I and the Father are One
by G. C. Morgan
"I came forth, and am come from God" (John 8:42). "Before Abraham was, I am" (8:58). "I came out from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father" (16:28).
The enemies and critics of Jesus, as well as His friends, asked Him concerning Himself, "Who are You?" "Where did You come from?" "Both foes and friends were conscious in His presence of more than they could account for . . . " observes G. Campbell Morgan. "He came out of the essential mystery of the Being of God." Yet, He related to the conditions of His age in which He spoke; His sense of limitations of time and locality, His common experiences of humanity, limited knowledge, sense of poverty, loneliness, sorrow and human weakness. Morgan continues:
There are two great words revealing His consciousness as to nature: "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). "He that has seen Me has seen the Father" (14:9).
There are also two words revealing His consciousness as to activity: "My Father works even until now, and I work" (5:17). "As the Father raises the dead and quickens them, even so the Son also quickens whom He will" (5:21).
. . . . This is a solemn and separate claim in which every single word, properly considered, is full of value and suggestiveness; and it is well that we should notice the effect produced by those words upon the Jews who first heard them, for as we observe the effect, we shall discover their understanding of His meaning. "The Jews took up stones again to stone Him;" and that, as they said, "because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God" (John 10:31, 33). So it is impossible to misunderstand their interpretation of our Lord's meaning. They knew that it was a word in which He claimed essential and absolute unity and identity of nature with God Himself. In other words, it was a claim to absolute Deity; and there can be no escape from it; there is only one way to be rid of it, and that is to blot it out, and to deny that He said it. If we retain it, we must worship Him; or else declare that these were the vapourings of a disordered mind, or the words of the most terrible imposter the world has ever heard. "I and the Father are one." Nothing can be clearer.
Equally clear . . . was the word spoken to Philip; but here again it is impossible to mistake the meaning in the light of the context. "Show us the Father," said Philip, "and it is sufficient for us." "Have I been so long with you, and you do not know Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father" (14:8, 9). . . . Linking the two together we have our Lord's definite claim to a relationship with God, which is that of identity of nature, and absolute though mysterious unity of Being.
Then notice the declarations in which He revealed His relationship to God in activity. "My Father works even until now, and I work" (5:17). Once again, ere we suggest any interpretation of the meaning of these words, it is well to observe the effect produced upon the men who listened to them: "For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." . . . Thus Christ claimed that in the very works He wrought He was cooperating with God, and that His work was the Divine work, of recreation and regeneration.
He claimed a supernatural existence. . . . He claimed prior existence, in that He said He was, before He came. He claimed infinite existence, in that while He was yet present in the limitations of time and space, He spoke of being in the bosom of the Father, and in heaven itself. He claimed indestructible existence, in that while He spoke of laying down His life, He declared that He would take it again, and that no man could destroy it.
He also claimed a natural existence. . . He claimed to live as a man; in subjection to God; limited in knowledge and in power; finding all-sufficient resource in God for the accomplishment of the will of God.
He claimed, moreover, that He was in the world for the express purpose of saving men, and restoring a lost order; and He explicitly declared that this purpose could not be fulfilled save by His death and resurrection . . . (The Teaching of Christ, pp. 31-43).
"And confessedly great is the secret of godliness,
Who was made manifest in flesh,
Who was declared righteous in spirit,
Was made visible unto messengers,
Was proclaimed among nations,
Was believed on in the world,
Was taken up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16, Rotherham).