Those in the Middle

Now we have come to a saying which has stumped Christians for centuries: Jesus’ expression that the Father was in him and he was in the Father. We’re going to interpret it carefully. To do that, to interpret the passage rightly, the first thing to do is to recognize Jesus’ audience. To whom did Jesus direct this saying?

Jesus’ expression ‘the Father is in me, and I in the Father’ was a teaching Jesus gave to people without faith. He said it to people who did not believe in him. Among them were Pharisees, and to them and to other unbelievers Jesus spoke when he gave them this direct exhortation.

Jesus delivered these two messages in the same instance: (a) a command to believe in his miracles, and (b) a declaration that the Father was in him and he in the Father. Here's are his exact words:

If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father (John 10:37–38; NASB).

Now, that Jesus was appealing to unbelievers is obvious. Jesus addressed his hearers by saying ‘even though you do not believe me’ and he challenged his hearers by saying ‘do not believe me’ if it were true that he was not doing the works of his Father. That’s reverse psychology at its finest.

Of course, Jesus’ point was not that they shouldn’t trust him. His point was that he was doing the works of his Father. Anyone with common sense could see that Jesus indeed was performing miracles, healings, deliverances, signs, and wonders. Those are all works of God.

They are not natural. They are supernatural. They are divine. In other words, only God could be the perpetrator of those miracles.

Trinitarianism?

But what exactly does ‘the Father is in me, and I in the Father’ mean? What are we supposed to understand from the affirmation that that the Father was in Jesus and Jesus was in the Father?

Was Jesus establishing the basis for Trinitarianism? Was he laying the groundwork for the belief that the One God is a Being of Three? Was he establishing the One-in-Three mystery? No, no, no.

Was Jesus strategically counteracting the Jewish "error" that the One God is the Father, and setting the "Christian" record straight that there is a "Trinity" and that the One God is not the Father, but actually the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together? Of course not. That's absurd. The Jews were not in error on the subject of monotheism.

Jesus Spoke to His Enemies

If Jesus were establishing the doctrine of the Trinity in this passage, then his point would be that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are “co-equal and co-eternal” as Trinitarians insist. Can anyone draw that conclusion from the claim that ‘the Father is in me, and I in the Father’?

Again, no. Of course not. Since the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinitarian formula, and Jesus didn’t even mention the Holy Spirit, it’s untenable to say that Jesus was launching Trinitarianism. We'll leave that task (the launch of Trinitarianism) to a man named Athanasius, sometime after 325 AD.

Besides that, the argument that Jesus was launching Trinitarianism doesn’t address: (a) why Jesus directed this saying to his enemies and (b) what the saying has to do with his miracles.

So, there’s no way Jesus was telling his enemies that God is “Three in One” in this passage. He was actually saying two things diametrically opposed to any notion of a “Triune God, Father-Son-Holy Spirit, three Persons in one Essence,” as the Trinitarians say. Jesus was saying two very important things. Let’s take a close look at those two things—the two major points of his message.

The Two Points

Jesus, when he said ‘the Father is in me, and I in the Father’ presented two points. These points are perfect fit for the ears of unbelievers, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have shared them with his opponents. They’re also beautifully dovetail into the topic of why he performed his miracles. They’re the perfect segue into that subject.

The Father Was ‘in Jesus’

Firstly, Jesus highlighted that the Father was ‘in Jesus,’ and he meant by that to express how God’s Spirit (the Holy Spirit sent from God) lived in Jesus. The Holy Spirit came to Jesus from God, right? Any arguments about that? The Spirit came from God in Heaven and filled Jesus. He filled him from the moment the Lord rose from the Jordan’s flow.

Do you remember the scene? The Spirit of God descended upon the Lord in the form of a dove. That was the instant the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus and began to live in him, as he will in you and me, by means of what we call "the baptism of the Holy Spirit."

So, this first part of Jesus’ saying, the part where he said ‘the Father is in me’ means the One God empowered Jesus. That is, the Father sent Jesus the Holy Spirit, and he sent him for a reason: to grant Jesus the power to heal, do miracles, cast out demons, and fulfill his God-given mission.

