As we study the life of the Man in the four Gospels, we are continually reminded of God.
He walked and talked and acted as though He and God were one.
He acted righteousness. He practiced it.
He was utterly unconscious of the need of anything. Whenever He needed faith, no matter what the circumstances were, whenever He needed love, whenever He needed wisdom, there was no sense of lack or limitation. In His walk, He had no sense of fear or sin, no sense of need of any kind.
He loved like God. He acted like God. He was unconsciously the Master of every circumstance.
He ruled the forces of nature like God. All these laws heard His voice. All of nature recognized Him as Master.
How it thrills us when we think of the winds and the waves obeying Him. (See Matthew 8:27.) He walked the waves. He turned water into wine. That was my Lord.
FIVE CONFESSIONS
Here are some confessions that I wish you would look up:
John 16:28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”
You remember that the vital side of the plan of redemption is based upon confession.
In order to receive eternal life, you confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and your faith in His resurrection from the dead.
John 8:23 And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
There is a fearlessness about these confessions that thrills us.
Matthew 12:42 The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
You sense no conceit or bigotry as you read these words.
If any other man had made these statements, his name would have been forgotten; but they fit into the life of the Man.
John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
What a confession! He declares that He is the light and wisdom of the world; and the man who walks in His wisdom, His light, will not have been a failure. But perhaps the next one intrigues us more:
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
FOUR MIGHTY FACTS
First, He is the way to the Father. No other way, no other method, no other person, can lead a man to the Father but the Man of Galilee.
Second, “I am the truth” or the reality.
The wisest of humanity have sought for reality, but they have never found it until they find it in the Man. Jesus is the end of all search; He is reality.
Third, “I am the life.” The Greek word, zoe, grips us. You remember, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). This zoe is to be given to us in abundance. I now understand that when He said, “Of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16), He means of the fullness of His life, of His nature, of His wisdom. That life was brought by Jesus, and He gives it to man.
You understand that eternal life is the one thing that man must have. Forgiveness of his sins would not help him any. He would go on committing the same old sins. What he needs is eternal life, the nature of God, to displace his old fallen nature and make him a new creation in Christ Jesus.
When Jesus said, “No one cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), He is closing every door. The people who accept philosophy and metaphysics instead of eternal life are utterly lost. They can never stand in God’s presence. Eternal life gives to man righteousness. Righteousness means the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without the sense of guilt or inferiority. Eternal life makes us His very sons and daughters.
Fourth, when Jesus said, “No one cometh unto the Father, but by me,” we see it.
The same truth is brought out by Peter, “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
- “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).
- What a confession! It makes you think of the twenty-third Psalm, “Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). Then, He is my Caretaker, my Protector, my Bread-Provider. The shepherd is responsible for their food and water, and so my Shepherd, Jesus, says, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
HIS WORDS MEET EVERY NEED
How that fits into the thought of the shepherd. He leads me down where the waters are gentle and quiet. He takes me back then where the alfalfa is rich. In every place in life He cares for me.
You can almost hear Paul say, “And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Or Ephesians 1:3: “Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
He is my Protector and Caretaker. He is my Shield. No enemy can touch me.
Then you hear Him say, “It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life” (John 6:63).
No other man ever talked that way, ever dared say that his words were spirit and life; that is, that they fed this human spirit, that they gave life to our bodies.
You remember Psalm 107:20 says, “He sendeth his word, and healeth them.”
Then there in Romans 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
Here His words are food and strength and health. His words meet every need.
You can understand Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Now your heart can take this in as you feed on it, as you search it, and it becomes health and strength and healing to you.
But this Scripture could mean so much to us: “For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38).
WALK IN LOVE, FOR HIS WILL IS LOVE
We have thought that the Father’s will would be hard, and we shrank from doing it. But instead, it is a will of love. As you walk in the Father’s will, you always walk in the light. You will never injure anyone. Your words will be saturated with love. You will walk in the light, for His will is the light. You will walk in love, for His will is love.
Now you can understand, “He that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness” (John 8:12). In other words, He is saying to our hearts, “He that follows Me shall walk in the will of the Father; he will never step out of that will.”
“I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
No unspiritually-minded person can understand this Scripture; but it is true. Spiritual hunger is just as real as physical or mental hunger, and your spirit can feed on Jesus. Your heart feeds on love, and you grow so lonely for it, until when love comes you feel so content and restful.
But love springs from the recreated human spirit, and it is this recreated human spirit that receives the life of God. It is that part of us that feeds upon the love. Just as the lover feeds upon the object of his affection, you feed on Christ. He becomes the living bread for your spirit, the living water to quench your thirst.
Of His fullness we have all received. That means of His love life, of His grace life, of His forbearance and gentleness, we have received. (See Colossians 2:9–10.)
