While scripture as a whole forms a complete circle of truth, a single verse may present, as it were, a “perfect round.” Notably is it so with the passage under consideration.
After commending His disciples for having believed that He came forth from beside (παρά) God, or the Father, as some give it, our Lord enlarges the statement and utters the wondrous words, “I came out (ἐκ) from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.” The whole of the Savior's work on earth is thus divinely summarized, and the wheel, if I may be permitted the expression, comes full circle. Let us note one or two points of contrast. There is, to begin with, the well-known antithesis of the Father and the world, not less absolute and vivid than that of the Son and the devil, the Holy Spirit and the flesh. The Lord says, “I leave (ἀφίημι) the world,” a word that certainly suggests the abandoning of that which had so utterly failed to appreciate Him. So in John 14:1919Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. (John 14:19), the Lord says, “The world seeth me no more.”
Next, we have the identity of essence of the Father and the Son in the expression “out of the Father” (ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός) in marked contrast with the παρὰ τοὺ Πατρός or παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ of the previous verse. This last, of course, implies the session of the Son at God's right hand, to which He returns. “I go to the Father” (πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα). Again, the tense (ὲξῆλθον) employed to describe where our Lord came from, denotes the act of coming forth, while in the statement, “I have come” (ελήλυθα) abiding results are as clearly thrown into strong relief. The Lord has come into this world, and so the world can never be as if He had not come. Momentous are the consequences for believer and unbeliever. And, lastly, we have in “I go” (πορεύομαι) a word suggestive of solemn, ordered, and stately progress back to the Father.
R.B.