In 14:1-6 we see Jesus going through death and Christ coming in resurrection to bring us, the believers, into the Father. This matter is crucial. Please notice that it is not Christ going and Jesus coming, but Jesus going and Christ coming. This does not refer to Jesus’ going to heaven and coming back at the time of the second advent. No, it refers to Jesus’ going through death and Christ coming in resurrection to bring the believers into the Father. This crucial matter is covered in the first six verses of this chapter.
In both 13:3 and 14:2-3 we are told of the Lord’s going. At that time the Lord told His disciples that He was going. According to the natural concept, the Lord’s going meant that He was leaving the disciples in order to go some place else. The disciples did not understand what the Lord meant. In fact, for almost two thousand years the saints have misunderstood this chapter. Even today it is not easy to understand what the Lord meant when He said that He was going. Now, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we have found the correct meaning: the Lord was going by death and resurrection. When He said that He was going, He meant that He was going to die and be resurrected.
Where was the Lord Jesus going? The disciples were not clear about this. If you read chapters twelve through sixteen, you will find that, seemingly, the Lord did not tell the disciples clearly and definitely where He was going. I have spent much time to find out in this portion of the Word where the Lord Jesus was going. I can still remember sitting under a great Brethren teacher more than forty years ago. One night he gave an entire message on the matter of where the Lord Jesus was going. He talked a great deal, but he never told us where the Lord was going. Seemingly, the Lord did not say where He was going; actually, He made it very clear. Why then, is it not clear to us? Because it is clear in the Lord’s own word, but not according to our natural concept.
The Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was going to the Father (vv. 12, 28). No one understood what He was talking about. According to the human concept, His going to the Father meant that He was going back to heaven. But the Lord Jesus never said that He was going to heaven. In verse 4 He said something very mysterious: “And you know where I go, and you know the way.” Immediately after the Lord said this, Thomas replied, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” (v. 5). It seems that there was an argument, with the Lord saying that His disciples knew the way and with Thomas saying that they did not know it. Then the Lord said to Thomas, “I am the way” (v. 6). If I had been Thomas, I would have said, “Lord, what are You talking about? What does it mean that You are the way?” The Lord not only said that He was the way. He said, “I am the way, and the reality, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” If I had been Thomas, I would have said, “Lord Jesus, the more You talk, the more You bring us into the forest. We are not clear about the way and now You are talking about the reality and the life. What is reality? What is life? What do You mean when You say that You are the way, the reality, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through You? Are You going to the Father or to the heavens?” The Lord did not say, “No one comes to heaven except through Me.” If He had said that, everyone would have been clear. The disciples would have said, “Now we know what He is talking about. He is going to heaven.” But the Lord did not say that He was going to heaven but that He was going to the Father. If I had been there, I would have said, “Lord Jesus, where is the Father?” In verse 10 the Lord said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” The Father was in Him. The Lord said that He was going to the Father, yet He was in the Father already and the Father was in Him. How perplexing this is! No one can understand it.
In answer to the question “Where is the Father?” the Christian theologians have given a good answer. They say that the Father is in the heavens and that when the Lord said that He was going to the Father, it meant that He was going to the heavens. If the matter were as simple as this, it would never have bothered anyone. But it is not that simple. That was the reason why none of the disciples at the time knew where the Lord was going, and it is also the reason why so many of us have been unable to understand this whenever we read it.
What, then, was the aim or goal of the Lord’s going? As we have seen, most Christians think that the aim of His going was heaven. However, after a careful reading of this chapter, you will discover that the object of the Lord’s going was not heaven. The Lord had no intention of bringing His believers from one place to another. It is not a matter of a place; it is a matter of a living person, the Father Himself. The Lord was going to the Father, and His intention was to bring His disciples into the divine person of the Father. Chapter thirteen tells us that the Lord came from the Father (v. 3). Here, in chapter fourteen, we see that He was going to the Father. The Lord came from the Father by incarnation to bring God into man. Now the Lord was going to the Father in order to bring man into God. The thought of this chapter is not that the Lord was going to heaven, but that He was going to the Father in order to bring all those who believe, those who receive Him as life, into God. The way of His going was by death and resurrection, and the purpose of His going was to bring man into God. In verse 3 the Lord said, “I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, that where I am you also may be.” Where is He? He tells us the answer to this question clearly in verse 20: “I am in My Father.” Therefore, by His going we shall also be in the Father because He brings us into the Father. So where He is, there we also shall be. The purpose of His going to the Father was to bring us into the Father, just like the purpose of His coming was to bring God into man.