Let us study the words that Christ spoke
in the upper chamber on the night before His crucifixion. He
was nearing His hour of trial, and He sought to comfort His disciples,
who were to be so severely tempted and tried.
"Let not your heart be troubled,"
He said; "ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's
house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. . . .
"Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know
not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith
unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have
known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have
seen Him. . . .
"Lord, show us the Father," said
Philip, "and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me,
Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto
you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me,
He doeth the works." John 14:1-10.
The disciples did not yet understand Christ's
words concerning His relation to
God. Much of His teaching was still dark to them. They had asked
many questions that revealed their ignorance of God's relation
to them and to their present and future interests. Christ desired
them to have a clearer, more distinct knowledge of God.
"These things have I spoken unto you
in parables," He said; "but the time cometh, when I
shall no more speak unto you in parables, but I shall show you
plainly of the Father." John 16:25, margin.
When on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit
was poured out upon the disciples, they understood the truths
that Christ had spoken in parables. The teachings that had been
mysteries to them were made clear. The understanding that came
to them with the outpouring of the Spirit made them ashamed of
their fanciful theories. Their suppositions and interpretations
were foolishness when compared with the knowledge of heavenly
things which they now received. They were led by the Spirit,
and light shone into their once darkened understanding.
But the disciples had not yet received
the complete fulfillment of Christ's promise. They received all
the knowledge of God that they could bear, but the complete fulfillment
of the promise that Christ would show them plainly of the Father
was yet to come. Thus it is today. Our knowledge of God is partial
and imperfect. When the conflict is ended and the Man Christ
Jesus acknowledges before the Father His faithful workers, who,
in a world of sin, have borne true witness for Him, they will
understand clearly what now are mysteries to them.
Christ took with Him to the heavenly courts His glorified humanity. To those who receive Him, He gives power to become the sons of God, that at last God may receive them as His, to dwell with Him throughout eternity. If, during this life, they are loyal to God, they will at last "see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." Revelation 22:4. And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the face of God and know Him as Father?