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In the next four messages we will consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ in chapters fourteen through seventeen of the Gospel of John.
Chapters fourteen through seventeen reveal Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God.
Chapter fourteen unveils that Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the Father’s house. The Father’s house signifies the mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed people; this is the mutual abode where God dwells in man and man dwells in God (vv. 2, 20, 23).
The Father’s house is Christ enlarged with His believers to be God’s fullness (the Body of Christ as God’s full expression) through His going — His death, and in His coming — His resurrection (Eph. 3:19b). In John 14:2 and 3 the Lord Jesus told His disciples, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And 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.” According to 2:16, My Father’s house in 14:2 refers to the temple, the body of Christ, as God’s dwelling place. At first the Father’s house as God’s dwelling place was only the individual body of Christ (2:16, 21). But through Christ’s death and resurrection, the body of Christ has increased to be His corporate Body, which is the church, including all His believers, who have been regenerated through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). In Christ’s resurrection the church is the Body of Christ, which is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6), God’s habitation (Eph. 2:21-22), God’s temple.
Furthermore, the many abodes in John 14:2 are the many members of the Body of Christ (v. 23; Rom. 12:5), which is God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17). The Father’s house is the resurrected temple — Christ raised up with His members, His believers (John 2:19-21). According to Ephesians 2:6 and 1 Peter 1:3, we, the members of Christ, have been raised up with Him. As members of the Body of Christ raised up with Him, all the believers in Christ are the abodes, the rooms, in the Father’s house. Hence, the Father’s house is Christ enlarged with His believers to be God’s fullness, the Body of Christ as the full expression of God.
It was through His death and in His resurrection that Christ was enlarged with His believers to be the Father’s house — a mutual abode where God abides in man and man abides in God. Speaking of His death, the Lord said in John 14:2, “I go to prepare a place for you.” The Lord’s going was to pave the way for man to be in God, that is, to bring man into God for the building of His dwelling place. For man to allow God to dwell in him, man must firstly get into Him. If man does not get into God, God will not get into man. Once man dwells in God, then God will dwell in man. But between man and God there were many obstacles, such as sin, sins, death, the world, the flesh, the self, the old man, and Satan. For the Lord to bring man into God, He had to solve all these problems. Therefore, He had to go to the cross to accomplish redemption that He might open the way and make a standing for man, that man might enter into God. This standing in God, being enlarged, becomes the standing in the Body of Christ. Anyone who does not have a standing, a place, in God does not have a place in the Body of Christ, which is God’s dwelling place. Hence, His death — His going in order to accomplish His redemption — was to prepare a place in His Body (the Father’s house) for the disciples.
Christ as the Father’s house — the mutual abode of God and man — was enlarged with His believers to be God’s full expression not only through His going — His death, but also in His coming — His resurrection. Speaking of His resurrection, the Lord said in verse 3, “I am coming again.” This word refers to Christ in His resurrection coming to His disciples. This thought corresponds to the Lord’s words to the disciples in verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” This coming was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection (20:19-22). After His resurrection the Lord came back to His disciples to be with them forever, thus not leaving them as orphans. Furthermore, in John 14:3, the Lord told the disciples, “I am coming again and will receive you to Myself.” In receiving the disciples to Himself, the Lord put them into Himself. This is indicated by verse 20 where the Lord spoke to the disciples regarding the day of resurrection: “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In verse 3 the Lord also said that He would receive us to Himself that “where I am you also may be.” The Lord is in the Father (vv. 10-11). He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father, as revealed in 17:21. Through His death and resurrection He brought His disciples into Himself. Since He is in the Father, they are in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where He is, the disciples are also. Therefore, the Lord’s resurrection was a further step of coming into us to enlarge the Father’s house, a mutual abode of God and man.
