#24 - The Atonement?
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(English Standard Version)
Jn 13- Jesus washes Disciples feet - One of You will Betray Me - A New Commandment - Jesus Foretells Peter’s Denial -
Jn 14- I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life - Jesus promises the Holy Spirit
Jn 15- I AM the True Vine - The hatred of the World
Jn 16- The Work of the Holy Spirit - Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy - I Have Overcome the World
Jn 17- The High Priestly Prayer
COMMENTS and QUESTIONS
by J Neil Evans:
Only Jesus truly understood the events and the significance of the days just ahead. Jesus also understood that His followers, even though He had repeatedly told them, did not realize what lay just ahead for Himself and for them. So, Jesus pressed on to prepare them (and us) for the LIFE God was getting ready to give for and to the world.
Twice in these chapters Jesus talked about His commandments to love. It could be accurately said that “love” is a key theme of the Bible. God’s love for the world is the basis and example for Jesus’ command for us to love Him and each other. Jesus demonstrated His love for His disciples by washing their feet. Isn’t it amazing that He washed Judas’ feet even though He knew that he would betray Him in just a few hours. In fact all the disciples would desert Him but Jesus supremely loved them still. His love for them was not based on their obedience to His commands, but on His own loving character.
The most common kind of human love says: “I’ll love you if you love me; if you do what makes me happy; if you are lovable.” God’s kind of love says: “Even when we are sinners Christ died for us.” In fact, Jesus commanded us to love Him and others because He knows that is what will be a blessing to us, not because we need to make ourselves fit to be loved by Him. Love always precedes obeying commands: “if you love me, keep my commands.” It is a good thing that God’s love for me and my love for Him doesn’t depend on my keeping His commands because all of His commands are impossible for me to keep perfectly.
Perhaps one of the main values of God’s commands to us is to show us that we are powerless to keep them. There is not even one of God’s commands that I have kept perfectly, which proves that if my relationship with God depends on my loving obedience I am doomed. This is why Jesus didn’t say for me to abide in my love because He knew how fickle it is, but He told me to abide in His Word (Jn 8:31), abide in Him (Jn 15:4,6,7), abide in His love (Jn 15:9,10,). Only Jesus’ Word is flawless, only Jesus’ Love is perfect, only Jesus Himself is a perfect abiding place. To think my faltering obedience can earn a place in Him is truly hopeless. Only His sacrificial love can give me a place there; and it is His Gracious Love that motivates me to live in His Word, in His Love, in Him.
Jesus knew not only the awful pressures His followers (and me) would face when He was physically gone. He knew both the opposing influence of the world and my inability to continue following Him in my own power. Thus He sent the Holy Spirit (Whom the Bible describes with all the attributes of God Himself) to help me, be with me, be in me, and to teach me about Jesus. He sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of our sin, our unrighteousness and God’s Judgment. He sent the Holy Spirit to teach me by God’s Word.
The last thing Jesus did while He was on earth was to give His followers the privileged task of telling the world all about His amazing love. He promised that even though we couldn’t see Him we would be with us (in the Holy Spirit) always.
The second to last thing Jesus did while He was on earth was to offer Himself as the payment for our sin, taking the wrath of God upon Himself so that all who would accept the gift could have the LIFE of eternal fellowship with God that our own efforts could never achieve. He proved the effectiveness of His death in our place by taking back the life that our sin, and God’s wrath, had taken from Him.
But just before His ultimate sacrifice, Jesus did something most amazing. He prayed for His followers (for me) who would leave, deny, disobey, doubt and misrepresent Him over and over again. He prayed that we would, by His Overcoming Power, be and do things that were impossible in our own strength. He prayed that we would have a kind of loving oneness that would both give us shelter from the hostile world and effectively demonstrate and declare God’s LIFE to a dead world.
Jesus prayed these things on the basis of His Oneness with the Father. That Oneness was certainly of purpose, heart and mind, and He desires that oneness for His followers. But His prayer was effective because it was grounded in a Oneness with the Father that is characterized by Glory, Authority, Eternal LIFE that Jesus said characterizes the “Only True God.” (Jn 17:1-5) These truths are also declared in Isaiah 43 where The LORD says He created, formed, redeemed His people and would be with them in trouble. He did these things because, as He said: “I AM the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” As He declares His love for His people, He calls them His “witnesses” and as such He desires that they “know and believe me and understand that I AM He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I AM the LORD, and besides me there is no Savior.”
It seems clear that while the followers of Jesus can have a oneness with God’s purpose, heart and mind, there is a Oneness in God that is entirely different from what Jesus’ followers can experience. In fact it was this difference, which Jesus claimed to have, that prompted the religious leaders to accuse Jesus of blasphemy and to crucify Him. The accusers of Jesus’ were indeed jealous of Him and wanted Him gone, but they sincerely believed that Jesus was not the Messiah but an imposter leading the people astray. But, their sincerity did not make them right, they were wrong, and Jesus’ resurrection proved His claims to be true and his accusers to be sadly mistaken.
I am so thankful that rather than abiding in my heartfelt but fickle love, I have the privilege of abiding and continuing in Jesus Gracious and Powerful Love for me.
