MY LIFE ON DISPLAY
21st Nov 2018
John 17 in The Message says, “And my life is on display in them, for I am no longer going to be visible in the world.” Jesus is declaring that He is going back to His Father and leaving His disciples as living replicas of Him - what an amazing challenge.
You might think that takes us off the hook until we read, “Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12) This is also followed up in 1 John 4:17, “Because as he is, so are we in this world.”
What then is the quality of this life that we have been called to display to the world? It is a life that is united with the Father, “So that they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart in mind.” We are called to live in harmony and unity with the Father and our fellow believers.
There are more qualities, “So my people can experience my joy completed in them.” We are to demonstrate the life of the One who was “Anointed with Joy”. “Make them holy - consecrated - with the truth.” We are called to holiness, which are lives set apart for God, not lived in selfishness.
The mission we have been given is, “That the world might believe that you, in fact sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them.” We are called to live lives that declare the gospel in word and deed. “And give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you loved me.”
Jesus concludes this prayer, “I have made your very being known to them - Who you are and what you do…. so that your love for me might be in them.”
This has reminded me of an old hymn by Gypsy Smith
“Christ, The Transforming Light,
Touches this heart of mine,
Piercing the darkest night,
Making His glory shine.
Oh, to reflect His grace,
Causing the world to see
Love that will glow,
till others shall know,
Jesus, revealed in me.”
by Charles Sibthorpe
