Tractates (Lectures) on the Gospel of John — Tractate 70

St. Augustine of Hippo

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3

The words of the holy Gospel, brethren, are rightly understood only if they are found to be in harmony with those that precede; for the premises ought to agree with the conclusion, when it is the Truth that speaks. The Lord had said before, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also: and then had added, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; and showed that all He said was that they knew Himself. What, therefore, the meaning was of His going to Himself by Himself — for He also lets the disciples see that it is by Him that they are to come to Him — we have already told you, as we could, in our last discourse. When He says, therefore, That where I am, there ye may be also, where else were they to be but in Himself? In this way is He also in Himself, and they, therefore, are just where He is, that is, in Himself. Accordingly, He Himself is that eternal life which is yet to be ours, when He has received us unto Himself; and as He is that life eternal, so is it in Him, that where He is there shall we be also, that is to say, in Himself. For as the Father has life in Himself, and certainly that life which He has is in no wise different from what He is Himself as its possessor, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself, inasmuch as He is the very life which He has in Himself. But shall we then actually be what He is, (namely), the life, when we shall have begun our existence in that life, that is, in Himself? Certainly not, for He, by His very existence as the life, has life, and is Himself what He has; and as the life, is in Him, so is He in Himself: but we are not that life, but partakers of His life, and shall be there in such wise as to be wholly incapable of being in ourselves what He is, but so as, while ourselves not the life, to have Him as our life, who has Himself the life on this very account that He Himself is the life. In short, He both exists unchangeably in Himself and inseparably in the Father. But we, when wishing to exist in ourselves, were thrown into inward trouble regarding ourselves, as is expressed in the words, My soul is cast down within me: and changing from bad to worse, cannot even remain as we were. But when by Him we come unto the Father, according to His own words, No man comes unto the Father but by me, and abide in Him, no one shall be able to separate us either from the Father or from Him.