“Like you did one time.”
“That’s right.”
“That’d be good, because my students don’t think I have one.”
Let’s read a couple of verses, okay? Well, let’s read one verse: John 13:1.
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.
Let’s go ahead and pray.
Heavenly Father, we want to thank You that we have such a Savior as our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who does love us to the uttermost.
And, Lord, we’ve heard so much, and we can say we believe so much that we’ve heard. But, Lord, we are asking this morning that something fresh comes from our looking into the Word and looking at Your Son, the Lord Jesus.
Something that makes it beyond our ears and comes into the very center of our beings, and reveals Him afresh to us, so that we can see all that He is. And for us, that we can see Him loving us to the uttermost, because that’s what You would have Him do.
So, Lord, we commit Your Word to You. We ask that You’d reveal Jesus to us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You’re probably wondering why I’m having so much feedback. No, you’re probably wondering why I started in Chapter 13, because that’s what we did last time. And I have a reason for that.
Last time we talked about how this is probably the most intimate part of Scripture between the Lord Jesus, in the Gospels, and His disciples. We started with this verse about Him loving to the uttermost, and we talked about the intimacy that the Lord wants, that He desires from His disciples.
But in reading the rest of these chapters, I think what I’d like to concentrate on for these next few times is just this idea: He loved them. He loved His own to the uttermost.
That’s not saying that He doesn’t love the world. He loves the world. He loves them so much that God sent His only Son for the world. But not all the world responds to God and to the Savior that He has given them. And so He cannot love them to the uttermost, because they will not respond.
But to those who do respond, like these disciples, He can love to the uttermost. And that’s what we want to see. We want to see Him loving to the uttermost.
Last time, we looked at the washing of the feet of the disciples. I was looking for examples of saying, “How has the Lord loved us to the uttermost?” We touched more on the intimacy that the Lord wants.
But one of the things mentioned was that, in the washing of the disciples’ feet, we saw the Lord condescending—the Lord stripping away all His deity so that He could wash their feet. And that was the beginning of love to the uttermost.
Today, there are wonderful, great things in this chapter. There is the saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” We’ll touch on those.
But really, I think the way we see the Lord loving to the uttermost in this chapter is that we see Christ beginning to mediate the new covenant to those who will follow Him, to those who will give themselves to Him and be partakers of this new covenant.
That’s what I would like to look on. It may sound like, “Oh, how do you find that in this?” It’s not that I’m groping for things, but I saw something in this that showed me: this is Christ mediating for us this new covenant.
A brother prayed about this new covenant toward the end of the meeting, if you heard him pray. So we want to look at three things:
Those are the three things I think we’ll find in John 14. I’m praying the Lord brings us in touch with this Mediator, this wonderful Savior that we have, Jesus Christ.
I’m finding out more and more, and falling in love with, this title: the Christ. It’s taking on new meaning to me as I’ve been reading. It’s a wonderful title—the Anointed One, the One who has been anointed for a purpose.
This is the One to whom God can commit Himself. God could not commit Himself to anyone else but this Man who was anointed. So this term is taking on a new meaning for me.
I’m not going to express it here, but I do want to talk about this Mediator. First, let’s look at one or two verses in 1 Timothy 2.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
In other words, Paul is saying there is one Mediator. There is only One who can bring us to the Father.
At this time, Jesus, at the end of John 13, was saying, “I’m going away.” The disciples were distraught. “What do You mean You’re going away? What do You mean You’re leaving us?”
They had a different idea of what salvation was all about. Salvation to them was that they were going to live forever in that present world with Jesus Christ being there as they knew Him for those three years.
They were expecting that they were going to be in that place with Him forever, ruling with Him and reigning with Him. And now He is talking about, “I’m going away.” They didn’t know what to think.
“What is this, that You’re going away? What does this mean?”
Then Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way?” Let’s read this verse as we look at this Mediator. In John 14—I’m sorry, I said Philip; it’s Thomas—starting with verse 4:
“And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
So the first question is, where is the Lord going? And the answer is: He is going to the Father.
