Jesus Making Himself Right at Home
mmalanga | June 9, 2006The Traveler’s Advisory
Friday 9 June 2006
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” —John 14.23
In John 14, Jesus begins His farewell discourse—His last will and testament given to the apostles before His arrest and crucifixion. He speaks with an urgency as poignant as it is purposeful. Every sentence, every phrase, every word is chosen with loving care because when He is gone, all the apostles will have left will be His words.
On that night, the apostle Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, “… Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world.” Jesus’ answer is puzzling, “If anyone loves Me, He will obey My teaching.” What does our obedience to what Jesus teaches have to do with His showing Himself to the apostles and not to the world? The answer is found by remembering the fundamentals of what Jesus taught. Once He was gone, the only thing that would fortify the apostles’ faith would His teaching—His words.
So what did Jesus teach? What words did Jesus leave behind for us to obey? And how would our obedience prove our love for Him? The words He left behind is the Gospel. In John 14.23, Jesus clearly states there is a direct relationship between our obedience to His words and our love for Him. If we love Jesus we will practice the words He taught us through His Gospel. We will only obey Jesus to the extent that we love Him.
Conversely, we will only love Jesus to the extent that we obey Him. Jesus says the reward for our obedience will be to have the Father and the Son make their home in us. How this happens is a mystery, perhaps the mystery of our faith. Why this happens is clear: it is as we obey the words of Jesus that He and the Father make their home in us. It is not that we become gods, but that God the Father and God the Son choose to make their home in us.
The imagery of Jesus’ words comes from the Old Testament—specifically to the time of the Exodus when God dwelt in the midst of the people of Israel in the tabernacle—a kind of movable worship center. Under the New Testament, God chooses to dwell in His people by means of His Holy Spirit as we obey the words of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As followers of Jesus we are under divine obligation to live in obedience to the words of Jesus. And that’s the question isn’t it? Do we live like natives of the kingdom of God, or do we live like permanent residents of that same kingdom? Permanent residents have the option of returning to their country of origin. Natives have no other country to go to; unless they reject their citizenship to become citizens of another kingdom.
If you and I are born-again followers of Jesus then we have become citizens of the kingdom of God. That is a privilege granted to us by God’s grace. It is also a great responsibility for now we must live in obedience to Jesus’ teaching. No matter how difficult His words are to obey they must be kept.
And to the extent that His people obey His words, Jesus will show Himself to the world. More than that He will find other men and women in Him He and the Father can make their home until the day He will come back and bring us all to our eternal home.
You think about that.
MM
