“I have
manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were
Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come
to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave
Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I
came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me” (John 17:6 – 8).
Is this true?
What evidence is
there that this is true?
Shortly the men
Jesus is speaking of will abandon Him. Before the night is over one of these
men will deny Jesus three times. These men will soon lock the door of the Upper
Room, the very room where Jesus has been revealing the Father to them; they
will lock the door in fear and they will cower in fear. In three days these men
will disbelieve the testimony of Mary Magdelene, that Jesus has risen from the
dead.
If we were
observers, and knew no more than what transpired between the Upper Room and
Easter morning, what would we think of Jesus’ description of the men whom the
Father gave Him?
Let us note that
Jesus is not praying in the future tense but is stating the condition of the
men in that moment. “They have kept Your word.” They have received the words of
Jesus, which are the words of the Father. These men have believed that Jesus
came from the Father. These men have received the manifestation of the Father’s
name which Jesus has given to them.
Considering the
forthcoming actions of these men in abandoning and denying Jesus, how can Jesus
say these affirming things about them? How can this be?
I’m reminded of
Luke 22:31 – 32:
“Simon, Simon,
behold Satan has obtained permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed
for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned
again, strengthen your brothers.”
Then we have
John 16:32:
“Behold, an hour
is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own, and
to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”
Jesus sees the
forthcoming actions of the men, but Jesus has also prayed for Peter, and no
doubt for the rest, just as Jesus prays for us (Heb. 7:25).
Jesus does not
see as we see, but we ought to learn to see as Jesus sees. We ought to be
learning to not look at the visible but at the invisible, we ought to be
learning to not see people according to the outward, but rather the inward (2
Cor. 4:18; 5:16).
Jesus sees us in
our completeness and perfection in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 2:10; Heb. 10:10,
14).
A friend of mine
recently wrote about “a narrative of failure” as opposed to a narrative of
redemption, reconciliation, and fellowship. We are called, as priests of the
Most High God, to proclaim the Narrative of Reconciliation and Redemption in
Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). We can only do this if we see as Jesus sees, if we
see the End from the Beginning in Him – always in Him.
This means that
our reconciliation and fellowship with the Trinity is an assured reality, even
though we may act otherwise, just as the apostles acted.
This is the same
dynamic that we see with Paul and the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:1 – 9, in
which Paul addresses the people as sanctified, thanking God for the grace given
to them, thanking God that in everything they are enriched in Him, that they
are not lacking in any gift. Then Paul writes that Jesus Christ, “Will confirm
you to the end, blameless.”
Just as John 17:6
– 8 makes no sense if we read it “in the moment,” so 1 Corinthians 1:1 – 9
makes no sense if read in “in the moment.” That is, if we continue reading 1 Corinthians,
we see how messed up the people were. They were tolerating and practicing
immorality, they were riven with division, there was confusion in their
gatherings – these people were the opposite of Paul’s description of them in
his introduction.
Furthermore, if
we continue into 2 Corinthians, we see that they were also being seduced by
false teachers who were leading them away from the pure simplicity and devotion
which they had in Jesus Christ.
How could Paul
be so affirming? Would not such affirmation give the Corinthians a false sense
of security?
Paul saw them in
Christ, he saw Christ’s prefect and complete work in them, he saw Jesus Christ
as the Alpha and Omega of their salvation. Paul was assured that what Jesus had
begun, that Jesus would complete (Phil. 1:6).
To be sure there
are stark warnings in Corinthians, discipline is to be received and implemented
– but they are given, and are to be received, within the Person of Jesus Christ
and His perfect work, His complete work, His assured work of salvation.
This is one on
of many reasons why it is imperative that we use Biblical language and images
when speaking to one another, when preaching and teaching. The Bible is clear
that those in Christ are saints and not sinners any longer, why do we not
believe and teach this? Why do we allow what we see on the outside to determine
our language, when God the Father sees us in His Son?
It is ironic to
me that I have friends who criticize Pentecostals and charismatics for relying
too much on experience, when they themselves rely on experience by insisting
that we are still sinners because of our actions, rather than teaching what the
Bible teaches, that we are saints in Jesus Christ, perfect and complete in Him,
always in Him. We only grow into Christ as we behold Christ, not as we look at
our own navels.
We would have no
hope if Jesus Christ did not see us, speak to us, and have koinonia with us,
based on His perfect love, grace, mercy, and work of salvation. This is how we
ought to be with one another, it is how we need to be when we look into the
mirror – we need to learn to see ourselves and others in Jesus Christ.
Let me please
share a story from my life to illustrate this. I am anything but proud of this
story, but because it may help someone, I’ll share it. Occasionally I have
shared this, but not often, it is just too painful, and I am ashamed of it.
Yet, as I hope you will see, I am deeply thankful.
I once went to
work for a firm as COO in which was a woman, I’ll call her “Susan,” who had
known me for many years and who was excited to be working for me. The firm was
not doing well financially or organizationally, and the pressure was immense. As
I look back, I did some things well, and some things not very well at all. This
is my nature, I can always see things I could have done better, see things I
did that were just stupid, and then, sadly, see things I did that were plain
wrong.
After I had been
with the firm between two and three years I terminated Susan’s employment. This
was wrong, I should not have done this.
I could share
some things that led to this decision, I could share about pressures, I could
write about our business relationship, but I don’t want to mitigate the fact
that I was wrong. I was morally and ethically wrong. If I did not see this at
the time, I most certainly should have seen it.
A few years later
I needed a job and I needed it badly. Vickie and I had been abandoned by the
church we served and had it not been for friends we may well have been homeless.
It was a terrible time for us. After many months of trying to find employment,
virtually any kind of employment, I found a job in community association management,
the kind of work I had done decades earlier. While I was deeply thankful for
the job, it wasn’t a good fit.
After about a
year a position opened at an apartment management company that I thought was a
possibility. My age was against me, I was sixty years old. Two people within the
company became advocates for me, one was Gloria who had known me for years, the
other was Susan. Yes, you read that right, Susan.
I was hired and
spent the last few years of my business career in a wonderful environment, with
a great boss, terrific colleagues, and a group of team members who worked for
me that I dearly loved and still very much love.
I once asked
Susan why she went to the president of the company and advocated for me after I
had terminated her with our previous company.
She replied, “I
knew that the Bob Withers who fired me was not the real Bob Withers.”
Jesus can say
the things He says in John 17:6 – 8 because He sees us beyond the moment, beyond
our actions, beyond our fears and uncertainties, even beyond our denial and
abandonment of Him. Jesus, our Alpha and Omega, our Beginning and End, sees us
in Him as perfect and complete.
O that we would
learn to live in this assurance, and that we would learn to extend this
assurance to others.
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