His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you speak plainly, and speak no figures of speech.
Jesus answered them, do ye now believe? Not as calling their faith in question; or as denying they had any; or as despising it for the smallness of it; but as reproving them for their security, vain confidence and boasting, as if their faith was so very strong that it would never be moved; and perhaps for the lateness of it too: the words may...
His disciples said, . . . now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb--hardly more so than before; the time for perfect plainness was yet to come; but having caught a glimpse of His meaning (it was nothing more), they eagerly express their satisfaction, as if glad to make anything of His words.
Two things Christ here comforts his disciples with: - I. With an assurance that, though he was leaving the world, he was returning to his Father, from whom he came forth Joh 16:28-32, where we have, 1. A plain declaration of Christ's mission from the Father, and his return to him (Joh 16:28): I came forth from the Father, and am come, as you see, into the world.
Commenting on John 16:28-33