This book has two main sections. The first section, chs. 1—13, points out how Christ, as the eternal Word, came through incarnation to bring God into man that He might be the life and life supply to man. The second section, chs. 14—21, unveils how Christ, as the man Jesus, went through death and resurrection to bring man into God for the building of God's habitation, which is the building of the church (Matt. 16:18) and which is related to the building of the New Jerusalem (Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:2). In the entire universe God has only one building, that is, the building of His living habitation with His redeemed people.

The many abodes are the many members of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5), which is God's temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17). This is adequately proven by v. 23, which says that the Lord and the Father will make an abode with the one who loves Him.

According to the interpretation in John 2:16, 21, My Father's house refers to the temple, the body of Christ, as God's dwelling place. At first the body of Christ was only His individual body. 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 (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

Here the Lord showed His disciples that He is the same as God. The disciples were troubled upon hearing of His leaving. By this word He made them realize that as God He is omnipresent and is not limited by time and space.

The way for man to enter into God is the Lord Himself. Since the way is a living person, the place to which the Lord brings man must also be a person, God the Father Himself. The Lord Himself is the living way by which man is brought into God the Father, the living place. The way needs the reality, and the reality needs the life. The Lord Himself is the life to us. This life brings us the reality, and the reality becomes the way by which we enter into the enjoyment of God the Father.

The Lord is in the Father (vv. 10-11). He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father, as revealed in John 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.

In receiving the disciples to Himself, the Lord put them into Himself, as indicated in v. 20 by the words you in Me.

The Lord's intention in this chapter was to bring man into God for the building of His dwelling place. 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, the Lord's going in order to accomplish redemption was to prepare a place in His Body for the disciples.

If I go...I am coming proves that the Lord's going (through His death and resurrection) was His coming (to His disciples — vv. 18, 28). He came in the flesh (John 1:14) and was among His disciples, but He could not enter into them while He was in the flesh. He had to take the further step of passing through death and resurrection in order to be transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit that He might come into the disciples and dwell in them, as revealed in vv. 17-20. After His resurrection He did come to breathe Himself as the Holy Spirit into the disciples (John 20:19-22).

See note John 6:63³.

This chapter unveils the way God dispenses Himself into man. In the dispensing of Himself into us, God is triune. He is one, yet He is three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father (vv. 7-11), and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son (vv. 17-20). In the Son (the Son is even called the Father — Isa. 9:6) the Father is expressed and seen, and as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) the Son is revealed and realized. The Father in the Son is expressed among the believers, and the Son as the Spirit is realized in the believers. God the Father is hidden, God the Son is manifested among men, and God the Spirit enters into man to be his life, his life supply, and his everything. Hence, this Triune God — the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit — dispenses Himself into us to be our portion that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His divine trinity.

Christ is the reality of the divine things. This reality came through Him and becomes the realization of God to us. See note John 1:14^6d and note 1 John 1:6⁶.

The Lord came from the Father to bring God into man through His incarnation. Here, He is going to the Father to bring man into God through His death and resurrection.

See note John 14:17².

The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was to be sent by the Father in the Son's name. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and also by the Son. Thus, the Holy Spirit comes not only from the Father but also from the Son, and He is the reality not only of the Father but also of the Son. Hence, when we call on the name of the Son, we get the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).

The Father being in the Son's name is equivalent to the Father being the Son (see note John 5:43^1a). Therefore, the Father's sending of the Holy Spirit in the Son's name is the Son's sending of the Holy Spirit from the Father (John 15:26). The Son and the Father are one (John 10:30). Hence, the Spirit who is sent comes not only out of the Father (John 15:26) but also out of the Son. Moreover, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father and the Son (see note John 15:26^1c). This proves that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one God, the Triune God, who reaches us and is working, that is, dispensing, Himself into us in His divine trinity to be our life and everything.

In John 5:43 we are told that the Son came in the Father's name, and here that the Father sent the Holy Spirit in the Son's name. This proves not only that the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30) but also that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, who is sent by the Father in the Son's name, is not only the reality that comes from the Father but also the reality that comes from the Son. This is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — who reaches man eventually as the Spirit.

See note John 14:18^2a.

See note John 14:12^1b.

This coming was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection (John 20:19-22). After His resurrection the Lord came back to His disciples to be with them forever, thus not leaving them as orphans.

The Greek word here means advocate, one alongside who takes care of our cause, our affairs. The Greek word for Comforter is the same as that for Advocate in 1 John 2:1. Today we have both the Lord Jesus in the heavens and the Spirit (the Comforter) within us as our Advocate, who takes care of our case.

The Spirit promised here was referred to in John 7:39. This Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), and this promise of the Lord's was fulfilled on the day of the Lord's resurrection, when the Spirit as the breath of life was breathed into the disciples (John 20:22). The Lord's promise here is different from the promise of the Father concerning the Spirit of power in Luke 24:49. That promise was fulfilled fifty days after the Lord's resurrection, on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit as the mighty wind blew upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-4). In this verse the Spirit of life is called "the Spirit of reality." This Spirit of reality is Christ (v. 6); hence, the Spirit of reality is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). This Spirit is also the reality of Christ (1 John 5:6, 20) that Christ may be realized in those who believe into Him, as their life and life supply.

The very "He" who is the Spirit of reality in this verse becomes the very "I" who is the Lord Himself in v. 18. This means that the Christ who was in the flesh went through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. 1 Cor. 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection, that verse says, "The last Adam [Christ in the flesh] became a life-giving Spirit."

This is the first time that the promise of the Spirit's indwelling is revealed. It is fulfilled and fully developed in the Epistles. See 1 Cor. 6:19 and Rom. 8:9, 11.

To be in the Lord's name, here and in v. 14, means to be one with the Lord, to live by the Lord, and to let the Lord live in us. The Lord came and did things in the Father's name (John 5:43; 10:25), meaning that He was one with the Father (John 10:30), that He lived because of the Father (John 6:57), and that the Father worked in Him (v. 10). In the Gospels the Lord as the expression of the Father did things in the Father's name. In the Acts the disciples as the expression of the Lord did even greater things (v. 12) in the Lord's name.

For the Father to be glorified in the Son means that His divine element is expressed from within the Son. Whatever the Son does expresses the Father's divine element. This is the glorifying of the Father in the Son.

It should be after His resurrection that the Lord lives in His disciples and that they live by Him, as mentioned in Gal. 2:20.

This should refer to the day of the Lord's resurrection (John 20:19).

This is one of the many abodes mentioned in v. 2. It will be a mutual abode, in which the Triune God abides in the believers and the believers abide in Him.