“THE FATHER LOVES THE SON”

John 3:35; 10:17,18; 8:29; 17:24

I was thinking of what came before us yesterday as to Jacob loving Joseph more than all his sons (Gen.37:3), and also this scripture, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. All things are safe there. Everything given into the hands of men, however great they may be spiritually, fails. We have been reading of the labours of the apostle Paul, yet when he passed off the scene, breakdown came in, but what is committed to the Son will never fail, will never break down. We can say that He is absolutely trustworthy. The last scripture I read speaks of what was before the foundation of the world. We cannot know much of what, in human language, was a past eternity, but we do know that love was there, love between divine Persons. Jesus says to the Father, “thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. As coming into manhood, God had “given all things to be in his hand”. They are safe in His hands. “All things received being through him” (John 1:3) – those who love Him, the administration of the world to come – all these things are in the hands of the Lord Jesus. He has the testimony at the present time in His hands; it is safe there. We fail. When we look around, we see the breakdown, a reduction in numbers. Most if not all of our localities have experienced that, but the testimony itself is safe in the hands of the Lord Jesus. Christ is on high and the Holy Spirit is here. The testimony cannot fail, it will not fail, because it is in the hands of One whom the Father loves.

There is no doubt about what He has done. According to this scripture in John 10, He gave the Father fresh cause to love Him: “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. What a thing that was for Jesus, to lay down His life. He goes on to say that “no one takes it from me”. If He had not laid it down of Himself, He could not have died. Men placed Him on the cross, He was taken by wicked hands, and crucified and slain. But we can say that, from the divine side, no one took His life from Him. He had authority to lay it down and authority to take it again, no doubt a reference to the greatness of His Person, for He is “over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom.9:5), the only Man who could say that He had authority to lay down His life and authority to take it again.

You and I, if we are left here, will surely die, but we will not lay down our lives in this way. We shall die because of what we are as sinners; “the wages of sin is death”, Rom.6:23. We might be forgiven sinners, but still if we are left here, and the Lord does not come, we will die; we are subject to death. But the Lord Jesus could say, “I have authority to lay it down”. Then He adds, “I have received this commandment of my Father”. I think that was a precious word. The Father took account of this Man as He gave the Father fresh cause to love Him because it brought out the perfection of His obedient manhood; He was “over all, God blessed for ever”, yet He could say “I have received this commandment of my Father”. How precious.

Then He says of the Father, where we read in chapter 8, “I do always the things that are pleasing to him”. No one else could say that. It has often struck me that it does not say that He never displeased the Father, but He consciously did the things that pleased the Father, whatever they might be, day by day, moment by moment. His ear was opened each morning “to hear as the instructed” (Isa.50:4), yet through each day, we could say carefully, He sought out the things to do to please the Father. In relation to every matter that He came across in His life, He did the things that were pleasing to His Father. We have spoken of His loving kindness, His grace and mercy – how they shone out to all who came into His orbit, so to speak, when He was here. All of that, the way He handled persons, the way He spoke to them, was pleasing to the Father. How precious was the life of the Lord Jesus. How much it gave delight to heaven, so He could utter these words, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”.

Then we have this final scripture, “thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. His desire was that those whom the Father had given Him should be with Him “that they may behold my glory that thou hast given me”. The Father has given all things to be in the hands of His Son; He has “raised him from among the dead and given him glory”, 1 Pet.1:21. It speaks of the heavens receiving Him (Acts 3:21), as we sang in our hymn:

‘Received in glory bright up there’ (Hymn 350).

It says in that verse, “whom the heavens must receive”; Jesus was received into the presence of the Father. How much the Father loves the Son, how much the Father loves the Lord Jesus, and we should be stimulated to love Him more because of who He is and because of all that He has done. The hymn says:

‘We love Thee for the glorious worth

Which in Thyself we see;

We love Thee for that shameful cross,

Endured so patiently’’            (Hymn 341).

May these thoughts encourage us to see One who is worthy of the love of the Father, so to speak, and He is worthy of your love and mine. May we increase in our love for Him, beloved brethren, for His name’s sake.

Phil Walkinshaw