10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Philip’s question in the previous verse reflects on his lack of understanding of the scope of Jesus’ teaching during His ministry on earth. Now the Lord puts his problem in perspective.
10 Do you [singular, referring to Philip] not believe that I am in the Father,
The Father and Christ are one. They are one essence in all their attributes. This is what the apostles ought to believe.
and the Father in Me? [Greek expects a “yes” answer]
The Father dwells in Jesus. The deity of Christ is clearly in view here. The Father and the Son are one (Jn 10:30) but this does not obliterate distinctions between their persons.
The words that I speak to you [plural, the eleven] I do not speak on My own authority;
The apostles can equate the words of Jesus with the words of the Father. The words of Jesus are given to Him by the Father, but the reverse is not in order. There is a hierarchy in the Trinity (1 Co 11:3). The role of the Son is to manifest or reveal who God is.
The words of Jesus came from a divine source; they were unique in their certainty, finality and power. He spoke the words of God (Jn 3:34).
but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Miracles reveal the Father’s works in Jesus. When Jesus speaks, He reveals the mind of the Father, which is also His own mind. When Jesus performs a miracle, the Father does it through Him.
PRINCIPLE:
The Father and the Son have an interdependent unity between them.
APPLICATION:
The Father and Son have a reciprocal relationship within their unity. There is an interpenetration between their two natures. In His humanity, Jesus is obedient to the Father. However, Jesus is much more than an Agent of the Father.
To understand the “the words” that Jesus spoke to the disciples, we must accept by faith the ultimate authority of the Father and thus the authority of the Son. Rationalism, or even reason itself without revelation, cannot know God. God is beyond time and space; He is beyond the capacity of man to understand Him on man’s own terms. Finiteness cannot come to infiniteness on its own terms. The human being is epistemologically at the mercy of God’s revelation. He does not have the autonomy that he thinks he has when approaching an infinite being.
