The Word, the Spirit of Truth
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Isaiah 44: 1-8 John 14: 1-18 True Christian Religion 139§ 3, 4
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Isaiah 44: 1-8 John 14: 1-18 True Christian Religion 139§ 3, 4
If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 14: 15 - 18
John 14: 15 - 18
In the 14th chapter of the Gospel of Saint John, we read where Jesus begins to comfort his disciples. They had begun to worry what was going to happen to them when He was gone. They had become comfortable with the Lord, with His help, and enjoyed His presence. They could come to Him when they needed Him. He had instructed them. Who was going to do this when He was gone? Jesus had said that He was soon going to be glorified and that they were not going to be any longer with Him. He was going away. So, the Lord said to them. 'Let your heart be not troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me' (John 14: 1).
In this chapter and the following two there are revealed several very important doctrinal truths - truths that even today people do not understand just as we see that the disciples did not. To begin with, what really did the Lord mean when He said He was going to prepare a place for them and that when He did that He would come again for them "and receive them unto Himself"? Even from a natural understanding it seems that the place is in Heaven, but does Heaven need to be prepared?
On the other hand no man can enter Heaven unless he is prepared and as we are sometimes reminded that Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Here, we must add that it is within the regenerated person while in the unregenerate is hell. Regeneration is a state that a man can come into. So, it is the natural life of man that needs to be prepared before there is any conjunction possible with Heaven and the Lord. Here, one can begin to understand that man must come into a state where good is a part of his life before he can live in such a Heavenly state. Why, then, is it necessary that the Lord goes away before He comes again in order to "receive them unto His Self"? First, where is the Lord going? Later on in this chapter we can learn that He is going to the Father and that this is necessary in order that they - the disciples - may be with Him. As men on earth, they and we are not conjoined with the Lord or Heaven until we have a new will and understanding, because our present will and understanding have been corrupted by the influence of evil spirits and our love of self. "You must be born again" - spiritually.
Now, recall that the Lord Jesus Christ said that He would "receive you - the disciples and us - into Himself," that is, into the Lord's Self. Well, what is 'self' - yourself, our self, the Lord's self - what is the self? The Word says it is the character, the essence, the qualities that are one's own. So, we learn that the Lord was to return to His Father in order to receive them - the disciples - and, of course, this means the Church, into His qualities, which anyone knows is Divine Love and Wisdom or Divine Good and Truth. Now, we know we can do no good that is good of ourselves, neither have we the truth unless the Lord gives it to us and we accept it. Then, it is as if we can do good or well of ourselves, but it is the Lord who does that good, for He is the Divine Good or Love Itself within us, which is true life. Again, why was it necessary that the Lord go away to the Father in order to prepare a place for us? What we are looking at here is the Lord uniting Himself with the Divine, for it is the Divine Human that saves us as will be revealed later. After all, man had shut himself off from God and had turned to his 'self', not wanting the Lord or Jehovah to lead and teach him as if life through self was his own possession. Remember, God created us finite beings; of course we are not gods, though in places in the Word some men are called god, but, still, we only can be made into an image and likeness of Him. Anyone can see that in the natural state a man is separated from God, and, in that state we live in appearances and the goods and truths we know only appear so. Just as it appears that we can do good as of ourselves, but it is the Lord, His attributes and qualities in us, that does good. You might wonder why a man only sees or understands in appearances? However, when you think about it, a man who is separated from God does not have the truth or the goodness that comes from the Lord because he has rejected these things from Him and as a result was driven from Paradise. Remember that is what happened to the man of the Most Ancient Church. In other words, because of the celestial man's rejection of the Lord's teaching of goodness and truthfulness man is lost and is without a way to return to be with Him unless the Lord comes on earth. "And I will put enmity between you (the serpent or evil) and the women (the Church, the Lord's goods and truths in man").
