The Tree of Life, Chap 7, Section 2 of 3

Sections:

Verses 4 through 6 say, “Where I am going you know the way. 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 reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” The way is a person, and the place is also a person. Many believers interpret these verses as saying that no one can go to heaven but by Christ. But the real meaning here is that no one can go into the Father but by Christ. No one can have a real union with the Father except by Christ.

Verses 16 through 20 say, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This means that after His resurrection, the Lord became the Spirit of reality. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection, it says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” “That day” in John 14:20 should be the day of the Lord’s resurrection (20:19). It should be after His resurrection that the Lord lives in His disciples and that they live by Him, as mentioned in Galatians 2:20.

John 14:23 says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” In John 15:4 the Lord Jesus says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” In John 14 is the abode, and in chapter 15 is the abiding. Because the abode has been prepared, the abiding is possible. The abode in 14:23 is one of the many abodes mentioned in 14:2. Eventually, it will be a mutual abode for the Triune God to abide in the believers and for the believers to abide in Him. [135]

The book of John reveals to us that we have sin (16:8-9), and in John 12:31 the ruler of this world, the king of this age, the enemy of God, Satan the devil, is mentioned. We human beings are sinful and are under the hand of this usurping one, Satan. With the problem of sin and of Satan, how could we have a union with God the Father? How could we get into the Father, and how could the Father get into us? The Lord Jesus came to bring us into the Father and to bring the Father into us. He came that we might have life and that we might have it abundantly (10:10). But how could this be accomplished since we are sinful and are under the hand of Satan? First, the Lamb had to be slain, had to die, for our sins (1:29). The Lamb had to be put on the cross to shed His blood so that our sins could be dealt with. Also, when He was lifted up on the cross, Satan was judged and cast out (12:31-32). By His death He solved the problem of sin and the problem of Satan, thus preparing the way that we might get into the Father to have a place in the Father. He went to prepare a place for us in the Father by shedding His blood to redeem us from our sins and to wash away all our sins, and by destroying His enemy Satan, thus releasing us from Satan’s usurping hand.

The Lord was not going to heaven to prepare a heavenly mansion for us in order that we might go there one day after we die. This thought does not correspond with the entire Gospel of John. The Lord came that He might bring God into man and that He might bring man into God. But we have the problems of sin, Satan, and the world. These negative things separated us from God and hindered God from coming into us. All these problems were solved and dealt with by the Lord’s all-inclusive death. By His crucifixion, sins, the world, and Satan have been done away with. By His death He has prepared the way, and He has even prepared a place that where He is we also may be. He is in the Father, and through His death and resurrection we can also be in the Father. He was going to prepare a place for us in the Father.

On the positive side, the Lord came that He might impart Himself into us as life. For this He went to the cross as a grain of wheat (12:24). A grain of wheat imparts its life into other grains by death and resurrection. When a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it grows up, and the life within it is imparted into many grains. Through death and resurrection the life within the one grain becomes the life of many grains. It is in this way that the Lord [136] imparted Himself into us. By having Him within us, we are one with Him. He is in the Father, and we also are in the Father by His death and resurrection. By His all-inclusive death and His wonderful resurrection, He has brought Himself into us, and He has brought us into Himself and into the Father. This is why He said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Through His death and resurrection He became our abode, and we became His abodes. We are in Him, so He is our abode; and He is in us, so we are His abodes. By His death and resurrection many abodes were prepared. All these abodes added together equal the Father’s house.

The term My Father’s house is used in the Gospel of John in 2:16 and 14:2. In chapter 2 the Father’s house is the temple, and in chapter 14 it is the same. To say that the Father’s house is heaven is not according to the biblical revelation. The Father’s house is the building, the temple, which is the total of all the abodes, the total of all the regenerated people. In the Father’s house there are many abodes. The Father’s house is actually a mutual abode, a mingling of the Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people. To the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, we are the abodes, and to us They are the abode. This is the mutual abode revealed in the Gospel of John. We have been brought into the Triune God, and the Triune God has been wrought into us in the way of mingling. The Lord Jesus was going in order to die and resurrect that He might bring us into the Father and that He might bring the Father into us, thus accomplishing the universal mingling of the Triune God with humanity. This mingling is the Father’s house.

The Lord Jesus brought the Father into us by the Spirit and in the Spirit. John 14—16 shows us that through death and resurrection the last man, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit. Thus, on the evening of His resurrection, He came to the disciples not in the form of the flesh but in the form of the Spirit. He is the Spirit in resurrection.

THE SPIRIT BEING AN ALL-INCLUSIVE DOSE

This Spirit is an all-inclusive dose. With this Spirit there is redemption, the released life, and the overcoming resurrection of Christ. Within this all-inclusive dose is the cleansing element, which cleanses away all our sins, cleanses away the world, and cleanses [137] away even Satan. To deal with the negative side, the cleansing, redeeming element is within the Spirit. On the positive side, the life-imparting element, the nourishing element, the supplying element, is within this Spirit. Whenever someone opens himself to the Lord Jesus to receive Him as his Savior, this Spirit immediately comes into him with the redeeming power and with the imparting power, redeeming him from all the negative things and imparting into him all the positive things.

 

© Living Stream Ministry, 2021, used by permission