THE FATHER AND I ARE ONE
I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
Jesus answered: “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’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? John 14:9-10
Jesus’ testimony was unchanged throughout His earthly life.
What He said and did was an echo of the Father. This presupposes that He spent time with the Father to nurture the unity and to get His marching orders. Even when the pressure was so great that His perspiration was stained with blood, He did not waver in His commitment to be a true Son.
He withdrew about as stone’s throw beyond them and knelt down and prayed. ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’ An angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22: 41-44)
He was not shy to affirm His complete commitment to doing what pleased the Father, even to the use of “always”. How was it possible that the Father would not “always” be there to support Him when His loyalty was unwavering?
The One who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him. (John 8: 29)
He offered Himself up to death to please the Father.
Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer . . . (Isa. 53: 10a)
Jesus loved the Father passionately. His love for the Father was the motivation of His life. His commitment to unity with the Father was fuelled by His love. Anything He did that was not done out of love for the Father was of no value at all. Because of His own passion, He could make the same demand of His disciples. It was a given.
If you love me, you will obey what I command. (John 14: 15)
Jesus expressed His love for the Father through His submission and obedience, and He expected His disciples to respond to His love for them in the same way.
The greatest commandment was undoubtedly to love God fully, completely, and passionately as He had affirmed to the religion expert who had questioned Him. When He was asked on one occasion which was the greatest commandment, there could be only one answer:
One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’ (Matt. 22: 35-38)
Not only did Jesus love the Father in this way and demonstrate it by His implicit obedience to the Father’s will, but He also drew His disciples into the circle of that love to share in the ecstasy He experienced with the Father.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17: 22-23)
Love was the sum of the constitution of the kingdom of God given to the people of Israel in the Torah. The love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit spilled over into the whole of mankind, sinful though they were, because love is the essence of God’s nature, and unity, fuelled by love, is the adhesive energy that holds everything together.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3: 16)
Jesus satisfied the Father’s love for the world by doing everything the Father required of Him with joy because He delighted in the Father and in His will, no matter how costly it was and what it required of Him.
Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.