The appearance is to the disciples, particularly to Thomas, that the Lord is, naturally, physically going away somewhere, but where? And, if you do not know where, then how can you possibly know the way. The Lord had told them that He is 'the Way, and the Truth, and the Life', and as we have read, He is going to His Father. He is not talking here of a physical - a natural - place, but a Divine state, if you will. Let us look into what is meant or signified. Ask yourself how does one come to God or to Heaven? Doesn't he learn and do or obey what God teaches him - the commandments? Isn't that the whole idea of God's Word? When he does that, he forms for himself doctrines. Doctrines are the Way. Truths are what form doctrines and to live according to them is to live the 'good of life', that is, to live a good life, not a wicked or evil life. All this is of and in the Lord. Man, of himself, cannot learn truths because of his fallen state and the influence of evil spirits and because of self-love. He needs to be guided; he needs to shun evils before he can come into such a life where the Lord lives within him. What he learns by himself are fallacies and falsities and these with a man develop into false doctrine, which does not lead him to be with God. You see, even though the Word was given to man, (in this case the Old Testament) he still needs to rightly understand it. And, because he has shut himself off from the Lord's good and His truths, because of his sins, which comes to him from within, that is, through his spiritual nature, he, now only has himself and is unable to truly know the Lord and to receive His love and wisdom - the qualities that bring true life and spiritual substance to mankind. Besides, truths and goods or wisdom and love, being the essence and the qualities of the Lord, are Divine things that proceed or flow 'as it were' from the Lord into all things, both here on earth and in Heaven and thus bring life. And, in man, there is both natural and spiritual life. The Lord who was called Jehovah in the Old Testament had come on earth according to Divine Order, in the Order that He created Heaven and earth. Jehovah the Lord had to be born as a man was in order that He could reach and save man, for man has fallen away 'as it were' from the celestial and spiritual states of good and truth. The Lord had to be born in the human of mankind with all the tendencies to sin that man has in order for Him to overcome these evils.
Now the Lord was going to return from where He came, that is, to the Divine. He would soon finish the work of redemption. In His life of temptations He was uniting His Human to the Divine within. He would soon be fully glorified. He had been victorious over the evils and their falsities that had attacked Him and that plagued all mankind. The last temptation would be the passion of the cross and He overcome that too. Thus, He was going to His Father. Now what does that mean, 'to the Father'? He was here on earth, that is, He was with man in all man's evils and falsities and He would, now, return to the Divine, that is, to God, to the Divine Essence and to that Human quality that a man is created in, which in man is in an image and likeness of God's goodness and truthfulness, though with the Lord the Human is Divine. Now, His Human that He put on while in the world would become one with the Divine. He would become the Divine Human. In that one sees God-Man and Man-God in the Lord. Then, He would return for man in or as the Divine Human after He had prepared a 'place for him', so that man could be with Him. And, that place we are taught is within Him. He would 'receive them unto (Himself).' Now, He was going to Heaven, and of course, we already have shown that that state is within man. So, too, the disciples would go to the Father when that state of good and truth is realized within them. And, we see that they entered a New Heaven as do all who love the Lord.
He was the Way, and the way was through the Lord's Human made Divine. For, He had overcome the hells that had a hold over man. With His strength and His power he could, when with man, (and He is within in man good and truth) redeem man and save him; man could come into his regeneration. In that day, though, the disciples did not have the Lord in His Divine Human as we do today. They had Him in His natural human that at that time was being glorified and then He would return so that they could be with Him. He would become the Divine Human. So, at that time or state, the Word could not be understood other than in its literal sense or naturally. That is why we have the three chapter long explanation of the Lord and His Father and the Helper or the Spirit of Truth that would come when He returned to the Father. It is the 'Spirit of Truth' that proceeds from the glorified Lord and that is why we see Philip asking to see the Father.
This remark caused Jesus to make the following statement. "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me? He that has seen Me has seen the Father." In other words, it is with an affection of understanding, which is what it is to know, that you should know that the Father is Good, not evil, and that He tells the truth, not falsities. To see is to know. Of course, the Lord knows all things and from Him we can know and follow truths when we have an affection of wanting to know (to understand) and of love to the Lord. The Lord made known to the disciples and to us - He teaches us - what is the truth, and these that we are to know are the qualities and the essence of the Lord. Yet, we should not be too critical of Philip for asking to see the Father when he could see those very qualities were before him in the Lord. Even today, most Christians or people who call themselves Christians do not see the Lord as Father, but as His Son and thus separately. They see only Him as another person who has the same qualities as the Father. What often is believed is that the Lord is the Son, and so, He has inherited His Father's characteristics like you and I have inherited our parent's characteristics. However, our father and we are two different people, and so, many Christians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is one person and His Father is another and even call the Father, the Creator and the Son, the Redeemer. Thus, they divide and relegate functions, some to the Father, some to the Son and others to the Holy Spirit as if they were three Persons. After all, they reason God the Father cannot be seen, let alone really known and, of course, He is invisible and unknown to them. So, they reason, how could Jesus Christ be that God? Does not the Word teach that there is no God other than Him? Later, we see that this was debated and argued in Christendom and was settled at the Council of Nice where confession was made that the Father is one Person and the Son another and the Holy Spirit another and that these three are God. This, of course, is one God of the lip only, but of the mind three. Naturally perhaps, Philip not really knowing the Lord, thought that by the Lord's Father there was another being or person.
