Believe In The Light

14/9/2021

John 12:27-36

Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.
Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”
Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.
While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
[John 12:27-36 NKJV]

It often feels that Jesus talks in riddles, tries to be obscure with us, when really He is drawing us to come closer, to come up higher, to know Him fully — to take us out of our natural thinking (about ourselves) and guide us into reaching heavenly thinking … which is what, exactly?

All through His earthly life the Gospels tell us that people were astonished by Jesus’ wisdom and how He could explain complex ideas in parables. He was persuasive in a way that only prophets had shown before and yet He was different even in that. This passage begins with Jesus in communication with The Father, even asking if He could be saved from the time ahead, despite immediately acknowledging the answer which He already knew.
That it is reported in this fashion suggests that Jesus was speaking His thoughts aloud — “this is how you do it!” This is how your mind must be — not your thoughts, but the Father’s.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. [Isaiah 55:8 NKJV] The Father desires that our thinking be as His, but at first it is not. There is a process of adjustment — a turning and re-turning our thoughts to His Way of thinking.

And then a thundering voice came from Heaven — a roar — interpreted by some as an Angel speaking to Jesus; but Jesus said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.” Again, Jesus turns things around, deflecting explanation and channelling what they thought they had heard back to the assembly. He says “this is for your benefit,” for he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.

This piece ends with these things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them. What are we to take from that? Logically, if He has left, the people will not see Him — He will be hidden. However, it may be that John is actually telling us of their lack of understanding of what Jesus was saying; that their minds were not adjusted to Jesus’ ‘Holy Spirit’ message. The veil over their minds had yet to be lifted and Jesus was thus ‘hidden’ from them.

Believe in the Light!

What was the joy of The Lord Jesus Christ? His joy was in having completely finished the work His Father gave Him to do; and the same type of joy will be granted to every man and woman who is born of God and sanctified, when they fulfil the work God has given them to do.
What is that work? To be a saint, a walking, talking, living, practical epistle of what God Almighty can do through the Atonement of The Lord Jesus Christ — one in identity with the faith of Jesus, one in identity with the love of Jesus, one in identity with the Spirit of Jesus until we are so one in Him that the high-priestly prayer not only begins to be answered, but is clearly manifest in its answering — “that they may be one, even as We are.”
[from ‘Approved Unto God’]