is the express image of His Father's person.
To know and see Jesus is to know and see the Father. The Father cannot be seen in external form by human beings, and Christ alone fully represents Him to humanity as a perfect revelation of Him. He is the express image of the Father's person, and His mercy, love, tenderness, compassion, promises of joy and deeds of love come from the Father. In the person of His only begotten Son the God of heaven stooped to human nature, so that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is beheld in the face of Jesus Christ. Nature declares the glory of God and shows His handiwork but cannot be accepted as God and cannot teach His great and marvelous love; the Father must be known and seen in the Son.
Though Christ appeared in human form as a servant, He remained God. In His humanity He reaches and encircles people, and in His divinity He reaches the throne of the Infinite. His divine glory was revealed on special occasions, and those able to perceive His divine nature could recognize the Father in Him. He is distinct in His own person, yet is in the Father and the Father in Him, and the authority with which He spoke the law at Sinai was His own and also the Father's, with His words and glory revealing the Father. Christ and the Father are in complete union, a union that will always exist, and the disciples could know Christ by faith even after His ascension, with His resurrection and appearances removing doubts and helping them understand this union.
Christ's words and commandments are not opposed to the Father's law. Those who refuse to do Christ's words refuse to do God's words.
Works Prove Unity
Belief is called for on the ground of the union itself, that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Him, or on the ground of the very works themselves. If His words about this union do not persuade, His works themselves give reason to believe that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, so that those who struggle to believe His words can believe on account of His works. The words He speaks are not of Himself but of the Father dwelling in Him, and the Father does the works seen and spoken and performed through Him. His words and His works both give reason to believe this truth, revealing the Father and testifying to His divine identity and oneness with the Father.
The works witnessed are the ministry in which He acted as the Father's representative, with the Father dwelling in Him and doing the works seen in Him. They include healing the sick and caring for the needy and feeding a great and hungry multitude with a few loaves and fishes. They include raising Lazarus. He did not display Himself with worldly wealth or status, but acted with compassion.
Those works revealed the Father and testified to Christ's divinity, since no human could do them independently and Christ, though become human, remained God who alone fully represents to humanity a Father who cannot be seen in external form. They were convincing evidence strong enough to call people from prejudice and unbelief to faith, evidence on which the disciples could safely rest their faith. Belief in the Father's vital connection with the Son would anchor their faith in God through Christ's suffering and death, and they could also trust the works as evidence that Christ was more than human. That complete union will always exist and can be known by faith even after His ascension, with His resurrection and appearances removing doubts and helping them understand the union. Yet the works were sufficient evidence of who He is, and still the people who saw His miracles as Healer and Restorer refused Him and killed Him, because without piety and godliness they could not recognize the Prince of life in His humble appearance.
Call to Believe
The call is to believe the testimony that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, or else to believe Him for the very works' sake, and faith is of great consequence so that all need the right kind of faith. Believing means trusting Him as Saviour and as personal Saviour with a living faith that works by love and purifies the soul. That belief is gained by dwelling constantly on His character, which is neglected to great loss, and by cooperating with God in believing, repenting, and coming as one is for pardon and for power to become and remain pure, holy and obedient. It means holding that the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, believing Christ is the only Saviour, and cultivating faith in God under every circumstance and bringing it into practical life, for without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
The appeal first made to Philip is now made to all of Christ's people. No one can see Christ as He is and truly know Him unless truth exerts its sanctifying influence on the life. Keeping His commandments is the Bible test of love and of having received the light, for Christ's love is shown through obedience. God's will is plainly outlined in the verse and in John 13-17, and God means just what He says in it. It is the privilege of ministers in word and doctrine and of servants acquainted with present truth to believe every verse in these chapters and to live them out before fellow ministers and before one another.
