Truly wonderful and infinite is the blessing which is opened out for us in the 14th and following chapters of John.
We will notice first, the commencement of all, the way to the Father: "I am," says Jesus, "the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." There is no way but through Him- through His blood-the new and living way now made open for us into the holiest of all, even the presence of God. The point of connection between this and verses 1 to 3 is that they who have access or entrance to the Father by Him have of course entrance also to the Father's house.
We next learn the blessed truth that, by coming through Jesus, we not only come to the Father, but we get the Father. "If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him." The poor weak heart, ignorant of its full blessedness in Jesus, would embody its soul in that language, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Only let me know that the Father too is mine, and it is enough-it is all. And that satisfaction is nigh at hand: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." We cannot separate between the two; we cannot get Jesus without getting the Father, because the Father was and is in Jesus. If by faith we have looked upon Jesus crucified and risen for the forgiveness of our sins; if we have thus seen Jesus, we have seen the Father; if we have thus got Jesus, we have got the Father. Too much have these things been separated between; Jesus has been looked at as an averter between us and an offended God, so that the love of Jesus has been honored, to the disparagement of the love of the Father that gave Him (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)), that raised Him up from the dead when His work was completed, that our faith and our hope might be in God (1 Pet. 1:2121Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21)).
It was the Father's love that provided the Son's satisfaction; the sheet is let down from Him and takes us back to Him (using the simile found in Acts 10).
Surely therefore here we find full satisfaction. Blessed truth! to know that God's, even our
Father's countenance ever rests upon us now in love (2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)). It can never in reality change. As Christ is, so are we; and His position now is blessedly opened to us in spirit (Psalm 21:66For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. (Psalm 21:6)). And the Lord says, "Ye know Him." What a nobility there is in the saint! It is not only that our sins are forgiven, and we are in an acceptable relation to Him.
The poorest saint can say what the proudest and most lofty among men cannot say with truth by nature, "I know God." And surely this is eternal life in its truest sense, to know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. "I know Him," I suppose, constitutes the full blessing of our portion.