Well, we see here that Jesus asks him, 'Do you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?' You can see that this is more than just being someone, such as someone going home to be with his father. The Lord is here, expressing an interior presence of both He with the Father and the Father with Him. So, in Him is the Father and the Father is also in He. From a spiritual sense we see that in the Lord is Divine Good, which is seen as the Father's. Besides, if God is the only Divine Human and we are human from Him, then it is that the Lord God manifested Himself to mankind in that form that proceeds as the Truth which comes from Good. However, the Lord our God is more than Good or Love; He is also the Truth or Wisdom itself. And, of course, He says He is the Truth. He says, that is, the words He speaks to us are not His, but is the Father's works, which proceeds to us. We learned that this is meant by the 'Spirit of Truth' that would come when He came to His Father. Thus, the Comforter or the Helper would come. Interesting, here, we go from words to works. Let us see if we can understand what is meant.
Remember that the Lord is speaking of Himself. In an interior sense, speaking is thinking, because thought is interior speech. It is to perceive and to will. The Lord is speaking these words or truths to us, and the words that the Lord speaks are truths, because they come from the Good of Love from the Father. So, in that respect they are the Father's qualities of good and truth. Now, does not the Lord who is the Truth come from the Father? Then, in that respect, we learn truths come from Good, and anything that is from and exists is of God. We are here speaking of the Lord's interior. While it is from that interior that there exists an exterior, which is to mean that what is manifested is the Truth or the Lord as Man. Of course, within that Truth is the Divine Good and can be said the Divine Love, which, of course, is the essence, and so, Truth is its existence.
There must be both an interior and an exterior to be anything. Then it is that we can understand that within the Lord as Man there is what is not seen, which the life expresses through one's works. In this case it is the Lord's life and His words and works. Thus, it is that the intentions of the Lord and His endeavors are His words and works. They are the words of His mind, and the works of His Human are both the words and actions of His body. Now these we understand are one in the Lord. Both, theses are the Lord's or the Father's. We come, also, to understand that we are speaking here of life. In this regard, the life that we have comes through our will and if that is of the Lord, that is to say, if our will is that of the Lord's, then we have what is called a conscience that we can be guided by. In respect to the Lord, He is Life, which is Good and the Truth Itself.
How do we understand truths? We can read them; we can listen to them read to us; we can study them, but how do we understand them? Isn't it by or from the works - good or evil - that are done from them that we really understand love or evil? Else, how is it to be understood if it is not shown through one's concerns for another? Truth is not truth to one person and false to another. So, in a sense, in a natural sense, what is produced as good in one's life comes from within as we either accept or reject these truths coming from the Lord. "Believe Me, I am in the Father and the Father is in Me." These are the words that the Father produces. Philip and we can now understand what we see when we understand that the Lord is the Father. For, He is Divine having made His Human Divine. There is no Son without a Father, and the human that the Lord put on was the external human through which we see was manifested and, so, we can understand the Lord and His Word. There is no Divine without a Human. Had the Lord God, that is, the Father not put on this human of mankind, we would not know God, nor would we will to know Him; we would be eternally lost and without hope of salvation. Here, we can understand the necessity of God coming to earth.
In His conversation with Philip and the other disciples the Lord shows how we can know and acknowledge Him. We saw that it was in good, in the works that He does, and through His words that He speaks to us when we believe Him. Of course, that is the way we come to Him, and He to us, and come to know Him - through the Word. When He lived on earth as a man as we, the disciples could see His works and prove that He spoke the truth. However, now the Lord was going to leave them, and He tells them that they can do these works that He does because they believe on Him. Why or how is this possible? It is because He goes to the Father, that is, He unites His Human with the Divine. The Father that is within Him is the power and the strength and is the Spirit of Truth that comes to them and to us in that Power. Today, we, like the Lord, can overcome the evils of hell, for He dwells within us as the Holy Spirit. We are in the Lord and He in us as the Father is in Him and He in the Father. Then, He tells them that when they ask to do these works in His name that they will do even greater works than these.
