¹⁵ “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

Three in harmony, all working together, the Father, the Son and the Spirit (the “He” in our verse refers to the Spirit as understood from the previous verse). Jesus is taking the disciples into His inner circle, by sharing privileged information with them. All knowledge, wisdom, understanding of the Father belong to Jesus. That’s why the writer, John, in the beginning of this biography of Jesus, asserted, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). Jesus came to show who God really is.

The word “explained” translates a word from which comes our theological term exegesis. Jesus has exegeted, that is, fully explained or interpreted God for us. There is no fuller explanation of Him than what we find in Jesus.

The Jews knew God as creator overall and as a God of law, but not so much a God of grace. They knew Him as Master and Lord, and they knew Him as “father” in a distant sense, but didn’t know Him intimately as “Father” in a personal sense. Jesus taught us to begin our prayers, “Our Father…” He brought us an understanding of intimacy with God. It is as though He brings us to the Tree of intimate, true knowledge of God—a tree of which Adam and Eve could not eat without also knowing the intimacy of evil—for it was not their time to know intimacy of the Good in the way Jesus was now revealing about God to the disciples in the Upper Room. Now, they (and we) are given access into the perfect closeness of fellowship of the Father, Son and Spirit.

This sweet communion can only be experienced in the context of a love relationship that finds its ultimate expression in the sacrifice on the cross. Adam and Eve were not yet able to experience this, but it was anticipated in the animal skins God provided for them, symbolic of death required for sin (see Gen 3:21).

Notice that “all things that the Father has are mine.” Paul explained this further when he wrote, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col 1:19) and, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col 2:9). Nothing the Father has is lacking in the Son. The Father has given to Jesus the task of fully demonstrating what God is really like. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, “[Jesus] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power…” (Heb 1:3). That is why Jesus said to Philip, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Lord, I worship You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who exist in perfect harmony.