“I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4
If ever there was an individual who was focused on his work, mission, and objective, it was the Lord Jesus. From the moment He stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth, to read a passage in the book of Isaiah, where He declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is uupon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor…,” (Luke 4:18) to the moment on the Cross when He cried, “It is finished,” Christ’s entire existence, by the Spirit of His Father was centered upon the accomplishment of the Father’s will, which was the completion of the work of redemption. Though tempted to turn aside by choosing a less difficult path, or distracted by his disciples who did not see the issues as He did, Christ was undeterred, focused on fellowship with His Father, living to please Him in all that He did and said. However, there was always before Him a looming fact and reality, and it had to do with time, resouces, opportunity, and direction. It was the issue of doing the work of His father, and accomplishing His objectives perfectly, fully realizing that there was a time frame, a time when He could work, but also a time coming, a darkness, when He would not work. How then did He live and work in the time that was given Him? It would be first by the principle and practice of the revelation of the Father to the son. It would only be as He saw the Father working, that He would do likewise. Indeed, the Father would “…show Him all things that He doeth, …even greater works than these.” (John 5:19,20) Why does God in the gospels give us this picture of Christ, who moved in constant unison and conformity with the Father, in such a way as to accomplish all of the Father’s will? It is for two reasons, the first of which is to give us a pattern by which we are to live, seeing the Father working in and through the Son. It is also the testimony of the Father’s faithfulness to the Son to guide, and lead Him, providing for His every need for the accomplishment of the will of God. Paul would put it like this: “Faithful is He who calls you who also will do it.” (1 Thess. 5:24) How then does the work and example of Christ apply to believers today, who, in similar fashion, are limited, constrained by time, resources, opportunity and direction, to accomplish the will of God, the work of the Father?
In the consideration of every endeavor to love and serve God, we are brought immediately and foremost, to the Lord Jesus Himself, and His accomplished work on Calvary. If the believer is to “seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,” and respond to the great commission given by Christ to His disciples, and to His church, then we must first come to the person of Christ alone, and to the cross. Why? Here is the pattern by which God blesses men, the personal revelation of Himself in Christ by the truths of Scripture, and then the powerful unveiling of Himself by the Spirit to the life and soul. In coming to Christ alone, honestly, and without reserve, we come before our Maker and Redeemer, Eternal God, having come in the flesh, and coming again as the victorious King. Christ is the Life, Love, and Light of the believer, and as the Psalmist puts it, “…all my springs are in Thee.” So Christ alone is the sole, and all powerful resource for all that is to follow. Secondly, His cross declares that nothing of the flesh is accepted, for all that is in Adam has been crucified and buried. Only a life lived by faith in the faithfulness of God, will be enabled and blessed by the Spirit so that he can “work while it is day,” bearing fruit, glorifying God.
Dear Father, Work through us today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.