What does the Lord mean by this? From a literal sense it appears that all one needs to do is believe the Lord and that when he asks Him to do anything, the Lord will do it, even to saving him. Paul, in the Epistles, writes, "Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How can that be? To call or to ask, 'Lord, save me, I ask this in your name, Jesus Christ. I believe You,' without having lived a life according to the truths taught avails nothing. That is like saying, 'I am good, but never become good.' Yet, some would even say that according to the Word we cannot do good and, therefore, we do not necessarily need to follow the Word, but only believe the Word. When in fact, this is evidence of a life of love to one's self and a life without the Lord, who it is who teaches that we are to love the Lord and the neighbor. You can see it is the life one lives, not just what he knows that redeems and saves us. So, how is it that the Lord saves us? We just read that the Lord says we are to ask. Ask, must mean something else. There must be an internal or spiritual sense to the Word. One thing is that when we ask we are communicating with the Lord. In this case, it is to the Lord and is called prayer. Then aren't we asking or perceiving the Lord's thoughts? However, the only way we can do this rationally is to know something about the Lord, and this, we do when we accept His Word, for His words are true. Now, remember that we are to ask in his name or to call upon His name as Paul teaches. So, what does 'name' signify? It is more than a label that we come to know others by. In an internal sense, it is the quality and the nature that we are to show in our love by or through obedience to the Lord and to one another. Isn't that how we really know someone - by these qualities - that come to mind when we hear a person's name called? Aren't we reminded of those qualities and the nature of the person? So, you can understand that by asking in these qualities that are the Lord's is asking in goodness and in love and that these are known by or asked through the acts of goodness and of love. In other words, we show our love by our obedience to the commandment to love one another. In truth, it is the Lord's life within us; it is the Lord in us working. That is called one's faith and in this faith there is the doing of good, which is also called charity. Here, we understand that truths and goods or faith and charity lead to true life. Then, faith is a spiritual belief and is of the Lord within us, who is our life. So it is that charity and faith are necessary for our salvation.
Our love is or becomes, then, the Lord's love within us. With His love we can love one another. Without His love, we have only love for ourselves and the things of the world. What is this truth that the Lord teaches us to do? It is that we are to try to put off or push aside our love of self - that what is of our own - and to put on the Lord to where He becomes the center of our life. Thus, when we shun evils, the Lord is allowed to work within us the good that is His, and the truth that flows from Him through the Word to us will lead us to acknowledge, thus to do good. The fear that the disciples had is that the Lord was going away, that He was no longer going to be with them any more. So, in that respect, we can sympathize and understand their fears and concerns. He comforts them by explaining that He would send another Helper or Comforter. What He meant was the Holy Spirit would come. Before the Lord became united with His Father and became the Divine Human, the Spirit of God was with man as we can readily read in the Old Testament. Yet, all prior Churches, from the fall from grace of the Most Ancient Church to the Ancient Church and then to the Israelitish and Jewish Church and the First Christian Church that grew out of the Lord's teachings, God's Spirit could not save them, for it could not reach them with that power to save. That is why He had come to earth. You see, mankind had fallen from the celestial and spiritual states and had become natural and separated from the Lord's power and strength. Even had infected mankind and had to be first defeated before God could be conjoined with them. That is why Jehovah God could not reach them and save them. When man fell, it was to the state where he was no longer immediately or directly conjoined with God; they were separated from Him because of their sin and only through mediate means - through angels and evil spirits - was the Lord present with them. God's truths could only reach man through external means through his natural senses, and so, to such truths are attached falsities.
It is only the Lord who can save them. Thus, it is that the Lord had come on earth and into that state of a man's separation so that He could became victorious over all the evils and falsities that held man captive. The way He could come on earth was to put-on the nature and body of mankind. This He did and He united it to the Father by putting-off the evils attached to it making His Human Divine. Now, it is by this, that we understand that the Holy Spirit now proceeds from Him and is with all power that saves. This is the Holy Spirit that is sent 'as it were' from Him to man. The Spirit of Truth abiding with us forever regenerates us. It is the Spirit of Truth that proceeds from Him. Now, if the Spirit of Truth is within us, then it is the Lord within us and is He who speaks to us and is the good that is done through us in our obedience. In this is the New Church manifested in man. All such effort comes not from one's self or is of one's own. The world cannot see or understand this truth. It cannot see or know the Lord. It sees itself only. May the Comforter abide forever with us.