This instruction is meant to cure dissension and bring unity and love among believers. It must therefore be carefully studied and earnestly practiced by all who honor God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, rather than giving time to unimportant matters while neglecting duties of eternal consequence. Its duties were specified by Christ as Substitute and Surety, and when done they bear divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Believing for the works' sake means believing that Jesus Christ as the light of the world, the way and the truth will put His life-giving power in the heart and means to save. That belief lets His light shine through the person, puts on Christ as a loving Helper with no sin in Him, and frees from the idea that sinning in the world is unavoidable. It joins putting on Christ to working out one's own salvation with fear and trembling without weaving in self-importance or own merits, because the work is done in the merits of Christ who works to will and to do of His good pleasure.
The verse shows the love of God which passes knowledge and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. It shows Christ carrying on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. So though a believer may die as Christ died, the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day and more abundant life. It was spoken on the same line as His announcement that His going away was to prepare mansions and that He would come again and receive His people to Himself, that where He is there they may be also, giving reason to expect the soon coming of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The chapter presents God's manifest love for the world, teaching that when people draw near to God He draws near to them and no one takes a step toward Jesus without Jesus advancing toward them.
Life United With Christ
The oneness of Jesus with the Father is the pattern for believers, who are called to believe on His word that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, or for the evidence of His works. That belief is gained by dwelling constantly on the character of Christ, and much is lost by neglecting this dwelling. By clinging to Jesus and abiding with Him believers become one with Him, safe against Satan, with Christ living in the soul revealed in the character and working the works of God.
Those who believe become laborers together with God, doing the works Jesus did and greater works because He goes to the Father. There He intercedes for sincere and contrite praying ones, takes their sins so they stand innocent before the Father, and fills their hearts with the glorious light of truth and love shining from heaven. Christ's works give reason to believe the truth of the unity that the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father. Those who serve Christ are in turn to represent Him by doing His works and living His life, so that their lives revealing the power of His grace help sinners to be saved alongside the preaching of the Word.
The verse belongs to Christ's instruction that disciples build their ministry upon a divine Christ. Their work would fail if they left divine power out of their efforts, for effective service depends on God working through human agents. In His humanity He reaches and encircles people, and in His divinity He reaches the throne of the Infinite, calling people to believe in Him and to rely on divine power rather than human judgment.
This instruction in John 14-17 becomes clearer through the enlightening influence of the Spirit of God. These words of comfort and instruction given shortly before His humiliation, rejection and crucifixion are to be received by living faith, awakening people from indifference and enlightening those who do not know their value. They are to be studied during the week and lived out by fathers, mothers and children glorifying God in every way possible, so that the great peace of God comes into the mind and children speak of the kindness and love of Jesus. The counsel of the chapter is needed when its words are not heeded in unkind talk and passing judgment, to help prevent speech that harms souls and damages God's work.
Jesus is one with the Father by living in Him while the Father lives in Him, so that knowing and seeing Jesus is knowing and seeing the Father He perfectly reveals. He does not speak or act on His own, but the Father dwelling in Him speaks through His words and works through His deeds. If His claim to this union is not believed on His word, His works of healing, feeding, caring and raising the dead give reason to believe it. The call is to trust Him as Saviour with a living faith that purifies and makes obedient, a faith by which believers are joined to Him and become one with Him as He is one with the Father. Those who so believe will carry on His work, doing His works and greater works because He has gone to the Father to intercede and work through them.
Setting and Occasion
Jesus spoke these words to Philip after Philip asked to be shown the Father, following Thomas's questioning about the way, declaring that to have seen Jesus is to have seen the Father. He was in the upper chamber after Judas had left, alone with the eleven, looking upon them with divine love and tender sympathy just before telling them of His approaching separation. He gave this instruction there before leading them toward the Mount of Olives, near the close of His earthly ministry with a cruel death before Him.
The saying belongs to the connected farewell teaching of John 13 through 17, especially chapters 14 through 16. That larger discourse holds His important lessons on faith and love and on the claims of heaven and earth. It reveals God's provision for the human race and what God desires to do for humanity.
