5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
John 14:5-11
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Trinitarians have never ceased to amaze me at how they read their doctrine into the texts of scripture. Recently, this passage has come up a lot. Generally, the passage is quoted as in the title, not explained, and then the conclusion given is: “…so Jesus must be God.” What exactly are Trinitarians thinking here? Their theological dogma is that the Father and the Son share the same nature. They are the same kind of thing, both equally and fully possessing the divine nature, and yet are two distinct persons. There is a sharp distinction between “being/nature” and “person.” These two are not to be confused. The Father is not the son, and the son is not the Father (same for the Spirit). So how then does seeing Jesus, a different person than the Father, result in his being the same God? Do they imagine that seeing Jesus is to see a divine nature (which is invisible, by the way), and if you see Jesus’ divine nature, you are seeing the same divine nature that is in the Father, and thus, Jesus can say “if you have seen me you have seen the Father, because you have seen the invisible nature of the Father…?”
If you push a Trinitarian on explaining this passage, usually they will say something along the lines of, “seeing Jesus means that you see the Father because Jesus is so much like the Father. If the Father is God, then Jesus must also be God because no one is like God. Humans are so far removed from God and so different from God that Jesus could only say that seeing him is like seeing the Father if he is God just like the Father. So he must be God as the Father is.” Many problems with this response. But we will only focus on two.
First, humans are not that dissimilar from God. Let us not forget that man is made “in his image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26-27, 3:22, 5:1, 9:6, 1 Corinthians 11:7, James 3:9). Let us also remember that we are commanded by Jesus himself to be like God. “Be perfect as your Father is perfect.” Let us also remember that we are to become like God, “And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10). Also, we are being “conformed to the same image,” that is, the image of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). And let us not forget that we are even partakers in his nature (2 Peter 1:4). No, man is not God. God is not man. God is infinitely higher than man in our qualities. We are loving, but God is greater in love. We are intelligent creatures, but God’s wisdom is vastly superior. When we look at man, we should see God to some degree. Paul even says that when we look at creation itself, we should see God in some degree through natural revelation (Romans 1:20). We are seeing God on a much smaller scale because he has made us with his qualities. It should not be so incredibly strange for a human being to say that you can see God through him. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul makes the comparison to seeing God in the face of Moses when Moses reflected the glory of God.
Secondly, is this what Jesus is talking about in the context? Jesus could rightfully say that seeing him is like seeing the Father because he reflects the qualities of the Father. He does not need to be God to say this. However, this is not the context of what Jesus is saying. He is not talking about being like God, and for this reason, we can say that seeing him is like seeing the Father. Jesus tells us very plainly in context what he means.
John 14:5-11:
Thomas says to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus says to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, if not by Me. If you had known Me, you would also have known My Father. From now on, you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip says to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus says to him, “Am I with you so long a time, and you have not known Me, Philip? The one having seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves.
Thomas begins the conversation by asking to see the way in which Jesus is going. Jesus is talking about going to the Father. He says that to know him is to know the Father, just after he finished saying that he is the way to the Father. Philip follows up with a “misunderstanding statement,” and says that he wants to see the Father. Jesus explains how he can see the Father in himself. His first answer: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” His second answer: “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves.”
What does it mean to be “in the Father” and “the Father in me?” We find this language used a lot in both Paul and John. This being “in” language. Paul uses this language often of us being “in” the risen Jesus. “Anyone in Christ is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “And in him we have been made full” (Colossians 2:10). “To bring together all things in Christ… in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:10-11). In John’s Gospel, we find this language being used of God and Jesus several times. “But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father” (John 10:38). “On that day, you will know that I am in My Father” (John 14:20). This language is not just used of Jesus being in the Father, but also of us. “…and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:56). “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you” (John 15:4 ff). “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (John 17:21-23). John also uses this language in his first epistle: “Let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24). “Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us” (1 John 3:24). “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15).
