Revealed to the Disciples

Let us study the words that Christ spoke in the upper chamber on the night before His crucifixion. He was nearing His hour of trial, and He sought to comfort His disciples, who were to be severely tempted and tried.MHH 240.5

“‘Let not your heart be troubled,’” He said. “‘You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.’ ...MHH 240.6

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.’ ...MHH 240.7

“‘Lord, show us the Father,’” said Philip, “‘and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.’” John 14:1-10.MHH 240.8

The disciples did not yet understand Christ’s words concerning His relation to God. Much of His teaching was still obscure to them. Christ desired them to have a clearer, more distinct knowledge of God.MHH 241.1

“‘These things I have spoken to you in figurative language,’” He said, “‘but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.’” John 16:25.MHH 241.2

On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, they understood more fully the truths that Christ had spoken in figurative language. Much of the teaching that had been a mystery to them was made clear. But not even then did the disciples receive the complete fulfillment of Christ’s promise. They received all the knowledge of God that they could bear, but the complete fulfillment of the promise that Christ would tell them plainly of the Father was yet to come.MHH 241.3

Thus it is today. Our knowledge of God is partial and imperfect. When the conflict is ended, and the Man Christ Jesus acknowledges before the Father His faithful workers who in a world of sin have borne true witness for Him, they will understand clearly what now are mysteries to them.MHH 241.4

Christ took with Him to the heavenly courts His glorified humanity. To those who receive Him He gives power to become sons and daughters of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to be with Him throughout eternity. If during this life they are loyal to God, they will at last “see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.” Revelation 22:4. And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father?MHH 241.5

The Scriptures clearly indicate the relation between God and Christ, and they bring to view as clearly the personality and individuality of each.MHH 241.6

“God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, . . . who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say:MHH 241.7

“‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You’?
MHH 241.8

And again:MHH 242.1

‘I will be to Him a Father,
And He shall be to Me a Son’?”
Hebrews 1:1-5.MHH 242.2

The personality of the Father and the Son, also the unity that exists between Them, are presented in the seventeenth chapter of John, in the prayer of Christ for His disciples: “‘I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.’” John 17:20, 21.MHH 242.3

The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. They are one in purpose, in mind, in character, but not in person. It is thus that God and Christ are one.MHH 242.4