The thing is, He has to go because we can’t go. Peter said, at the end of John 13, “Where are You going?” And Jesus said to him, “Where I am going you cannot go, but you shall follow Me afterward.”
Why couldn’t Peter go then? It’s because the way to the Father had been closed, and Peter could not go there.
What do I mean by that? If we look back in Genesis—what do you mean, the way to the Father is closed? We have been studying Genesis, right? Remember at the beginning of the year when we read this? In Genesis 3:22-24, after the fall, it says:
Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Man is left out of the presence of God. Man, and all that he can be of good, is left out from the presence of God. Even his highest goodness is not merely not good enough—it is unholy.
It is just not holy. It cannot come into the presence of a holy God, because it is stained with the sin of self and pride. So we have been kept out.
When we look at Christ as this Mediator, as this One who brings us back into the Father, and He says, “I am the way to the Father,” we need to look at what He is to us.
There are two sides to a mediation. Do you understand that? If I was mediating between Linda and Kenny—a full-time job, okay, and they would probably pay me handsomely—there are two sides to the mediation.
You’ve got Linda’s side, and you’ve got Kenny’s side. Of course, I’m not supposed to take any side. But generally, we look at this mediation from our side only. I’m not saying that’s wrong; I’m just saying that’s our view because we’re the people on one side.
We see ourselves. We see our needs that have to be represented. So when we look at Jesus being Mediator, let’s read a couple of verses from Hebrews 2.
Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
For verily not to angels doth He give help, but He giveth help to the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.
We can relate to that. We say, “Oh, we are so glad we have a Mediator who knows this, who knows what we are like, who has been through what we are like.”
If we went on to Hebrews 4:14-16, it says:
Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need.
That is the way we look at our Mediator. We look at Him for us. He is everything that we need. He fits what we need to a T.
Because He has suffered temptation, because He has suffered like us in these bodies, we find that He is sympathetic. Oh, how wonderful it is to have a sympathetic God—a sympathetic Mediator who says, “Yes, I know what you’ve been through. Yes, I know this. I can relate.”
That was in the sixties: “Yeah, I can relate.” Okay? He is this way that He might be merciful. We cling to these things, and it is not wrong for us to cling to them.
Please don’t say, “Well, you shouldn’t be looking to the Lord for mercy.” No, by all means, look to the Lord for mercy. Look to Him to be sympathetic.
But, on the other hand, He also, as Man, had to be acceptable to God. The Mediator had to be acceptable to both sides.
Here we have One who had to be acceptable as Man to One who is holy, righteous, and just. How does One do both?
It says in Hebrews 4:15 that He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
That is the biggest thing God was looking for. He was looking for a Man without sin, a Man to whom He could commit Himself to. And He found it in His Son.
The thing about this is, you see, Jesus is not just representing the old man. He is coming as the new Man to represent God and God’s desires in this mediation.
He comes in the flesh as the old man, but He comes without sin as the new Man. We have to think about this: it is not that Jesus is innocent.
Innocence has this connotation when you are thinking of the creation of man. We can say Adam was created innocent, without sin. But innocent means that what he was had not yet been tested.
When he was tested, he failed. Therefore, we are what we are: sinners by nature. It is what we are.
But Christ is different. Christ is not innocent. It says He is sinless, but I want you to understand this: He is not sinless merely because He was born without sin.
He is sinless because He willingly was without sin. That is the difference. He willingly kept that state of holiness where Adam did not.
So this new Man, the second Adam for us, came without sin and kept that state willingly, even though He was tempted like unto us.
You can read Matthew 4 and read the temptations of the Lord Jesus, and compare that with Genesis 3. You will find that He willingly said, “No. I will follow God. I will give Myself only to My Father.”
Now, it is not just that He died on the cross. That is what we look to, and I’m not saying we should not look to that. But when we look at His dying on the cross, we see Him dying for me.
That is what we want to see, right? We want to see Christ dying for us in our place, and that is right and true. But what did God see?
