Day 28

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?” — John 14:8-9

Simply knowing and believing facts about God won’t in itself excite us and certainly won’t change our lives. It is as we personally experience God that our lives are changed. Jesus said to Philip, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work. Believe it when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10-11). Jesus lived as a man in union with his Father. 

The explanations for His life as a man were his Father working in Him and through Him. For our Christian life, Jesus is not just the model we copy or leader we follow or teacher we obey. He is all those things, of course, but He is more. He is our Life. This intimate union Jesus described as being “in His Father” and His Father “in Him” is the same union we are to have “In Christ” and Christ “In us”. 

  When we come to Jesus in repentance and faith, He cleanses us and makes His actual home in us. We are then in union with Him, just as He is in union with His Father. They are one together, and we become one with them by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is by the work of the Spirit that we live our lives in love and dependence on Jesus and it is then we experience His power in our lives.

Jesus didn’t teach His disciples foolproof methods for living, but spiritual truths of union with Himself, which enabled Him to work in and through them, so that the only explanation for their lives would be something far more than humanity at work. It would be the supernatural power of God at work. In complete dependency upon His Father, Jesus revealed that the life of His Father was in Him. In the same way, when we become one with Christ, it is His life in us that will be revealed to others. Christianity is not a lifestyle. It is a life…. a divine life, the life of Christ united and expressed with our lives.

Prayer: Dear Lord, I am so grateful that you have made your home in me. Thank you for the indwelling of your Holy Spirit who gives me life and makes me one with you.

To reflect upon: In what areas of my life do I need to depend on Jesus more? Do I recognize that I am actually one with Christ and commit myself to living in dependency on Him everyday?