The Father and the Son

The Father and the Son

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. . . . Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” John 6:44-45.

When the Father draws to the Son, He draws by grace and by conviction. He points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. A person is not saved by this drawing process, but he is drawn to Jesus Christ, the One who can save. He is the One who came with water and blood—indeed with salvation itself. There is neither water nor blood in the drawing process, but there is God’s jealous longing for the spirit He has caused to dwell in us. This spirit can only be set free by the One who came with water and blood.

“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.” John 6:57 [Emphasis added].

The Father was the Son’s source of life. His meat was to do the will of the Father. The Father is revealed outside the body because He is the Father of the body. However, He revealed His will to the Son, who lived by the Father. The Son embraced the will of the Father in His body and thereby received the Father Himself into His body, so He could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. Nevertheless, the Father also exists apart from the Son, whereas the Son can never exist apart from the Father. That is why the Son can subject Himself to the Father, but the Father can never subject Himself to the Son. Not only has the Father begotten the Son, He has also created everything that serves to glorify the Son—in other words, everything that is able to call upon Him as Father, either consciously or unconsciously. It is also the Father’s task to gather together the enemies of the Son, which are outside the body, and use them to form a footstool for the Son’s feet. Because the Son did the will of the Father, that will was implanted in flesh; so now we can live by the Son. Just as the Son must always abide in the Father, so must we also abide in the Son, for He surpasses all understanding. We can accomplish nothing without the Son, but the Father is able to accomplish much without the Son—He is able to gather principalities and powers together as a footstool for His Son. Because the Father is righteous, He would not have been able to display this outward power and might toward the Son if the Son had not, in the days of His flesh, in obedience to the Father, triumphed over these powers, which will ultimately be gathered as a footstool for His feet. Outward manifestations of the Father’s power are dependent on that inner obedience. No one comes to the Father except through the Son, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son will reveal Him. To come to the Father is to come to perfection. There we gain insight into God’s loving ways of dealing with us while we are being trained in the life of the Son and built up in our inner man. There we gain knowledge of the glory that the Father has prepared for His beloved ones as He gathers all the enemies of Christ as sheaves for the fire.

He who feeds on the Son shall live because of Him. The more focused we are on Him, the more satisfied we are whatever our situation may be. God does not dwell within the ungodly, so they seek fulfillment from outward things. However, there is no salvation in outward things; it can only be found in the flesh of Christ. So the Father draws toward this center, and this drawing will always have an effect on the outward man. When our mind is drawn toward the inner life, the life of the Son will be revealed to our inner eyes, and we will find the satisfaction we had vainly searched for in outward things. The flesh is consumed in the Spirit’s relentless pursuit of this central point.

Nevertheless, the drawing of the Father to the Son is also based on a righteous sacrifice. If this were not so, the Father, the righteous One, would not be able to work both inwardly and outwardly. Every sacrifice, including this one, is present in Christ Jesus. After the resurrection of Christ, the Father sent the promised Holy Spirit to the earth. This Spirit was satisfied with the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, since the Son had offered Himself up in the power of an eternal Spirit. On the basis of this sacrifice, the Father is able to draw to the Son and convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Just as no one comes to the Son except through the Father, no one comes to the Father except through the Son.

No one knows the Father except the Son. This is because Christ Himself was the sacrifice. He had no forerunner, but He Himself became the Forerunner. He did not enter in with another’s blood, but with His own blood, thereby obtaining an eternal redemption. No one knew the Father before the Son knew Him. He was the first one. Now those to whom the Son reveals the Father can learn to know Him. The Son, manifest in the flesh, is the express image of the Father. He who sees the Son also sees the Father, and he who has the Son also has the Father.