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.” John 6:44. “Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” Verse 45.

This drawing to the Son by the Father takes place by grace and by conviction. He points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This drawing process in itself is not salvation, but it leads to Jesus Christ, the One who can save. He is the One who came with water and blood—He came with salvation itself. There is neither water nor blood in the drawing process, but this drawing is God’s jealous yearning for the spirit that He made 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.

The Son lived because of the Father. His food was to do His Father’s will. 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 because of the Father. The Son embraced the will of the Father within His body, and thereby He received the Father, so that 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; however, 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 the glorification of 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 work to gather together the enemies of the Son that are outside the body as His footstool. Because the Father’s will has been embodied in flesh through the Son, we can now live by the Son. Just as the Son must always abide in the Father, we must also abide in the Son, for He surpasses all understanding. We cannot accomplish anything apart from the Son, but the Father is able to accomplish much apart from the Son, in that He is able to gather principalities and powers together as His footstool. Because of the Father’s righteousness, He would not have been able to display this outward power and might toward the Son if the Son, in the days of His flesh, had not triumphed over these powers in obedience to the Father—those powers which will ultimately be gathered as a footstool for His feet.

Outward displays of the Father’s power are dependent on this 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 wills to reveal Him. To come to the Father is to come to perfection. There we gain insight into how lovingly God deals with a person while they are being trained by the life of the Son. The result is that we are built up in our inner man, and 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 we are centered in Him, the more content we are, regardless of our situation. The ungodly have no dwelling place for God within them, so they seek fulfillment from outward things. However, since salvation isn’t manifested outwardly, but rather in the flesh of Christ, the Father will draw toward this center, and this drawing will always have an effect on a person who is focused on outward things. It is only when they turn inward that the life of the Son is revealed to their inner eye, and they find the contentment they searched for in vain in outward things. The flesh is consumed in the midst of the Spirit’s yearning to come to the center.

Nevertheless, the drawing of the Father to the Son is also based on the righteousness of His sacrifice. If this were not so, the Father—the righteous One—would not be able to work both outwardly and inwardly. Since every sacrifice is found in Christ Jesus, this sacrifice is also found in Him. After the resurrection of Christ, the Father’s promise—the Holy Spirit—was sent to earth. This Spirit was fully satisfied with the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, since the Son had offered Himself through 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, so also 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; He Himself was the forerunner. He did not enter in with blood of another, but with His own blood, thereby obtaining an eternal redemption. No one knew the Father before the Son. He was the first one. Now, those to whom the Son reveals the Father can come to know Him. The Son, manifest in the flesh, is the express image of the Father. He who sees the Son sees the Father, and he who has the Son also has the Father.