October 2010 Newsletter Article

For I have not spoken on my own authority; but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak.

John 12:49-50

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when we think of commands from God, we usually think of the Ten Commandments. You shall not steal, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord, honor your father and mother, do not commit adultery, do not give false testimony against your neighbor, etc. When God gives commands, he definitely knows what he is doing. When Jesus tells us that his Father has given him a command, we might expect something along the same lines. Strangely, though, the command the Father has given to Jesus is much different – his command is everlasting life.

Everlasting life. To us, that is our highest and truest aspiration – we all hope to cheat death. It is a universal desire, to be sure – even non-Christians who believe that there is nothing after death will at least hope for their own death to be a painless experience.

Everlasting life. It is a wonderful thing, but how can it be a command? That is like telling the computer to turn itself on, instructing the leaves to stay on the trees, or directing water in a river to stay where it is. A computer only does what you tell it, leaves cannot be kept on their trees, and water in a river flows from higher to lower ground – if it stayed in place it would be a lake or pond, not a river. Likewise to us, life is not something over which we have sovereign authority. If someone were to tell you that their command for you is to have three arms, you might laugh at them, you might stare blankly at them, or you might try to explain to them that what they are asking you to do is outside of your control. The last thing you would expect is for your shoulder to sprout another arm. Telling us to live forever is going to do as much good as telling the sky to fall.

Still, our Lord does not balk or laugh when his command is everlasting life. Instead, he goes about speaking and saying it to the world. To him, it is as if nothing could be more proper. The other commandments, the ones written on our heart that we still need to hear all the time, are not mentioned. Jesus, the one who keeps every commandment, doesn’t receive them as commands from the Father – the author already knows what he wrote. Instead, he receives the command of everlasting life, the command that would have been given to us as well had our first parents not fallen in the Garden of Eden. He receives that command and he keeps it, even to the point of laying down his life and rising from the dead!

Jesus lives forever, and he does it not out of obedience, but out of love for us. Those who are in Christ by virtue of their baptism share all things with Jesus – suffering on account of sin, temptation to sin, and ultimately the wages of sin; death. He takes all these things upon himself and keeps the Father’s command to him of everlasting life, granting it likewise to all who live and believe in the Son. The command of everlasting life is the Father’s instruction to the Son, but to us it is the gift of salvation that is ours through the forgiveness of sins!

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.