Did you know that God had this specific reason for sending to Jesus the Holy Spirit? He did. And when God sent Jesus the Holy Spirit in that way, it’s called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that’s when God officially began to be "in Jesus." That’s when God, through the Spirit he sent Jesus from Heaven. It's also when God would begin to consistently empower, enlighten, and endow Jesus with miracle-producing power.

Prior to that, Jesus was a very good Jewish carpenter in the small village of Nazareth. Posterior to it, he had a ministry, a big ministry!

The Need for Power

Jesus came to us as a man with all the weaknesses of the human nature. He came in the flesh, being just as human as you and I. Therefore, he needed power to do God’s will. Don’t you need special spiritual power to do God’s will? Sure you do. Well, if you understand that, then you should understand Jesus’ predicament.

Jesus needed power to fulfill the ministry God assigned him. He needed power to heal people, to cast out demons, to stop the storm, to walk on water, to turn the water to wine, and to do all sorts of miracles. Such power was not in him naturally because he was a man in the human nature.

Jesus came to us 100% human—in body, soul, and spirit. Our Lord Jesus was conceived, born, and raised as a boy among boys. He grew to be a man among men. He was no longer 'God with God' as he was in Heaven as the Word. Rather, the Word became flesh and became subjected to the human nature of sin.

However, the man Jesus had an assignment that required supernatural power. He had a mission which no human in human strength could accomplish: to save humanity. (Quite a big mission!) And to fulfill it, he needed supernatural power. He needed the anointing.

God had a plan to make all this public. He had planned from ages past that once Jesus got the anointing, Jesus would become known as the Messiah—literally, “the Anointed One.” And God confirmed Jesus as the Christ by sending the Holy Spirit in physical form, and by speaking from Heaven ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ Jesus' double confirmation from Heaven came from God and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Was ‘In the Father’

So, we’ve seen what it means for God to be in Jesus, but what does it mean for Jesus to be in God? This is our second big question to answer: What of Jesus’ statement that he was ‘in the Father’? Well, let’s start by saying that it’s not a mystery statement. Jesus was not trying to confuse anyone or to impress them with “high level” theology.

It was simply the Lord Jesus’ way of expressing that he did God’s will. It's not more complicated than that. Don’t forget—he was speaking to his enemies. He wasn’t giving a PhD-level class on the theological intricacies of Trinitarianism.

It’s simple: Jesus did everything to please his Father. For example, Jesus would resurrect people, heal them, and free them from demonic oppression. He would teach them, feed them, and free them. He obeyed God in doing these things. Didn't God send him to do these things?

Obedience = Being “In the Father”

Jesus trusted in God’s Word and was obedient to God—hence, he was ‘in the Father.’ It’s not more complex than that. There’s no mystery to his expression. It shouldn’t be challenging to you. Sure, it was a challenging truth for the Lord’s enemies, but you and I are not Jesus’ enemies.

There were men, mostly of the Pharisees, who hated Jesus. They rejected the notion that Jesus was doing God’s work. That’s why, addressing these enemies, Jesus stated his unity with the Father as a plain fact: He was in the Father.

Jesus was not diving deep into theological intricacies and he certainly was not attempting to reframe the Jewish understanding of monotheism, attempting to conform it to modern-day Trinitarianism. No. Rather, Jesus simply challenged the Pharisees to deal with the matter of his good works.

Jesus’ Claim: He Did the Works of God

Jesus’ major claim to the Pharisees was that he did God’s works. Take note of his claim in another passage, also from John 10:

The Jews then gathered around him, and were saying to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep…’

‘I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning me?’ (John 10:24–26, 32; NASB)

Jesus carried out God’s will. He was the executor of God’s plan—a reality his opponents abhorred. But that’s exactly what led Jesus to tell them ‘the works that I do in my Father's name, these testify of me’ and ‘I showed you many good works from the Father.’

In addition, it’s what inspired him to say what we read in the passage with which we started the lesson:

If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father (John 10:37–38; NASB).

Your Turn

Now you understand what the Lord meant! Now you understand what Jesus meant by ‘the Father is in me’ and what he meant by ‘I am in the Father.’

Now, it's your turn. Make sure that the Father is in you, and that you are in the Father. Follow Jesus' example: receive the Holy Spirit and do God's will. That will make you complete. That will make you happy! That will make you worthy of being called a Christian.