Amen.
In this chapter and the following two there are revealed several very important doctrinal truths - truths that even today people do not understand just as we see that the disciples did not. To begin with, what really did the Lord mean when He said He was going to prepare a place for them and that when He did that He would come again for them "and receive them unto Himself"? Even from a natural understanding it seems that the place is in Heaven, but does Heaven need to be prepared?
On the other hand no man can enter Heaven unless he is prepared and as we are sometimes reminded that Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Here, we must add that it is within the regenerated person while in the unregenerate is hell. Regeneration is a state that a man can come into. So, it is the natural life of man that needs to be prepared before there is any conjunction possible with Heaven and the Lord. Here, one can begin to understand that man must come into a state where good is a part of his life before he can live in such a Heavenly state. Why, then, is it necessary that the Lord goes away before He comes again in order to "receive them unto His Self"? First, where is the Lord going? Later on in this chapter we can learn that He is going to the Father and that this is necessary in order that they - the disciples - may be with Him. As men on earth, they and we are not conjoined with the Lord or Heaven until we have a new will and understanding, because our present will and understanding have been corrupted by the influence of evil spirits and our love of self. "You must be born again" - spiritually.
Now, recall that the Lord Jesus Christ said that He would "receive you - the disciples and us - into Himself," that is, into the Lord's Self. Well, what is 'self' - yourself, our self, the Lord's self - what is the self? The Word says it is the character, the essence, the qualities that are one's own. So, we learn that the Lord was to return to His Father in order to receive them - the disciples - and, of course, this means the Church, into His qualities, which anyone knows is Divine Love and Wisdom or Divine Good and Truth. Now, we know we can do no good that is good of ourselves, neither have we the truth unless the Lord gives it to us and we accept it. Then, it is as if we can do good or well of ourselves, but it is the Lord who does that good, for He is the Divine Good or Love Itself within us, which is true life. Again, why was it necessary that the Lord go away to the Father in order to prepare a place for us? What we are looking at here is the Lord uniting Himself with the Divine, for it is the Divine Human that saves us as will be revealed later. After all, man had shut himself off from God and had turned to his 'self', not wanting the Lord or Jehovah to lead and teach him as if life through self was his own possession. Remember, God created us finite beings; of course we are not gods, though in places in the Word some men are called god, but, still, we only can be made into an image and likeness of Him. Anyone can see that in the natural state a man is separated from God, and, in that state we live in appearances and the goods and truths we know only appear so. Just as it appears that we can do good as of ourselves, but it is the Lord, His attributes and qualities in us, that does good. You might wonder why a man only sees or understands in appearances? However, when you think about it, a man who is separated from God does not have the truth or the goodness that comes from the Lord because he has rejected these things from Him and as a result was driven from Paradise. Remember that is what happened to the man of the Most Ancient Church. In other words, because of the celestial man's rejection of the Lord's teaching of goodness and truthfulness man is lost and is without a way to return to be with Him unless the Lord comes on earth. "And I will put enmity between you (the serpent or evil) and the women (the Church, the Lord's goods and truths in man").