God saw the life that was offered up on that cross. We see the salvation. We see the penalty paid for us. And that is what we are supposed to see by faith: that penalty was paid for us. Hallelujah!
But God saw the life that was offered up to Him. Because He saw that life—that perfect life, that life submitted to Him, that was willingly without sin—He raised Him from the dead and set Him on high.
So this Mediator of this new covenant, which comes through His blood, is the One who is able to take us to God. We cannot get to God, but we have a Mediator who takes us to the Father.
“How do we get to where You’re going?” That is what Thomas is asking, right? He says, “I am the way. I am the One who takes you. I mediate. I am the One who takes you to that place.”
My mediation is Myself. It is My life, come down from heaven, stripped of its glory, willingly without sin, offered up for you on your behalf. That brings you to the Father.
There is no other way. That way which was once closed is only opened in this Man, Jesus Christ.
Now you say, “Well, that’s good, Jim. All right. But what sign do you have for me?” Jews seek a sign, right? And these disciples are Jews. They seek a sign.
So Philip, in John 14:8, says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” We are ones who want the outward sign. Again, I am not faulting us. I am just saying this is true of us.
We are those who look for an outward sign in almost everything. “How do I know she likes me?”
I think I’ve told you—since my wife isn’t here. Oh, there she is. Okay.
My wife guarded her heart. She did not want to give other people the idea that they were special in her eyes. When we were teaching together, I always thought she was going out with this one guy.
She was always saying to this guy, “This isn’t a date. This isn’t a date.” She would show it by saying, “We’re going to a movie? Okay, here’s my money. Are we going out to dinner? Okay, I’m paying for mine.”
When I first took my wife out—all we did was take a walk. How cheap I am. Then after the walk, we went to a little place on the corner, Millie’s. We had a little dinner, and the check came.
Oh, she gave me a sign: she let me pay it.
We are looking for an outward sign. What is the sign that the Father really loves us?
Jesus answers in John 14:9-11:
“Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I say unto you I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.”
What the Lord was saying to Philip is this: “Philip, you want to see the Father? What do you think you’ve been seeing?”
When I’m going out and doing these things, what do you think you have been seeing? Do you think this is just Me doing a kind of show? No. The Father has committed Himself to Me in the sense that I do His will.
When I am doing these things that you see, it is not Me doing them; it is the Father. We are not just talking about stilling the storm and things like that.
How do I know God loves me? Because He stills a storm? No. It is the simple things, like the leper coming. The Lord Jesus did not just say, “Be healed,” but He reached out and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean.”
He is saying, “You are seeing the Father.” That is the Father reaching out to a sinful world, saying, “I am willing to touch you and to cleanse you.”
If it had been His own will, when they came and said Lazarus was sick, what do you think Jesus would have done? He would have gone right away and healed Lazarus, right?
But what did He do? He waited three days. He waited until Lazarus died, because it was the Father’s will. The Father had a greater work in view.
So He is saying to Philip, “You’re looking for a sign, and all the time it has been right here. But I’m going to give you one more sign.”
That sign is at the end of John 14. If you go to verse 28:
“Ye heard that I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe.
I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me;
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”
I thought about that last verse: “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go.” What is He talking about?
That the world would know that I love the Father. What am I doing? I am going to the cross because I love the Father.
The Father gave Him this commandment: “You go to the cross.” It is the Father’s command that He goes to the cross. This is a sign to Philip that God loves the world—that He would send His Son to the cross.
The Father has commanded it, so I am going. Then He says, “Let’s get up and go to it.” That is just a powerful little statement there. To me, it was just so hidden.
This is the show to everyone in the world: that Jesus loves the Father, and that the Father loves the world. It is incredible. The raising of His Son is further proof of this.
Then that brings us to this last little portion. We have this sign: Jesus has died for us. So what about this new covenant being brought into being?
Let’s look at John 14:15-18:
“If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever,
Even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.”
