John 8:12-30
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
21 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him. [1]
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How is my relationship with the Father? Is it like Jesus’ relationship with His Father? If I’m supposed to become more like Jesus, shouldn’t my relationship with the Father be more and more like His?
This section starts with one of the great “I am” statements in John’s Gospel, that Jesus is the light of the world. But the Pharisees immediately drag the conversation into a dispute of whether Jesus’ testimony is valid, not even seeming to notice what Jesus’ testimony was.
So Jesus’ plays along and defends the validity of His testimony. Essentially His defense is that He has the two witnesses required by the Law. He and His Father both testify concerning Jesus’ identity. So not only is Jesus’ testimony about being the light of the world true, any judgment He may speak concerning the Pharisees is true as well.
But in the course of this discussion, Jesus describes His relationship with His father. He says in verse 16 that He stands with His Father, and in verse 29 this amazing statement: “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
So how is my relationship with my Father like Jesus’? There are things here that do apply that are not just part of the relationship they have because they are Trinity. Jesus draws His identity from the Father. It’s important to Him that His Father is with Him and that what Jesus says and does is in conformity with the Father’s will. To the point that whatever Jesus does pleases the Father, because everything Jesus does is exactly what the Father wills.
Think of the Covenant triangle. What Jesus is talking about is not just Trinity identity, but Covenant identity. Our identity comes from the Father. By grace He has made us His own. I am one with the Father by grace. All that He has is mine. All that is mine is His. By grace through faith in Christ, by whose cross all those things I do that do not please the Father are forgiven. And then I seek to live this identity through obedience to the will of my Father, seeking to do those things that please him.
So my prayer today is that I might stand with the Father today, that I might go through this day knowing that the Father is with me, and that I might have the power to please Him in what I say and do.
[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 8:12–30). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.