Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (1)

 

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1.

 

As we embark on John Chapter 15, let’s remind ourselves that chapter divisions (and verse numbers) were not in the original manuscripts, they did not appear until a few hundred years after the Bible was first in circulation. Sometimes chapter divisions indicate a break in the action or line of thought, and sometimes they don’t. It is up to the reader – you and me, and us as a People – to determine the connection between chapters; sometimes this is straightforward, sometimes it is challenging.

 

There are sections of the Prophets in which it can be difficult to see where one prophecy ends and another one begins. In the Epistles, chapter breaks often interrupt the flow of thought and it is important to teach ourselves to ignore them so that we can flow down the river with Paul and Peter and John and James.

 

Many Bibles also have section headings. These are headings inserted within chapters by the editors of Bibles. As I write this, my NASB has the following headings in John 14: “Jesus Comforts His Disciples” (verses 1 – 6); “Oneness with the Father” (7 – 15); “Role of the Spirit” (16 – 31). These headings are not part of the Bible and should not be read as if they were part of the Bible.

 

I have often heard well – meaning folks read Scripture aloud to a congregation and include section headings in their reading, we need to teach our people to do better than this since the headings are not the Word of God.

 

Having a visual break on the page makes sense to me, breaking the text up with white space can make it easier to read, but having section headings in the breaks is, I think, distracting and for many people it is misleading. A visual break in the text does not mean a break in thought, and a section heading is distracting at best and misleading at worst.

 

We must do our own reading, together in Christ, to enter into the flow and depth of the Bible, we must open ourselves to the Bible, we must submit ourselves to the Bible, and we must allow Jesus, the Word of God, to enter us and live within us as we eat Heavenly Manna (which is Jesus, Jesus, always Jesus Christ – see John Chapter 6).

 

The way we read and hear God’s Word determines how we see Jesus coming to us in His Word. We read in worship, in thanksgiving, in submission to Jesus, in responsive obedience to Jesus, in adoration of Jesus, in attentiveness to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We read in expectation, in meditation, in prayer, in faith and hope and love. Perhaps the writer of Hebrews gives us a firm foundation for reading when he says:

 

“And without faith it is impossible to please [Him], for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6).

 

Perhaps we can also say that all Divine reading is anchored in meditation on God’s Word. “But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). Psalm 1 gives us not only the foundation for the Psalms, but for reading the entire Bible. There is a sense in which meditation on and in the Word of God is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus – that is, of partaking of Him as our source of life (see John 6:32 – 71).

 

 

Also consider that our Father has given us the Bible so that we “may become partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Pt. 1:4). The Bible is a Eucharistic Table spread for us; we partake of Christ as we eat from this Table…can we see this? Are we experiencing it?

 

The Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is our Main Street where we experience koinonia with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and with one another in the Triune God.

 

If we are in too much of a hurry to meditate on the Bible, to read it as it is written as opposed to reading it piecemeal and as a self – help book, then we are simply too busy. We are to be God’s People of the Book, not a people who use the Book for our own ends.

 

I’ve taken the time to remind ourselves of these things because we are moving from Chapter 14 to Chapter 15, but we really aren’t moving anywhere because the flow continues, what began in John Chapter 13 continues through John Chapter 17 and we are invited by Jesus to experience this glorious dance of joy throughout the Upper Room. Also, the Vine and the Branches (John 15:1ff) connects what precedes it and what follows it – for the only way to obey the commands of Jesus (John 14:21, 23; 15:10) is to abide in the Vine!

 

As you read John 14:16 – 15:11 can you see how the Vine and the Branches (15:1 – 9) form a door from Chapter 14 into Chapter 15?

