SUBMISSION AND SERVICE
‘Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verliy, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.’
This text forms a characteristic saying in the passage in which our Saviour justifies His action in healing the impotent man on a Sabbath Day. He had said to the Jews, ‘My Father worketh hitherto and I work.’ But upon this the ‘Jews sought the more to kill Him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.’ Then Jesus replied to them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.’ As an answer to their objection, the force of this statement is that His claim of equality with God was not a proud claim to act independently, or to disregard any ordinance of God, such as the Sabbath Day. On the contrary, by virtue of the very fact that God was His Father, He could not but act in strict accordance with His Father’s will, as He insists further on—‘I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and My judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father Which hath sent Me.’ The Jews thought He was claiming a position superior to the will of God as declared in their law. He reiterated, on the contrary, that He had no other object but to do that will, and that He not only did nothing else, but could do nothing else. In all that He did He was but interpreting the will of God as declared in their ancient Scriptures, and in the light of the complete understanding of that will which was bestowed upon Him as the Son of the Father.
The acts and words of our Lord on this occasion offer, in fact, a conspicuous revelation, first of the eternal order in the Divine nature itself, and then in the constitution of heaven and earth, and more particularly of human society, which depend upon that nature.
I. It reveals within the Godhead a Father and a Son, and exhibits to us the method of the Divine dispensation as consisting in the execution by the Son of the will of the Father.
II. But these considerations reveal one principle in particular upon which our Lord appears to lay the greatest stress.—That principle is that the highest and most perfect life which is possible for any one, with the sole exception of the Father of all, is a life of subordination and obedience. If the law of our Lord’s own life be that the Son can do nothing of Himself but that which He seeth the Father do; if He can say of Himself, ‘I can of Mine own self do nothing: I seek not My own will, but the will of My Father Which hath sent Me,’ what other ideal of life can we presume to follow but that of simple submission and service?
III. Such is the spirit in which, if we would claim the best privileges of our Christian faith, we should ever seek to live; this is the only spirit in which we can succeed in avoiding the sin of pride. We live at the present day amidst influences which tend grievously to obscure this truth; the air is full of loud voices claiming freedom in political, social, and even family life, and it is claimed as the greatest privilege of reason to be free; while, at the same time, there are strong influences at work to shake our assurance that we possess the revelation of the Divine will, to which we are called upon to yield allegiance. We have need to be reminded that the highest glory of reason is not to be free, but, in the words of the great founder of modern philosophy, to be a servant, to be the ‘minister and interpreter’ of Nature; and that the highest liberty of man consists in willing service to his true Lord and Master, to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and through Him to the Father of all.
—Dean Wace.
Illustration
‘Though the Christian is thus free from all works, yet he ought to empty himself of this liberty, take on him the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in fashion as a man, serve, help, and in every way act towards his neighbour as he sees God, through Christ, has acted and is acting, towards him. All this he should do freely, and with regard to nothing but the good pleasure of God, and he should reason thus: Lo, my God, without merit on my part, of His pure and free mercy, has given to me, an unworthy, condemned, and contemptible creature, all the riches of justification and salvation in Christ, so that I no longer am in want of anything, except of faith to believe that this is so. For such a Father, then, who has overwhelmed me with these inestimable riches of His, how can I do otherwise than freely, cheerfully, and with my whole heart, and from voluntary zeal, do all that I know will be pleasing to Him, and acceptable in His sight? I will therefore give myself, as a sort of Christ, to my neighbour, as Christ has given Himself to me, and will do nothing in this life but what I see will be needful, advantageous, or wholesome to my neighbour, since by faith I abound in all things in Christ.’