God With Us … In Us
Probably the most comprehensive and detailed description of this “birth of the Spirit” is what Jesus said about it during His extensive conversation around the Seder table on the night of His trial.
The conversation takes up five chapters in all; John 13 through 17. Chapters 14 through 16 contain numerous references to the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus’ followers. In order to fully see the description we need to break it down into a sequential view of the points He made.
He begins with a statement,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him
and have seen him.”
This point seems clear enough. To know Jesus is to know God. Knowing “me” he states, is to “know my Father as well.” So, knowing “me” is to know “Him.” Seeing “me” is to have “seen Him.”
Phillip, one of His followers, obviously didn’t get it. His request, which follows immediately on Jesus affirmation of His unity with the Father, shows how much a man “of this world” he really was. His and his Friends’ ideas of God’s ultimate plans were like those of Nicodemus and other Jews. They expected a dramatic world takeover. Phillip and his fellows believed they’d been following the “Hope of Israel;” “Messiah.” They further believed that, with the takeover, they would be key players in the conquest and the New World Order. That’s why, frequently, they argued about who was going to be “greatest” in this new Kingdom. So he asked for something you might expect he’d want. “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough.” Show us the Father. Phillip wanted something dramatic. He knew what happened when Moses made a similar request. And He wanted something like that to happen now. Quite likely he was expecting that the appearance of the Father would, inevitably, set in motion the phenomenal events he was still expecting. But Jesus would have nothing to do with it. He pressed the point He made earlier.
“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone
who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you
believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not
just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
The point is clear and the principal issue is our relationship with Jesus.
- He and Father God are one and the same person. The work that Jesus does is the exact
same work that the Father is doing. “Heaven,” is “opened.” Heaven and Jesus are fully
co-operating in the work of the “Kingdom of God.” Anyone who truly “knows” Jesus
understands this profound unity that exists between Father and Son. To see one is to see
the other.
His next points add new meaning to His earlier teaching about our need to be “born of the Spirit.” He says,
“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and
will be in you.”
There are three critical points here.
- Love for Jesus involves taking what He says seriously and acting on it. If He asks us to
do certain things we’ll do them simply because we love Him and want to please Him.
- If we do what He asks, out of this loving desire to please Him, He will give us another
“Counselor,” someone to hereafter assume the role He’s filled in our lives while here in
person.
- That “Counselor” is the Spirit of truth. The same Spirit that was given to Him “without
measure,” will be given to us. We must get this! The Spirit will be “with” us and “in” us.
This is what being born of the Spirit is. The Spirit who empowered and directed Jesus takes
up residence at the core of our being – spirit/heart/will – and assumes the role of Jesus.
At this point Jesus takes us to a whole new level. He says, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”
- Jesus has been talking about going somewhere. He’s told His followers that they’ll have
someone else to fill the place He’s occupied in their lives. But now, He’s saying He will
“come” to them. The only explanation for this seeming ambivalence is that He’s teaching
something about His and the Spirit’s relationship. And so He is.
The lesson becomes a bit clearer in a following statement.
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our home with him.”
- This is the most direct statement Jesus has made yet about His and the Father’s
relationship with the Holy Spirit. Just a few sentences earlier He’s told these Friends that
the Holy Spirit will soon come in His place. Then He says that the Spirit’s coming would be
one and the same thing as His coming. Now He’s teaching them that the Spirit’s coming is
one and the same thing as the coming of both Himself and the Father. And, their coming,
like that of the Spirit, will be “forever.” They are coming to “make their home” with the one
in whom “what they want done is being done.”
Just in case you think that the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not as clear as I’ve suggested the following statements establish it to be so with increasing certainty. “… (T)he Counselor, the Holy Spirit,” He says, “whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
- As Jesus was the Teacher, the ultimate “Word” from God,” – in every lesson He taught
doing the work of the Father,” – the “Counselor, the Holy Spirit,” will “teach” them “all
things.” He will “remind” them of “everything” Jesus “said to them.” The work of the Spirit
will be the work of the Son which is the work of the Father.
In Chapter 15 verse 26 Jesus says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.”
- Jesus is now stating that He will “send” the “Counselor … from the Father.” Just moments
before He had said that He would ask the Father and the Father would “give” the
Counselor. Now He asserts that He “will send” “the Spirit of truth.” These three are so
intimately interrelated that to talk about one is to talk about the other.
Jesus makes the final and conclusive statement in Chapter 16 verses 12 through 15.
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit
of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak
only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by
taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine.
That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
Here is the summary.
- The Spirit works with “what is mine,” Jesus insists. “What is mine,” is “all that belongs to
the Father.” These three are all working together. Their material, their work, their
objectives are the same. Of course! They are one. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are
one. To have the Spirit “in” us is to have “Father” and “Son” in us. The Holy Spirit has
“come upon” us. The “power” of the “Most High has overshadowed us.” This is the
detailed description of what a “birth from above” is all about. It is, what St. Paul described
as a “mystery” revealed. It is “Christ in you the hope of Glory.” (See Colossians 1:26 & 27)
Only someone living this “new” kind of life is capable of “seeing” – looking on – “the Kingdom of God.” Certainly it is the only kind of life that will survive and flourish in such a “Kingdom.” “The Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Such “spiritual” life will not “perish.” Jesus said it. And most anyone familiar with the Bible remembers the statement.
“God loves the world so much that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Some time later, in a prayer, Jesus makes a most enlightening statement. Remember, He’s praying.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
The spiritual life Jesus is teaching us about is “eternal.”
Moreover it has a singular focus. It is bent on “knowing” God; Father and Son. Jesus said pretty much the same thing while encouraging people to stop worrying about the stuff we usually worry about.
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we
wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31 – 33)
To “seek” someone’s Kingdom is to pursue an understanding of the nature of things under their rule. The true “seeker” wants to “know” the ruler personally as well. But beyond that someone who “seeks” a Kingdom is “searching” for a destiny; a way of life they can trust for safety, freedom, and well-being. The King they choose will be someone they’ve come to believe they can trust their lives with. Jesus is teaching that it is only when we trust all aspects of our lives to the Father’s Sovereign control that we will “know” Him well. And it makes perfect sense. If the one and only God is “in us,” there is no further place for any illusions that we might be the masters of our own “destiny.” He is fully in charge. Then and only then is He free to reveal Himself to us completely. Then and only then will we really “know” Him. Finally, we know what it is like to live with “the Holy Spirit” at work in us; “overshadowed by the Most High.” With that we “know” the Father and what it is like to be His “children.” As “children of the Heavenly Father,” we discover we are Christ’s brothers and sisters. With the Father, our Lord Jesus, and the Spirit - God - alive in us we find we are gradually becoming like Jesus Himself. Usually we're the last ones to notice. But it's happening. We and the “Kingdom of the Heavens” are in growing collaboration. We are in lock step on more and more issues, daily. The “Heavens” have been “opened.” Heavenly beings “ascend and descend on” us continually. We are “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19) Everyday it is more apparent, to those who observe us, that we “have been with Jesus.” Our presence is perceived as the presence of someone “filled with the Spirit.” The Kingdom, flourishing in us quietly but certainly, asserts its influence in the world; among the people where we live. People we interact with are coming under His rule. When He returns business in us and such people will simply go on as usual. After all we will have been becoming “the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” Then and there, on the foundation of those hearts, He will finally “make everything new.”
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