 

(A Note on John 14:31, “Get up, let us go from here.” I view John chapters 13 – 17 as the Upper Room. Whether or not all of the words and actions in these chapters occurred in the physical Upper Room, they began there and flowed from there. There is one continuous narrative that begins in Chapter 13 and enters the depths of the Trinity in Chapter 17. We are given what we are given, and John and the Holy Spirit do not interrupt the flow of Jesus’ teaching with descriptions of whether they remained in the Upper Room, were walking toward Gethsemane, or were in Gethsemane. If the Holy Spirit and John did not interrupt Jesus, I have no warrant to interrupt Jesus – let us read and hear Jesus speaking to us in the form that He has given us, let us allow the Holy Spirit to draw us to Jesus and into the Holy of Holies of koinonia with the Trinity and with one another.)

 

 

 

To Obey As He Obeys

 

 

“…but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.” John 14:31a.

 

One of the fruits of Jesus’ obedience to the Father, and one of His motivations for this obedience, is “that the world may know.” Even though a time has come when the world no longer “sees” Jesus (John 14:19), and even though the world is hostile to Christ and to His People (John 15:18 – 4), this does not mean that we disengage from the world, it does not mean that we do not love the people in the world. Rather, we are called to be God’s mission to the world, His testimony, His Word and His Witness, His City on a hill, His Light in Jesus Christ.

 

After all, we were all once in the world system; we were all once hostile to God and the Gospel; we were all once dead in our trespasses and sins and lived according to the ways of the enemy (Ephesians 2:1 – 9).

 

We are called to make disciples of all people groups, teaching them to obey all that Jesus Christ has commanded us (Matthew 28:20). Now how shall we teach others to obey Jesus if it is not by both word and deed? Our lives must demonstrate our words, what we speak is what we must live, just as it was in Jesus Christ, just as it shall always be with Him.

 

Witness to the world is a theme in the Upper Room. All men will know that we are Christ’s disciples if we love one another (John 13:34 – 35). Our oneness, our unity, in one another and in the Trinity is “so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21), and also that the world may know that the Father loves us, those who are in Christ, “even as You have loved Me” (John 17:23).

 

This is yet another point and counterpoint in the dance of the Upper Room, we are in the world but not of the world; the world sees Him, then the world does not see Him, and our mission in Him is that the world might see Him. Whereas when He first came the world did not know Him (John 1:10) even though the world was made through Him, now in His coming to the world through us the world is to know Him in His saving glory.

 

Just as Jesus obeys the Father so that the world may know that He loves the Father, so we obey our Lord Jesus Christ so that the world may know that we love Him. Let’s recall that Jesus has just said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…” (John 14:21, 23). This theme, these dance steps, continue in the Upper Room in 15:10 and 14 – in fact, the theme of obedience is woven throughout the Upper Room and is particularly found in 14:21 – 15:17.

 

Let’s keep in mind that chapter and verse divisions were not in the original manuscripts, they were added hundreds of years later. The Vine and the branches in John 15:1 - 9 connect the theme of obedience in John 14:16 – 31 with the theme of obedience in 15:10 – 17. As I hope we will see in coming reflections, the Vine and the branches shows us the “how” of our obedience, it shows us our Way of Life in Christ, it is a picture of our abiding and obedient Life in Jesus Christ – a life lived by His Life, for only the Life of God can obey the commandments of God – and Jesus Christ is the Life of God.

 

Our life in the Spirit is introduced in John 14:16 – 17, the Holy Spirit who was once with God’s People has now come to live within God’s People, and we have been placed in the Vine; God lives in us and we live in God.

 

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:2 – 3).

 

O dear friends, let us hear Jesus Christ and believe Him; let us believe what Jesus says about our life in Him and His Life in us. Let us delight to do His will and obey His commandments, let His will be our joy and our pleasure.

 

I hope you will ponder and meditate on what Jesus is saying to us in these passages. I hope you will hear what Jesus is saying to you. He loves you so very much.

 

 

Jesus Our Righteousness (4)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

“He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21.

 

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.”

 

How might Revelation 12:10 -11 relate to John 14:30 and 2 Cor. 5:21?