It was through death and in resurrection that Christ built the Father’s house. The Gospel of John reveals that the Triune God is dispensing Himself into us, working Himself into us, by way of Christ the Son’s death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus indicated this in chapter two when He said to the Jewish leaders, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). The phrase, in three days means “in resurrection.” Thus, here the Lord is saying that He would build up the temple, the Father’s house, in resurrection. Apart from the death and resurrection of Christ, there is neither a way for us to enter into God nor a place for us in God. The Lord Jesus died for His believers and was raised up with them. Now based on His death and resurrection, He is working on them to build them up into one Body, and this Body is the church, the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15).
Christ as the Father’s house is a mutual abode, an abode for both God and us. However, if we would not be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that God can dwell in us, we shall be short of the experience of God as our dwelling place. We need to be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that God can dwell in us. When we are built up in this way, we become an abode to God. When God dwells in us, He becomes our dwelling place. This is our abode. Furthermore, this means that we and God, God and we, are mingled together to become one abode, a mutual abode. God abides in us, and we abide in God — a mutual abiding. Christ as the Father’s house is thus a sign signifying the mingling of God with His people. Therefore, we should be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that we and God can be mingled together to become a mutual abode, the Father’s house.
John 14:4-6 reveals that Christ is the way for man to enter into the Father’s house, that is, for man to get into the Father. In verse 4 the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, “And where I am going you know the way.” In verse 5 Thomas said to the Lord, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” We should note that these two verses speak of the words where and way. According to verse 6, Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” This verse reveals that Christ the Son is the way and that the Father is the “where” (destination). Therefore, both the way and the where are living persons; Christ the Son, the living person, is the way, and the Father, the living person, is the destination. Through Christ the Son we get into the Father. To take the Lord Jesus as the way means that when we walk in Jesus as the way, we arrive at the destination, which is the Father. Hence, we take Jesus as the way, and we reach the Father as the place.
Christ is the way for man to get into God. Since the way is a living person, the place to which the Lord brings us must also be a living person, God the Father Himself. The Lord Himself is the living way to bring man into God the Father, the living place. Although the disciples thought that both the place and the way were places, not persons, the Lord said to them, “I am the way.”
Moreover, Christ as the way signifies the incarnated God with all that He is and all that He has done. The Father is holy, dwelling in unapproachable light, and we are sinful. We are also involved with sin, the world, Satan, and other negative things, all of which are obstacles that make access to the Father impossible. Yet through His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus dealt with sin, the world, Satan, and other negative things, thus clearing away all the obstacles between us and God. By taking away sin, judging the world, destroying Satan, terminating the old creation, and dealing with all other negative things, Christ has cleared the path, and now He Himself becomes our way into the Father. We simply need to enter into Jesus, and He will transport us to the Father. He is the way for us to enter into the Father. The only way to go to the Father and contact Him is through the Lord Jesus. Christ, and Christ alone, is the way into the Father.
If we want to contact God, we simply need to say, “O Lord Jesus.” By calling on the name of the Lord, we are immediately taken to the Father and brought into Him to enjoy Him. We also know that God is in us, that we are in Him, and that we are one with God. This is a fact, and this is our experience. As Christians we can testify that we have God, that we enjoy God, and God enjoys us. We can enjoy God so much through the Lord Jesus as the way. The Lord has taken away sin, He has judged the world, He has destroyed Satan, and He has terminated the old creation. Now everything is clear, and there are no longer any obstacles between us and God. When we call on the Lord, we are immediately in the presence of God. We experience the fact that God is in us and that we are one with God. Then God becomes our enjoyment.
The way by which we enter into the Father is the crucified Jesus and resurrected Christ with His redemption (vv. 2b-3; Heb. 10:19). According to Hebrews 10:20, the Lord Jesus as our way into the Father is a new and living way: “Which entrance He initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Ephesians 2:18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” This verse indicates that through Christ as the way we have access in the Spirit unto the Father. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we have the sense that we are in the presence of God and that God is within us. Today the Triune God is the life-giving Spirit. Actually, Christ as this life-giving Spirit is the access for us to touch God and enter into Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, is the way to the Father. Simply by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are brought by Him and in Him into the Father. When we get into Christ as the way, we arrive at the Father as our destination, because the Son is one with the Father. Therefore, to be in the Son is also to be in the Father. Once we are in Christ Jesus, there is no longer any distance between us and God. Because we are in Christ, we are immediately brought into the Father. We in the Lord’s recovery can testify that this is not a mere doctrine — it is a spiritual fact. From experience we can testify that when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are immediately in the Triune God in an experiential way. The Lord Jesus is the way for us to enter into the Father.
