Last week I mentioned
that the only way a local church can be a redemptive force in its community is
to have Christ living within it. Apart from him, he told his disciples, they
could do nothing (John 15:5).When it comes to a local church – or an entire
denomination for that matter – usefulness in the kingdom of God is not so much
a matter of what it tries to do for God as what God does through it.
It’s worth mentioning as
we explore this idea further that this is not only true for us as Christians
and churches today; it was also true of our Lord Jesus Christ. John’s account
of Jesus’ life provides unique insight into how Jesus lived in relationship to
his Father and the mission he had been sent on.
And it establishes, what is more, Jesus as a pattern for us to follow.
The nature of Jesus’
ministry is nowhere revealed more clearly than in an interchange with Jews in
Such a claim only
enraged his opponents more. Jesus, however, didn’t back down. Quite the
opposite; he went on to say that the Son could do nothing by himself, but only
what he saw his Father doing. Everything his Father did, he, the Son, also did
(v. 19). And because the Father loved him, Jesus said, he showed him everything
he did (v. 20). Consequently, the work of Jesus was nothing but an expression
of his working together with his Father.
That’s why he could say
that his words and works were not just his own, but that they belonged to his
Father (see, for example John 8:28, 29; 12:49; 14:10). His work was in fact,
really the Father doing his work
through him (14:10). He was “in the
Father” and “the Father in him” (10:38; 14:10). To have seen and known him was
in fact to see and know the Father (14:9).
Such was the uniqueness
of the relationship between Jesus and his Father – he was, after all, the
eternal Son of the Father who had come forth from the Father (John 1:1) – we
cannot but be hesitant in claiming anything approaching the same kind of relationship
with Jesus himself. Nevertheless Jesus’ own words remove any doubt about this.
Repeatedly he speaks of parallels between his own relationship with his Father
and ours with him. Just as his Father sent him into the world, so he sends us into
the world (John 17:18); as his Father was in him and he in the Father, so he is
in us and we in him (14:10, 20). The list of parallels goes on and on driving
us to the conclusion that our relationship with him is to mirror the way he
lived with the Father.
One of his sayings puts
this beyond doubt. Once when he was addressing a crowd eager to see him perform
a miracle or sign from heaven like the “sign Moses gave” their forefathers
(manna, or bread from heaven), he told them that he was the true bread from
heaven (John 6:33, 35, 51). Instead of hankering after bread that perishes,
they were to eat the bread he had come to give, namely, his own flesh and blood
(6:51, 53, 54). If they did, they would never die but live forever (6:54. 58).
What is more, those who did would “remain” in him and he
in them (6:56).
Such a claim both
perplexed and offended his hearers. They couldn’t comprehend what he meant. But
again, rather than toning down what he had said, Jesus reinforced it. “Just as
the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father,” he added, “so the
one who feeds on me will live because of me” (6:57). Here Jesus states the
parallel clearly. He had been sent by the “living” Father into the world and
lived “because of the Father” – that is, as a result of receiving life from the
Father. In just the same way, those who “feed” on him will live because of him.
Just as he derived his life from the Father, so we draw our life from him.
Otherwise we have no life within us (see also 1 John 5:11, 12).
Here, then, is the
wonder of the Christian life and the life of the church. It is not
self-derived, but comes through and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Only as the
individual Christian remains in him can they bear fruit (John 15:5). And
likewise, only as a church remains in Christ and experiences his life within
itself can it accomplish anything of redemptive significance in the world. That
is its uniqueness in the world; it is a body filled and animated with the life
of Christ. As it responds to that life, Jesus himself works through it to
accomplish his purposes.
That should fill us with
joy and hope. Who among us doesn’t feel the limitations of our own powers –
either as individual Christians or as churches? Yet, our significance and
usefulness is clearly not connected ultimately with what we can or can’t do. It
is about how the Lord Jesus Christ chooses to use us. The question is not
ability so much as usability. It’s about being available and responsive and reliant
upon the Lord. When that is true of us, nothing is impossible. More to the
point, there is the assurance of abounding fruitfulness and fulfilling joy
(John 15:5, 11).