See JOHN 17:16-30.JOH 17:16-30
This verse is very important, and often„ we fear, misunderstood it may be „ paraphrased thus, "A LITTLE WHILE, AND YE SHALL NOT SEE ME," that is, "a few hours only have to elapse, and we shall be 'separated; I having to lay down My life, as I have told you”—"AND AGAIN A LITTLE WHILE, AND, YE, SHALL SEE ME, BECAUSE I GO TO THE FATHER"—that is, "a brief space of time after that (even three days and three nights) has to pass, and we 'shall be together again, never more to be separated, seeing that I, having risen, and gone, to the Father, shall there be' seen and known, by you in spirits in resurrection." Thus the Lord speaks to His 'disciples in verse 16, without their being able in the least to understand Him, of which, judging from what they, say to each other, they are conscious. When however we come to verses 28-30, we find them supposing, what is by no means the case, that, He is there explaining to them His, meaning in verse 16, when He says, "I CAME FORTH FROM THE. FATHER, AND AM COME INTO THE WORLD: AGAIN I LEAVE THE WORLD, AND GO TO THE FATHER." This they take to be His explanation of what He had said in reference to THE TWO LITTLE WHILES, which had so greatly perplexed them. Losing sight altogether of what He is there seeking to teach them, 'namely, the great truth of His being taken from them by death, and afterwards of His being restored to them in resurrection—revealed to them in spirit, they think of Him, not according to verse 16, but solely according to verse 28, as one coming from heaven, and then going back, without, as they apprehended, passing through death, without in fact suffering at all, without dying' for sin—the germ this of much that is erroneous now as to Christ in the Church, which, while it gives prominence to the Lord's INCARNATION, ignores to a great extent the all-important doctrine of His suffering to MAKE ATONEMENT FOR SIN.
Evidently the Lord in John 16:1616A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. (John 16:16) does not here speak of His bodily presence among His disciples, but that to which He refers in chapter xiv. 18, 19; " I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you, Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." This, observe, is in connection with the oft of the Comforter in the two foregoing verses (16, 17), which clearly proves this to be His coming and presence in spirit.
True it is, then, seeing Him again immediately after He rose, was a partial fulfillment of this promise, His bodily presence being an earnest or pledge of that which the Church still enjoys—of that joy which none can take front us.