What did Jesus send us to do?

In John 17:18 Jesus prays to his Father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” So, just as the Father sent Jesus with a job to do here, Jesus has his share of people he’s been assigning a job to do here as well.

In verse 19, Jesus then clues us in to what his job was: “I sanctify myself that they too (the people he assigns) may be truly sanctified” as well. So the reason the Father sent Jesus into the world is the same reason for Jesus sending his disciples into the world, because in both cases it involves the word “sanctified,” meaning “being made holy,” or being made perfect. 

Jesus’ goal in his human life, therefore, was to be made perfect, because “once made perfect,” Hebrews 5:9, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” His perfection, or sanctifying himself, therefore, would swing open the doors to eternal life – to those, that is “who obey him.” 

Because it’s obedience that sanctified him, and obedience that sanctifies us. Jesus “lived by every word that came from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), and he remained “obedient to death” (Philippians 2:8). Every thought, word and action of his was geared to what he knew his Father wanted him to think, say and do, just as “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

But why such emphasis on obedience? Because as Jesus prayed to his Father back in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.” The basic “truth” of life is knowing and obeying what God says. And to get that point across Jesus willingly emptied himself of all his Godness so he could pattern that basic truth for us in his own life. 

The basic truth of his life being Hebrews 5:8, he “learned obedience.” By willingly subjecting himself to excruciating temptation and testing (2:10, 4:15), he learnt just how hard obeying God is. But he did it – and God rewarded him handsomely for it (Philippians 2:9-10). Jesus’ great wish, then, is that we now “learn obedience” so we too can be “truly sanctified” and perfected in readiness for joining him forever. 

Which for us involves learning to obey him (Hebrews 5:9). In which case, “How do we obey Jesus?”….(next blog)