Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (2) 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. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (4) And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. (5) Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest: and how can we know the way? (6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. (7) If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
It hath been a matter of question, and indeed it cannot be determined with such certainty as to leave the matter without question, at what time or place the Lord Jesus delivered this precious discourse. I do not presume to speak on this, or indeed any other point with decision, but I venture to believe that the whole of our Lord's discourse in this and the two following Chapter s, was delivered after or partly at the time of his instituting his holy Supper. This chapter, perhaps at the table, and at the close of this chapter, Jesus said, Arise, let us go hence, it is probable that then they all arose from the table, and went toward the garden of Gethsemane. And as they went, the Lord still continuing his discourse, as contained in the two following Chapter s. And as his custom was to avail himself of any surrounding circumstances to raise improvement from, and beholding the luxuriancy of the vines, which in warm countries like Judea run over the hedges, and along the ground; the Lord took occasion to compare himself to a vine, and his people to the branches, as the opening of the next chapter begins with. See John 15:1. But I conceive that both the following Chapter s, and the prayer which follows in John 17:1, were all delivered before the Lord and his disciples arrived at the garden of Gethsemane. For the Reader may notice that John 18:1 : begins in this manner: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into which he entered with his disciples, John 18:1. Whether the hymn which is said to have been sung by them, was before or after this Chapter, I presume not to say; but it appears to me, that this was the order of the Lord's discourse in those Chapter s, and his divine prayer which followed, but I do not determine upon it. Matthew 26:30
To enter into the subject of this discourse of the Lord Jesus, would require many volumes, and after all numberless beauties would still remain unnoticed. I shall rather therefore recommend it both to myself and Reader to look to God the Holy Ghost for his sweet teaching, through the several parts of it, to unfold and explain the whole to our hearts while we sit at the feet of Jesus, and hear those gracious words which proceeded from his mouth. John 6:63
If the Reader will have in remembrance the season when Jesus delivered this discourse as he goes through it, the recollection will tend to endear yet more every portion of it to his heart. The Lord was now in the moment of departure. This was the last quiet and uninterrupted meeting he knew that he should ever enjoy with his few faithful disciples before his sufferings and death. And if I am right in my conjectures, that this discourse and prayer which followed was after the institution of his Supper, the traitor was then gone out. As a dying father therefore in the midst of his family, and standing now upon the threshold of the eternal world, with his mind full of those glories opening before him, he addresses his disciples in those soul-comforting words, Let not your heart be troubled! And as an everlasting support that they should not be troubled, he begins his discourse, and takes it as a text for his whole sermon; the eternal nature of his Godhead in his oneness and equality with God; and reminds them that he is with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, the equal object of faith; and therefore enjoins their belief in God and in Him, as the grand and sure security for comfort against all the sorrows and temptations of life. Ye believe in God, that is, in his threefold character of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as God in covenant; believe also in me, that is, as God-Man-Mediator. Which interpretation of the passage, I humbly conceive to be in exact agreement with our Lord's prayer, which immediately followed this sermon, when he said, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3
And, Reader! do not fail to observe with what tenderness the Lord speaks to his disciples concerning those sure mansions of glory which he was going to take possession of in their name. He had, and not long before, washed their feet, to convince them both of his condescending love, and that by such an act while he was with them, they might be convinced that there was nothing but what he would do for them when he was gone from them into heaven, and incapable of shewing, by such outward tokens how much he loved them. And now he repeats in the tenderest form of words every assurance of his unalterable affection. I pray the Reader, before he goes further, to gather into one point of view the several very endearing expressions of the Lord Jesus on this one point, as they are interspersed here and there in this our Lord's discourse.
