THE SELF-ABNEGATION OF THE LORD JESUS AS REVEALED IN THE GOSPEL BY JOHN.
In the Gospel of John we are brought, as it were, into the "holiest of all." That disciple "whom Jesus loved," and who leaned upon His bosom, seems to have drunk most deeply of the Spirit of the Master. In the self-abnegation of our Lord we are taught one of the profoundest lessons on the Christian life. Our Lord and Saviour was so truly human that He had a self which He did not live to please. "He pleased not Himself." In this also He suffered, leaving us an example. The disciple is not greater than his Lord. If He through self-denial finished the work given Him to do, how shall we follow Him if we will not deny ourselves and take up the cross? Let us hear Him. He says-
I. "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work" (chap Luk_4:34).
"My meat." The very strength and satisfaction of His soul lay in the doing of His Father’s will. His hungry heart could only be appeased with the knowledge that the purposes of Him that sent Him were being fulfilled. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Do we find food for our souls in the doing of the will of God?
II. "Verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (chap. Luk_5:19). "I can of Mine own self do nothing" (Luk_11:30).
What a revelation this is of the self-emptying of the Son of God, and of His entire relinquishing of everything that was calculated to mar the accomplishing of the will of God through Him! As the Son He could do nothing of Himself apart from the Father. He could not do it because of the great love He had for His Father. May the love of Christ so constrain us. The plan of Christ’s life was not His own making. He lived in such close fellowship with the invisible Father that He could say, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." Do we live in such close fellowship with Christ that His doings are ever before our eyes as a pattern for us. The Father had honoured the Son in doing nothing without Him (Joh_1:3). Now the Son, even in His humiliation, will do nothing without the Father (Joh_10:30). Into this holy and blessed relationship have we been brought by being made the "sons of God" (Heb_2:11). "Without Me ye can do nothing."
III. "I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me" (chap. Luk_6:38). He came down from Heaven with the express purpose not to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. Every believer in Jesus is sent down into the world with the same message and for the same purpose (Joh_17:18). Not to do their own will, but the will of Him that sent them. Why did our Lord make such frequent reference to the fact that He did not come, and work, and speak to please Himself? Was it not to manifest His oneness with the Father, and to bring His hearers into personal contact with Him? Although Jesus Christ had done His own will we are not to suppose that that will would have been contrary to the will of His Father, but He emptied Himself that He might be a pattern to those who should hereafter believe and follow. "Not My will, but Thine be done." Does this not help us to understand that oft-repeated petition, "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven?"
IV. "Jesus said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me" (chap. Luk_7:16). "I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him" (chap. Luk_8:26). "I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things" (chap. Luk_8:28).
These gracious words which fell from our Saviour’s lips assure us that His teaching, spoken to the world, was the teaching of God the Father who had taught Him. Nor is it otherwise now with every true servant of God. Did not Jesus say, "I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you?" (Joh_15:15). He received the teaching from the Father; we receive it from Him that we might "speak it to the world," as we have heard of Him. In this sense each one of us may truly say, "I can do nothing of myself." This is the place we must take before Him if His Word and doctrine are to be taught with power. "Not I, but Christ." He who so yields himself to the will of God will be declared to be a son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness (Rom_1:4).
V. "I do always those things that please Him" (chap. Luk_8:29). "I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day" (chap. Luk_9:4). "I have not spoken of Myself; He gave Me a commandment what I should say" (chap. Luk_12:49).
These texts we have grouped together might be taken separately, as they reveal three deeply significant truths in connection with our Lord’s earthly ministry. 1. He spake by commandment of the Father. He was as a man under authority. 2. He was impelled by the necessity of the obedience of love. "I must work." 3. His life was an unqualified success in the sight of God His Father. "I do always those things that please Him." His choice was always for the will of God. Christian worker, how is it with your life in the light of these facts? Is the command of God in your testimony? Is the constraining love of Christ the impelling force in your daily service for God?
VI. "I speak not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works" (chap. Luk_14:10) "The Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me" (chap. Luk_14:24).
So perfectly was the Son abandoned to the will of the Father that He dwelt in Him, and spoke through Him. He claims that His will, His words, and His works were not His own, but the Father’s. Is it so with us in this present evil world? Christ is giving us the secret of His own blessed life when He says "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you" (Joh_15:7-9). He is also putting us, as His servants, into the same relationship with the Father and the world that He Himself had when He says-
VII. "I have given them the words which Thou gavest Me" (chap. Luk_17:18). "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world" (chap. Luk_17:18).
Having received the same words and the same commission as the Son of God Himself received, what manner of persons ought we to be? Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.
Autor: James Smith