 

If the ruler of this world could find nothing in Jesus, then the ruler of this world can find nothing in us, for we are in Jesus Christ; the sinless Lamb of God was made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

 

We overcome the accusations of the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The Lamb has purchased and cleansed us with His blood (Rev. 5:9; 1 Pt. 1:19; Eph. 1:7). His blood also cleanses our conscience (Heb. 9:14; 10:19 – 25) so that we can live in holy intimacy with God and with one another.

 

When we read John 14:30, we first see Jesus and then we see ourselves in Jesus, for our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). If the Lamb has indeed purchased us, then we belong to Him, we are His property, He is our Sovereign, our Lord. We can trust our Master to speak for us, to defend us – He is well able to protect and keep those whom He has purchased. We look to the blood of the Lamb as our assurance that we are purchased, cleansed, forgiven, and justified.

 

What is “the word of their testimony”? What is our testimony? It is, first and foremost, the Gospel of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is our testimony – we talk about Jesus, not so much about ourselves…and any talking we do about ourselves ought to be rooted in Jesus and pointing to Jesus – only one person can occupy center stage, and that must ever and always be Jesus Christ.

 

The perfect work of Jesus Christ is so remarkable that it even cleanses our consciences! (Heb. 9:14; 10:22).

 

What a tragedy that so much of the professing church now substitutes man-centered therapy for the miraculous Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

What would marriages look like if husbands and wives saw themselves in Jesus Christ, and saw each other in Jesus Christ? What would families look like? What would churches look like? What would church leadership look like? What would we look like, as God’s People, if we stopped accusing ourselves and one another (including in our teaching) and instead saw ourselves as cleansed, forgiven, justified, sanctified, and glorified in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28 – 30)?

 

We can believe what the enemy says about us, we can believe what others say about us, we can believe what we think about ourselves, or we can believe what God says about us in Jesus Christ. Why O why will we not believe Jesus Christ? Why will we not believe His glorious liberating Good News?

 

Why would we rather serve as slaves, shackled in galley ships, pulling the oars of condemnation and accusation and the Law – rather than live as free women and men in Jesus Christ?

 

We overcome the enemy, in all of his insidious forms, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony of, and in, the Lamb. What is true of Jesus in John 14:30 is also true of us in Jesus Christ.

 

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Gal. 5:1.

 

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship as sons [and daughters] by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” Rom. 8:15 – 16.

 

Jesus Our Righteousness (3)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

There is yet another element in why John 14:30 is critical to the son and the daughter of the Living God, it is that what is true of Jesus is true of us, the ruler of this world has nothing in us because of Jesus Christ, always because of Jesus Christ.

 

When Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” he means exactly what he says.

 

Perhaps there is no more emphatic and conclusive statement in the entire Bible than 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (I also can’t help but think of Jesus declaring, “It is finished.”)

 

Do we get the picture? The sinless One became sin, so that the sinful ones might become sinless. Jesus took us upon Himself, He took us into Himself, He became as we were on the Cross; so that we might take Him upon ourselves, into ourselves, that we might become in Him as He is.

 

Jesus became sin. May we ponder this for a moment. I wrote in a previous post about mystery, that the word mystery in the New Testament usually means something hidden that is now revealed, however, I also pointed out that we can still use mystery in its classic sense, meaning something that remains hidden.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 is a mystery in both senses. The Gospel mystery hidden for ages is revealed on the Cross, a Perfect Sacrifice has been made for the sins of the world, but the Cross has many facets to it, another one is that we were crucified, buried, and raised with Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1 – 11; Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:14). This is also a critical element of the Gospel, and if we are not preaching it then we are not preaching and teaching the Gospel, at best we are teaching half a Gospel, if we can call it that.

 

But there are more facets to the Cross and Resurrection, one of which is that the Father made Jesus Christ “who knew no sin…to be sin.” Can we see that this is about more than Jesus taking our sins upon Himself? In the depths of the mystery of God Jesus took not just our sins upon Himself, He became sin. As a result, when we believe in Jesus Christ we become new creatures, new beings, in Him (2 Cor. 5:17) and we “become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

 

This is a mystery in both senses of the word; we see more than we once saw, yet more remains a mystery, for God is God and we are not God. Frankly, to attempt to explain this verse is foolish, yet, not to accept God’s Word is also foolish – we cannot explain and comprehend the fulness of 2 Cor. 5:21, but we can certainly experience it every day of our lives in Jesus Christ. We cannot explain this verse, but we can speak of how it can manifest itself in our lives.

