“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
And you know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has 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 say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
“I have said these things to you while I am still with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.
I will no longer speak with you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
On that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf;
for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
14:10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?"
Since I depict the nature of my begetter in myself, Philip, he is saying, I am the image of his substance. I am patterned after him not, as one might suppose, with external glories, and neither am I illustrious with foreign and imported excellences. Rather I bear the attributes of my begetter in my own nature, and whatever he is, I am truly the same (with respect to the identity of substance, I mean). You will surely object to this, since you do not realize that I am in the Father; and the Father, in turn, is in me. Yet the force of my words will finally constrain you, even against your will, to agree with this. [428] Therefore, whatever words I say surely belong to the Father, and whatever works I do the Father also does. Christ says these things not as
one citing the words of someone else, not speaking in the rank and position of a prophet, delivering a message from the Father above. They were not speaking their own words at all but the words of God, who gave them by inspiration. Again, he ascribes to his Father the performance of the miracles, not implying that he did miracles with an imported power, like those who say, Do not stare at us, as though we have healed the sick man
"by our power or piety."158 The saints did not use their own power to perform miracles but God's. They are ministers and servants of God's word and activities. Since the Son, on the other hand, is of the same substance as the Father, differing from him in no way, he says that his words are the words of the Father, since the Father would use no other words than the Son does. You can also see this in the magnificence of his works. Since the Father, by his nature and power, does nothing other than what the Son knows and does, he says that the works are the Father's. Think of him as making this more explicit statement: I am in every way like him who begat me. I am the image of his essence, not merely adorned with an outward appearance and with external glories, but containing the entire Father in myself, on account of the identity of essence.
"The words that I say I do not speak on my own; but the Father who remains in me is the one who does the works."
If the Father were to say anything to you, he is saying, he would not use any other words than the ones I am using now. [429| I have such likeness to him in essence that my words are his, and whatever I do is believed to be his accomplishment. Remaining in me because of the identity of essence, he
"does the works." And since one divine nature is understood to be in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, every word from the Father is surely through the Son and in the Spirit. And every work or miracle is through the Son and in the Spirit as well. It is carried out, however, as from the Father. The Son is not external to the essence of the one who begat him, and neither is the Holy Spirit, but since the Only Begotten is in him and he has his Father in himself, he says that the Father does the works. The nature of the Father is active, and it shines out beautifully in the Son.
Now one might say that there is another meaning in addition to this that finds a legitimate starting point in the oikonomia with the flesh. "I do not speak on my own," he says, meaning that he does not speak apart from or out of harmony with God the Father. Since he appeared to those who saw him in human form, he ascribes his words to the nature of the divinity in the person of the Father. He does this with his works as well. He is basically saying, Do not let this human form deprive me of the understanding of me that is due and proper. Do not assume that my words are those of a mere human being or of someone like you. Rather, they are truly divine and fitting for God the Father himself, just as I am. He "who remains in me" does them. I am in him, and he is in me. Do not believe, he is saying, that anything great or supernatural was given to the ancients when they saw God in the form of fire or heard his voice speaking to them. You are the ones who have truly seen the Father through me and in me. When I appeared looking like you, I, who am God by nature, "came visibly," as the psalmist says.152 You should realize that when you hear my words, you hear the words of the Father. You have become spectators of both his works and his power. [430] He speaks through me as through his own Word, and he accomplishes and performs marvelous deeds through me as through his own power. And I suppose that no explanation could sever the Word and power of the Father's essence from the essence itself. Everyone would agree without a doubt that the Word and power exist and are rooted in that essence by nature everyone except those whose minds have been stricken. [431]
14:11 "Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me."
