Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. (29) And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe. (30) Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. (31) But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even Song of Solomon 1:1 do. Arise, let us go hence.
I should not think it necessary to pause over what our Lord hath said in relation to himself and the Father, had it not been sometimes perverted, and applied in a way, in which Christ never intended the expression. When Jesus saith, My Father is greater than I; he could not mean in respect to his divine nature: for the One glorious Essence of Jehovah is possessed in common with the whole Persons of the Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: and the whole are equally great and glorious. Neither in the Personal nature of the Godhead could the words be meant. For both the Father and the Son are here also equal. And although the Father be called by the Church, and by way of distinction from the Son and the Holy Ghost, the first in point of order; yet this is never understood, neither is it ever meant, by way of precedency. God the Father had not being before the Son and Holy Ghost: neither though called Father in a way of distinction, is it meant to intimate as if he was the cause of the Son's being; both being in their nature and essence eternal. Equal in the eternity of Being, in dignity, power, and glory: and the whole Three Persons possessing in common every attribute which constitutes the Godhead. So that under these distinctions of Person and character in relation to the Godhead, Jesus could not have reference when speaking of the superiority of his Father. But in respect to his Covenant Office, as God-Man-Mediator; no question for a moment can be entertained, but what the Son of God hath condescended to act in a subordinate character. Hence he is called Jehovah's servant: and the Surety of his Church and People. And in all the departments of those offices, everything manifested that his Father was greater than he. For while Christ was subjected to all the indignities and sorrows of his Mediator nature and character, God the Father lost nothing of his original honor and felicity. The comparison therefore, is not made in relation to the nature of both in the Godhead, for that must be unalterable and impossible to admit of increase or lessening. But the whole refers to the office-character which each Person entered into, and engaged for, in the Covenant. And here Jesus might truly say, as he did in this verse; My Father is greater than I!