 

I realize there are folks who have heartburn over my insistence that the Bible teaches us that, in Christ, we are saints. This is the primary designation of Christians in the Bible – whether that fits our experience and theology or not, if we have a high view of Scripture then what is the problem of using Scriptural language in speaking of one another?

 

But you see, at the heart of my insistence that we stop believing the accusations of the enemy (for that is what we are doing) is the glory of the Gospel and the Atonement, it is the perfect and complete work of Jesus Christ, it is the glory of 2 Corinthians 5:21. This is not about us, it is all about Jesus Christ.

 

When the ruler of this world comes to us, he can find nothing in us, nothing to accuse us of before the Father, for we are in Jesus. However, this does not stop the devil from accusing us directly, it does not stop him lying to us – the question is, “Will we believe what the ruler of this world says about us, or will we believe what God says about us in Jesus Christ?” Another question is, “Will we believe what we think, including what we think about ourselves, or will be believe what God thinks about us?”

 

Let’s consider Revelation 12:10 – 11:

 

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.”

 

How might Revelation 12:10 -11 relate to John 14:30 and 2 Cor. 5:21?

 

We’ll explore this question, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.

 

Jesus, Our Righteousness (2)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

We concluded our previous reflection by asking, “Why is the righteousness of Jesus Christ critical to us?” The answer, simply put, is that our entire existence is dependent upon the character of God and the efficacy of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The efficacy of the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection rests upon His sinlessness, His righteousness. The character of God, the essence of God, speaks to us of perfect righteousness, holiness, love, justice, and so much more. God is God and we are not and we are more dependent upon God than a newborn baby is upon his or her mother – whether we will acknowledge it or not.

 

Jesus expressed the essence of our existence when He said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b).

 

Paul expressed another element of the essence of our existence when, parading a litany of Old Testament texts, he drives home the point that we “are all under sin” and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (see Romans 3:9 – 31).

 

We are all born sinners, yet because of Jesus Christ we need not live as sinners, we need not live in guilt and condemnation – for when we confess our sins and repent of them and believe and trust in Jesus Christ, placing our lives in His hands and acknowledging Him as our Lord and Savior, He will forgive our sins and give us eternal life – which is the very life of God – we will pass from death to life. (See Ephesians 2:1 – 10; Mark 8:34 – 38; John 3:1 – 16; 2 Cor. 5:14 – 21; Romans 5:1 – 11).

 

But now let’s return to what Jesus says in John 14:30, “…for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me..." What does this have to do with us?

 

The first element, as we saw in our previous reflection and as we touched upon above, is that Jesus Christ was (and of course is) perfectly holy and sinless – He is the pure and spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This means that His sacrifice for us, for you and for me, is prefect and complete – when we trust in Jesus Christ and enter into His life, and His life enters into us – our sins are completely and totally and perfectly forgiven, and we are justified before God.

 

The world justification in the Bible means that when God looks at us He not only sees us, in Christ, as having never sinned, but He also sees us as having always been holy, as having always kept His holy Law and commandments – God sees us perfect and complete in Jesus Christ.

 

When we begin to see this and live in its reality we come to experience freedom in Jesus Christ; freedom from fear, freedom from the fear of death, freedom to live, to love, to give to others, to stop thinking about ourselves all the time, freedom to rejoice in things that really matter, in things that will exist beyond the grace.

 

And may I gently say, that all of the above elements are essential elements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that the Gospel of Jesus is not only about what we are saved from (sin and death), it is also about why we are saved and what we are saved to – and that is to become and live as the sons and daughters of the living God, living without condemnation and sin consciousness in our Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoying life in the Spirit of God every moment of every day as we are transformed into the image of the Firstborn Son and, as His People, display His likeness to the world and the universe.

