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.