John 14:11 'Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.'
What are these 'works' on the account of which the disciples are able to believe that Jesus is in the Father and visa versa? Verse 10 above seems to link Jesus' words with God's work; 'The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.' Are these works, including those which the disciples will be able to perform to a greater extent (verse 12), all to do with words, God's word achieving His work, or are they to be understood as works/actions? I think that these verses may have been used to give weight to the arguament that the church now should be performing signs and wonders greater than Jesus', so how do we understand what the works are that we should be doing?
Looking back through John at where works are mentioned previously (references obtained from reading Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis) can help to define what John means when he says 'works'. John 5:20-21 seems to link the works that the Father reveals to the Son with the life giving salvation Jesus brings; 'For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.' So here perhaps the work of God in Father and Son is to give life. These are the greater works (greater than what I haven't looked into...I'm assuming greater than the miracles previously worked). And I've just notices 5:17 - more references to God working. Maybe in a different sense, I don't know. I hope so because I haven't time to look into that.
In John 6:28-35 has more about God's works. Jesus says that the work of God is that people should believe in him, Jesus, the one sent, who is the true life giving bread of God; 'Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God,that you believe in him whom he has sent." So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.'
So there seems to be alot about God's work being to give life to people through Jesus. And this makes sense of 14:10 where Jesus' words are linked with God's work, as Jesus through his words is explaining about the life that can be gained by belief in him. Does that answer what the 'works themselves' 14:11 are? Could Jesus say 'believe me...or believe on account of the words I say' or is that not just saying the same thing because the reason they would believe him in the first instance would be because of his words. Or could it mean 'believe me...or believe on account of the work that God has done in giving life to people through me' or would that not make sense being before his death and resurrection when the disciples didn't really get what was going on.
I don't know. Maybe there is an easy answer I have missed, or maybe I've taken things horribly out of context. I've read it suggested that the 'works' of God are (as above) Him working through His word, and that is what I assumed to be the meaning, but just now I don't quite see how verse 11 fits in with that. Someone help!
Thursday 15 May 2008
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