CHAPTER EIGHT

ONE WHERE THE SON IS

Chapters 14 through 17 form a distinct section of the Gospel of John. In this portion of the Word, the Lord first gave a message to His disciples and then offered the prayer recorded in chapter 17. At the beginning of this section we have the subject of the Lord’s last words to His disciples before His crucifixion: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (14:3). Here the Lord revealed His intention to bring His disciples to the place where He Himself was.

THE PLACE AND THE WAY

The place where the Lord is actually is not a place; it is a person. In John 14:4 the Lord said, “Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas replied that they did not know where the Lord was going, and he asked how they could know the way (v. 5). Then the Lord said to him, “I am the way” (v. 6). This indicates that the way is a person, Christ Himself. The Lord also said to Thomas, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” This reveals that the place is the Father. Therefore, the way is a person, and the place is also a person. Not many Christians have seen this. The way is the Son; and the destination, the place to which the way leads, is the Father.

Although the Son is the way, He can be the way only through crucifixion and resurrection. An uncrucified Christ could not be the way. As a whole, the New Testament reveals that Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to become the way for us to enter into the Father. By Him as our way we can be in the Father, just as He is in the Father.

IN THE FATHER
AND IN THE GLORY OF THE FATHER

In chapters 14 and 17 of John there are two where s. The first, which we have already considered, is in 14:3, and the second is in 17:24. In this verse the Lord prayed, “Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me.” The where in 14:3 refers to the Father, but the where in 17:24 refers to the glory of the Father. The Son is first in the Father and then in the Father’s glory. The glory of the Father is the Father Himself expressed; hence, glory is the expression of the Father.

THE FATHER GLORIFIED
IN THE SON’S GLORIFICATION

The Gospel of John speaks of the glorification of the Father in the glorification of the Son (13:31-32; 17:1). At the beginning of His prayer in chapter 17, the Lord prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1). This is the subject of the Lord’s prayer in this chapter. The Son was God incarnated in the flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle for God’s dwelling on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory was concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the Mount of Transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory, as seen by the three disciples (Matt. 17:1-3). But it was concealed again in His flesh. Before this prayer He had predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (John 12:23; 13:31-32). Now He was going to pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken for His divine element, His divine life, to be released. He was also to be resurrected so that His humanity might be uplifted into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed so that His entire being, both divinity and humanity, might be glorified. Thus the Father would be glorified in Him.

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was in the Father, but, in a sense, He was not in the Father’s glory. John 7:39 says, “Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 12:16 also indicates that Jesus was not yet in the Father’s glory: “These things His disciples did not understand at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him.” When the Lord was crucified and resurrected, He was glorified (Luke 24:26). This means that after His resurrection, Christ was not only in the Father but also in the Father’s glory.

To be in the Father is to have the life and nature of the Father and to be one with Him in that life and nature. Glory, however, does not refer to life and nature; it refers to expression. Therefore, when we are in the Father, we have the Father’s life and nature; but when we are in the Father’s glory, we express the Father. We have pointed out that, in a sense, prior to His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus was not in the glory of the Father. However, in another sense, on occasion He was in the Father’s glory, as He was on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). During that time on the mountain, Peter, James, and John beheld the Lord’s glory. Furthermore, glory was evident both when the Lord fed the multitude and when He raised Lazarus from the dead. What people saw in Him at such times was the expression of the Father. After His resurrection Christ was always in the glory of the Father. In every sense Christ today is both in the Father and in the Father’s glory.

We need to ask ourselves whether or not we are in the Father and in the Father’s glory. Although we may have the confidence to say that we are in the Father, we may not have the boldness to say that we are in His glory.