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J. N. Darby.
(Notes and Comments Vol. 4.)
As regards the revelation of the Father's Name, and Sonship, Christ being on earth and afterwards, it is clear Christ did reveal the Father's Name, but there was nothing that really entered into the place of sons in the disciples. But more than this - when Christ revealed the Father's Name, He Himself stood in the place of Son as a Man on earth, and it was only supposing the disciples had got hold of it, "Our Father, who art in heaven," the disciples being consciously on earth; for the highest form in which the Son made the Father known was with a Son on earth. In His Person it was the same thing, but His position was only of a Son on earth, with whom the disciples were associated, and, at the utmost, according to His then relationship as on earth, or they would have been above Him on earth, which is absurd.
But now the Son is gone, as Man, into the place of Sonship in glory in the Father's house - the glory He had with Him as Son before the world was - yet as Man there, as Son. With this we now are associated, His Father and our Father, His God and our God, and we are associated with Him as sons in heavenly places, according to the glory He had with the Father before the world was. This again connects the eternal purpose and heavenly glory. But now my object is to compare it with the earthly state of Sonship - relation, which was of man on the earth, as such, with the Father in heaven (as in the Lord's prayer), is, as risen into the new condition into glory, entered, according to full purpose (the perfect thoughts of God in the heavenly relationship), into the Father's house as sons, according to immediate relationship with the divine nature.
This connects itself too with another point, the nature of atonement work, already alluded to elsewhere. We were under responsibility as men - take the Law as a measure. Christ dies for us, bears our sins, and meets that responsibility for us. But the work of the Cross did more. He glorified God there. Hence our portion is with God according to His own nature, in our new one. One was represented by the brazen altar, the other by the blood on the mercy-seat.
I do not say the Father's Name is given up in the former sense, in the note above - the walk on earth, and we cared for by a Holy Father, as so walking. But it now carries us further - we enter as sons into the Father's house where Christ is entered. "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." The relationship is, in se, the same, for it depends on the Person, but the condition is diverse. The Father loved the Son, and we learn it, and with it, as so loved, the joy He had in the world. But He takes us there, where He is, with Him, and we see Him in His glory as loved before the foundation of the world. And He declares to us the Father's Name as thus revealed, and now dwells in us that we may know it; hereafter, actually with Him in the glory, seeing Him as He is. The Person is shown even when down here - they should have known Him as in the Father and the Father in Him. But the latter is dropped when He comes to the presence of the Spirit, and "I in you, and you in me" is substituted. The personal place unchanged - "I in my Father," its display as on earth, dropped, and we in Him who is in the Father. When mere glory comes, on the other hand, the display only is spoken of - "I in them, and thou in me." By this the world knows - by the former the love is in us. This does not hinder the Father's gracious love to us, as walking down here, being exceedingly precious.