What was “I and my Father are one” meant to mean?
Let us read
the passage.
In brief, the
Jews thought that Jesus meant to make himself God. For blasphemy they wanted to
stone him to death. However, in his defense, Jesus refuted the Jews: “do you
say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are
blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?”.
By saying “I
am the Son of God”, not only Jesus had denied that he had tried to make himself
God, but also had denied that he had ever said “I am God”. And in Jesus denial,
he had also meant to tell us that he was not God Himself.
This has led
to an important biblical fact: Jesus had personally told us that he was not
God!
Let us
continue with the reading and reasoning.
(1) Jesus’ refutation leads to our first
understanding. The phrase “I and my Father are one” is not meant to mean Jesus
was the Father, and the Father was Jesus.
Then Jesus
continued to expound: “If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe
me; but if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may
know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him.”
(2) This
leads to our second understanding. “I and my Father are one” meant to mean that
“the Father is in me, and I in Him”.
(3) The third understanding is a given one. To
sum up, both phrases “I and my Father are one” and “the Father is in me, and I
in Him” are not meant to mean Jesus was the Father, and the Father was Jesus!
Then, what
is it really mean?
Fortunately,
Jesus had used similar language in the followings:
John
17:20-23 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will
believe in me through their word; 21
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in me, and I in You; that they also
may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent me. 22 And the glory which You gave me I have
given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in me; that they may be
made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent me, and
have loved them as You have loved me.
From this
passage we see the followings parallel usages:
a. “They all
may be one” just as “You, Father are in me, and I in you”.
b. “They may
be one” just as “we are one”
Apparently,
if “I and my Father are one” meant to mean “the Father is in me, and I in Him”,
then similarly “we are one” may mean that “I in you, and you in me”.
Logically,
we know that “I cannot be physically in you, and you cannot be physically in
me”. This leaves us with only one obvious possibility that we are in each other
spiritually but not physically.
(4) This
leads us to the fourth understanding. With respect to language, be it “I and my
Father are one”, or “The Father is in me, and I in Him”, or “They may be one”, or
“I in them, and you in me”, all these expressions is not a declarative
statement but a figurative statement.
(5) The
above can be summed up into the fifth understanding. When Jesus said that “I and
my Father are one” and “the Father is in me, and I in Him”, both did not mean
to say that Jesus was physically in the Father and became Him or the Father was
physically in Jesus and became Jesus! However, they were one and in each other
figuratively!
However
can we find evidence in the Bible which can justify that spiritually the Father
was in Jesus, and Jesus in the Father?
Let us revisit
some of the words which Jesus had said as follows: Jesus prayed to the Father and said “John 17:8
For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed
that You sent Me. John 17:17 Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth”.
This means that those words that came out from God’s mouth are the truths.
Again, Jesus had said the followings: “John 12:49-50 for I have not spoken on
my own authority; but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should
say and what I should speak. 50 And I
know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as
the Father has told me, so I speak”.
Jesus’
prayer has led us to the following understandings:
(a) When
Jesus received the Word from the Father, figuratively speaking, we can say that
the Word was in Jesus.
(b) When
Jesus accepted the Word, he had also accepted the Father. So figuratively
speaking, we can say that the Father was in Jesus too.
(c) Jesus not
only said what the Father wanted him to say, and did what the Father wanted him
to do, but also observed Father’s commands. Therefore, figuratively speaking,
we can say that Jesus was not only in the Father but also in the Word.
The above
three points are solely extracted in according to the meanings within the
boundary of our language, its grammar and its metaphorical implication. So metaphorically,
this was how Lord Jesus Christ achieved the stage of “the Father is in me, and
I in Him”.
It is
written to show you how possibly Jesus and Father are one spiritually but not
physically. There is no reason for us to play dumb concerning the figurative
element in our language? Neither should we play dumb against Jesus’s
declaration that he had used figurative language in John 16:25?
Furthermore,
by virtue of Jesus who had accepted the Father and His Words and practiced
them, figuratively, we can say that Jesus, and God, and the Truth or the spirit
of Truth are one!
Besides,
Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved most had also given us his first-hand
understandings as follows:
(a) He who
keeps God’s commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know
that God abides in us, by the Spirit whom God has given us.
(b) Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
(c) God is
love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Definitely,
our compassionate God will love to save the world and be in man
unconditionally. But if a person rejects God’s Word, not only that he is not in
the truth, but also he has given up the opportunity to be one with God. In
other words, we are in the truth and abide in God only if we acted in according
to the essential principle of the truth. This could be the reason why Apostle
John had explicitly commented in the book of 1 John “He who says, I know Him,
and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”.
Perhaps, if
we can do like what Jesus did, then we may reach the perfect stage as what
Jesus had prayed for; God in Jesus, Jesus in us, and we are in each other. We
are in one made perfect by both Jesus and God whom are in us!
How to
correctly interpret Lord Jesus Christ’s figurative language?
Now we know
Jesus had clearly and unequivocally told us that he was not God. He had also
told us that he used figurative language when describing things concerning the heavenly
Father. Equipped with such clear understandings, we can now attempt to reinterpret
a few difficult sentences:
(a) He who
has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9)
Like the
example I mentioned, the figurative expression "he was fierce as a lion;
you saw him and you saw a lion" does not mean to say that the person you
see is not a man but a real lion. But metaphorically, it means to say that this
man has a ferocious personality like a lion.
Likewise,
the figurative words of Lord Jesus Christ do not mean to say that when his
disciples saw him, they saw God Himself! Rather, metaphorically, when the
disciples saw him, they saw God and the truth of God dwelling in him!
(b) And now, O Father, glorify me together with
yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. (John 17:5)
This
metaphorical sentence is even more difficult to perceive. However, from the
above explanation, metaphorically speaking, Jesus is the Word, and the Word is
Jesus. So the "I" in this sentence does not refer to "I as the
person in flesh" but metaphorically "I as the Word". Therefore,
it is legitimate to interpret that Lord Jesus Christ was referring to "it
was the Word, which was sanctified and set-apart by God in the beginning,
sharing the glory with God before the world was". Perhaps, Lord Jesus
Christ was calling to God to glorify His Word again which God had already
glorified before the world was!