John Calvin Commentary John 14:28

"Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I." — John 14:28 (ASV)

If you loved me you would rejoice. The disciples unquestionably loved Christ, but not as they should have done; for some carnal affection was mixed with their love, so that they could not endure to be separated from him. But if they had loved him spiritually, nothing would have been more important to them than his return to the Father.

For the Father is greater than I. This passage has been distorted in various ways. The Arians, to prove that Christ is some sort of inferior God, argued that he is less than the Father. The orthodox Fathers, to remove all ground for such slander, said that this referred to his human nature. But as the Arians wickedly abused this testimony, so the reply given by the Fathers to their objection was neither correct nor appropriate. For Christ does not now speak either of his human nature or of his eternal Divinity but, accommodating himself to our weakness, places himself between God and us.

Indeed, since we are unable to reach God's exalted state, Christ descended to us so that he might raise us to it. You should have rejoiced, he says, because I return to the Father; for this is the ultimate goal at which you should aim. By these words he does not show how he differs in himself from the Father, but why he descended to us; and that was so that he might unite us to God. For until we have reached that point, we are, so to speak, in the middle of the course. We also imagine to ourselves only a half-Christ, and a mutilated Christ, if he does not lead us to God.

There is a similar passage in the writings of Paul, where he says that Christ will deliver up the Kingdom to God his Father, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:24).

Christ certainly reigns, not only in human nature, but as he is God manifested in the flesh. In what manner, therefore, will he lay aside the kingdom? It is because the Divinity, which is now seen in Christ’s face alone, will then be openly visible in him. The only point of difference is that Paul there describes the highest perfection of the Divine brightness, the rays of which began to shine from the time when Christ ascended to heaven.

To make the matter clearer, we must speak even more plainly. Christ does not here make a comparison between the Divinity of the Father and his own, nor between his own human nature and the Divine essence of the Father, but rather between his present state and the heavenly glory to which he would soon afterward be received. It is as if he had said, “You wish to keep me in the world, but it is better that I should ascend to heaven.” Let us therefore learn to see Christ humbled in the flesh, so that he may lead us to the fountain of blessed immortality, for he was not appointed to be our guide merely to raise us to the sphere of the moon or of the sun, but to make us one with God the Father.