“I
And My Father Are One”
22) And it was at
23) And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's
porch.
24) Then came the Jews round about him, and said
unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly.
25) Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye
believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
26) But ye believe not, because ye are not of my
sheep, as I said unto you.
27) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me:
28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
30) I and my Father are one.
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any
people, today, are able to explain away many scriptures. However, there is a
price to be paid; for in attempting to “figure out” Jesus, they remain lost.
The most ironic part of this whole scenario is that the Lord and His knowledge
are readily available and accessible in the very scriptures that are searched.
But that searching is in vain if the clear explanations offered are not
accepted.
Of
course, it is understandable how those without the Holy Ghost would be unable
to understand the things of God. Why?? Firstly, because scripture says so and
secondly, because scripture is like a “secret code” whose key must be possessed
by the one hoping to understand.
Admittedly,
not all who wrote the Holy Scriptures understood what they were writing (this
encompasses the meaning, impact, value or significance). Indeed, scripture
states that many desired to know, yet it was not given to them.
Such
is not the case, today. The full wealth of the storehouse of God’s knowledge
has been opened to all who will seek and submit to His Spirit—but only to
those. The spiritual can be discerned only by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, those
who would understand must possess the One who understands.
A
common mistake made by those with the Holy Ghost and seen by those without, is
the separation of issues into the “spiritual” and “not-spiritual.” This is a
mistake, for when one accepts salvation, everything becomes spiritual.
The
Jews of Jesus’ day missed the essence of His teaching, intentionally. Why?
Because He wanted them to understand that without the Holy Ghost, no one is
complete. Just think of how the Jews dealt with Jesus. They would not, could
not, nor never would have been able to accept who He was, for they were without
the Holy Ghost.
So,
we have our scriptures today. We see Jesus wanting the Jews on Solomon’s Porch
to understand that He must be Who He said, or God would not have supported Him
with works. It is also very interesting that He makes a most important point:
His sheep fear Him. Though exception could have been taken, the statement would
have been no less true: if one truly belongs to Jesus, then he will recognize
and follow His voice.
Today,
more people than ever are either on a quest to “find” Jesus, or prove that they
already know Him. However, no matter what one professes, whoever intends to
deal with anything according to God cannot deal with his own understanding. It
is also not up to the individual to decide what he will and will not deal with.
That decision is made by God for the purpose of teaching us to depend on Him.
For those who believe (those saved) are separated from those who do not believe
(even if they are baptized and filled) by that which validates the believer:
the fact of whether or not one listens to what the Lord says and does it.
Verses
28 and 29 deal with a controversial point event among Apostolics. The devil can never snatch us
from God. When we find ourselves away from Him, we have left Him on our own.
And we must also understand that the devil presents that which shows itself
more interesting to us—showing us exactly where our affections lie.
Because
of references to both His Father and Himself, Jesus makes sure to avoid
confusion by clinching his point with “I and my Father are one.” We should be
overjoyed at this revelation, for in that we accepted Jesus, we get all that He
has—His Father with all of his benefits.
As
saints (those of us who have enlightened), we must get to the place where
nothing is more important than doing the will of God. After all, Jesus has
already proven that it can be done. So, why do we think He did this? For our
benefit, that we might know that all He asks of us, we can fulfill.
Our
motivations must change. Particularly now, the motivation of many is to do
something “great” to attract attention to themselves. Instead, we must return
the attention to Whom it belongs—Jesus! Our desires must be to make Jesus
great!
It
is vitally important that we not make the same mistake as did those of His
day. Unless we accept all of Him, we, too, will be unable to understand Him,
even though He speaks plainly and nothing about him is hidden. Let us not
be enlightened only to go back into darkness.