He now states plainly, or rather commands, that we should think in no other way than the word of truth would desire. He is of the same substance as his begetter, with nothing at all separating them or in any way cutting off one into a different nature than the other. He is one with him so that the nature of the Son is revealed in the essence of the Father, and the essence of God the Father is seen and shows forth in the essence of his offspring, as anyone of course could see in our case as well. After all, we are not different by nature from our own offspring, nor are we divided into different natures, even though we are distinguished by having separate bodies. Therefore, whoever sees the son begotten of Abraham sees the blessed Abraham himself. Now in the case of human beings, there is a sharp distinction since each person contracts, so to speak, and withdraws as they are formed into their own personal existence and appearance. They are not implanted physically in the other, even though the definition of their substance is obviously common to all of them. In the case of him who is God by nature, however, you should not understand it this way. In terms of his person,
[432] the Father is the Father, not the Son; likewise, the one who is from him is the Son, not the Father; and the Spirit is personally the Spirit.
However, since the holy Trinity is united and joined together in one nature of divinity, we have one God. No one would grant, for example, that there is a total separation of each of the aforementioned from the others, and neither will they completely withdraw into a separate existence. Rather, we believe that each one is personally exactly what we have named him to be.
We hold that the Son is from the Father (that is, from his essence) and that he proceeds ineffably from him and remains in him. And it is the same way with the Holy Spirit. He truly is from God by nature. He is not divided in any way from his essence but proceeds from him and remains in him always. The Spirit is also supplied to the saints through Christ, since all things come through the Son and in the Spirit. The wisdom of the holy fathers has taught us this correct and true doctrine, and we have been taught to speak and think this way through the divine Scriptures themselves. And the Lord encourages us to progress with a perfectly correct understanding to this unimpeachable faith when he says, "Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me." (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John)
“14. In these and like testimonies of the divine Scriptures, by free use of which, as I have said, our predecessors exploded such sophistries or errors of the heretics, the unity and equality of the Trinity are intimated to our faith. But because, on account of the incarnation of the Word of God for the working out of our salvation, that the man Christ Jesus might be the Mediator between God and men, many things are so said in the sacred books as to signify, or even most expressly declare, the Father to be greater than the Son; men have erred through a want of careful examination or consideration of the whole tenor of the Scriptures, and have endeavored to transfer those things which are said of Jesus Christ according to the flesh, to that substance of His which was eternal before the incarnation, and is eternal. They say, for instance, that the Son is less than the Father, because it is written that the Lord Himself said, My Father is greater than I. But the truth shows that after the same sense the Son is less also than Himself; for how was He not made less also than Himself, who emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant? For He did not so take the form of a servant as that He should lose the form of God, in which He was equal to the Father. If, then, the form of a servant was so taken that the form of God was not lost, since both in the form of a servant and in the form of God He Himself is the same only-begotten Son of God the Father, in the form of God equal to the Father, in the form of a servant the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; is there any one who cannot perceive that He Himself in the form of God is also greater than Himself, but yet likewise in the form of a servant less than Himself? And not, therefore, without cause the Scripture says both the one and the other, both that the Son is equal to the Father, and that the Father is greater than the Son. For there is no confusion when the former is understood as on account of the form of God, and the latter as on account of the form of a servant. And, in truth, this rule for clearing the question through all the sacred Scriptures is set forth in one chapter of an epistle of the Apostle Paul, where this distinction is commended to us plainly enough. For he says, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and was found in fashion as a man. The Son of God, then, is equal to God the Father in nature, but less in fashion. For in the form of a servant which He took He is less than the Father; but in the form of God, in which also He was before He took the form of a servant, He is equal to the Father. In the form of God He is the Word, by whom all things are made; but in the form of a servant He was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. In like manner, in the form of God He made man; in the form of a servant He was made man. For if the Father alone had made man without the Son, it would not have been written, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Therefore, because the form of God took the form of a servant, both is God and both is man; but both God, on account of God who takes; and both man, on account of man who is taken. For neither by that taking is the one of them turned and changed into the other: the Divinity is not changed into the creature, so as to cease to be Divinity; nor the creature into Divinity, so as to cease to be creature.” (Augustine, De Trinitate, book 1 chapter 7)
