Jesus is Praying for Us

I recently heard an Indian brother recounting a conversation he had with a Hindu man. The man did not understand why the Hindu religion has 300 million gods and yet only one temple, while Christians claim to serve only one God and yet are splintered into thousands of groups and sub-groups?

That needling question is a good reason to reflect on the longest recorded prayer of Jesus, found in John 17. Uttered on the eve of his crucifixion, he begins by praying for himself (vv 1-5). He then makes requests for the eleven disciples present with him on that occasion (vv. 6-19). Finally, he prays, “for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20-26) – that’s us, folks! He’s praying for us! But listen carefully to what he prays. . .

Jesus asked that his followers would be preserved and characterized by loving unity, a unity defined by truth and clearly focused on the mission of saving the world. The importance of this unity is stressed several times in the prayer (v. 11, 20-23). Our unity around our gospel mission is in fact the primary way that the world will know we are followers of Jesus (v. 23).

I squirm just a bit when I think about Christians and churches I know as it relates to loving unity around the gospel – or when I think about my own pursuit of loving unity around the gospel.

Few of us would disagree that the modern ecumenical movement clearly lost it’s way and sacrificed truth in a mad rush toward “unity.”  But what about the ditch on the other side of the road?

We’ve all heard stories about churches who have been characterized by petty bickering and strife over a myriad of embarrassingly silly issues. Their lack of unity may result in new “churches” – but essentially removes them from effective connection to the mission of making Christ know to their community.

I’ll reflect more on this passage next week. Today, I’ll close with a couple of challenging reminders from Paul. . .

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1-3)

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27)

Your Bible and Your Idols

If Albert Einstein was still alive and I had five minutes to talk to him, Psalm 19 would be a great place to focus the discussion. This powerful poem explains why his search for God in nature was a dead-end (v. 1-6), and points to the only reliable Book that holds answers to life’s most important questions (v. 7-11). Like the scorching Palestinian sun, David had felt the heat and light of God’s law “searching out the hiding places of his soul,” to quote C.S. Lewis.

How appropriate, then, for the closing stanza of the psalm to begin with a rhetorical question meant to arrest the reader’s attention. “Who can discern his errors?” (v. 12). David is now concerned about his “hidden faults,” his “presumptuous sins” that would “have dominion” over him. Only when he allowed the Scriptures to examine his inmost being would he be “blameless” and “innocent of great transgression” (v. 13).

What is the “great transgression” that David feared would dominate his life? I think he’s talking about the BIG ONE here: the sin of idolatry, the sin of putting your trust and reliance for the needs of your life into anyone or anything other than God. David was not only jabbing the ancients who worshipped the sun god (v. 6). He was keenly aware of his own tendency to transfer his trust from the Creator God to rival gods calling for his heart’s affection.

He closes the psalm with a humble prayer to the only true Rock and Redeemer (v. 14) – “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight.” David wanted the truth of God’s law to illuminate the dark corners of his soul and drive from his heart any affection for false gods.

We may not be tempted to worship the sun, but our hearts are just as drawn to any number of idols. We look to material possessions, physical appearance, popularity with peers, financial security, professional accomplishment, and a whole litany of substitutes to meet the deep needs of our souls – instead of finding in our relationship with the Lord all that is necessary “for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

When you read the Scriptures this week, let them be the sun to bring to light cherished idols and sweep them away. Let the scriptures show you the unmatched beauty of the Lord Jesus, who alone satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart.

The Mystery of God’s Essence Contemplated

Reference to God’s incomprehensible essence also warns us against imagining what God is like, which would lead us inexorably down the road to idolatry. Recognizing God’s infinite and spiritual essence keeps us from thinking that God can be represented in imagery.

Paul Helm, John Calvin’s Ideas (Oxford, 2004), 20.

Here Paul Helm touches on Calvin’s view that the essence of God cannot be understood by the human mind. We can know about God all that he reveals about himself in his Word, but we can’t know more than that. As Helm notes later, the activities of God, which can be known, should not be confused with the essence of God, which cannot be known by the human mind. I often use the illustration (flawed, I know) that God is like Windows 7 and the human mind is like a calculator. A calculator simply does not have the capacity to run Windows 7. Likewise, we do not have the cognitive faculties to comprehend the essence of God, no matter how hard we try.

Calvin warned against philosophical speculation about the essence of God that goes beyond what Scripture has revealed:

Here, indeed, if anywhere in the secret mysteries of Scripture, we ought to play the philosopher soberly and with great moderation; let us use caution that neither our thoughts nor our speech go beyond the limits to which the Word of God itself extends. For how can the human mind measure off the measureless essence of God according to its own little measure, a mind as yet unable to establish for certain the nature of the sun’s body, though men’s eyes daily gaze upon it? Indeed, how can the mind by its own leading come to search out God’s essence when it cannot even get to its own? Let us then willingly leave to God the knowledge of himself. For, as Hilary says, he is the one fit witness to himself, and is not known except through himself. But we shall be “leaving it to him” if we conceive him to be as he reveals himself to us (Institutes1.13.21).

What does this mean for us? We should worship God as he has revealed himself in Scripture, and not try to understand things for which we were never made (Deut. 29:29)!