The Father living in Jesus
April 21, 2021
14:1 – 15:17 Being in Jesus, just as Jesus is in the Father
Read John 14:10-11
In the past, God had sent many prophets to the Jewish people, with messages from him. But Jesus is not merely the greatest of the prophets, he is the Son who is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb.1:1-3.) He is not just the Father’s representative – rather, the Son and the Father are so mutually indwelling that the words and works of Jesus are the words and works of the Father living in him (10-11a). Jesus had already declared this openly in what seemed to the Jews to be a blasphemous claim: “I and the Father are one” (10:30).
So in Jesus, we have not only the fullest possible revelation of God but the Father himself is the one who works through Jesus (10b). The confirmation of this was seen in the miracles that he did (11b; 3:2). In the other Gospels, the Greek word used for miracle is dunamis, meaning an act of power, but John prefers the words ergon (a work) and semeion (a sign). The works of Jesus are signs which point to Jesus as the one who spoke and did the words and works of God (20:30-31).
The opening question in these verses, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?” indicate that this is something which Christians ought to know and believe. It’s important not just as a point of doctrine about Christ but because it was his relationship with the Father which was the basis of his ministry. And not just his ministry but ours too. This is why Jesus has emphasised it here, to lay the foundation for speaking to the disciples about their own fruitful ministry which will depend similarly on their being in him just as he is in the Father.