A Mystery of Belief

  

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” John 14:11.

 

Jesus calls us to believe in Him, He calls us to come to Him. Jesus says that He is the way, and the truth, and the life. The message of the Early Church was Jesus, the Person of Jesus Christ. A friend recently asked me, “Do we believe in Jesus, or do we believe in what we believe about Jesus?”

 

A congregational leader once said to me, “Right doctrine produces right living.” This man’s life proved his statement wrong because he was dictatorial, abrupt, abusive, and even slanderous to the congregation he was supposed to be serving. Doctrine in the mind does not necessarily translate into doctrine in the heart and soul. I have known dear brothers and sisters who may not have had the soundest doctrine, but who had lives of devotion to Jesus and others.

 

Perhaps we ought to remind ourselves of Paul’s words to the Romans, “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Rom. 14:4). Then we have, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” (1 Cor. 4:5).

 

Jesus desires that we believe that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him, but if we cannot see this glorious reality, Jesus says, “…otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”

 

How we believe is a mystery, and, I think, how we grow in our belief is a mystery – for God must be the Author and Completer of our faith, our belief, our destiny in Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8).

 

Are not we all in some stage of belief and growth in Jesus Christ? If this is so, then is it so strange that some of us will see that Jesus is in the Father and that the Father is in Jesus, and that others may not yet see this glorious reality? Is it so strange that some of us will see that the Trinity lives within us and that we live within the Trinity, and that others will not yet see this, our eternal destiny?”

 

Are we not often like the Ethiopian official of Acts 8, who was not really sure of what he was reading in the prophet Isaiah? Not being sure of what we’re reading can be a very good thing, it surely beats presumption. It is an especially good thing when we ask, “Just what does this mean? Just what am I reading? Just who is the prophet writing about?”

 

The Upper Room of John chapters 13 – 17 has many enigmas, many nuances to ponder, many points and counterpoints – it is a never-ending dance, onward and upward into the Trinity with one another – a dance in which the very image of “one another” envelops us in the Glory of God.

 

Learning the dance steps is a process, and the steps are progressive (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18), and Jesus is patient with us. If we can’t see that Jesus is in the Father and that the Father is in Jesus right now, Jesus says come along anyway and, “…otherwise believe because of the works themselves.”

 

Do we give others room to believe in Jesus Christ? Do we give others the freedom to grow in the mystery of belief in Jesus? Do we accept that there is, or ought to be I think, mystery in our own pilgrimage of faith in Jesus?

 

What Paul writes about in Romans 14 and 15 respecting where we are in our spiritual growth and understanding – and how we are to treat others - is about more than what we eat or drink or what days we observe, if indeed we observe any days. We are all somewhere on the journey, somewhere on the mountain; we are all (hopefully) learning new dance steps and sequences as we grow in Jesus Christ and with one another.

 

Jesus takes the measure of faith and trust we have in Him today and grows it into a greater measure tomorrow – for after all, life is about knowing Him – and since He is infinite we will forever and always being growing in Him and into Him.

Not From Myself

 

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” John 14:10.

 

The theme of Jesus being in the Father and the Father being in Him, and of Jesus being in us and us being in Him, and of the Father and Jesus being in us, and the Holy Spirit being in us, and of us being in the Trinity, is embedded in the Upper Room. This is woven into the music of what I’ve termed a dance. In a few moments Jesus will say (Jn. 14:20), “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

 

In John 15:4 Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” Then throughout John Chapter 17 Jesus speaks of our union in the Trinity, our oneness in the Father and Son, enveloped in the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus invites us into His Way of Life, and that Way of Life is abiding in the Father, in Him, and allowing (if we can use such a term) Christ to speak and work and live through us as the Father speaks and works and lives through Jesus Christ. This is a mystery in the sense that it exceeds our comprehension, but we can nevertheless participate in this wonder, we can have koinonia with and in the Trinity.

 

I do not think the simplicity of the Greek of John 14:10 can be improved upon, “I do not speak from Myself”, or “of Myself”. Whatever Jesus means, we need to wrestle with it in all of its possibilities and implications, and with its baseline simplicity. Here we have the simplicity of John 15:5, “…apart from Me you can do nothing.”

 

When I write “simplicity” I mean simply this, that when Jesus says in John 5:19, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing…” that Jesus means exactly what He says (see also John 8:28; 12:49). If this is true of the Incarnate Son, how much more ought it to be of us?

