Believest thou not that I [am] in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words which I speak to you I do not speak from myself; but the Father who abides in me, he does the works.
Philip had just asked the Lord to show him the Father. This verse is the answer: Jesus points to Himself — to His own words and His own works. Two questions sit at the centre. What does it mean that He is in the Father and the Father in Him? And why does He say the words He speaks are not His own?
The words "show us the Father" assume that something more is still to come. The answer closes that door.
Jesus replied, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." So it is useless to look anywhere else, or to hope for some advance on what has been made known in Him. We are limited to the Son for the knowledge of the Father, and in Him the Father is fully revealed.
Everything here turns on who Jesus is. Human reasoning stumbles over such a claim, and the works He did stood behind it.
Everything turned on the glory of His Person. The oneness of the Godhead was the central truth Israel had to testify to, and it was a difficulty for the reasoning mind of man, which cannot rise above its own experience. The law and the prophets had prepared the way, and so had John the Baptist's witness. But more than that, the words Jesus said were not like the words of any other man. They were no mere human things, nor independent of His Father. He had been made flesh, but never ceased to be the Word, the Son; and the works He did bore the unmistakable imprint of the same gracious One — the Father. It was He that did the works. So the disciples were called to believe that He was in the Father, and the Father in Him. Only the Divine nature can be like that. The works themselves bore witness to it, and left unbelievers without excuse.
Notice the odd shape of the sentence. He says the words are not from Himself — yet He does not go on to say that the Father speaks them instead.
I take the words that follow to be connected with these: "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." "I do not speak on my own authority." And, "the Father who dwells in me," and so on. He could not say instead, "But the Father speaks"; for the Son was the word of the Father. He did not speak of Himself, yet He could not distinguish the Persons here. He spoke the word of God; being in the Father, He spoke as the Word of God. This showed His unity with the Father — that He did not speak from Himself.
He lived here in dependence on His Father. His works were real proof of who He was, yet He traced them to the Father and not to Himself.
Religious men who were not born again said the Lord Jesus was "making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18), and they therefore sought to kill Him. He was here doing His Father's will, depending on Him, and He explained that He did nothing on His own. He did work that proved who He was: "For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about Me," He said. But again, "the Father who dwells in Me does His works." He did His works for the Father's honour and in His Name.
The verse begins with words and ends with works. He puts the two on the same level, and that says something about Him we could never say about ourselves.
Being what He was, His words were as perfect as His works... Our words often say either less or more than the truth. We are often humbled to find that we have failed to say even what we wanted to say. Sometimes our imperfect words have left a wrong, even untrue, impression behind. With Him, on the other hand, every word was perfect, and so a ray of His own glory as well as a display of the Father. We find in John 14 that He identifies His words with His works... The words were as perfect as the works, and both alike the revelation of the Father.
The next verse offers a fallback: if not the Person, then at least the works. Commentators read this as a deliberate step down to meet weak faith.
"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake." Now, the latter surely proved that the Father was in Him... The "believe me" depended on His Person, and brought them into communion, in reliance on His word, with the Father. If they could not see that He was in the Father, and so know the value of His word as speaking the words of God, being so one with the Father, let them take the evidence of His truth from the works He did.
- Look here. Do not look past Christ for the Father. The Son is where the Father is fully revealed.
- Hear Him. His words did not come from Himself. Yet He does not name the Father as the speaker instead, because the Son is the Word of the Father.
- Watch Him. He did His Father's will in dependence on Him. He did nothing on His own, and all of it was for the Father's honour.
- Weigh both. Words and works stand together, each as perfect as the other, and both alike a revelation of the Father.
- Believe Him. The disciples were called to believe a union only the Divine nature makes possible, and the works themselves gave a witness that left unbelief without excuse.
Believe *me* that I [am] in the Father and the Father in me; but if not, believe me for the works' sake themselves.
Philip had just asked the Lord to show them the Father. The answer stays on the question of who He Himself is: believe first in His Person, and if that is too hard, believe the works done through Him.
Everything in the passage rests on who He is. That is where the reasoning mind runs into trouble.
Everything turned on the glory of His Person. The very unity of the Godhead was the central truth Israel had to testify to. Yet it became a difficulty to the reasoning mind of man, which cannot rise above its own experience. He had been made flesh, but He never ceased to be the Word, the Son. And the works He did carried the unmistakable stamp of that same gracious One — the Father. It was He who did the works. So the Lord called the disciples to believe that He was in the Father, and the Father in Him. That is a state of being only possible in the Divine nature. The works themselves gave witness to it, and left the unbelieving without excuse.
The verse gives an alternative — "or else." One writer weighs what each route achieves. He works from an older wording of the verse: "believe me for the very works' sake."
"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake." Now the second surely proved that the Father was in Him. But it could serve here, and did, only to prove the truth of His word — "believe me for." The "believe me" rested on His Person. It drew them into communion, trusting His word along with the Father. Suppose they could not see that He was in the Father, and so could not know the worth of His word as speaking the words of God, being so one with the Father. Then let them take the evidence of His truthfulness from the works He did.
That the Lord offers a second ground at all is worth noticing. One writer sees grace in it.
I find the grace of the Lord in this chapter 14. He has to come down to a lower testimony (verse 10). He drops the other question for the present, and comes down to words and works. "Who worked these words and works in me? What do you think of them?" If they would not receive them, they were denying His place as servant. He would not say His own words and works: "The Father who dwells in me, He does the works."
The works prove both halves of the sentence. But they prove each half in a different way.
