“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a
little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I
live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and
you in Me, and I in you. Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who
loves me. And he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him
and manifest Myself to him.”” (John 14:18–21, ESV)
Before Jesus’ death and burial He could be seen by everyone,
but after His resurrection He was seen by those who believed. He promised His
believers that He would not leave them alone—as orphans, but would return to
them. What they did not anticipate was that once He was placed in the grave was
that they would in just a few days see Him as the resurrected Christ, but they
did. Jesus made a promise and He kept it. The big difference is that after His
resurrection He made Himself known only to believers, and from that point
forward it would be settled that because He lives they were to live also.
He had told them that if they had seen the Him they had seen
the Father, and knowing Him they knew the Father. Upon His resurrection they
would know without a doubt that He indeed was (and is) in the Father and the
Father in Him. He would prove Himself to be more than a man and to be fully
God. And beyond that because of their belief they would also know Him in a new
way. Rather than walking alongside Jesus they would be walking with Christ in
them. When the Spirit comes they would be filled forever, as He had just said,
with the very presence of God.
Jesus had already established that the commandments were
summed up in two things—love God and love others. Those who have these commandments
and lives in accordance with them demonstrates his love for Christ. And those,
Jesus said, who love Him will be loved by the Father. And beyond that Jesus
would love them in return and manifest Himself to them. He already spoke about
Himself being manifest in believers when the Spirit comes, and this surely
would happen to His disciples and every single person who believes in Him from
that point forward.
When I think of them not being orphans I think of being left
alone without parents. Prior to our trusting in Christ the Bible says that we
are slaves to our Father the devil. Speaking to the Jewish leadership in John
8:44 Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your
father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his
own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44, ESV) In
contrast to that Paul wrote in Romans 8:14-15, “For all who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to
fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by
whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”” (Romans 8:14–15, ESV)
What an incredible contrast. When we trust in Jesus Christ
and are saved we are moved from one family apart from God and adopted into His
forever family, destined to be with Him forever. Jesus surely did return to
them with His resurrection and He surely has taken all who have died as beloved
children of God to be with Him for eternity. This is the certain hope that we
all possess, not because of works that we do, but because of the love of God show
to us such that we believe, are saved, and are then called to reciprocate in
loving Him and others just as He loved us.
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