John 14:12-14 ESV
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Whoever Believing in Jesus
The word “believes” is really “believing,” which means it is
present and active belief. It is the same as the word “faith” which means to be
persuaded by God as to his holiness and righteousness and as to his divine will
and purpose for our lives. For faith comes from God, it is gifted to us by God,
and Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. We can’t even come to
faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws us to Christ.
So, this faith is not of ourselves, of our own willpower or
of our own thinking with regard to what this faith should look like. So, when
we say that all we have to do is “believe” in Jesus, we don’t get to define
what that means. The Scriptures define what that means. And if this faith comes
from God and is gifted to us by God and is perfected by Jesus Christ, then this
faith is going to submit to Christ as Lord, forsake our lives of sin, and obey
our Lord.
For, we read in Hebrews 12 that we are to lay aside
(forsake) every weight and sin which so easily entangles or clings so closely
to us. And we are to run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
which God designed and purposed for us. And we are to look to Jesus as our
example, and he is the founder and perfecter of that faith, and he endured
death on a cross in order to free us from our slavery to sin so we’d walk as
slaves of God and of his righteousness, in holiness, in the fear of the Lord,
in obedience to him.
For we are now God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for
good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (in
conduct, in practice) (Eph 2:10). For Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us
from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession
who are zealous for good works (Tit 2:14). And, as obedient children, we are to
work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in
us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Php 2:12-13).
Also, since this faith means “believing” which is present, continuous,
and active belief, we have to be believing in Jesus like this when he comes
back to take us to be with him or we don’t get to be with him. We must endure
with him until the end steadfast in this faith by which we stand if we want to
be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God. And this faith requires
submission to the Lordship of Christ and death to sin and walks of obedience to
God.
Not only is our faith to be continuous and steadfast until
the end, our salvation also is not a one-time deal and we are good to go. We
are saved (past), we are being saved (present) and we will be saved (future)
when Jesus returns for us, which is when our salvation will be complete,
provided that we remain in that faith until the very head, not moved from the
hope of the gospel, and we don’t live in sin and we do walk in obedience to
Christ.
[Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; 2
Pet 1:1; Tit 2:11-14; Php 2:12-13; Lu 9:23-26;
Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co
6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:21-25; Rom 12:1-2;; Col 1:21-23; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom
2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1
Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 3-4; 1 Co 10:1-22]
The Works of Jesus
And it is us who are believing in Jesus until the very end
with this God-given faith, which submits to Christ as Lord, and which
surrenders to his will and purpose for our lives, and which forsakes our sins
to follow him in obedience to his commands, it is us who will do the works that
Jesus did and even greater works, he said. And “greater” is not necessarily
more magnificent but of greater magnitude, i.e. further reaching.
For Jesus was limited by his physical body to ministering to
only the people he could physically reach, and he was one person. But in our
world today, we can get on the internet and share the gospel and it goes out to
people all over the world to many different countries, even countries I have
never heard of before. Plus we who are following Jesus, although few in number
compared to how many people are in the world, we are many and we can be in many
different places in the world because of that.
But what are the works of Jesus? Now we can’t and we don’t
need to, even if we could, die on a cross for the sins of the world. Only one
person could do that, and that was Jesus Christ. But we can die as martyrs
sharing the truth of the gospel, and if people believe in the gospel of
salvation they are delivered from their bondage to sin and they are given new
lives in Christ Jesus to be lived for his glory, and so we can have a part in
that.
We are to be the light of the world and the salt of the
earth and we are to make disciples of Christ of people of all nations, teaching
them to obey our Lord’s commands (New Covenant). And we are to proclaim the
excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. And
we are to be the Lord’s witnesses to the ends of the earth. And we are to open
eyes that are blind and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan to God
so they may receive forgiveness of sins and be sanctified by faith in Jesus.
And God has given each one of us spiritual gifts and he has
assigned each one of us our “body parts” within the body of Christ, and we are
to use those gifts in our assigned roles in the body for the mutual edification
and encouragement of the body of Christ until we all reach maturity in our
walks of faith, speaking the truth in love to one another, and as each part
does its work. I.e. we each have a part we are supposed to do. So we need to
find out what God has for us to do and then do what he has called us to do.
[1 Pet 2:9; Matt 5:13-16; Matt
28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Ac 2:42-47; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph
4:1-16; 1 Pet 2:4-6; Col 1:18; Col 2:19; Eph 1:22; Eph 2:19-22; Eph 5:17-30; Col
3:16; Heb 3:13]
Glorious
Grace
An Original Work / August 8, 2012
Based
off Ephesians 1:3-10 NIV
Praise be to God, the Father of Jesus,
Who has blessed us in heavenly realms.
For He chose us in Him from beginning
To be His holy children of God;
All in accord with His will and pleasure;
To the praise of His glorious grace.
In Jesus Christ we receive forgiveness.
We have redemption through His shed blood.
Glorious grace God freely has given us
In the One He loves and adores;
All in accord with the riches of His grace
Which He pours out on those He loves.
With all His wisdom and understanding,
God has made known His will unto us,
According to His will and good pleasure,
Purposed in Christ till all be fulfilled;
To bring all things on earth and in heaven
Under our Lord Christ; be unified.
No comments:
Post a Comment