But there is something more. We have received His strength. Love is our strength to stand up under the heavy burdens and strains of life.
Israel ate the bread that came down from heaven—manna. You need to eat the bread that will give you a mighty love, a mighty grace, and fortitude to stand in the midst of awful suffering and agony. Men will persecute us for righteousness’ sake. Men never do that, but demons do. They shrink from the consciousness of your righteousness in Christ. They know that you are their master, and they fear you.
Now you feed on the bread of the Mighty—this Word. You digest it until your whole being is saturated with His life, until it makes you victorious, fills you with victory, gives the sense of oneness with Him. You get so that after a while you recognize that it is in you. You remember that Jesus said, “for he abideth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17); and you become conscious of His indwelling presence. You meditate upon it.
I love to think of your becoming God-inside-minded, knowing that “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Read that first sentence: “Ye are of God.”
Whisper it over in your heart, “I am of God; I am a master. I am a conqueror. I have been feeding on the bread of heaven. I have the vitamins of God. How they have strengthened my faith and built me up in Christ.”
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him” (John 14:21).
Jesus never said a greater thing as far as your daily walk is concerned. If you love Him, the Father will love you.
In the next verse we read that Jesus and the Father will make their home in you. The Father and Jesus will live with you. That will ensure your rent and your taxes, your food and raiment; for they will never make their home with you without bearing the heavy end of the burden. That means that no disease can come into your home and find a lodging there.
You have the very life and nature of God in you, and He is with you.
“And I will love him and will manifest myself unto him” (John 14:21).
How will Jesus manifest Himself to you? In His Word, in what we call providence. You will find blessing strewn all along the road, blessing that you never dreamed existed.
He will manifest Himself as the Shepherd of your life, as your Bread-Provider, as your Keeper, as the One who loves you and gave Himself for you.
He will come and make His home with you. You see, His love nature will dominate you. His love character will become part of you. He will build Himself into you. After a while, men will see Jesus in you, and they will call you the Jesus-man, the Jesus-woman.
“And we will come unto him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
A man said the other day, “That is the work of the Master. I found a beautiful thing had taken place. Only Jesus could have brought that to pass.”
Let Him have His way with you. Let Him govern you. Don’t be afraid of Him. No one loves you as He loves you. He is the strength of your life.
“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9).
Jesus dared to say that He and the Father were one!
“Why, if the Father is like Jesus, I am perfect content,” you say. What a joy it will be to live with Him eternally.
YOU AND JESUS, UTTERLY ONE
But I want you to see another phase of this. Write out what Jesus said in John 17:21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Now we are coming to the heart of it. You and Jesus are utterly one…identified.
“I am the vine and ye are the branches” (John 15:5).
How that truth grows into us. You are the fruit-bearing part of Jesus. If you are a branch, then you and Jesus are one.
You remember 1 Corinthians 12:12: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.”
Here the body is called Christ. He is the head of the body. You are a member of His body. (See 1 Corinthians 6:15.) My hand is a part of me, and you are a part of Christ. You are a Christ-one. You and Christ are identified. You are the branch part of Him that bears the fruit of love. You are the part that says all the sweet, beautiful things, that does the kind deeds. You are the part of Him that sacrifices to give part of your money. You are the part of Him that bears the love fruit. You and He are one. (See John 15:5–8.)
John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
A disciple is not only a convert, a new creation child of God, but he is a student. Then He said, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you” (Matthew 28:19–20).
Now you are going to be a disciple of this Man who said all these wonderful things about Himself.
The branch is going to be a light that will show men the way unto Christ. The branch is going to be a disciple that will bear fruit just like the Master, and will learn to know the Word so he can bless men with it.
I want every one of you who is studying this course to get to know Him so well, and to know His Word so well, that you can bear the Jesus kind of fruit.
Nearly all these references are from the gospel of John. I wish you would look them up. I want the Word to live in you. I want the Spirit to build it into you. He can do it only as you practice it. You can talk it, and learn it, and give it by heart, but until you practice it, until you live it, it will not mean much to you.
Don’t learn it to prove a doctrine, but learn it to live. Your doctrines are largely governed by the senses. You want to be governed by the Spirit through the Word.
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?
- In what things did the Master take His place?
- a. If confession is the basis for the vital side of redemption, what do we confess?
b. Give two Scriptures showing Jesus’s confession. - a. Give a Scripture that assures us He will supply our needs.
b. Give one that shows He has blessed us. - Tell the meaning of Romans 8:11.
- What is the Father’s will?
- What three blessings has He given us from His fullness?
- a. What three sentences can we repeat to help affirm our faith?
b. What gives us strength? - If you allow the Father and Jesus to live with you, what will They manifest to you?
- What does John 15:5 show us?
- As a member of Christ’s body, how are we to act?