Jean 14:12

12 En vérité, en vérité, je vous le dis, celui qui croit en moi fera aussi les oeuvres que je fais, et il en fera de plus grandes, parce que je m'en vais au Père;

Jean 14:12 Meaning and Commentary

John 14:12

Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me,
&c.] Having mentioned his miracles as proofs of his deity, he assures his disciples, in order to comfort them under the loss of his bodily presence, that they should do the same, and greater works; for we are not to understand these words of everyone that believes in Christ, of every private believer in him, but only of the apostles, and each of them, that were true believers in him: to whom he says,

the works that I do shall he do also;
he shall raise the dead, heal all manner of diseases, and cast out devils; things which Christ gave his apostles power to do, when he first gave them a commission to preach the Gospel, and when he renewed and enlarged it: and which they did perform, not in their own name, and by their own power, but in the name, and by the power of Christ:

and greater works than these shall he do;
meaning, not greater in nature and kind, but more in number; for the apostles, in a long series of time, and course of years, went about preaching the Gospel, not in Judea only, but in all the world; "God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost", ( Hebrews 2:4 ) , wherever they went: though perhaps by these greater works may be meant the many instances of conversion, which the apostles were instrumental in, and which were more in number than those which were under our Lord's personal ministry: besides, the conversion of a sinner is a greater work than any of the miracles of raising the dead for this includes in it all miracles: here we may see a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, quickened; one born blind made to see; one who was deaf to the threatenings of the law, and to the charming voice of the Gospel, made to hear, so as to live; and one that had the spreading leprosy of sin all over him, cleansed from it by the blood of the Lamb yea, though a miracle in nature is an instance and proof of divine power, yet the conversion of a sinner, which is a miracle in grace, is not only an instance of the power of God, and of the greatness of it, but of the exceeding greatness of it: and the rather one may be induced to give in to this sense of the passage, since it is added, as a reason,

because I go to my Father;
and upon my ascension the Spirit will be given, to you, which shall not only enable you to perform miracles, as proofs of your apostleship, and the doctrine you preach, but which shall powerfully attend the Gospel to the conversion of multitudes of souls.

Jean 14:12 In-Context

10 Ne crois-tu pas que je suis dans le Père, et que le Père est en moi? Les paroles que je vous dis, je ne les dis pas de moi-même; et le Père qui demeure en moi, c'est lui qui fait les oeuvres.

11 Croyez-moi, je suis dans le Père, et le Père est en moi; croyez du moins à cause de ces oeuvres.

12 En vérité, en vérité, je vous le dis, celui qui croit en moi fera aussi les oeuvres que je fais, et il en fera de plus grandes, parce que je m'en vais au Père;

13 et tout ce que vous demanderez en mon nom, je le ferai, afin que le Père soit glorifié dans le Fils.

14 Si vous demandez quelque chose en mon nom, je le ferai.