Homilies on the Gospel of John

“As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father.”

Yet the words harmonize perfectly. For since He continually spoke of “eternal life,” to prove this point He introduces the expression, “dwells in Me”; for “if he dwells in Me, and I live, it is plain that he will live also.” Then He says, “As the living Father has sent Me.” This is an expression of comparison and resemblance, and its meaning is of this kind, “I live in like manner as the Father lives.” And that you may not deem Him unbegotten, He immediately subjoins, “by the Father,” not by this to show that He needs, in order to live, any power working in Him, for He said before, to remove such a suspicion, “As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son also to have life in Himself”; now if He needs the working of another, it will be found that either the Father has not given Him so to have it, and so the assertion is false, or if He has so given it, then He will need no other one to support Him. What then means the, “By the Father”? He here merely hints at the cause, and what He says is of this kind: “As the Father lives, so I live, and he that eats Me shall live by Me.” And the “life” of which He speaks is not life merely, but the excellent life; for that He spoke not simply of life, but of that glorious and ineffable life, is clear from this. For all men “live,” even unbelievers, and uninitiated, who eat not of that flesh. Do you see that the words relate not to this life, but to that other? And what He says is of this kind: “He that eats My flesh, when he dies shall not perish nor suffer punishment”; He spoke not of the general resurrection, (for all alike rise again,) but concerning the special, the glorious Resurrection, that which has a reward.