“Believe the works.” (John 10:38)
How can we know what God is like? How can we know him so
intimately that we yield to his love and are changed? When Jesus said:
“The Father and I are one,” he was calling people to examine his words
and works so that they could know him and know the Father as well (John
10:30). In his earthly ministry, Jesus revealed the Father to us and
provided the way for sending his Spirit into our lives. If we ask the
Holy Spirit to enlighten us as we ponder the life of Jesus, we can
begin to know God in a personal and life-changing way.
Jesus emphasized that he was sent by the Father, that he was doing
the works of the Father, and that he was one with the Father: “The works
that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform
testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me” (John 5:36). Jesus
made his claims based not on his words alone but, more crucially, on his
life and actions. As we fix our attention on him as our teacher and
model, our lives can assume more and more of his character.
Some of the people who heard Jesus believed in him (John 7:46), while
others responded to the same words and actions by trying to stone him
(8:59; 10:31). They claimed that Jesus was blaspheming by making
himself God. In response, Jesus pointed to his works as evidence “that
the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (10:38). But these works
prove useless unless they lead people to realize the truth.
When we open our hearts to Jesus and allow the Spirit to teach us,
his works will witness to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. If we
don’t trust him, our doubts will block his life in us. We obstruct
revelation about God and his Son by putting our own notions above the
word of God. If we contemplate the works of God in Scripture, in the
saints’ lives, and in our own lives, the Spirit will be able to teach us
the truth about Jesus.
“Come, Spirit of the living God. Open our hearts to Jesus. May the
truth of who he is change us and make us true children of God.”
Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 18:2-7