The Unattainable Ultimate Command
I’m in search of to obey Jesus’s final command: “Make disciples of all nations . . . instructing them to watch all that I’ve commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). Jesus’s closing command was to show all nations to maintain his commandments.
Really, the ultimate command was extra exact than that. He did not say, “Educate all of them my commandments.” He stated, “Educate them to watch all my commandments.” You may educate a parrot all of Jesus’s commandments. However you can not educate a parrot to observe them. Parrots is not going to repent, and worship Jesus, and lay up treasures in heaven, and love their enemies, and exit like sheep within the midst of wolves to herald the dominion of God. Instructing individuals to parrot all that Jesus commanded is straightforward.
Instructing them to observe all that Jesus commanded is unimaginable. Jesus used that phrase. When a wealthy man couldn’t carry himself to let go of his riches and comply with him, Jesus stated, “It’s simpler for a camel to undergo the attention of a needle than for a wealthy particular person to enter the dominion of God. . . . With man it’s unimaginable, however not with God. For all issues are potential with God” (Mark 10:25–27).
Subsequently, the one who units himself to obey Jesus’s closing fee—for instance, to show a wealthy man to observe the command to “resign all that he has” (Luke 14:33)—makes an attempt the unimaginable. However Jesus stated it was *not unimaginable. “All issues are potential with God.” So the best problem in penning this e-book has been to discern God’s manner of creating unimaginable obedience potential.
On this repackaged version of What Jesus Calls for from the World, John Piper walks by way of Jesus’s instructions, explaining their context and which means to assist readers perceive Christ’s imaginative and prescient of the Christian life and what he nonetheless requires immediately.
Jesus stated that this unimaginable aim occurs by way of instructing. “Make disciples . . . instructing them to watch all that I’ve commanded you.” There may be, in fact, extra to it than that—just like the atoning loss of life of Jesus (Mark 10:45) and the work of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) and prayer (Matt. 6:13). However ultimately Jesus centered on instructing. I take this to imply that God has chosen to do the unimaginable by way of the instructing of all that Jesus commanded. That’s what I pray this [message] will show to be—a sort of instructing that God will use to result in unimaginable obedience to Jesus. And all of that for the glory of God.
Instructing and Obedience That Glorify God
The explanation I emphasize the glory of God is as a result of Jesus did. He stated, “Let your mild shine earlier than others, in order that they could see your good works and give glory to your Father who’s in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). The last word aim of Jesus’s commandments will not be that we observe them by doing good works. The final aim is that God be glorified. The obedience of fine works is penultimate. However what’s final is that in our obedient lives God be displayed as probably the most stunning actuality on the planet. That’s Jesus’s final aim and mine. This helps me reply the query: What sort of instructing of Jesus’s commandments would possibly God be prepared to make use of to result in such unimaginable obedience? If the intention of obedience is in the end the glory of God, then it’s possible that the instructing God will use is the sort that retains his glory on the middle.
The last word aim of Jesus’s commandments will not be that we observe them by doing good works. The last word aim is that God be glorified.
Holding the Commandments Related to Jesus and His Work
How then will we hold the great thing about God in correct focus in relation to Jesus’s commandments? By treating the which means and motivation of the instructions in reference to the particular person and work of Jesus. The particular person and work of Jesus are the first means by which God has glorified himself on the planet. No revelation of God’s glory is larger. Jesus stated, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Subsequently, his particular person is the manifestation of the glory of God. To see him as he actually is means seeing the infinitely invaluable fantastic thing about God. Jesus additionally stated, as he was praying, “I glorified you on earth, having completed the work that you just gave me to do” (John 17:4). Subsequently, his work is a manifestation of the glory of God. Once we see what he achieved and the way he did it, we see the majesty and greatness of God.
Subsequently, my intention has been to probe the which means and the motivation of Jesus’s instructions in connection along with his particular person and work. What emerges time and again is that what he’s commanding is a life that shows the price of his particular person and the impact of his work. His intention is that we not disconnect what he instructions from who he’s and what he has carried out.
We shouldn’t be shocked, then, that Jesus’s closing, climactic command is that we educate all nations to watch all that he commanded. This results in his final function. When obedience to his instructions occurs, what the world sees is the fruit of Jesus’s superb work and the price of his superb particular person. In different phrases, they see the glory of God. For this reason Jesus got here and why his mission stays till he comes.
This text is tailored from All That Jesus Commanded: The Christian Life According to the Gospels by John Piper.
