<P>ROMANS 8:1–11 “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (vv. 7–8).
<P>The world in its fallen state, opposed to the things of God, daily attempts to take our focus off of our Creator. It tempts us to adopt its ungodly affections and actions. If we are not vigilant, we will succumb to this enemy.
<P>Yet, not only must we fight the world as we grow as Christians, but we must also fight the flesh. Many Christian thinkers have warned us against the lust of the flesh, and Augustine illustrates this lust in a famous story from his Confessions. He tells about an episode from his youth when he stole some pears from a neighbor’s orchard simply for the thrill of the theft. He did not steal because he was hungry—which we might understand even if we do not approve—but simply because the pears were there. There was no rational explanation for the sin except the love of sin. That is the lust of the flesh taken to the extreme, that is, doing evil when we reap no tangible benefit.
<P>We must fight against the lust of the flesh because of our fallen condition. True, God makes us new creatures in Christ, giving us a real affection for godliness. Until we are glorified, however, we still deal with the remnants of our fallen natures. Sometimes we want to do what is good and yet do the opposite (Rom. 7:7–25). Conversion changes the direction of our lives, but sometimes we fall back into the old ways of sin and death. Romans 8:1–11, therefore, exhorts us to put the flesh to death and to walk by the Spirit. The idea here is not that we should disdain the physical world or hate everything that might bring us bodily pleasure. Instead, the war is a spiritual one, a battle between who we are in Christ as God’s holy people and who we were in Adam as enslaved to destruction. We are free to enjoy God’s good creation; the problem comes when we love the creation more than the Creator.
<P>Fighting against our flesh may require us to say no to some of the things that the world offers us, but it does not consist in an asceticism that denies us pleasure altogether. Some Christians have thought the path of holiness is avoiding all movies, all dancing, all alcoholic beverages, and other such things. But the real battle against the lust of the flesh in our sanctification entails the much harder work of saying no to envy, covetousness, discontentment, unjust hatred, and other inward affections that are much more difficult to avoid and to reject than external things.
<DIV>Coram Deo
<DIV>As we grow in Christ, we begin to see the depth of our sin because we begin to see the darkness of the heart. We take more notice of the “secret sins,” the inward hatred, envy, covetousness, and other attitudes that God forbids but that our neighbors cannot see. To grow to spiritual maturity, we must put a premium on putting these things to death and developing godly affections such as contentment, peace, joy, love, and so forth.
<P>JOHN 17:1–3 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him’ ” (vv. 1–2).
<P>Having taught extensively on the way of salvation, the work of the Holy Spirit, the opposition of the world to the church, and the coming failure of the disciples, Jesus concludes His Farewell Discourse (John 14–17) with a prayer. Today we begin our study of this prayer, which is commonly called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, because in it He intercedes for His people. Such intercession was vital to the work of the old covenant priests, and under the new covenant, priestly intercession continues, for Jesus, our Great High Priest, ever lives to intercede for us in heaven (Num. 14; 2 Chron. 30:27; Heb. 7:25).
<P>Jesus begins His prayer by interceding for Himself, as we see in today’s passage. First, He states that “the hour has come” (John 17:1). This refers to the time appointed for our Lord’s death on the cross, which was yet in the future during most of Jesus’ earthly ministry but has been at hand since His entry into Jerusalem (7:30; 8:20; 12:23). But as Jesus is praying on the night He is betrayed to the authorities (18:1–11), He can say that the hour of His death has come, because things are in motion that will culminate in His crucifixion.
<P>Before we look more at the content of Jesus’ prayer, let us note that Jesus is not being a fatalist when He sees things unfolding as God has planned. He does not stand around and do nothing. He does not “let go and let God,” but He goes to His Father in prayer. He sees no contradiction between God’s certain fulfillment of His plan and His own need and responsibility to commune with the Father.
<P>In this vital hour, Jesus prays for His own glorification so that He can in turn glorify His Father (17:1). Jesus refers to His upcoming death, resurrection, and ascension, but His death is particularly in view. The cross, though shameful from the world’s perspective, is, paradoxically, a moment of great glory for the Father and the Son (3:14; 8:28; 12:32). On the cross, the Savior is lifted up physically, but for those with eyes to see, He is also exalted as the Lord of glory. He is revealed as the One who will endure even an ignoble form of execution for the sake of His people, so much does He love us. And the Father, in turn, is glorified because in the Son’s giving Himself we see the Father’s willingness to give up His Son out of His love for us. We see also in the cross the magnification of the justice of the Father and the Son, as together they work to satisfy God’s righteous judgment against sin so that we can be forgiven.
<DIV>Coram Deo
<DIV>Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary *John* that “when the Son is exalted and honored, the Father is honored as well, because the Father and the Son are one.” It is impossible to glorify the Son of God without also glorifying the Father, and vice versa. Those who will not glorify the Son will not glorify the Father. As we glorify the Son, we cannot help but glorify the Father. As Christians, we declare the glory of God the Son, that all might glorify Him and God the Father
<P>
<DIV>FOR FURTHER STUDY
<DIV>Psalm 24
<DIV>John 8:54
<DIV>Philippians 2:5–11
<DIV>Revelation 15:4
<P>
<DIV>THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
<DIV>Isaiah 29–30
<DIV>Ephesians 6
<P>
<DIV>---
<DIV>Reference:
<P>Bibliography: Rothwell, Robert. "Jesus Prays That He Might Glorify The Father." *TableTalk* 42, no. 10 (2018): 37.
<P>Footnote: Robert Rothwell, "Jesus Prays That He Might Glorify The Father," *TableTalk* 42, no. 10 (2018): 37.</P><LINK rel=stylesheet type=text/css href="D:\Apps\InfoQube_0.9.109\AppFiles\default.css">
I use Windows 10. And the IE version is 10 also. All though I found the problem there was no LINK file in the HEAD section of the newHTML.htm file. Once I changed that and put the link in the right place. All is good now.
I use IQ on 3 different computers. And I think what happened is that I had the default.css link set on 2 of them. And not on the third one. So, when I created the file on my main computer the link was used to format the document. But when I pulled that same document up on the third computer that did not have the link. It through the link to the bottom of the HTML.
Comments