It was spoken as comfort and courage and hope to keep hearts from being troubled, when He was about to close His work on earth and return to the Father and drink the bitterest cup. Forgetting Himself and His own suffering and the terrible ordeal awaiting Him, He sought to comfort and console His sorrowing disciples, understanding their feelings at losing their beloved Master after three years of labor to prepare them. He knew the trials and temptations and severe testing soon to open before them, including the trials that would come to His church through unconverted believers, and gave this encouragement to strengthen them to endure without failing and to stand fast in the most trying hour. Its lessons bring hope and comfort and strength and assurance to true believers as long as time lasts, to be received by living faith.
Its words are so simple that all, even children, may understand them, yet they were contrary to the wishes and desires of the disciples, who could not comprehend them.
Father and Son United
Believe that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Him, for the two dwell in one another and are united as one. Christ came from God to represent the Father, to speak and to act as His representative. The Father dwells in Him and does the works seen in His ministry, so His words and miraculous works reveal that He is the Sent of God. Philip should have recognized this after walking with Jesus and seeing His words and works, and when words about this unity do not persuade, the works themselves give reason to believe it.
Jesus does not speak independently and does not act independently, for the words He speaks are not of Himself. The Father dwells in Christ and works through Him, doing the works that Jesus speaks and performs. He works in dependence on the Father to do the Father's will rather than His own, so His unity with the Father is shown both by His words and by His works. His works reveal the Father and testify to His divine identity and oneness with Him, and He is the express image of His Father's person.
To know and see Jesus is to know and see the Father. The Father cannot be seen in external form by human beings, and Christ alone fully represents Him to humanity as a perfect revelation of Him. He is the express image of the Father's person, and His mercy, love, tenderness, compassion, promises of joy and deeds of love come from the Father. In the person of His only begotten Son the God of heaven stooped to human nature, so that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is beheld in the face of Jesus Christ. Nature declares the glory of God and shows His handiwork but cannot be accepted as God and cannot teach His great and marvelous love; the Father must be known and seen in the Son.
Though Christ appeared in human form as a servant, He remained God. In His humanity He reaches and encircles people, and in His divinity He reaches the throne of the Infinite. His divine glory was revealed on special occasions, and those able to perceive His divine nature could recognize the Father in Him. He is distinct in His own person, yet is in the Father and the Father in Him, and the authority with which He spoke the law at Sinai was His own and also the Father's, with His words and glory revealing the Father. Christ and the Father are in complete union, a union that will always exist, and the disciples could know Christ by faith even after His ascension, with His resurrection and appearances removing doubts and helping them understand this union.
Christ's words and commandments are not opposed to the Father's law. Those who refuse to do Christ's words refuse to do God's words.
Works Prove Unity
Belief is called for on the ground of the union itself, that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Him, or on the ground of the very works themselves. If His words about this union do not persuade, His works themselves give reason to believe that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, so that those who struggle to believe His words can believe on account of His works. The words He speaks are not of Himself but of the Father dwelling in Him, and the Father does the works seen and spoken and performed through Him. His words and His works both give reason to believe this truth, revealing the Father and testifying to His divine identity and oneness with the Father.
The works witnessed are the ministry in which He acted as the Father's representative, with the Father dwelling in Him and doing the works seen in Him. They include healing the sick and caring for the needy and feeding a great and hungry multitude with a few loaves and fishes. They include raising Lazarus. He did not display Himself with worldly wealth or status, but acted with compassion.
Those works revealed the Father and testified to Christ's divinity, since no human could do them independently and Christ, though become human, remained God who alone fully represents to humanity a Father who cannot be seen in external form. They were convincing evidence strong enough to call people from prejudice and unbelief to faith, evidence on which the disciples could safely rest their faith. Belief in the Father's vital connection with the Son would anchor their faith in God through Christ's suffering and death, and they could also trust the works as evidence that Christ was more than human. That complete union will always exist and can be known by faith even after His ascension, with His resurrection and appearances removing doubts and helping them understand the union. Yet the works were sufficient evidence of who He is, and still the people who saw His miracles as Healer and Restorer refused Him and killed Him, because without piety and godliness they could not recognize the Prince of life in His humble appearance.