Jesus says that he is in the Father, the Father is in him, we are in the Father, we are in him, and we are in each other. “How can these things be?” This is by the Spirit we all abide in. “The Spirit of truth. The world can not receive Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). The Father is in Jesus by his Spirit in the ministry of Christ. The Spirit descended on Jesus, and remained on him for the rest of his ministry (John 1:32). The Father was in him, and in the same way, Jesus was in the Father by his Spirit. By keeping God’s commandments, we remain in God (1 John 3:24). By being in God’s love, we are in him (John 15:9). Our Spirit, the Holy Spirit that is in us, puts us in the Father (1 John 3:24). When Jesus was raised from the dead, he gained the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33), and now he pours out the Spirit himself. “The Spirit of Christ” (see John 20:22). When we are “in Christ,” as Paul says, we are in the Spirit of Christ. This is how the Father and Son abide in us and “make their home in us” (John 14:23). There is only one Spirit (Ephesians 4:5). The Spirit of the Father is the same Spirit of the Son. It is simply one Holy Spirit. When we abide in that Spirit, we abide in them that send it. They are abiding in us. In the same way, we all abide in each other because we are all united by one Spirit. We comprise one spiritual body. That is, the body of Spirit which Christ was raised in. “We know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us” (1 John 3:24).
So when Jesus says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me;” he is talking about their unity in the Spirit. The Father is in him by means of his Spirit. This is also what it means for them to be “one.” This is made evident from our earlier quotation of John 17:21-23: “That all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, so that they may be one, as We are one—I in them, and You in Me—that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.” Being “one” and being “in” are the same thing. Perfected unity. Note that this language of “oneness” and “the Father in me” are also used in John 10:30, 37-38: “I and the Father are one…. If I do not do the works of my father, do not believe me. But if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and may understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” Is verse 38 not a parallel of John 14:11?
- “Believe the works, so that you may know and may understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
- “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves.”
Jesus is saying that to see him is to see the Father because the Father is in him by the Spirit. And we know this to be true because of the works Jesus does. These works prove that God’s Spirit is in him. Recall Matthew 12, when Jesus is performing miracles, and the Pharisees claim that he is acting by the power of the demons. Jesus’ response is: “Because of this I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming one.” You can speak against the son of man, Jesus, because he isn’t doing the works. You can not speak against the Holy Spirit that does do the works. “The Father is working until now, and I am working.” The Father is working by his Spirit in and through Jesus.
When Jesus says that seeing him is seeing the Father, it is because of the works he does. As Nicodemus says: “We know that you are a teacher having come for God, for no one can do these signs unless God is with him“(John 3:2). The signs, miracles, and words Jesus speak prove that the Father is in him. This conversation Jesus is having with Thomas, Philip, and the other apostles in the upper room explains Thomas’ reaction in John 20:28. When Thomas saw Jesus, who was he seeing? He saw Jesus, “my Lord,” and he was seeing the Father, “and my God,” because of the works the Father did. The sign from God is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. When Thomas saw Jesus being raised from the dead, he knew that no one could have done this but God. He saw the Father.
Nothing about either passage, John 14 or John 20:28 prove that Jesus is God. “Believe because of the works.” When Trinitarians go on a long rant about how seeing Jesus means that he is like the Father in his qualities, they have failed to listen to Jesus and look at the context. Jesus goes on to talk about how the same can be said of us. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one believing in Me, the works that I do, also he will do. And he will do greater of these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). We will do the works Jesus himself has done. Why? Because the Spirit will be poured out to us as well. Just as Jesus acted by the Spirit, we will act by the Spirit. “Because I am going to the Father.” In John 16:12, we find that we can only receive the Spirit if Jesus goes to the Father, because he must receive the Spirit from him to pour it out to us (John 7:39, Acts 2:33 ff). If we believe Jesus did these works by the Spirit of God, then when we receive the Spirit, we, too, will do works. This is where he begins to explain the paraklétos, the Spirit of truth to us. Notice how Jesus says, “Just as I was sent, now I also send you, receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21-23). Just as. Meaning, in the same way. Jesus was sent from the Jordan River by God with the Holy Spirit, and now, he sends his apostles in the same way. He gives them the Spirit and sends them on their great commission. We see the Father by the works Jesus did. This is what it means to see the Father when seeing Jesus. And Jesus tells us this himself, if only we have ears to hear him.