A Relational Thing

The Jesus we meet in the Gospels, and particularly in the Gospel of John, is a real human person. He not only looks like a man but he thinks, feels and acts like a man. What's so unique about him is that he, as a person, is God. He is the eternal Son who has always existed with the Father, and who even as we see him among us, remains God.

Yet, as he lives among us, he does so also as a man. So it is when he speaks of knowing the Father is always with him (John 8:16, 29; 16:32) he is referring to the consciousness of his Father's personal presence, just as we are aware of the personal presence of a wife or friend in the same room. He is not speaking of his essential oneness of being with the Father, but of the Father's personal presence with him. It is a relational thing rather than a matter of being, substance or essence.

It's in that context that we are to understand what it meant for him to live "in" his Father and to have his Father living "in" him. Aware of his Father's presence, Jesus lived a life of constant reliance upon him. He looked to him in all things, literally living his life "in" him. And as he did so, the Father lived and worked in him, giving him words to say, wisdom to judge, power to act. His life was a constant demonstration of the presence of God living and working in another person.

The wonderful thing is that this can be true for us too in our relationship with Jesus. We live "in" him as we express constant reliance upon and confidence in him. And he lives in us as he manifests his presence through his indwelling Spirit, giving us his love, power, wisdom and grace as we need it and as we seek it.