The appearance is to the disciples, particularly to Thomas, that the Lord is, naturally, physically going away somewhere, but where? And, if you do not know where, then how can you possibly know the way. The Lord had told them that He is 'the Way, and the Truth, and the Life', and as we have read, He is going to His Father. He is not talking here of a physical - a natural - place, but a Divine state, if you will. Let us look into what is meant or signified. Ask yourself how does one come to God or to Heaven? Doesn't he learn and do or obey what God teaches him - the commandments? Isn't that the whole idea of God's Word? When he does that, he forms for himself doctrines. Doctrines are the Way. Truths are what form doctrines and to live according to them is to live the 'good of life', that is, to live a good life, not a wicked or evil life. All this is of and in the Lord. Man, of himself, cannot learn truths because of his fallen state and the influence of evil spirits and because of self-love. He needs to be guided; he needs to shun evils before he can come into such a life where the Lord lives within him. What he learns by himself are fallacies and falsities and these with a man develop into false doctrine, which does not lead him to be with God. You see, even though the Word was given to man, (in this case the Old Testament) he still needs to rightly understand it. And, because he has shut himself off from the Lord's good and His truths, because of his sins, which comes to him from within, that is, through his spiritual nature, he, now only has himself and is unable to truly know the Lord and to receive His love and wisdom - the qualities that bring true life and spiritual substance to mankind. Besides, truths and goods or wisdom and love, being the essence and the qualities of the Lord, are Divine things that proceed or flow 'as it were' from the Lord into all things, both here on earth and in Heaven and thus bring life. And, in man, there is both natural and spiritual life. The Lord who was called Jehovah in the Old Testament had come on earth according to Divine Order, in the Order that He created Heaven and earth. Jehovah the Lord had to be born as a man was in order that He could reach and save man, for man has fallen away 'as it were' from the celestial and spiritual states of good and truth. The Lord had to be born in the human of mankind with all the tendencies to sin that man has in order for Him to overcome these evils.
Now the Lord was going to return from where He came, that is, to the Divine. He would soon finish the work of redemption. In His life of temptations He was uniting His Human to the Divine within. He would soon be fully glorified. He had been victorious over the evils and their falsities that had attacked Him and that plagued all mankind. The last temptation would be the passion of the cross and He overcome that too. Thus, He was going to His Father. Now what does that mean, 'to the Father'? He was here on earth, that is, He was with man in all man's evils and falsities and He would, now, return to the Divine, that is, to God, to the Divine Essence and to that Human quality that a man is created in, which in man is in an image and likeness of God's goodness and truthfulness, though with the Lord the Human is Divine. Now, His Human that He put on while in the world would become one with the Divine. He would become the Divine Human. In that one sees God-Man and Man-God in the Lord. Then, He would return for man in or as the Divine Human after He had prepared a 'place for him', so that man could be with Him. And, that place we are taught is within Him. He would 'receive them unto (Himself).' Now, He was going to Heaven, and of course, we already have shown that that state is within man. So, too, the disciples would go to the Father when that state of good and truth is realized within them. And, we see that they entered a New Heaven as do all who love the Lord.
He was the Way, and the way was through the Lord's Human made Divine. For, He had overcome the hells that had a hold over man. With His strength and His power he could, when with man, (and He is within in man good and truth) redeem man and save him; man could come into his regeneration. In that day, though, the disciples did not have the Lord in His Divine Human as we do today. They had Him in His natural human that at that time was being glorified and then He would return so that they could be with Him. He would become the Divine Human. So, at that time or state, the Word could not be understood other than in its literal sense or naturally. That is why we have the three chapter long explanation of the Lord and His Father and the Helper or the Spirit of Truth that would come when He returned to the Father. It is the 'Spirit of Truth' that proceeds from the glorified Lord and that is why we see Philip asking to see the Father.
This remark caused Jesus to make the following statement. "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me? He that has seen Me has seen the Father." In other words, it is with an affection of understanding, which is what it is to know, that you should know that the Father is Good, not evil, and that He tells the truth, not falsities. To see is to know. Of course, the Lord knows all things and from Him we can know and follow truths when we have an affection of wanting to know (to understand) and of love to the Lord. The Lord made known to the disciples and to us - He teaches us - what is the truth, and these that we are to know are the qualities and the essence of the Lord. Yet, we should not be too critical of Philip for asking to see the Father when he could see those very qualities were before him in the Lord. Even today, most Christians or people who call themselves Christians do not see the Lord as Father, but as His Son and thus separately. They see only Him as another person who has the same qualities as the Father. What often is believed is that the Lord is the Son, and so, He has inherited His Father's characteristics like you and I have inherited our parent's characteristics. However, our father and we are two different people, and so, many Christians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is one person and His Father is another and even call the Father, the Creator and the Son, the Redeemer. Thus, they divide and relegate functions, some to the Father, some to the Son and others to the Holy Spirit as if they were three Persons. After all, they reason God the Father cannot be seen, let alone really known and, of course, He is invisible and unknown to them. So, they reason, how could Jesus Christ be that God? Does not the Word teach that there is no God other than Him? Later, we see that this was debated and argued in Christendom and was settled at the Council of Nice where confession was made that the Father is one Person and the Son another and the Holy Spirit another and that these three are God. This, of course, is one God of the lip only, but of the mind three. Naturally perhaps, Philip not really knowing the Lord, thought that by the Lord's Father there was another being or person.