 

We might say, if this is true of the Incarnate Son, the Head of the Body, how much more ought it to be true for us, His Body. (Of course I’m using a limited manner of speech and comparison – because in reality we are One in Him…but are we manifesting that Reality?)

 

Who are we to think and live on our own, if Jesus Christ did not think and live on His own? The idea that we go to God when we are at the end of our resources, that God wants us to only turn to Him when we have exhausted all of our effort and ingenuity, is simply false. Jesus is clear in John 15 that we are to live in Him and that without Him, apart from Him, we can do nothing. We were created, and we have been redeemed, for uninterrupted communion with God in Jesus Christ.

 

When Jesus says in John 14:10 that, “I do not speak from Myself,” He is giving the disciples a precursor of what is to come – that He is inviting them into the very same life in the Father as they live in Him.

 

Are we living by the life of Jesus Christ? Are we abiding in Him? Are we learning to speak and act, not out of ourselves but out of our koinonia with Him? O dear friends, if we will live this Way in eternity, why should we not embrace this Way of Life today?

 

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

Seeing Jesus, Seeing the Father

  

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father, how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” John 14:7 – 9.

 

What do you think about what Jesus is saying? What do you see? Here, once again, is the Divine mystery, the Holy Dance; to attempt to “figure it out” and explain it leads to frustration and profanation, to receive Jesus’ Word leads us into the Trinitarian Family of God.

 

Jesus says (Matthew 11:25 – 27), “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well- pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

 

We are utterly dependent on the grace, mercy, and kindness of God in all things, including in knowing Him. When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 16:17).

 

We ought not to be surprised at the images and language Jesus uses in the Upper Room, for John begins his Gospel with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is shortly followed by, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.”

 

John’s Gospel begins with a dance, in the Upper Room the dance continues. Then on Easter morning (Jn. 20:17), we hear the melody, “…but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

 

Paul writes that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” in Col. 1:15. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus the Son “is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Heb. 1:3). As we see in Revelation chapters 4 – 5, and 21 – 22, our destiny, our ultimate existence, is rooted in and focused on and lived with the Lord God Almighty (the Father) and the Lamb (the Son) as the Holy Spirit gives Life to all the redeemed in the Lamb.

 

There is enigma in Jesus’ words to Philip, “If you had known Me…” Hadn’t Philip been with Jesus since right after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist? (John 1:43). Wasn’t it Philip who found Nathanael and told him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”?

 

Why does Paul write, well into his life with Jesus Christ, well into his apostolic ministry, “…that I may know Him…”? (Phil. 3:10).

 

We know Him but we don’t know Him, we see Him but we don’t see Him; for Jesus Christ is God and we are always coming to Him and He is always coming to us for He is infinite and we are not. Yes, yes, we live by His life, His eternal life and Nature dwell within us – but He is always God and we are always not God – even though we are His Body, even though we are His Bride – and so here is yet perhaps another enigma.

 

Yet is it really an enigma? If it is “here” it won’t be “there” – for “there” His overwhelming light and life and love, and His glory in “one another”, is such that I doubt we’ll ponder these things the way we do now – O what peace we will have in Him, what peace with one another in Him!

 

Of course Philip knew Jesus, but then again of course Philip did not know Jesus – isn’t this the most natural/supernatural thing in the world and in heaven? Wherever we are in Christ, we know Him and yet we don’t know Him; we know Him and yet there is so much more of Himself that He is giving to us.

 

Our arrogance ought to frighten us. How many Sunday school lessons and commentaries treat Jesus Christ as a psychological and religious specimen for study – rather than bow before the God of the Incarnation? We are not called to “master” the life of Jesus, we are called to submit to Jesus Christ in obedience and to allow His life to master us.

 

Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not Iscariot) all ask Jesus questions or make requests of Him in John 14, and Jesus responds to each one. They do not ask in the challenging attitude of the religious leaders, but rather they ask in the posture of disciples and friends – for they love Jesus, whether they understand Him or not…they love Jesus.

 

What about us? Do we love Jesus Christ? Is He our Lord and Master?

 

Are we coming to know Him, and do we daily see Him coming to us?

 

Do we realize that while we may know Him, that yet we do not know Him?

 

I have a friend who says, “I want to love Jesus more today than I did yesterday.” I first heard my friend say that years ago, and since then I have woven it into the fabric of my morning prayer and daily desire.

 

I want to love Jesus more today, to know Him deeper today, to receive more of Him today…than I did yesterday….knowing that In seeing Him, we are seeing the Father…Jesus is bringing us home to our Father.

 

What about you?