Why Jesus?…

In his own words (part 2)

The process of heaven becoming real on this earth began with Jesus’ disciples believing that Jesus had “come from the Father,” John 16:28. “You believe at last!” he cried out in verse 31. 

So Jesus was jolly pleased that they believed he’d “come from God” (verse 30), but why was he pleased? Because, verse 27: “the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” He was delighted with their belief because the result of it was the Father loving them.   

In asking the question, then, “Why Jesus?” – Jesus answered that for us in verse 27: he came from God to bring his Father’s love. When the Father sent Jesus to us it came with the message: “Give them my love” – like we say to visiting friends and relatives to give our love to those we know when they get back home. Back at their home base, then, they become messengers of our love, just like Jesus came to our home base to be a messenger of his Father’s love. 

And knowing the Father’s love would certainly make heaven real. It would open up a new world. So it’s no surprise that Jesus also explained to his disciples in verse 27 how that world would open up to them: “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me.”    

The obvious question then is: “How do we love Jesus?” In Jesus’ own words it’s obeying what he taught (John 14:23) – in recognition, John 7:16, that “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” So what Jesus taught came directly from the Father (14:10), and what “I learned from my Father I have made known to you,” John 15:15. So this was how they’d come to know the Father’s world and the Father’s love – through the direct line the Father had set up in the teaching of Jesus.  

And his disciples got that, because in John 16:30 they told Jesus, “Now we can see that you know all things and there’s no need for anyone to ask you any more questions.” It was seeing at last in Jesus’ amazing knowledge about the Father that “makes us believe you came from God.” 

And that was the starting point for what the Father had sent Jesus for – to make his love and his world real to Jesus’ disciples…(continues Friday)