There are Scriptures that speak to us as though guiding us
in one step forward, and there are others that put down a marker for something
that will direct every step we take for the rest of our lives. Here are two of
those markers that may really be two sides of the same lesson.
The first side comes out of something Jesus said when he
was confronted with his terrible law-breaking activity of healing a man on the
Sabbath.[1] Jesus’ response to his accusers expressed a
reality of his relationship to his Father in absolutely everything he did. He
stated it like this: “My Father is
working until now, and I am working.”[2] Jesus introduced his explanation for why the true,
law-abiding Messiah would do this “work” on the Sabbath. His answer? It was his
Father’s work. Jesus was working along with his Father.
Now, the religious hypocrites got very angry about this
because they understood that Jesus was making himself out to be equal with God.
No problem there since Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us.[3]
Jesus responded to his opponents’ anger by declaring, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever
the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”[4] Negatively speaking, Jesus can do “nothing” by himself. Positively
speaking, Jesus can do “only” what he
sees his Father doing. Together, Jesus does “whatever”
the Father does. Always.
This one verse (in context, that is) has shaped my
understanding of God’s work more than any other. It has been twenty-two years
since this first stood out to me, and it has blessed me, helped me, reproved
me, corrected me, and guided me ever since.
The point is that, Jesus had a relationship with his Father
in which everything he ever did was a way of doing what the Father was already
doing. I had to add this description to everything Jesus did in the gospels. He
didn’t teach one thing, heal one person, feed one of the thousands of people he
fed, without personally knowing that this was the work the Father was doing.
At the same time I had to take this all the way back to
creation where God said, “Let ‘us’ make
man in our own image, after our likeness,”[5] understanding that “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing
made that was made.”[6] The Father and the Son did everything together
from the beginning. This continues all the way through the Bible to the
prophecies of the end. When Jesus said to his disciples, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his
work,”[7] he meant that this was the only thing he always
did.
The second part of this is how Jesus explained the way this
applies to his disciples.[8] After telling them that he was the true vine, he
told them that they could nothing on their own. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”[9] The point is simple: disciples cannot live as
disciples apart from this “abiding” relationship with their Savior.
Jesus stated this more positively when he added, “I am the
vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that
bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”[10] While it is true that we can “do nothing” apart
from Jesus, we must hold this hope within our hearts, that when we do abide in Jesus,
and Jesus abides in us, we are then able to bear the kind of fruit that is the
full evidence of the Father’s work.
This is why Jesus exhorts the disciples, “By this my Father
is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”[11] Why is the Father the one who is glorified when we
“let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and
give glory to your Father who is in heaven”?[12] It is because the light is the expression of his
presence in us. The sap of life that flows through us branches is the life of Jesus,
the light of the world.[13]
It would be nice to get into this much more than a little
blog-post can do. However, I trust this is enough for you to consider how you
could take a step in the right direction today by asking God to make everything
about what he is doing. You can be sure that he is at his work today just as he
was on that day that Jesus got into trouble for joining his Father’s work. And
you can be confident that joining the Triune God in their work is the best
thing you could do.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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