Jesus, by his
very nature, is the one who makes the Father known. He is the Word of God[2],
the image of God[3],
the Son of God[4],
and the radiance of God’s glory[5]. He
does nothing on his own, but everything with the Father[6]. In
considering how Jesus makes God and his revelations known, I found myself
meditating on this Scripture: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known,
that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”[7]
When
we look at all the biblical descriptions of Jesus making the Father and his
words known, there is this inescapable treasure presented before our very eyes.
The effect, or the result, of Jesus making the Father and his revelations known,
is that the love with which the Father has loved Jesus would be in us who
believe in this name, and Jesus himself would be in us.
Have
you looked in the mirror lately and considered this wonder? That the same love
that God the Father has for Jesus can be in you? Have you let your heart
meditate on this strange thought, that Jesus would actually say such an
unbelievable thing so that mere creatures like us could enjoy the gracious
strangeness of being loved in this way?
And
yet, Jesus reveals the divine name to us for something even more intimately
personal than mere creatures sharing the same love from the Father as he has
experienced forever. Jesus reveals the Father's name to his disciples so that
Jesus himself could be in us.
No
one could have imagined such a thing as this, that Jesus would want to be in his
creatures at all, let alone a creature so utterly sinful as ourselves. However,
Jesus not only wanted us to know what it is like to be loved by the Father, and
to feel that same love for ourselves, but he wanted to be inside us, dwelling
within us, and sharing this experience with us. Jesus being loved by the Father
is in us who are being loved by the Father, while Jesus also loves us with the
same love with which the Father has loved him[8].
Now,
the wonder grows as we consider how determined Jesus was to enter our sinful
world for this purpose, that he could find the people his Father had given him,
call them into this love, and reveal to them the name of the Father, so that we
could know the intimate love relationship between the Father and the Son. We
can experience being sons loved by the Father, indwelt by the Son, who is loved
by the Father. And it is this intimate love relationship the Triune God wants
us to share with them as Jesus makes known to us the wondrous words his Father
breathed-out in the Revelation.
No
wonder Paul would write: “…to the praise of his glorious
grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”[9] Come to Jesus and be blessed!
© 2012 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K
1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
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