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Never for a moment must there be the slightest hesitation, or
variation on the truth, that our Lord was God manifest in flesh,
never setting aside His deity nor being bereft of any iota of
deity. We state clearly that the Lord is not just divine, He is
deity, God of very God. Let the scriptures speak: |
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a) |
“Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh
Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”
(Rom. 9:5) |
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b) |
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
(Col. 2:9) |
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c) |
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory.” (1 Tim. 3:16) |
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d) |
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) |
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e) |
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high." (Heb. 1:1-3) |
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f) |
"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy
kingdom." (Heb. 1:8) |
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g) |
"To
the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and for ever. Amen." (Jude 25) |
When this truth is accepted, then it is evident that since God is true
Christ also must be true. With God there is no sham or covertness,
everything is done in the light. Consequently, when our Lord prayed His
prayers were always genuine (refer to “Introductory Comments on The
Prayers of Christ”), always specific and expectant.
The genuineness of His communing with God was because He lived what he
said. Speaking to the Pharisees He said: “Out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34). The Psalmist said: “My heart
is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made
touching the King (Psa. 45:1). In the highest level such could only be
said concerning the worship and prayers of the Lord.
His prayers would have had several characteristics which did not focus
on a singular matter but covered a wide range of themes.
First there was:
His Consciousness of Unclouded Fellowship With God
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When responding to the request of the disciples to be taught how
to pray, the teaching began with the musing on the glory of the
Father and the reverence due His name. |
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It began: |
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“Our
Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name” |
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It was a double consciousness, both based on the Old Testament. |
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a) |
“God is in Heaven and we are on earth” (Ecc. 5:2), therefore
uttermost reverence is His due. In praying the mind must not
wander to other things, and that which is said must be carefully
weighed before Him. |
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b) |
His
Name is to be held in great reverence. |
The glory of God was the priority. One of the most annoying things in
life it to have someone to speak to them and fail to give them any
respect, or to speak while their mind and attention is somewhere else.
I would dare to say it would be very hard, if not impossible, to find
anyone who could honestly say they have always given God full attention
and reverence when speaking to Him. Herein we find a major glory of the
Lord, for His prayers would have always been marked by an absolute
conscious respect for God and giving Him full attention.
His unclouded fellowship with God, resulting from His consecration, did
not come at a crisis moment in time when the fulness of the Godhood of
God began to affect His life. Moses had a crisis experience at the
burning bush and no doubt his life would never be the same. Jacob had a
crisis moment when he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord, and his life
was never the same. But the Lord never needed a crisis moment to walk a
deeper path of consecration and holiness, for He was from before His
coming wholly consecrated to God, therefore He lived and prayed in
unclouded fellowship.
I say again, His baptism did not lead to deeper consecration and neither
did the experience of the Holy Mount. Neither was it a devotion by
compulsion (save that of love), but from the moment of His incarnation
to His ascension He was wholly devoted to God, consequently there was no
breach in the fellowship. It was a change of place and character but
the fellowship of eternity past was unchanged. Mr. H. Brooks stated:
“Consecration implies that the powers of the body, the affections of the
heart, and the possessions of the offerer are put in the (offerer’s)
hands and held out before God as an offering to Him”.* This was the
life of our Lord. *
Personal consecration, Herbert Brook, (James Nesbit & Co. London. 1897
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When the ancient Israelite approached God his acceptability was based on
the acceptance of his sacrifice (Lev. 1: 1-6). He, and we, are aware of
our spiritual distortions and sins, therefore, when we approach God it
is by virtue of the sacrifice of our Lord. There is the awareness of a
cloud between us, and as John writes: “If our heart condemn us, God is
greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, then have we confidence before God (1 Jn. 3:20-21).
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a) |
Christ lived in the reality of His personal qualifications for ascending
to the “Hill of the Lord, for He alone had clean hands, a pure heart,
had not lifted up His soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully” (Psa.
24:3-4) |
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b) |
Christ lived in the reality that all He did was pleasing to the Father,
indeed before He ever came, God knowing the perfections of Him said: “In
whom my soul delighteth”. This is far more wonderful than if the Lord
had said: “With whom my mind is satisfied”, or “With whom my soul finds
happiness”. God had said He would be delighted in Him, not just with
Him but in Him. Therefore, in His innermost being He was ever utterly
delightful to the innermost being of God. |
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Conscious of an uncondemned heart, perfect qualifications, and God's
righteous evaluation of His excellencies, He went to the grave of
Lazarus and made a profound statement. But, before that statement was
made: “He lifted up His eyes” (Jn. 11:41), He looked up to Heaven. How
much there can be in a look, a sweetheart’s smile, a judge’s sternness,
a convicts uncertainty in waiting for a verdict. Thus, we ask what was
in the look up to heaven? It must be seen in its context. |
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a) |
It
is one of the two times when the Lord lifted His eyes upward (Jn. 17:1),
which adds “to Heaven”. Thus both begin with the same attitude and the
same word, “Father”. |
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b) |
It
was against the background of unbelief, for the sisters said: “If thou
hast been here my brother had not died” (Jn. 11:21 & 32), and when the
Lord requested the stone to be removed there was the outburst: “He
stinketh for he hath been dead four days” (Jn. 11:39). The people also
were marked with unbelief (Jn. 11:37). |
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c) |
It
was against the background of profession for Martha said: “I know that
whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will give it Thee” (Jn. 11:22) and
“Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the son of God, which
should come into the world (Jn. 11:27). |
“Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou
hearest me always” (Jn. 11:41-42).
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This was His
delight, living
in the unsullied purity of an unclouded sky every moment of His entire
life. He never knew the heaviness that comes for the longing that
something had never been said or done. Every day began with the
Father’s smile and every day ended with His undarkened countenance. It
is in this standard of fellowship the Lord stood at the grave of Lazarus
and said: “Thou hearest me always” (Jn. 11:42). What was it He was
referring to? The previous verses reveal that to us. |
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a) |
“I
am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live.”* (Jn. 11:25) |
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*
The wording and tenses of v.25 are magnificent for the Lord is teaching
that even though Lazarus is physically dead, he is alive. This is the
truth in Isa. 57:2: “They shall rest in their
beds, each one walking in
his uprightness” “ Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me.” (Jn.
11:41) |
God had heard the statement He had just made. Was it the absolute
truth? Praise God it was and in saying it, it was exactly that which
God wanted said at that time,
in that place, in that way.
In the consciousness of His pleasing the Father (in this context), in
every statement made He says:
“Father
I thank Thee that Thou hearest me always”.
May
God grant us good understanding as He, by His Holy
Spirit, deigns to guide us into all truth.
John 16:13
Copyright © 2011 by Rowan Jennings, Abbotsford,
British Columbia
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