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That is, one in essence and nature, one in authority and power, and not barely one in will and affection, one in concord or consent. That this is the genuine signification of the words, appears by a three-fold argument.
1. From the original words: it is not said, I and my Father are one person in the masculine gender, but in the neuter I and my Father are one thing. Now if that thing be not the divine Being, they cannot be one; for since the Father is confessed to be God, the Son cannot be one thing with the Father, if he be not God too.
2. It appears from the context; our Saviour, in the preceding versed, ascribed the preservation of his sheep to the power of his Father; None can pluck them out of my Father's hand; and he ascribes it also to his own power; None shall pluck them out of my hand; plainly intimating, that his sheep were equally safe in his own hand, as well as in his Father's; for, says he, I and my Father are one; that is, one in power: and, if they be one in power, they must be one in nature; unless we make an almighty creature, which is a contradiction.
3. It appears evidently by what follows in the next verse, that the Jews understood our Saviour in this sense; why else did they take up stones to stone him? We stone thee, say they, for blasphemy, because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
The Jews took our Saviour's meaning aright, and were satisfied, that when he said, I and my Father are one, he asserted himself to be God, and deserved to die; and well he had deserved it, if he had not been God. The adversaries of our Saviour's divinity, to elude the force of these words, which make so much agaainst them, interpret the words thus, I and my Father are one; that is, say they, we are Mia bdlhsiv one in will and affection, one in concord and consent: this is a truth, but not the great truth contained in these words; for thus believers are one with God, and one with one another; namely, by a harmony of wills and desires: so far as they are regenerated, God's will and theirs are unisons, they will and desire the same thing, and are of one heart and of one mind.
But God and Christ are one, in a much higher sense than Christ and believers are one; namely, one in essence and nature, one in authority and power, Christ being con-substantial with God.
Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ is for nature co-essential, for dignity co-equal, and for duration co-eternal with the Father.
2. That although Christ be one in essence with the Father, yet are they distinct persons one from antoher. I and my Father, we are one.
3. Learn hence, That the Son being one in essence, one in power, one in consent and will, with the Father, they are both equally concerned for the perseverance of the saints, for preserving them in grace, and for bringing them to glory. None shall pluck them out of mine or my Father's hand: for I and my Father are one. If the power be the same, the essence must be the same.