You look at verse 15, think of the new covenant, and it says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Boy, that seems like the old covenant, doesn’t it? Just wrapped up in prettier paper, right?
But the thing is, that is going to be the end of it. You know what I mean by the end of it? That is what is going to be worked out. But let’s see the love to the uttermost.
This is to the uttermost, or to the end—to the end of what God really wants for these disciples. He says, “I will not leave you orphans.”
Orphans. I looked up that word. It is orphanos in Greek, and it has two meanings. It can mean desolate, and it can mean fatherless.
What the Lord was saying about this new covenant is this: “I have opened the way to the Father.” A lot of us say, “Okay, that’s the new covenant,” but that is only part of it. That is the beginning of it.
The Lord Jesus is saying, “I will not leave you to a religious system that consists only of traditions and a set of teachings and doctrines to hold to.”
That is what the Jews had made the old covenant. That was it. Jesus is saying, “I am not going to leave you to that.”
G. Campbell Morgan said three things describe orphans: they are unloved, uncared for, and straightened. Straightened means being in a straitjacket—they cannot do what they want to do.
I want to apply that to Christianity, to what the Lord really means by the new covenant. The Lord said, “I am not going to leave you as orphans.” What does that really mean?
If orphans are unloved, what the Lord Jesus was saying to us, and to any who will follow after Him, is this: “What I have done was not done to cut you off from the affection of God”—not just you as sinners, but you as My disciples.
“I am not cutting you off from affection.” How many of us as Christians believe in an affectionless God?
We were studying the Reformation a couple of weeks ago, and I played the movie Luther, starring Joseph Fiennes. It is really a good movie. You should watch it, because it has some really good gospel preaching.
At the very beginning, Luther is in turmoil. As a monk, after he has already committed himself to being a monk, he is in turmoil because he is serving a God who, in his mind, has no love or affection for any of His people, but is just sitting as a judge waiting for you to mess up.
Is that our God? Is the God that we serve void of affection for us who would follow after Him?
Do you understand? God has affection for you.
Affection is not just the thing of, once in a while, saying, “I love you.” Affection is wanting you near. It is being tender—tender to the point that you can be swayed.
Our God has affection for us. Not just affection, but a deep affection, a great affection for us, that He wants satisfied by being reciprocated.
It is not just that He wants to be affectionate to us and be like an old grandpa who gives us everything we want. No, He wants this love, this affection, reciprocated.
But the thing is, He has the affection in the first place. He is the One who loves first. He is the One who shows affection first, that we might be drawn to Him.
What man can be drawn to a God who is just a judge? How can you be drawn to that? The love of God leads us to repentance. God’s affection for us draws us to Him.
Uncared for means you are not given the proper food, the proper clothing, or enough clothing. You are left without a kind of caring. In other words, those who look after you do not really care for you.
Have you ever gone through some government-run hospitals or agencies sometimes? Have you ever gone into those, the way they talk about their patients—the ones they are serving who cannot care for themselves? They can become hardened to the place those people are in.
That is what He is saying. “I haven’t brought you to a place, or to One, who will not care for you, who will give you what you need.”
He will give you food, but it is not just food, just doctrine. It is food that inspires faith in Christ to save. It is not just teaching; it is that Word that inspires faith to believe Christ will save you.
I am not talking about merely saving you from sin, from the penalty of sin, but saving you from the power that keeps you in bondage to that sin.
We are so veiled to the idea that we do not need anything else but to be freed from the penalty of sin. Most Christians believe that is all there is for us: we are free from the penalty of sin.
But the One who cares for us frees us from the power of sin, because He puts our faith in Him to do that. That is what He came to do.
He did not come just so that we would be free from penalty. He has come to make us a new man after Himself, to clothe us—not just with a positional clothing.
“Here are some clothes. You can stay in those; just don’t get dirty.” No. Here are clothes that are for you right now. But you are going to come to the place where you can outgrow these clothes, because we are living.
When you come to the place of outgrowing them, I am going to show you something new. I am going to give you something more of Me and clothe you even further.