First, He assures them of his unceasing love for them, and proposeth himself in common with God, to be the great object of their faith and love after his departure. Verse 1. Secondly, He gives them the most absolute assurance of his unalterable regard for them. Yea, to convince them of this, he declares that their very life is bound up in his, and because he lives, they shall live also, John 14:19. Thirdly, He tells them that it is for them, and for their everlasting welfare, for which he goes away. Their interest, as well as his glory, was concerned in his departure. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7. The Reader will observe, that I do but just glance at those precious things in the Lord's discourse. To enlarge on them, as I pray the Lord the Holy Ghost to do, in his opening them both to the Reader's mind and my own, would far exceed the limits of any Commentary but God the Spirit's. Fourthly. The Lord declares, that when he had dispatched the great concerns on their account, for which he was about to leave them, and return to glory, and had sent the Holy Ghost to them, and prepared all things for their reception, he would come again and receive them unto himself, that where he was, there they should be also. Reader! pause here. Would it not have been enough in our Lord, and as a proof of his love, had he said, I am going away on your account, and when I have prepared and made everything ready for you, I will send my angels to fetch you, and bring you home to me? No! Our dear Lord, by what he hath here said, hath declared that this would not have been enough in his esteem. I will come myself, said the blessed Redeemer. I will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Oh! matchless love of a glorious lover! The Reader should be told, in order that he may enter yet further into the heartfelt enjoyment of those precious words of Jesus, that it was the custom with the Jews in their marriages, when all things were prepared and made ready for the reception of the bride, the husband goes himself to his bride's house to fetch her home to his own, and trusts not this embassy to any other person. Jesus, therefore, our bridegroom, will not be out-done in acts of love to his spouse, but in the marriage his Father hath made for his Son with his Church, will himself come and bring her home to the marriage supper of the lamb. Revelation 19:9; Revelation 19:9. Fifthly. The Lord assures them yet further, that though absent in body, he will be present with them in spirit. I will not leave you comfortless, (or as the margin of the Bible renders the word, orphans. John 16:18.) I will come to you. Yea, he added, that the Father also would come, and we (said Jesus), will make our abode with you. And the Holy Ghost shall abide with you forever. John 14:26; John 14:26. So that, however to outward appearance the Lord was gone from them into heaven, yet in reality he was always with them, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20; Isaiah 27:3. Sixthly. And Jesus, as if to endear himself yet more to them, and to convince them that his whole heart and soul was their's, (Jeremiah 32:41) desires them to be continually sending to him their wishes and prayers, that he might present them to his and their Father. And he assures them, that whatsoever they should ask the Father in his name he would do it for them, that the Father might be glorified in the Son, John 14:13. Yea, the Lord seems to be gently reproving them of a backwardness in those applications in times past; and therefore now bids them be the more bold, as He will be with the Father, when their petitions come before the throne. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name, (that is, in comparison to what you might, and as you shall, when God the Holy Ghost is come upon you to teach you how to pray, and what to pray for), ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full, John 16:24. Seventhly. Jesus not only promiseth to send the Holy Ghost to them immediately on his departure, and which he assured them was one great cause wherefore he went away, but he gives them to understand, that in having Him, the Spirit, they would in fact have Christ, for his great office would be to glorify Christ. And so much of union and design there was in all that belonged to the Holy Ghost, in teaching of Jesus that that blessed Spirit was in one and the same moment an Almighty Lord in his own eternal power and Godhead, the promise of the Father, and the effect of Christ's ascension, so that everyone hath the mind of Christ that was under the influences of the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 12:11; Luke 24:49; 1 Corinthians 2:16. And Eighthly and Lastly, to mention no more. The Lord Jesus assured them that God the Holy Ghost would not do as He was now about to do from the necessity of the measure, leave them when once he came, and which would be soon after Christ was gone from them, for he would soon come, but he would abide with them forever, and never for a moment depart from them, until Jesus himself came in person to take them home, where they should then dwell with him, and part no more. These, and many more sweet assurances to the same purport, the Lord Jesus delivered to them in this parting discourse, to convince them of his unalterable affection. And, in confirmation of the whole, in their hearing, and before he went into the garden of Gethsemane, as soon as he had finished his discourse he followed the subject up with prayer, and solemnly committed them into the Father's hands with his whole Church and people. See John 17:1
After so long a page of contents (for they are but contents), as I have given, in reciting some of the many interesting heads of our Lord's discourse, I shall not trespass further in dwelling on our Lord's answer to Thomas, than just to observe, that Christ is not only the way, as pointing to it, teaching of it, and going before in it, but is Himself the way, in being the whole of it in his person, works, offices, characters, and relations. His obedience and death constitute the way, for there is no other. He is the truth, for he is truth itself, in whom Jehovah centers the whole of all grace and all glory; the Amen, the faithful and true witness. Isaiah 65:16; Revelation 3:14; Ephesians 1:10. And He is the life and light of the whole creation of God, in all the departments of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal. John 1:4; Ephesians 1:3; John 3:36; 1 John 1:1-2.