In John 10:30 the Lord Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Son is one with the Father. Because the Son and the Father are one, when we see the Son, we see the Father.
We cannot explain adequately how the Son and the Father are one. According to the natural understanding, the Son is the Son, the Father is the Father, and the two are distinctly separate one from the other. Although the Son and the Father are distinct, they cannot be separated. According to the Lord’s clear word in John 10:30, He and the Father are one. Because the Son and the Father are one, the Son is even called the Father. According to Isaiah 9:6, the Son given to us is called the eternal Father. A Son is given, yet His name is called the eternal Father.
A number of verses in the New Testament indicate that the Son and the Father are one. John 17:22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” In 1 John 2:25 the singular pronoun “He” is used to refer to both the Son and the Father: “And this is the promise which He promised us, the eternal life.” In this verse “He” refers to the Son and the Father spoken of in the preceding verse. This indicates that the Son and the Father are one. We see the same principle in 1 John 2:28: “And now, little children, abide in Him, that if He is manifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from Him at His coming.” In this verse the pronoun “He” refers definitely to Christ the Son, who is coming. This, along with the preceding clause, “abide in Him,” which is a repetition of the clause in 1 John 2:27 involving the Trinity, indicates that the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, inseparable from the Father or the Spirit. In 1 John 2:29 the personal pronoun “He” denotes the Triune God: “If you have known that He is righteous, you know also that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten of Him.” “He” denotes the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all-inclusively, because this pronoun refers to “He” and “Him” in the preceding verse, which denotes the coming Son, and it also denotes “Him” in this verse, referring to the Father who has begotten us. This indicates strongly that the Son and the Father are one.
Although the Son and the Father are one, we should not say that there is no distinction between the Father and the Son. There is a distinction between the Father and the Son, but there is no separation. When the Father is present, the Son is present also. Likewise where the Son is, there the Father is also. The Father and the Son cannot be separated. For this reason 1 John 2:23 says, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.” Since the Son and the Father are one, to deny the Son is to be without the Father, and to confess the Son is to have the Father. Whoever denies the Son has neither the Son nor the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has both the Son and the Father. Both the negative side and the positive side of this verse indicate that the Son and the Father are inseparable.
The New Testament does not separate the Father and the Son. Especially in the Gospel of John we see that the Son is always one with the Father. The Son came in the name of the Father (John 5:43). He always did the Father’s work and will, spoke the Father’s word, sought the Father’s glory, and expressed the Father. The Son was one with the Father and could not be separated from the Father. Neither could the Father be separated from the Son.
In studying the deep truths concerning the Trinity we may use three particular words: the verb “coinhere,” the noun “coinherence,” and the adjective “coinherent.” The Son not only coexists with the Father but also coinheres with the Father. What is the difference between coexisting and coinhering? To coexist is to exist together at the same time. To coinhere is to exist in one another, to dwell in one another. To say that the Father and the Son coexist means that they exist together. But to say that the Father and the Son coinhere means that they dwell in one another.
We have a word concerning this coinherence in John 14:10a: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” Here we have the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son. In John 14:11 the Lord goes on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” The Lord says that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. What a mystery this is! Because the Father is in the Son, when the Son speaks, the Father, who abides in the Son, does His work. The Father does His work in the Son’s speaking because they are in one another.
The New Testament says not only that the Son and the Father are with each other, but also reveals that the Son and the Father coinhere. For the Son to be coinherent with the Father means that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. John 17:21 is another verse that reveals this coinherence: “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” The Son and the Father coexist in the way of coinherence. This means that while they coexist the Father exists in the Son and the Son exists in the Father.
It is easy to see the matter of coexistence, but it is much more difficult to realize the matter of coinherence. The coexistence of the Son and the Father means that they exist together. The coinherence of the Son and the Father means that the Son is in the Father and that the Father is in the Son. Because of this coinherence of the Father and the Son, we may say that the Father and the Son are two-one.
Some teachers of the Bible say that when the Son came to the earth, the Father was in the heavens. As their scriptural ground for teaching this, they refer to the Father’s speaking from the heavens at the time of Christ’s baptism (Matt. 3:16-17). This incident portrays the economical aspect of the Trinity. Economically speaking, the Son was on earth, and the Father was in the heavens. But in John 14 we have the essential aspect of the relationship between the Father and the Son. Essentially speaking, when the Son was on earth, the Father was in Him, and He was in the Father. Here we use the word “essential” to refer to Christ’s existence in His substance and the word “economical” to refer to Christ’s work in God’s economy. With respect to Christ’s work, the Father was in the heavens and the Son was on earth. But essentially, that is, according to Christ’s existence in His substance, the Son was always in the Father and the Father in the Son. This is a matter of coinherence. The Son was not only one with the Father but was coinherent with the Father.
The Gospel of John reveals that Christ the Son both coexists and coinheres with the Father. John 1:1 says that in eternity past the Son and the Father coexisted, because the Word was with God (John 1:1-2). When the Son came, He said that He was not alone, because the Father was with Him (John 8:16-29; 16:32). Hence, while He was on earth, He and the Father were existing together. Furthermore, as we have seen, the Son and the Father were coinhering, for the Son was in the Father, and the Father was in the Son.
Some have mistakenly thought that the Son and the Father are separate and that the Son merely represents the Father. But the Lord Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). This is not a matter of representation but a matter of embodiment. The Father is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9). When we see the Son, we see the Father, because the Son is the embodiment of the Father. The Son as the embodiment of the Father cannot be separated from the Father. He and the Father are one in the way of coinherence.
The Son’s coinhering with the Father is not for doctrine. Rather, this coinherence is for our experience of God’s dispensing. Christ the Son coexists and coinheres with the Father so that He with the Father may be dispensed into our being.