Greetings!
As people grow older, they naturally spend more and more time thinking about the legacy they will leave behind. They begin to consider how they will be remembered, and what they will hand down to those coming after them. Like never before, they reflect on the heritage they have built over their lifetime.
On the financial front, many plan for the distribution of the wealth they have accumulated, wanting to make sure it goes to their heirs of choice, and not to the government or an unacceptable third party. Not surprisingly, addressing such concerns has become big business. There are innumerable estate planners, investment counselors, and attorneys offering means to accomplish people's differing objectives. Television commercials tout life insurance and exhort seniors not to burden their families with expensive funeral costs. Local bookstores are fully stocked with self-help books and computer programs dealing with estate planning. Special seminars are frequently offered on how to handle wills and trusts. All of this is predicated on people's desire to preserve their wealth and pass it on to the next generation.
Such concerns are valid. The Bible speaks of the importance of wise stewardship (cf. Prov. 27:23-27; Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 16:11), and assumes that people will leave an inheritance to those who come after them (Prov. 13:22; 17:2; 19:14; 20:21; Matt. 21:38; Luke 12:13; 15:11-12). But of far greater importance than the corruptible, earthly inheritance they leave others is the incorruptible heavenly inheritance God has for every child of His. That inheritance is "imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for [them]" (1 Peter 1:4; cf. Eph. 1:11). It is far beyond human understanding, prompting Paul to write,
Ephesians 1:18 (HCSB)
[I pray] that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,
I pray you will be challenged, convicted, encouraged, and blessed by today's devotional to the glory of God.
THE LEGACY OF JESUS
JOHN 14:15-26
Part 4
LEGACY 3
THE PRESENCE OF THE FATHER
John 14:21-24 (NASB)
"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."22 Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."
As previously discussed in Part 1 of this devotional series, only those who obey His "commandments" enter into union with Christ. Their obedience is not the cause of their salvation, "because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in [God's] sight" (Rom. 3:20), but rather the inevitable result of it.
Compare:
- Romans 3:28 (AMP)
-
For we hold that a man is justified and made upright by faith independent of and distinctly apart from good deeds (works of the Law). [The observance of the Law has nothing to do with justification.]
- Romans 5:1 (AMP)
-
THEREFORE, SINCE we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
- Galatians 2:16 (AMP)
-
Yet we know that a man is justified or reckoned righteous and in right standing with God not by works of the Law, but [only] through faith and [absolute] reliance on and adherence to and trust in Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). [Therefore] even we [ourselves] have believed on Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law [for we cannot be justified by any observance of the ritual of the Law given by Moses], because by keeping legal rituals and by works no human being can ever be justified (declared righteous and put in right standing with God).
- Ephesians 2:8-9 (AMP)
-
For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; 9 Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law's demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]
- Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT2)
-
God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
- Titus 3:5 (AMP)
-
He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Obedience, flowing from a heart transformed by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit (cf. James 2:14-26), marks the one who truly "loves" (John 14:21) Jesus Christ. Such obedient love is the outworking of the love the Holy Spirit pours into the redeemed heart at salvation (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22).
- Romans 5:3-5 (AMP)
-
Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. 4 And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. 5 Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
- Galatians 5:22 (AMP)
-
But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
It is only the one "who loves" (John 14:21) Christ who "will be loved by [the] Father" (John 14:21; cf. 16:27; 17:23). Jesus said,
- John 5:23 (AMP)
-
So that all men may give honor (reverence, homage) to the Son just as they give honor to the Father. [In fact] whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, Who has sent Him.
- John 15:23 (NASB)
-
"He who hates Me hates My Father also."
No one who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ can truly know, love, or honor God, because "the Father loves the Son" (John 3:35; 5:20).
- Matthew 11:27 (NASB)
-
"All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (emphasis added)
Along with the Father, Jesus will "love those [who] love Him" (John 14:21; John 13:1,34; Eph. 5:25; Rev. 1:5), and "will disclose" (John 14:21) Himself to them.
- John 13:1 (NASB)
-
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
- John 15:9 (NASB)
-
"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love."
Expressing the bewilderment that the others no doubt felt, Judas (not Iscariot) said to Jesus, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" (John 14:22) As John's parenthetical note indicates, this was "not [Judas] Iscariot," (John 14:22) but Judas the son of James (Luke 6:16). Judas assumed that Jesus was speaking of returning physically to establish His earthly kingdom (cf. Acts 1:6). He could not understand how, that being the case, Jesus would "disclose" (John 14:21) Himself to the disciples, "and not to the world" (John 14:22) After all, Jesus was the Savior of the world (John 4:42); the rightful heir of the earth (Heb. 1:2); the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16). The good news of the forgiveness and salvation that He brought was to be proclaimed throughout the whole world (Matt. 28:19). Why then, Judas wondered, was Jesus not going to make Himself known to everyone?
Jesus' reply, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word" (John 14:23; cf. 17:6), explained that He will not reveal Himself to those who refuse to love and obey Him. This is the third time in this section (cf. John 14:15, 21) that Christ linked obedience with genuine love for Him (cf. John 8:31). Not only will He love those who love Him (cf. 1 Peter 1:1-2), the "Father [also] will love [them]" (John 14:23). Further, both the Father and the Son "will come to [them] and make [their] abode with [them]" (John 14:23).
The Lord's declaration, "He who does not love Me does not keep My words," (John 14:24) emphasized yet again, this time negatively, the inseparable connection between love for Him and obedience to Him. Jesus will not make Himself known to those who reject Him (cf. John 7:17).
- John 8:47 (NASB)
-
"He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." (emphasis added)
Such people also do not know the Father, since Jesus' message was not His, "but the Father's who sent [Him]" (John 14:24; cf. John 14:10; 3:34; 7:16; 8:28, 38, 40; 12:49; 17:8). Therefore to reject Jesus is also to reject the Father (cf. John 15:23). To have Jesus is to have the Father.
John 5:23 (NASB)
So that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
Amen
Proverbs 22:19 (NASB)
So that your trust may be in the LORD, I have taught you today, even you.
Amen.