We think we just get this robe and that the rest of our life is static. It is not. We grow like any child.
I used to hate my mom when we went shopping for school, because she would always buy clothes that were too big for me. It was tough enough being tall, but now I was tall with clothes that were too big for me.
By the end of the year, they fit like a T. Man, was my mom wiser than I was. But by the start of next year—what do you call these? Floods? Yeah, wading through something, okay?
Because we are meant to grow. The Lord knows that. The Lord cares for us, and so He knows that as we go from faith to faith, from place to place in our apprehension of Him, we need those new clothes.
It is not new doctrine. It is made to fit us as we go. Same fabric, same material, just the size that we need, which covers us as it should.
Finally, it says that orphans are straightened. What does that mean? It means we are without the ability to please the One who loves us.
He did not bring us into a covenant that says, “You cannot fulfill it.” That is a wonderful thing.
Now the question is, “I don’t see that. If I could not fulfill the old, how can I fulfill the new? Because I still see the same person.”
So in verses 16 and 17, He says, “I will pray the Father, and He’ll give you another Helper. He’ll be in you.” A Helper who is in you. A new man. A new Spirit. A spirit that is alive to God.
Let me show you what it means that you are not straightened. When you read Philippians 2:12-13, it says:
So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.
You could say, “Well, that’s what I’ve always done. I’m afraid that I’m not going to please You, and that’s where I’m at.” But if we stop there, we say, “Well, what’s new?” Look at the next verse.
Where does God work? In you. To do what? To will and to do His good pleasure.
We have a Helper. This is the new covenant right here. It is not just that Jesus died and gave that life, that perfect life, for us. It is that that life has been given to us on the inside—not as an outer sign, but as an inner sign.
Ephesians 1:13-14 says:
In whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of His glory.
Brothers and sisters, there is something in us that guarantees. What is a guarantee? A guarantee means it is sure.
Something has been given in us that makes sure that, in the end, we receive the whole inheritance. Something has been given to us in that sense, in that reality.
Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” In other words, He is saying, “Come under the influence of this Helper.”
I have given you this Helper, not as something that you show off, but so that you come under His influence. You come under His influence.
Now some of us are thinking, “How do I get this?” In Luke 11, the Lord was teaching about asking. He said, “What father among you, when his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”
Who asks for fish and is given a snake? Who asks for an egg and is given a scorpion? It is ludicrous, isn’t it?
He said, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Now let me ask you: who is asking that the Father give the Holy Spirit? What does it say in this verse in John?
“I.” The Lord Jesus is asking for it. “I’m asking. Oh, Father, give them the Holy Spirit. Don’t leave them as they are. Don’t leave them as orphans. Give them the Spirit.”
How much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Oh, brothers and sisters, have you seen this? Have you seen that you have been given the Holy Spirit?
Not as a doctrine, but as a reality—as a life inside you to will and to do His good pleasure. That is what has been given to us. This is the uttermost.
We can be saved from the penalty of sin, but that is not the height God wants to bring us to. The height God wants to bring us to is that we become a new humanity to whom He can commit Himself.
In order to do that, the Son has prayed that the Father give us the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit would lead us into this new humanity.
Now, what about the commands? It says, “He who loves Me keeps My command.” Does that mean the only way we are saved to the uttermost is by obeying His commands? “You’re backing us up, Jim.”
What are His commands? What are the commands of the new covenant? They are not the Sermon on the Mount.
The commands of the covenant are found in Matthew, but six chapters later from Matthew 5—in Matthew 11. The first command is this: Come to Me.
That is the first command of the new covenant: “Come to Me.” Just come to Me. Come to Me the way you are—helpless, hopeless, whatever, from the guttermost.
“I’ll take you to the uttermost, but you have to come to Me. You won’t have it unless you come to Me. You can’t earn it. Come to Me. Just come to Me.”
Yoke with Me. Not merely come into alignment with the way I think. Come under. Come with Me. Come walk with Me. Come attach yourself to Me in a relationship, in a vital relationship.