Well, we see here that Jesus asks him, 'Do you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?' You can see that this is more than just being someone, such as someone going home to be with his father. The Lord is here, expressing an interior presence of both He with the Father and the Father with Him. So, in Him is the Father and the Father is also in He. From a spiritual sense we see that in the Lord is Divine Good, which is seen as the Father's. Besides, if God is the only Divine Human and we are human from Him, then it is that the Lord God manifested Himself to mankind in that form that proceeds as the Truth which comes from Good. However, the Lord our God is more than Good or Love; He is also the Truth or Wisdom itself. And, of course, He says He is the Truth. He says, that is, the words He speaks to us are not His, but is the Father's works, which proceeds to us. We learned that this is meant by the 'Spirit of Truth' that would come when He came to His Father. Thus, the Comforter or the Helper would come. Interesting, here, we go from words to works. Let us see if we can understand what is meant.
Remember that the Lord is speaking of Himself. In an interior sense, speaking is thinking, because thought is interior speech. It is to perceive and to will. The Lord is speaking these words or truths to us, and the words that the Lord speaks are truths, because they come from the Good of Love from the Father. So, in that respect they are the Father's qualities of good and truth. Now, does not the Lord who is the Truth come from the Father? Then, in that respect, we learn truths come from Good, and anything that is from and exists is of God. We are here speaking of the Lord's interior. While it is from that interior that there exists an exterior, which is to mean that what is manifested is the Truth or the Lord as Man. Of course, within that Truth is the Divine Good and can be said the Divine Love, which, of course, is the essence, and so, Truth is its existence.
There must be both an interior and an exterior to be anything. Then it is that we can understand that within the Lord as Man there is what is not seen, which the life expresses through one's works. In this case it is the Lord's life and His words and works. Thus, it is that the intentions of the Lord and His endeavors are His words and works. They are the words of His mind, and the works of His Human are both the words and actions of His body. Now these we understand are one in the Lord. Both, theses are the Lord's or the Father's. We come, also, to understand that we are speaking here of life. In this regard, the life that we have comes through our will and if that is of the Lord, that is to say, if our will is that of the Lord's, then we have what is called a conscience that we can be guided by. In respect to the Lord, He is Life, which is Good and the Truth Itself.
How do we understand truths? We can read them; we can listen to them read to us; we can study them, but how do we understand them? Isn't it by or from the works - good or evil - that are done from them that we really understand love or evil? Else, how is it to be understood if it is not shown through one's concerns for another? Truth is not truth to one person and false to another. So, in a sense, in a natural sense, what is produced as good in one's life comes from within as we either accept or reject these truths coming from the Lord. "Believe Me, I am in the Father and the Father is in Me." These are the words that the Father produces. Philip and we can now understand what we see when we understand that the Lord is the Father. For, He is Divine having made His Human Divine. There is no Son without a Father, and the human that the Lord put on was the external human through which we see was manifested and, so, we can understand the Lord and His Word. There is no Divine without a Human. Had the Lord God, that is, the Father not put on this human of mankind, we would not know God, nor would we will to know Him; we would be eternally lost and without hope of salvation. Here, we can understand the necessity of God coming to earth.
In His conversation with Philip and the other disciples the Lord shows how we can know and acknowledge Him. We saw that it was in good, in the works that He does, and through His words that He speaks to us when we believe Him. Of course, that is the way we come to Him, and He to us, and come to know Him - through the Word. When He lived on earth as a man as we, the disciples could see His works and prove that He spoke the truth. However, now the Lord was going to leave them, and He tells them that they can do these works that He does because they believe on Him. Why or how is this possible? It is because He goes to the Father, that is, He unites His Human with the Divine. The Father that is within Him is the power and the strength and is the Spirit of Truth that comes to them and to us in that Power. Today, we, like the Lord, can overcome the evils of hell, for He dwells within us as the Holy Spirit. We are in the Lord and He in us as the Father is in Him and He in the Father. Then, He tells them that when they ask to do these works in His name that they will do even greater works than these.