 

Biblical salvation is holistic, it is comprehensive, it is about so much more than our sins being forgiven – and it is a tragedy that many of us (most of us?) never move beyond that idea – we are called to live as the saints of God, not as sinners…when will we ever “get” this? This is like playing baseball with only first base, first base is all we are ever allowed to reach, every Sunday we focus on first base…never realizing that there is second base and third base and that we can actually learn to round the bases and get to home plate – but it is a new home plate, not the home plate that we left, but the Home Plate that God our Father has prepared for us for this life and beyond. This Home Plate is living in the fulness of Jesus Christ.

 

As Saint Athanasius said of the Incarnation, “He became as we were, so that we might become as He is.”

 

Well, I find that I have not yet arrived at where I want to go with John 14:30, so we’ll pick this up again in our next reflection…the Lord willing.

 

 

 

Jesus, Our Righteousness

 

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

What is Jesus saying? What does He mean? Why should this matter to us? How might this affect our lives today?

 

While there is mystery in what Jesus says, there is also critical revealed reality in what He says, reality that is vital to our everyday lives. Let me also mention that the word “mystery” can mean two opposite things. In the New Testament it usually means something which was once hidden but which is now revealed in the Gospel, but we can still use the word “mystery” to indicate things that remain hidden from our understanding, for there remain things beyond us.

 

For example, in Revelation Chapter 10 John hears a strong angel along with seven peals of thunder speaking, and he says, “I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.’” Later in the chapter the strong angel speaks of “the mystery of God” being finished. So while Revelation is primarily an unveiling and revealing, we still have an element of mystery, of hiddenness.

 

The Crucifixion is also very much a hidden mystery. While we have images upon images of the Atonement in Scripture, the holiness and depth and glory and horror and joy and amazement of what transpired is so utterly Divine that it is beyond us – we may touch the Crucifixion, we may (and ought to!) live in it and display it in our lives (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24), but much of it remains hidden from us. The Crucifixion is both a hidden mystery and a revealed mystery…and we are more likely to experience it than explain it, to describe elements of it than explain it.

 

I’m making a point of this because there are elements of John 14:30 that, I think, are hidden, while there are also elements that are revealed; we ought to rejoice in what we see and acknowledge what is beyond our understanding – after all, God is God and we are not.

 

In Matthew 4 (Mark 1; Luke 4) see that after His baptism that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into “the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” During this intense series of temptations, the ruler of this world was looking to gain a foothold within the Incarnate Son of God. Consider Luke’s statement (Luke 4:13), “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.”

 

When considering Jesus as our Kinsman Redeemer and High Priest, the author of Hebrews tells us:

 

“For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18).

 

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).

 

We know that time and again Jesus was pressured, and therefore (I think) tempted, to deny His Father, to deny His relationship with the Father, to deny His own identity – we see this throughout the Gospels, including when He is before the religious leaders and Roman authorities on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We are also pressured to deny God our Father and our relationship and identity in Him through Jesus Christ. Sadly this pressure often comes from within the professing church from well-meaning people who simply do not understand the fulness of the Gospel.

 

When Jesus is before the high priest and religious leaders they “kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any…” (Mark 14:55). When Jesus is before Pilate, Pilate says, “I find no guilt in Him.” (John 18:38). Even one of the men crucified with Jesus says, “…this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:4). The centurion supervising Jesus’ execution proclaims, “Certainly this man was righteous.” (Luke 23:47).

 

No matter how many ways the ruler of this world system comes to attack Jesus, the verdict is the same – Jesus is holy and righteous and innocent, the ruler of this age can find nothing in Jesus to accuse Him of before God the Father and the universe. What the devil meant as an attack to destroy Jesus, has been turned into a unanimous testimony of His sinlessness, of His perfect righteousness – He is indeed the holy and unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:17 – 21; Rev. 5:1 – 14).

 

Why is the righteousness of Jesus Christ critical to us?

 

We’ll explore that, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.