In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus also said that He is the reality. The way needs the reality; the way without the reality means vanity. Unless the Lord is our reality, He can never be our way. Apart from the Triune God, the entire universe is vanity, having no content, no reality. The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is the reality. The reality is all that God is, which becomes the person of Christ. Christ is the reality of the divine things. This reality came through Him and becomes the realization of God to us. If we were to call on a name other than that of the Lord Jesus, we would not have a way into God, because all other names are void of reality. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we are immediately on the way into God because the Lord is the embodiment of the Triune God, who is the unique reality in the universe. Therefore, when we call on the name of Jesus, we receive something real into us.
The reality we receive by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus is the being and the doing of the Triune God. First, this reality is the incarnated God (1:1, 14). This reality is also the Son (8:32, 36) and the Spirit (14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:7). Hence, the reality is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Furthermore, this reality includes what the Triune God has done. The reality is whatever the Triune God has accomplished. This is the gospel (Eph. 1:13). The reality, therefore, is the very being of the Triune God and what He has done.
In the universe only what God is and what God does is real. This means that the reality in the universe is God’s being and God’s doing. God’s being is in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and His doing is redemption. In the gospel He is everything and has done everything necessary for us to contact Him. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive this universal reality.
The reality is actually the way, and the way is the destination. When we get on the way, we reach the destination. This means that when we receive Jesus, we have the Father. When we receive Christ the Son as the way, we have the Father as the destination. Because Christ the Son is the embodiment of the Father, when we call on the name of the Lord, we have both the Son and the Father. This is the reality becoming the way. This is Christ the Son with what He has done becoming our way into the Father. When we call on the Lord’s name, we get on this way and we have the Father.
In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus went on to say that He is the life. The reality needs life. If it is a dead reality, it is still vanity. It must be a living reality. The Lord Jesus is life to us. Christ as this life brings us the reality, and the reality becomes the way for us to enter into the Father. Firstly Christ is our life. Then this life brings us all the reality of the Godhead. Eventually, this reality of the Godhead is the way for us to get into the Father. When the Lord is life to us, then we have the reality. When the Lord is our reality, then we have the way for us to get into the Father. If the Lord is going to be our way, He must be our reality, and if He is going to be our reality, He must be our life. By having Him as life, we have Him as our reality, and by having Him as our reality, we have Him as our way into the Father. The Lord Himself is the way, this way is the reality, and the reality is in the life.
Reality is the divine life, and the divine life, which is eternal life, is the Triune God. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the Triune God comes into us to be our life. Therefore, the life in 14:6 signifies the Triune God within us (Eph. 4:18; Col. 3:4a; Rom. 8:2a, 6b). When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we experience the Triune God within us as life. In other words, when we call on the Lord Jesus, we sense that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us. We have something living, moving, and acting within us. This is the Triune God within us as the divine life. This life brings us the reality, and the reality is the way for us to enter into God. When we are on the way — Christ the Son, we are also at the destination — God the Father.
In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus clearly said, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Because Christ is the way, the reality, and the life, when we have Him, we have the life, the reality, and the way. Life is the divine element of the person of Christ. If we have Christ, we possess the divine element, which is His divine constitution of all the attributes of what God is. In regeneration we have received this life, and in the growth of the divine life through sanctification, renewing, and transformation, we participate in the reality of Christ, which is the way for us to enter into the Father’s house as the Body of Christ, which is the Father’s house that consummates the New Jerusalem.
