Another Jaw-Dropping Purpose of John 17

John 17 is one of the most mind-blowing chapters in the Bible. The reader gets a snapshot of the intimate relationship between Jesus and his Father. However, that is not the only purpose of the prayer in this passage, D. A. Carson points out another:

“This prayer demonstrates the depth of Jesus’ communion with his Father, and this constitutes a paradigm for the intimate relationship with the Father that the disciples themselves will come to enjoy.” The Gospel According to John, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 564

I mentioned in a previous post that believer’s are invited into a measure of the kind of relationship that Jesus has with his Father, and John 17 functions as a paradigm as to what that can look like. Yes, be amazed at God the Son and God the Father’s joyful eternal relationship, but don’t stop there. Discover the jaw-dropping truth that those who trust Jesus are invited to enjoy that kind of experience and communion with the Father.

Stunning.

When God Saves a Religious Extremist

The recent horrifying terror events in Oslo allegedly planned and carried out by Anders Behring Breivik, whom The Atlantic has called a “Christian Extremist”, not only furthers the conversation about the threat of terrorism but the conversation about the threat of religious extremism of any kind. This kind of religious extremism has been rightly condemned by the media and by sane people alike, but extremism of a certain kind is not necessarily evil but inevitable. Martin Luther King Jr. assumed extremism in his Letter From Birmingham Jail: “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?”

The New Testament resoundingly assumes that any “Christian” extremism that results in the hateful murder of human beings is not Christian at all.

The New Testament paints a picture of its biggest Christian missionary before his conversion to Christianity in similar terms as Breivik. The book of Acts says that Saul, whose name was later changed to Paul, was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (9:1-2). He was identified as a religious extremist who saw himself, as New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce has pointed out, in line with the “great paragons of religious zeal in Israel’s history—Phinehas, Elijah, and Mattathias (father of Maccabees)—who were prepared to go to extremes of violence against the enemies of God” (The Book of Acts, 180). Paul even approved of the execution of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who publicly proclaimed the historical death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and some have gone so far as to say that he may have been the one “charged with proclaiming that the convicted person was about to be executed for the specified offense” (Bruce, 161).

But God saved this extremist, and Paul went from condemning those who believed that Jesus was the crucified and resurrected Messiah to believing it himself and spreading this message throughout the Mediterranean in spite of fierce opposition. In other words, Paul went from being an extremist of hate to an extremist for love. God’s eye-opening grace in Paul’s life on the road to Damascus turned him from being a man who hunted down those who disagreed with his religion to being a man who was persecuted for spreading the news that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and one and only Savior of the world. He did not seek to kill for this message, but was willing to be killed to spread it. In fact, tradition has said that Paul was eventually killed by the Roman Emperor Nero for his faith.

Authentic commitment to Jesus creates extremists for love and grace not hate and injustice.

This kind of reaction should not surprise Christians. Belief in the exclusivity of Jesus spawns hateful extremism by those who reject it. Jesus himself said this: “And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Mk 13:13). Ironically, those who believe the claims of Jesus and tell others about them will be viewed as extremists and some will be killed because of it.

On the other hand, the New Testament resoundingly assumes that any “Christian” extremism that results in the hateful murder of human beings is not Christian at all. But there is a kind of Christian extremism that is the corollary effect of the Christian gospel, and that is extremism for the message of the self-sacrificial and substitutionary love of Jesus Christ. Now this belief is that which many today find intolerable and even evil because of its exclusivity, but notice the difference, this kind of belief never seeks the harm of another human being because it is rooted in the conviction that the salvation of humanity lies in its message of the love and grace revealed in the person and work of Jesus.

When God saves a religious extremist he does not make him less of one, but he does make him a different kind of one.

When God saves a religious extremist he does not make him less of one, but he does make him a different kind of one. Instead of sending them on a crusade of hate, he sends them on a mission of love. This loving mission will include proselytizing. Even the atheistic magician Penn Jillette reached this conclusion in one of his You Tube clips on his interaction with one whom he described as a sane and kind Christian that gave him a Gideon Bible: “How much do you have to hate someone not to proselytize?” A Christian extremist should be the kind of person who seeks the good of his neighbor and his enemies in the here-and-now by doing deeds of compassion like Jesus did, and the good of his neighbor and his enemies for of all eternity by calling them to repent and believe the good news of Jesus who died for the ungodly.

