The second day was the Sabbath (Luke 23:56), and the Lord rested. He stayed in the tomb for not more than two nights. On the third day, that is, in the early morning of the Lord’s Day when it was still dark, He had already resurrected (John 20:1). Therefore, “three days” is the Jewish way of counting. The proper way is to say that the Lord’s going was from the last three hours of the first day, the day of preparation for the Passover (Matt. 26:19; John 19:14), plus the second day, the Sabbath. Then on the third day, the Lord’s Day, when it was still dark, He was resurrected, and in the same evening He came. Thus, from His going to His coming, the time was very short. This is why He said that in a little while the world would behold Him no longer. The priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees would not behold Him, but the disciples would behold Him. This is because through His death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, and as such He breathed Himself into the disciples (20:22).
“In That Day”
On the evening of the day of resurrection, the Lord Jesus came to His disciples and breathed into them the promised Spirit, His very reality. In John 14:20 the Lord said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In that day refers to the day of the Lord’s resurrection, and to know is to apprehend, experience, and appreciate. When the Lord was speaking to the disciples, they did not know that they would be in Him because He had not yet dispensed Himself into them. At that time the Lord [379] could at most let them know that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. However, “in that day,” that is, about thirty hours later, in the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the disciples knew that the Lord was not only in the Father but also in them, because the Lord breathed Himself into them (20:22). As a result, they were also in Him. “In that day” all these things were accomplished facts, and they “knew,” that is, they apprehended, experienced, and appreciated that the Lord was in the Father, they were in the Lord, and the Lord was in them.
The Son and the Spirit Being One
At the end of John 14:17 the Lord said that the Spirit of reality would come to abide with the disciples and be in the disciples. Then in verse 20 He said that the disciples would be in Him and He in them. After saying in verse 17 that the Spirit of reality would be in the disciples, the Lord went on to say in verse 20 that He would be in the disciples. Then, are “the Spirit of reality” and “the Lord” two? Is it possible that two are living in us? We can all testify in our experience that there is only one who lives in us. If so, then which One is living in us?
The more we speak about whether it is the Father, the Son, or the Spirit who lives in us, the more puzzled we are according to our limited human mentality. We can only say that we know that these verses tell us about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but what we know, we still do not know. Yet if we say that we do not know, it seems also that we do know. It is really hard to say how many persons are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. If we say They are three, it is hard to explain these few verses. If we say They are not three, it is equally hard to understand. Because the mystery concerning the Divine Trinity is so difficult to understand, the theological way of explaining this is to say that the unique God who is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is the Triune God. He is three yet one; He is triune.
The Father and the Son Being One
In John 14:23a the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him.” Why did the Lord not say that if anyone would love Him, He would love that one, but instead He said that if anyone would love Him, His Father would love that one? Why is it that when someone loves the Son, the Father gets [380] involved? What kind of a love relationship is this? Moreover, the Lord continued in verse 23b: “And We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Here We appears, indicating that the Father and the Son are together. What does this mean? This means that the Son—who is loved—is in the Father, and the Father is also in the Son. Hence, if the Lord had said, “If anyone loves Me, I will love Him,” He would not have revealed the fact that the Son and the Father are one. Therefore, the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me,…My Father will love him.” This proves that when you love the Son, you love the Father also, because the Father is in the Son. At the same time, because the Son is in the Father, the result is that the Father as well as the Son respond to your love by loving you. When the Father loves you, it is the Son loving you in the Father and the Father loving you in the Son. Therefore, you cannot love the Son without involving the Father; when you love the Son, the Father appears. The Father responds by loving you, and when the Father loves you, the Son is brought with Him. Hence, the Lord said “We,” indicating that both the Father and the Son come. They come to make an abode with you.
THE FATHER SENDING THE SPIRIT
IN THE NAME OF THE SON,
AND THE SPIRIT COMING
WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON
In John 14:26, a verse that is even harder to understand than the previous verses we have covered, the Lord said, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” This verse tells us that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name; thus, the Spirit is also in the Son’s name. Moreover, when the Father sends in the Son’s name, is it the Father who sends or the Son who sends? Suppose you go to the bank to withdraw money in Brother Chang’s name. When the teller calls Brother Chang’s name, you answer and go forward. At this moment the teller does not care whether you are Brother Lin or Brother Wang but only cares for that “name”—Brother Chang. So you just need to give Brother Chang’s seal and passbook to the teller; then you can withdraw money in Brother Chang’s name. In this respect, at this time you and Brother Chang are one. Similarly, the Father’s sending the Spirit in the Son’s name means that the Father and the Son are one; the two are inseparable. [381]
Furthermore, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father (cf. 15:26, footnote 1, Recovery Version). In other words, the Spirit comes with the One who sends Him. The One who sends the Spirit is the Father, and the Father is in the Son. Hence, when the Spirit, who is sent, comes with the Father, the Father, being in the Son, comes with the Son. As a result, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father and the Son. All three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—come.
In order to help us understand this verse, we need to read 14:26 and 15:26 again. In 15:26 the Lord said, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality.” John 14:26 clearly says that the Father will send the Spirit, yet 15:26 says that the Son will send the Comforter from the Father. This means that both the Son and the Father are the Senders, and the sent One is the Spirit, who is from the Father. Here the word from has the sense of “from with” in Greek (see 1:14, footnote 5, Recovery Version). The Spirit of reality, who is sent by the Son from the Father, comes not only from the Father but also with the Father. The Father is the source. When this Spirit comes from the source, He does not leave the source but comes with the source. This Spirit, sent by the Son and coming with the Father, testifies concerning the Son. Therefore, His testimony concerning the Son is a matter of the Triune God. Thus, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father and also with the Son; therefore, the One who comes is the Triune God.