I and my Father are one (John 10:30)

 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!