The works of His Father done by Him confirmed all He claimed, in the fullest way. They implied the Father abiding in Him, in the power displayed. They implied His abiding in the Father, in intimacy of communion. So there was enough witness to the truth of His claims; and if they would not believe His words, they might at least believe His works.
He makes this appeal in private, to His own disciples, and He means a particular class of works.
"If not … for the very works' sake." Here it must be kept in mind that our Lord is addressing His disciples. It is His works, not as Messiah, but as Son of God.
Nor were such works bare displays of strength. What they said about God was as much part of the evidence as the power behind them.
Miracles confirmed the word, and the word was the proper and express revelation of God's mind. But miracles were also a testimony in and of themselves. They spoke not only of power but of goodness — of God working in goodness in the middle of sorrow and misery, and doing it in the most definite and distinct way.
The Lord put this question to Philip alone, then pressed the same call on them all.
"Do you not believe," said the Lord to Philip, "that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?" Words and works both attested it. "Believe Me," He said to all, "that I am in the Father and the Father in Me." His being man in no way hindered or lowered His dignity, nor His essential oneness with the Father. It was, and is, of the greatest importance for believers to hold this firmly and with worship. The Son is God, even as the Father.
- Person first. The first call is to trust who He is: in the Father, and the Father in Him. That way of being belongs to the Divine nature alone.
- Word second. Trust His Person and His words carry their true weight. He speaks the words of God because He is one with the Father.
- Works as fallback. If faith cannot yet see His Person, the works stand as evidence of His truthfulness. They prove the Father was dwelling in Him.
- Grace in the descent. He comes down to a lower testimony rather than leave slow hearts behind. The works He points to are His Father's.
- Left without excuse. Power joined to goodness made the witness complete, so unbelief has no defence.
Verily, verily, I say to you, He that believes on me, the works which I do shall he do also, and he shall do greater than these, because I go to the Father.
Jesus is getting His disciples ready for His departure. His promise here is startling, and it raises two questions: what are these greater works, and how could anyone do more than Jesus did?
Up to this point the disciples had watched Jesus work. The double "truly, truly" signals a shift.
Here the Lord stops speaking of His words and works, which the disciples had enjoyed while He was still with them. He passes on to the new and deeper experience of His power after His departure to the Father. The words "Truly, truly" mark the change — words generally used to introduce some fresh truth. So the Lord reveals to His amazed disciples a new truth. After His departure the believer in Jesus would do the works that Jesus had done in person, and, more surprising still, would do greater works.
The verse itself gives the reason, and it says nothing about the quality of the workers.
The Lord Himself gives the answer. It sits in the short sentence "because I am going to the Father." Of course, He far surpasses all who came after Him, both in personal glory and in moral beauty. The reason for the greater works that were to follow had little to do with the servants who were used to perform them. Rather, the greater works flowed from the glory of Christ. They reflected that He was no longer on earth, in lowliness, but glorified by and with the Father.
Commentators point to what happened once He had gone and the Holy Spirit had come.
And more than this, the day was coming, as stated in verse 12, when the disciples would do similar and even greater works. That was because He was going to the Father, which, as we have learned in John 7, meant the coming of the Spirit… Before His death and resurrection the Lord was restricted (Luke 12:50). But once that was done and the Spirit given, He could work freely by the Spirit through His disciples. No day in the Lord's ministry saw 3,000 souls converted, as on the Day of Pentecost. Nor did His labours cover the mighty circuit "from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum," as Paul's did.
Even in outward signs, the servants did things the Master never did in person.
…the power that would clothe the believer, and enable him to do not only what they had seen Jesus do, but greater things still in honour of His name. And this came true to the letter. We never hear of the Lord's shadow healing the sick. No cloths were taken from His body to cure disease or drive out demons. And that is not to mention the crowds brought in far and wide by the preaching of the apostles. What greater proof of divine power than to work as He Himself did, and yet more by His servants!
Some claim this promise as a licence for ongoing healing ministries. One writer answers that claim directly, notes where Scripture is silent, and points to spiritual works.
Verse 12 has been a difficulty to many… Christian Scientists and extreme faith-healers claim that He meant His actual works of healing. They say Christians should do the same works now, and even greater works. But how could a believer do a greater work than the raising of Lazarus from the dead? The promise that the believer "will also do the works that I do" came true right after the day of Pentecost. Peter's shadow healed the sick, the lame man was healed, demons were driven out, and the dead were raised. Were these miracles to continue to the end of the age? Scripture nowhere states that this should be the case. The "greater works" are spiritual works. The thousands saved at the start of this age, and the preaching of the gospel far away among the Gentiles with its gracious results — these are the greater works.
The next verses show how believers draw on this power.
So the Lord had guaranteed a solemn and cheering promise. His going to the Father would in no way stop and dry up the mighty stream of gracious power in which He had worked here below. … He now follows this up and explains it by the place He gives to faith at work in prayer. From now on prayer would have its fullest character in His name — the name of the One who had glorified the Father to the uttermost.
- Cause — "Because I am going to the Father" is the hinge of the verse. The greater works flow from Christ's glory, not from the quality of the workers.
- Gift — His going meant the Spirit's coming. What was restricted during His time on earth could now flow freely through His disciples.
- Reach — The greatness is one of scale. Three thousand converted in a day; the gospel carried from Jerusalem to Illyricum; signs never seen while He was here in person.
- Guard — Scripture nowhere promises that such miracles continue to the end. The verse is not a charter for modern healing claims.
- Access — The promise runs on into prayer. Asking in His name draws on the same power.