CHRIST’S HUMAN LIVING WITH THE FATHER
John 8:16 says, "But even if I do judge, My judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me." The Lord was not alone, but He and the Father were always together. In verse 29 of the same chapter the Lord Jesus said, "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone." The Sender is with the Sent One. In John 16:32 the Lord Jesus said, "Behold, an hour is coming and has come, when you shall be scattered each to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." Here are three verses telling us that the Lord Jesus was never alone while He was on this earth because the Father was always with Him. When He was near the Sea of Galilee calling Peter and John, the Father was with Him. When He was talking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, the Father was with Him. He always lived on this earth with the Father, and He even lived as the Father. He was never left alone.
One day Philip said to the Lord, "Show us the Father and it suffices us" (14:8). Jesus’ reply to Philip was marvelous: "Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?" (14:9-10a). The Lord told Philip that if he saw Him, he saw the Father. This is because He was in the Father, and the Father was in Him; the Father was always with Him, and He was there in the name of His Father as the embodiment of God. He was not only the Son but also the Father. These matters are not merely doctrinal. The Son is the very embodiment of the Triune God as the tree of life for the Triune God to dispense Himself into all His children. Thus, when we have the Son, we have the Father (1 John 2:23), and we have the very Triune God.
In John 10:30 the Lord Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." This is the embodiment of the Triune God. In this embodiment is the Son and the Father, even the Triune God, because God wanted to dispense Himself into His chosen people. Without such an embodiment, God would be mysterious and abstract. No one could see Him or touch Him. But here is a man who is the embodiment of the Triune God. In this man is God the Son and God the Father. When we see this man, we see God; when we touch this man, we touch God; and now we can grasp God. We can grasp the mysterious, abstract, and invisible God! Now we have God! This God has been dispensed into us and will never leave us. Praise the Lord for the divine economy!
In John 6:57 the Lord tells us that the living Father sent Him and that He lived because of the Father. While He was on the earth, the Son lived because of the Father. He lived on account of, through, and by the Father. If He were on the earth, and the Father were far away in the heavens, it would have been impossible for Him to live because of the Father. But since He came with the Father and was one with the Father, He could live because of the Father and by the Father. While Jesus was walking on this earth, He lived not just by Himself but always by the Father. Actually, He did not live His life; He lived the Father’s life.
John 5:30 says, "I can do nothing from Myself; as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." Jesus, the Son of God, never did anything from Himself, and He never sought His own will. He sought the Father’s will, and He did the Father’s work. This marvelous person is the Son with the Father. In 5:36 He said, "But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to complete, the works themselves which I do, testify concerning Me that the Father has sent Me." Jesus was not doing His own work, but the work which the Father gave Him to complete. John 10:37 says, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me." This meant that He always did the Father’s work. The Son never did His own work.
John 14:24 says, "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me." John 10:25 says, "Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe; the works which I do in the name of My Father, these testify concerning Me." Jesus not only came in the Father’s name but He also did His works in the Father’s name. John 7:18 says, "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him, this One is true, and unrighteousness is not in Him." This verse tells us that the Son was always seeking the Father’s glory.
From all the verses we have pointed out, we can see that the Son came in the Father’s name, came with the Father, and lived on this earth with the Father. He spoke the Father’s word, did the Father’s work, did the Father’s will, and sought the Father’s glory. He always did everything in the Father’s name, and the Father was always with Him. Furthermore, the Father is always in Him, and He is always in the Father, so He and the Father are one. This is the marvelous way that God embodied Himself in Jesus. The Son and the Father are one, but there is still a distinction between the Son and the Father. The Son and the Father are not separate since the Son came with the Father, the Son came in the Father’s name, and the Son and the Father mutually indwell each other. They are distinctively two, but these two are one. What the Bible reveals concerning the Son with the Father is different from traditional theology. In the Lord’s recovery we do not want to follow any traditional teaching, but we want to come back to the pure Word. All the verses we have covered reveal the truth that the Son came in the Father’s name, that He came with the Father, and that He is always one with the Father as the embodiment of the Triune God for the dispensing of God Himself into our being.
(The Divine Economy, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
