In John 14:7-26, Christ who is the Father’s house is also revealed as the expression of the Father realized as the Spirit. This chapter unfolds that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is dispensing Himself into His believers in Jesus Christ. In the dispensing of Himself into us, God is triune. He is one, yet He is three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Christ the Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father (vv. 7-11), and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son (vv. 17-20). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen (the Son is even called the Father—Isa. 9:6), and as the Spirit the Son is revealed and realized (2 Cor. 3:17). The Father in the Son is expressed among the believers, and the Son as the Spirit is realized in the believers. God the Father is hidden, God the Son is manifested among men, and God the Spirit enters into man to be his life, his life supply, and his everything. Hence, this Triune God—the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit—dispenses Himself into us to be our portion that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His Divine Trinity.
John 14:7-11 unveils that as the expression of the Father, Christ the Son coinheres with the Father. 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 verse 11 the Lord goes on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” The Lord says that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. What a mystery this is! The Father dwells in the Son, and the Son dwells in the Father. When the Son was living on this earth, His living was a mutual abiding. He was abiding in the Father, and the Father was abiding in Him.
The New Testament says not only that Christ 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.
As One who coinheres with the Father, Christ the Son also works with the Father. In John 14:10, the Lord says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” Here we see that the Son speaks and the Father works. The Son’s speaking is the Father’s working. Everything that the Son does is in coordination with the Father who abides and works in Him for the accomplishment of His economy. Since 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.
Since Christ the Son coinheres with the Father, to see the Son is to see the Father. The Son did not express Himself; He expressed only the Father (vv. 7-9). Christ was the Son, yet He expressed the Father. Because the Son expresses not Himself but the Father, the Son’s expression is the Father’s expression. Therefore, when we see the Son, we see the Father. This is proved by the exchange between the Lord Jesus and Philip in John 14. In verse 7 the Lord Jesus pointed out to the disciples that if they had known Him, they would have known His Father also. Then He said, “Henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” However, Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). To this the Lord Jesus answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, for the Son is the expression of the Father. If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father because the Father is embodied in the Son to be expressed through Him.
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 coinheres with the Father so that He with the Father may be dispensed into our being.