Yes! There is Good News! 3.31.18

Picking up from our last article, we see that Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Notice that He did not say, “I will show you the way, reveal to you the truth and give you life.” This is a very significant detail. We see a very similar thing when Jesus spoke with Martha, the sister of Lazarus who had just died. He told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

The spiritual reality here is that God does not just give us gifts; He is the gift. Our God is the sum of all things and He has given all this to His Son. Jesus tells us this in verse 11: “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” There is a relationship here that goes beyond our human understanding. And yet we are called into that relationship as Jesus offers up His prayer in chapter 17; we see in verse 21, “As you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me … may they be one as we are one; I in them and you in me.”

Jesus did not just give us these words and then go off to heaven to be with the Father, leaving us to wonder what He meant and so fend for ourselves. No, he tells us, starting in 14:15, “If you love me you will obey what I command and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to abide with you forever – the Spirit of Truth.” This same “Counselor” is spoken of in verse 26, “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Wow! What a promise. Please remember that we started this study with the words, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:53).

Going back to 16:16 Jesus says to the disciples, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” The disciples were confused about this statement and it brought them some grief. But Jesus told them, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy.”

And so in chapter 17 Jesus offers up that most famous prayer: for Himself (verses 1-5), for the disciples (verses 6-19), and for us who believe (verses 20-26). Jesus ends this prayer with these words, “I have made your name known to them, and will continue to make it known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

It is the time of year to reflect upon these things. There are a thousand lessons in these few chapters. But of a truth, the greatest lesson is found when the two Marys go to the tomb, see the stone rolled away and encounter two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning. And the two men said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!” (Luke 24:1-6)