So that you can do the third thing: learn from Me. Learn from Me—not learn of Me.
We are so stuck on this: “Learn of Me. This is what Christ is.” He is saying, “Learn from Me.” How do you learn from Him?
It is that life in you. As that life begins to push you out and says, “This is the way I want to go,” we begin to learn, “This is where He wants to go.”
Give in to His leading. Give in to the leading of that life in you, that Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
So this is the new covenant. This is the covenant He is mediating—not just the part of saying, “I’m bringing you to the Father,” but even to the uttermost.
He is saying, “The life I have—I am the way, the truth, the life—I give to you. Will you come under it? Will you come to Me and have the life?”
Will you trust Me to lead you and not try to go your own way, doing what you think needs to be done? Can you just trust Me?
Morgan said—and I ended last time with this—that He loved to the uttermost. In other words, He saw it through. He saw through His sacrifice: “I will see it through. I’ll go to the cross, and I’ll see it through.”
But how much more does He really mean to love to the uttermost? It means not only, “I will see it through,” but, “I’ll see them through.”
That is love to the uttermost. Love to the uttermost says, “I won’t leave you to yourselves, but I’ll take you all the way, if you’ll be My disciple, if you’ll learn from Me.”
I just want to end with a couple of verses from this last song. It is 362 in the book, but the last two verses talk about more than just paying the penalty.
I found a Friend, O such a Friend!
All power to Him is given,
To guard me on my onward course,
And bring me safe to heaven.The eternal glories gleam afar,
To nerve my faint endeavor;
So now to watch, to work, to war,
And then to rest forever.
It is not talking about penalty. It is talking about the whole way the Lord wants for me. He is going to bring me safe.
I found a Friend, O such a Friend!
So kind, and true, and tender;
So wise a Counselor and Guide,
So mighty a Defender!From Him who loves me now so well,
What power my soul can sever?
Shall life or death, shall earth or hell?
No! I am His forever.
Brothers and sisters, how well does the Lord love you? Oh, it is more than just taking away your sins. It is bringing you to what He meant for you always to be: His son.
He has meant you to be His son from the beginning. “From Him who loves me now so well, what power my soul can sever? Shall life or death or earth or hell? No. I’m His forever.”
It is a wonderful thing to know that we are saved. It is a terrible thing to think that “saved” means just so little.
But the wonderful thing about that is that God loves His Son so much, and has committed so much to His Son, that He will not leave us in a state where that is all we believe.
He comes to us and says, “I have so much more for you that I want you to have.” He is a Mediator of a new covenant that not only forgives sins, but brings us to the uttermost.
Lord, we want to thank You for how great is salvation. But really, not how great a salvation as much as how great a Savior. What a great Savior we have.
How much You see in Him that we do not see, and how much we need to know about Him. Lord, we want to know Him, Lord, as the One who leads us to the uttermost.
We know Him, Lord, as our Savior from the penalty of sin, and we thank You that we have that knowledge. But, oh Lord, You say He is more, and we want to know then more.
We are asking, Lord, won’t You reveal Him more to us? Won’t You let us see Him as asking You for the Holy Spirit for us, and then pouring Him out on us?
Do not leave us to ourselves and our own devices. Do not leave us to a system. Bring us to a Person—a Person who loves us so dearly and would give us all that we need.
Not in a way of spoiling us, but in bringing us to what we are supposed to be and growing us up. Oh Lord, we want to see that.
We want to see Him who brings that to us, and we want to believe in Him for that and everything that He has for us. We want that Spirit that You promised, that He has prayed for, living in us powerfully.
Oh Lord, fill us, we pray. Let us come under the influence, Lord, that we forever need to be under.
Help us not, Lord, to think that You are just so chintzy and cheap, making us do things that we cannot do. Help us see that You have given us everything.
Oh Lord, open our eyes to this, we pray, that we might love You in return. We ask this in Christ Jesus’ name.