What does the Lord mean by this? From a literal sense it appears that all one needs to do is believe the Lord and that when he asks Him to do anything, the Lord will do it, even to saving him. Paul, in the Epistles, writes, "Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How can that be? To call or to ask, 'Lord, save me, I ask this in your name, Jesus Christ. I believe You,' without having lived a life according to the truths taught avails nothing. That is like saying, 'I am good, but never become good.' Yet, some would even say that according to the Word we cannot do good and, therefore, we do not necessarily need to follow the Word, but only believe the Word. When in fact, this is evidence of a life of love to one's self and a life without the Lord, who it is who teaches that we are to love the Lord and the neighbor. You can see it is the life one lives, not just what he knows that redeems and saves us. So, how is it that the Lord saves us? We just read that the Lord says we are to ask. Ask, must mean something else. There must be an internal or spiritual sense to the Word. One thing is that when we ask we are communicating with the Lord. In this case, it is to the Lord and is called prayer. Then aren't we asking or perceiving the Lord's thoughts? However, the only way we can do this rationally is to know something about the Lord, and this, we do when we accept His Word, for His words are true. Now, remember that we are to ask in his name or to call upon His name as Paul teaches. So, what does 'name' signify? It is more than a label that we come to know others by. In an internal sense, it is the quality and the nature that we are to show in our love by or through obedience to the Lord and to one another. Isn't that how we really know someone - by these qualities - that come to mind when we hear a person's name called? Aren't we reminded of those qualities and the nature of the person? So, you can understand that by asking in these qualities that are the Lord's is asking in goodness and in love and that these are known by or asked through the acts of goodness and of love. In other words, we show our love by our obedience to the commandment to love one another. In truth, it is the Lord's life within us; it is the Lord in us working. That is called one's faith and in this faith there is the doing of good, which is also called charity. Here, we understand that truths and goods or faith and charity lead to true life. Then, faith is a spiritual belief and is of the Lord within us, who is our life. So it is that charity and faith are necessary for our salvation.
Our love is or becomes, then, the Lord's love within us. With His love we can love one another. Without His love, we have only love for ourselves and the things of the world. What is this truth that the Lord teaches us to do? It is that we are to try to put off or push aside our love of self - that what is of our own - and to put on the Lord to where He becomes the center of our life. Thus, when we shun evils, the Lord is allowed to work within us the good that is His, and the truth that flows from Him through the Word to us will lead us to acknowledge, thus to do good. The fear that the disciples had is that the Lord was going away, that He was no longer going to be with them any more. So, in that respect, we can sympathize and understand their fears and concerns. He comforts them by explaining that He would send another Helper or Comforter. What He meant was the Holy Spirit would come. Before the Lord became united with His Father and became the Divine Human, the Spirit of God was with man as we can readily read in the Old Testament. Yet, all prior Churches, from the fall from grace of the Most Ancient Church to the Ancient Church and then to the Israelitish and Jewish Church and the First Christian Church that grew out of the Lord's teachings, God's Spirit could not save them, for it could not reach them with that power to save. That is why He had come to earth. You see, mankind had fallen from the celestial and spiritual states and had become natural and separated from the Lord's power and strength. Even had infected mankind and had to be first defeated before God could be conjoined with them. That is why Jehovah God could not reach them and save them. When man fell, it was to the state where he was no longer immediately or directly conjoined with God; they were separated from Him because of their sin and only through mediate means - through angels and evil spirits - was the Lord present with them. God's truths could only reach man through external means through his natural senses, and so, to such truths are attached falsities.
It is only the Lord who can save them. Thus, it is that the Lord had come on earth and into that state of a man's separation so that He could became victorious over all the evils and falsities that held man captive. The way He could come on earth was to put-on the nature and body of mankind. This He did and He united it to the Father by putting-off the evils attached to it making His Human Divine. Now, it is by this, that we understand that the Holy Spirit now proceeds from Him and is with all power that saves. This is the Holy Spirit that is sent 'as it were' from Him to man. The Spirit of Truth abiding with us forever regenerates us. It is the Spirit of Truth that proceeds from Him. Now, if the Spirit of Truth is within us, then it is the Lord within us and is He who speaks to us and is the good that is done through us in our obedience. In this is the New Church manifested in man. All such effort comes not from one's self or is of one's own. The world cannot see or understand this truth. It cannot see or know the Lord. It sees itself only. May the Comforter abide forever with us.
Amen.
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