The diabolical acts of Breivik should be publicly detested by all Christians, but all Christians should not waver in their allegiance to King Jesus whose kingdom is not of the world but has invaded the world with substitutionary love for sinners by being executed in their place and raised from the dead for their justification. Authentic commitment to Jesus creates extremists for love and grace not hate and injustice.

Jesus Empties Sinful Accusations of Their Power

One of the wonderful benefits of the saving work of Jesus is that past sin cannot stand against the believer because believers have had their trespasses forgiven and demonic authorities have been disarmed. Many believers do not walk in this liberation, but submit to and live under the power of sinful accusations.

As sure as Jesus’ hands and feet were physically nailed to the cross, so sure has the record of your sinful indebtedness to God been removed.

Paul wrote to believers who were struggling with this very issue the following:

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Colossians 2:13-15).

The debt of sin that you have accumulated because of your rebellion against God’s holy law and your own conscience that testifies against you each of which has separated you from God has been blotted out by God’s mercy in Christ. As sure as Jesus’ hands and feet were physically nailed to the cross, so sure has the record of your sinful indebtedness to God been removed.

Therefore when internal memories of past sin come to condemn you and depress you, quit looking at the sin and turn to Jesus who was crucified for it. When external demonic accusation assaults you, rest in the fact that Jesus has disarmed demons and the Devil. These accusations cannot stand in God’s court. The penalty for those sins has been paid. Satan is rendered powerless. The accusations are empty.

Jesus does not parade your sin before you or condemn you. Those feelings are not from him.

One of my favorite commentators, Peter O’Brien, writes the following in his commentary on Colossians:

“Those who had once been spiritually dead in their trespasses and sinful nature God had made alive. The Colossians had come to life with Christ who was dead and rose again…[God] had not only canceled the debt but also destroyed the document on which it was recorded. This he did by blotting out the bond with its damning indictment against us and nailing it to the cross when Christ died. Further, he stripped the principalities and power, who had kept us in their grip through their possession of this document, divesting them of their dignity and might. God exposed to the universe their utter helplessness leading them in Christ in his triumphal procession. He paraded these powerless ‘powers and principalities’ so that all the world might see the magnitutde of his victory.” (133)

Therefore when satanic powers parade your sin before you, rest assured that they have been paraded through the universe and shamed by Jesus. When your conscience rises to condemn you, count on the sin-canceling bloodied cross of Christ that shouts “no condemnation!” over you. Jesus does not parade your sin before you or condemn you. Those feelings are not from him. He cleanses you with his blood and covers you with his grace. The power of the death and resurrection of King Jesus has disarmed any power that attacks you via accusations and has wiped out the massive debt that would have crushed you.

Do not wallow in your sinfulness. Stand in Jesus’ grace.

Invited into Relationship with the Father

I preached this last Sunday on the relationship of Jesus with his Father and with the Holy Spirit. The gospel of Luke distinctly shows how Jesus’ ministry was influenced by his relationship with the Holy Spirit, and the gospel of John uniquely demonstrates how Jesus’ ministry was influenced by his relationship with his Father. One of the things I have been stunned by is how believers are invited into a similar kind of relationship with the Father and the Spirit by virtue of their being in Christ.

One of the ways this landed home for me was in reading the book of John, and how the Son of God, Jesus, highlights the influence of his relationship with the Father continuously. Jesus does the deeds of his Father, he does the will of his Father, he speaks the words of his Father, he prays to his Father, he loves his Father and his Father loves him, he glorifies his Father and his Father glorifies him, etc. The relationship of the Father and the Son intersect, interconnect, and influence one another.

The saving work of the Son of God has brought about an unhindered relationship for the sons of God with the Father.

As we come to the end of the gospel, Jesus dies and rises again establishing a new creation. And just before his ascension back to the Father, Jesus says the following mind-blowing statement, especially when taking in context with the connection between the Son and the Father revealed in this book, for Mary to relay to the disciples:

“…but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” John. 20:17

Jesus’ work in death and resurrection, as Hebrews puts it, has brought many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10).  The disciples, and all who trust the Son, now relate to God as Father and are his sons and brothers to Jesus. The saving work of the Son of God has brought about an unhindered relationship for the sons of God with the Father. If you trust Jesus, you can now walk in this kind of relationship. You are NOT divine like Jesus, but you have been called into the multiplicity of privileges of relationship with his Father–“my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”