Call to Believe
The call is to believe the testimony that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, or else to believe Him for the very works' sake, and faith is of great consequence so that all need the right kind of faith. Believing means trusting Him as Saviour and as personal Saviour with a living faith that works by love and purifies the soul. That belief is gained by dwelling constantly on His character, which is neglected to great loss, and by cooperating with God in believing, repenting, and coming as one is for pardon and for power to become and remain pure, holy and obedient. It means holding that the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, believing Christ is the only Saviour, and cultivating faith in God under every circumstance and bringing it into practical life, for without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
The appeal first made to Philip is now made to all of Christ's people. No one can see Christ as He is and truly know Him unless truth exerts its sanctifying influence on the life. Keeping His commandments is the Bible test of love and of having received the light, for Christ's love is shown through obedience. God's will is plainly outlined in the verse and in John 13-17, and God means just what He says in it. It is the privilege of ministers in word and doctrine and of servants acquainted with present truth to believe every verse in these chapters and to live them out before fellow ministers and before one another.
This instruction is meant to cure dissension and bring unity and love among believers. It must therefore be carefully studied and earnestly practiced by all who honor God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, rather than giving time to unimportant matters while neglecting duties of eternal consequence. Its duties were specified by Christ as Substitute and Surety, and when done they bear divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Believing for the works' sake means believing that Jesus Christ as the light of the world, the way and the truth will put His life-giving power in the heart and means to save. That belief lets His light shine through the person, puts on Christ as a loving Helper with no sin in Him, and frees from the idea that sinning in the world is unavoidable. It joins putting on Christ to working out one's own salvation with fear and trembling without weaving in self-importance or own merits, because the work is done in the merits of Christ who works to will and to do of His good pleasure.
The verse shows the love of God which passes knowledge and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. It shows Christ carrying on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. So though a believer may die as Christ died, the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day and more abundant life. It was spoken on the same line as His announcement that His going away was to prepare mansions and that He would come again and receive His people to Himself, that where He is there they may be also, giving reason to expect the soon coming of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The chapter presents God's manifest love for the world, teaching that when people draw near to God He draws near to them and no one takes a step toward Jesus without Jesus advancing toward them.
Life United With Christ
The oneness of Jesus with the Father is the pattern for believers, who are called to believe on His word that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, or for the evidence of His works. That belief is gained by dwelling constantly on the character of Christ, and much is lost by neglecting this dwelling. By clinging to Jesus and abiding with Him believers become one with Him, safe against Satan, with Christ living in the soul revealed in the character and working the works of God.
Those who believe become laborers together with God, doing the works Jesus did and greater works because He goes to the Father. There He intercedes for sincere and contrite praying ones, takes their sins so they stand innocent before the Father, and fills their hearts with the glorious light of truth and love shining from heaven. Christ's works give reason to believe the truth of the unity that the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father. Those who serve Christ are in turn to represent Him by doing His works and living His life, so that their lives revealing the power of His grace help sinners to be saved alongside the preaching of the Word.
The verse belongs to Christ's instruction that disciples build their ministry upon a divine Christ. Their work would fail if they left divine power out of their efforts, for effective service depends on God working through human agents. In His humanity He reaches and encircles people, and in His divinity He reaches the throne of the Infinite, calling people to believe in Him and to rely on divine power rather than human judgment.
This instruction in John 14-17 becomes clearer through the enlightening influence of the Spirit of God. These words of comfort and instruction given shortly before His humiliation, rejection and crucifixion are to be received by living faith, awakening people from indifference and enlightening those who do not know their value. They are to be studied during the week and lived out by fathers, mothers and children glorifying God in every way possible, so that the great peace of God comes into the mind and children speak of the kindness and love of Jesus. The counsel of the chapter is needed when its words are not heeded in unkind talk and passing judgment, to help prevent speech that harms souls and damages God's work.