(English Standard Version)
Jn 13- Jesus washes Disciples feet - One of You will Betray Me - A New Commandment - Jesus Foretells Peter’s Denial -
Jn 14- I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life - Jesus promises the Holy Spirit
Jn 15- I AM the True Vine - The hatred of the World
Jn 16- The Work of the Holy Spirit - Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy - I Have Overcome the World
Jn 17- The High Priestly Prayer
COMMENTS and QUESTIONS
by J Neil Evans:
Only Jesus truly understood the events and the significance of the days just ahead. Jesus also understood that His followers, even though He had repeatedly told them, did not realize what lay just ahead for Himself and for them. So, Jesus pressed on to prepare them (and us) for the LIFE God was getting ready to give for and to the world.
Twice in these chapters Jesus talked about His commandments to love. It could be accurately said that “love” is a key theme of the Bible. God’s love for the world is the basis and example for Jesus’ command for us to love Him and each other. Jesus demonstrated His love for His disciples by washing their feet. Isn’t it amazing that He washed Judas’ feet even though He knew that he would betray Him in just a few hours. In fact all the disciples would desert Him but Jesus supremely loved them still. His love for them was not based on their obedience to His commands, but on His own loving character.
The most common kind of human love says: “I’ll love you if you love me; if you do what makes me happy; if you are lovable.” God’s kind of love says: “Even when we are sinners Christ died for us.” In fact, Jesus commanded us to love Him and others because He knows that is what will be a blessing to us, not because we need to make ourselves fit to be loved by Him. Love always precedes obeying commands: “if you love me, keep my commands.” It is a good thing that God’s love for me and my love for Him doesn’t depend on my keeping His commands because all of His commands are impossible for me to keep perfectly.
Perhaps one of the main values of God’s commands to us is to show us that we are powerless to keep them. There is not even one of God’s commands that I have kept perfectly, which proves that if my relationship with God depends on my loving obedience I am doomed. This is why Jesus didn’t say for me to abide in my love because He knew how fickle it is, but He told me to abide in His Word (Jn 8:31), abide in Him (Jn 15:4,6,7), abide in His love (Jn 15:9,10,). Only Jesus’ Word is flawless, only Jesus’ Love is perfect, only Jesus Himself is a perfect abiding place. To think my faltering obedience can earn a place in Him is truly hopeless. Only His sacrificial love can give me a place there; and it is His Gracious Love that motivates me to live in His Word, in His Love, in Him.
Jesus knew not only the awful pressures His followers (and me) would face when He was physically gone. He knew both the opposing influence of the world and my inability to continue following Him in my own power. Thus He sent the Holy Spirit (Whom the Bible describes with all the attributes of God Himself) to help me, be with me, be in me, and to teach me about Jesus. He sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world of our sin, our unrighteousness and God’s Judgment. He sent the Holy Spirit to teach me by God’s Word.
The last thing Jesus did while He was on earth was to give His followers the privileged task of telling the world all about His amazing love. He promised that even though we couldn’t see Him we would be with us (in the Holy Spirit) always.
The second to last thing Jesus did while He was on earth was to offer Himself as the payment for our sin, taking the wrath of God upon Himself so that all who would accept the gift could have the LIFE of eternal fellowship with God that our own efforts could never achieve. He proved the effectiveness of His death in our place by taking back the life that our sin, and God’s wrath, had taken from Him.
But just before His ultimate sacrifice, Jesus did something most amazing. He prayed for His followers (for me) who would leave, deny, disobey, doubt and misrepresent Him over and over again. He prayed that we would, by His Overcoming Power, be and do things that were impossible in our own strength. He prayed that we would have a kind of loving oneness that would both give us shelter from the hostile world and effectively demonstrate and declare God’s LIFE to a dead world.
Jesus prayed these things on the basis of His Oneness with the Father. That Oneness was certainly of purpose, heart and mind, and He desires that oneness for His followers. But His prayer was effective because it was grounded in a Oneness with the Father that is characterized by Glory, Authority, Eternal LIFE that Jesus said characterizes the “Only True God.” (Jn 17:1-5) These truths are also declared in Isaiah 43 where The LORD says He created, formed, redeemed His people and would be with them in trouble. He did these things because, as He said: “I AM the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” As He declares His love for His people, He calls them His “witnesses” and as such He desires that they “know and believe me and understand that I AM He. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I AM the LORD, and besides me there is no Savior.”
It seems clear that while the followers of Jesus can have a oneness with God’s purpose, heart and mind, there is a Oneness in God that is entirely different from what Jesus’ followers can experience. In fact it was this difference, which Jesus claimed to have, that prompted the religious leaders to accuse Jesus of blasphemy and to crucify Him. The accusers of Jesus’ were indeed jealous of Him and wanted Him gone, but they sincerely believed that Jesus was not the Messiah but an imposter leading the people astray. But, their sincerity did not make them right, they were wrong, and Jesus’ resurrection proved His claims to be true and his accusers to be sadly mistaken.
I am so thankful that rather than abiding in my heartfelt but fickle love, I have the privilege of abiding and continuing in Jesus Gracious and Powerful Love for me.
Check out these LINKS:
Watch Bible Project video about Matthew
Watch Bible Project video about Mark
Watch Bible Project video about Luke
Watch Bible Project video about John
Read "Bible Words to Ponder" related to this week study
Read "The Gospel"