- Wednesday, Nov 6th, 2024. Felt led to continue meditating upon Jesus’s prayer, and communion with His Father in John’s gospel, chapter 17.
- Reading through the verses of how and what Jesus prays, it seems to me that Jesus speaks without too much regard to time dimensions. In v4, Jesus says to the Father, “I have finished (past temse) the work You have given to Me to do.” And this is before the cross!
- Even more significantly, Jesus prays to the Father and acknowledges before the Father that the disciples “have received (past tense again) the words” which the Father gave the Son to give to the “the men whom You have given Me out of the world” (v6).
- Jesus prays this with absolute certainty that the disciples “have known (past tense) surely that He came forth from the Father, and they have believed (past tense) that You (God) sent Me.” And yet, in a very short while, ALL these disciples would scatter as He is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane.
- I continued reading, meditating and praying as I moved on to John 18:37 (the passion of Christ makes for absorbing reading!) where Jesus, responding to Pilate’s questions said, “I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
- The voice of Jesus only speaks truth. And Jesus declares that “everyone who is OF (emphasis mine) the truth hears My voice”. Jesus had already taught His disciples in chapter 6, verse 63 that “It is the Spirit giving life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.” (BSB version, Biblehub)
- This means that Jesus speaks Spirit words that are of truth and life. They are not divisible. Spirit and Truth and Grace combines to produce faith. But I run ahead of myself.
- I reached John’s gospel, chapter 20. And I read of Thomas who doubted reports of Jesus’s appearance to His closest ones. Thomas was doubting what he heard. He wanted tangible evidence. And Jesus appears on the scene and invites Thomas to get his tangible evidence. Yet, Thomas does not realize that he has been called out. Jesus is in His spirit-body. He has indeed been transfigured. He was already in heaven with the same spirit-body, sitting at the right hand of God. And through the Holy Spirit, He was now on earth, in that same spirit-body, before Thomas, and the other disciples. What Thomas touched and put his hand into, was spirit. Just as the Word was made flesh, the amazing transformation of Christ was offered a glimpse to His disciples for their own future bodily resurrection, only in union with Christ alone, through His grace alone, by faith alone, to the glory of God alone.
- For Jesus, the senses are no longer key to faith. Genuine faith believes His voice of spirit and truth, the same medium by which God is worshipped genuinely. Faith believes in the voice of truth of God’s Living Word. Meditation (Jos 1:8, Psalm 1, John 15:1-8) upon God’s Word leads the Spirit to clothe Himself with the Word-Diving Logos-into the Spiritual Organ of Revelational hearing (Gal 3:1-5).
- Christ is present by His Word clothed with His Spirit producing faith continually in the heart of His predestined, called, chosen and elect children from all eternity. This is what Luther referred to as “in ipsa fidei Christos adest”, in faith Christ is present. This is what makes justification by faith so glorious!
- If you’ve read all the way here, receive this glorious truth from the throne of God’s grace: you have been validated by none else, none less, that God Himself, through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of His Son, Jesus Christ.
- When you acknowledge and admit your own attempts and efforts of validating yourself by your ethnicity, your race, your education, your family roots, your societal standing is doomed, and deemed useless, and when you turn towards Christ, even that turning to Christ is a grace of God’s Spirit to lead you to the Only One who’s validation and justification is needed. Live free in Christ. He is a benevolent dictator, who only has goodness and mercy following us ALL the days of our lives (Psalm 23:6).
Genuine Gospel Faith believes His Voice
Tags: faith, Genuine Gospel Faith, Luther, Psalm 23:6, spirit-body, Thomas, transfigured, voice of truth
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About the author
Franklin Morais
A follower of Christ for 48 years, Franklin is an itinerant gospel preacher and teacher, and a part-time lecturer in Counseling, Psychology and Education at HELP University, Kuala Lumpur. He worships at Holy Trinity Bukit Bintang.
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