THAT was an amazing request which Christ made of the Father the evening before His crucifixion.
Think of it! A sinless Being, one free from every moral blemish, without taint or stain of evil, beseeching the great Controller of the universe that every man, fallible, erring, helpless tho he might be, who should believe in Him, might become one with Him and the Father!
That was a most extraordinary petition, the most remarkable entreaty that was ever made for man. Wonderful must have been the assurance, the courage of Him who made it. It looks like unlimited presumption to ask so much for beings dead in trespasses and sins, for those even who were seeking His life, if they should believe on Him.
And who was this dauntless Advocate for man, for you and for me? Had He the right to make request so strange, so unique? Surely it is most important that we have definite information concerning Him; because thereon hang interests vital beyond all conception.
Let us see. Paul was a man whose statements have been promptly accepted thru nearly two thousand years. Once he saw the ardent Offerer of this prayer—Paul himself being on a journey of dire intent from Jerusalem to Damascus. Paul heard Him speak; Paul felt His power. Paul had the wisdom, then and there, to believe on Him.
Paul says of Him, "He is the image of the invisible God." "He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." "All things were created by Him and for Him." He is the "First-born from the dead."
The beloved John, who long walked by His side over the blooming hills and verdant vales of Judea; who saw Him create bread to feed the hungry multitude; who leaned upon His bosom at the ante-crucifixion supper; who heard that startling cry from the cross, "It is finished," wrote of Him over half a century later: He "was in the beginning with God." "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made."
Who can assert that John's statements are untrue? What living man can put himself back to that time, walk in company with that "Prince of Peace," thru those three years of most magnificent history, and affirm that John was mistaken, deceived, when he wrote that "as many as received Him [believed on Him] gave He power to become the sons of God"?
But from still farther back in historic distance, back unto years long gone by, when John wrote, and Paul wrote, a door opens and admits a flood of light upon the personality of this unequaled Prayer-maker. Thru that doorway issue tones of words spoken in great authority, expressive of utmost strength, of boundless knowledge, of skill unlimited.
Listen to a few of the words. They were spoken to Job after Elihu had finished his picturesque and powerful discourse upon the illimitable power, skill, wisdom, energy, and justice of God:
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?"
"Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened?"
Or who laid the corner-stone thereof,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God [beings placed in control over other worlds as was Adam over the earth] shouted for joy?"
"Or who shut up the sea with doors,
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?"
"Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
And as for darkness, where is the place thereof?"
"Doubtless, thou knowest, for thou wast then born,
And the number of thy days is great!"
"Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
That the abundance of waters may cover thee?"
Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go,
And say unto thee, Here we are?"
John tells us that by the "Word," who was in the beginning with God, "all things were made," and that "without Him was not anything made that was made." The reader knows that John thus refers to Christ.
Hence it was Christ, who, in magnificent sentences, calls Job's attention to the myriad works of His hands; from the crystal treasures of the hail, frost, and snow, to the glory of two of the most brilliant constellations in the heavens; from the horse which scorns fear in the day of battle, to the proud eagle, sailing triumphantly 'neath the azure sky; from the threatening flash of the lightning to the invisible dew settling softly on leaf, flower, and fruit.
And this Creator of all things, this Man of great might, this One, who, during that night and next day, was to act the most conspicuous part in the most saddening, most impressive drama of the ages, was He who pleaded so tenderly, so touchingly, that those of the sinful human race who should believe on Him might be one with Himself and the Father.
Think what that means to us! what getting rid of sin; what accumulation of moral power on our part; what imitation in habits of thought, speech, and action; what change of attitude toward this present life, attitude as set, as stable as the tides of the sea, as the graining in wood, the veining in leaves, the tinting in flowers!
But think what it means to us, whom sin has thrust down so low! what honor to be made one with Him who strewed the heavens with gems blue and golden; who, from green hills and mountains, from clarifying winds and beaming skies, from ebony clouds and radiant sunsets, talks with us in tongues more multiplied than those at Pentecost; who, in His tenderness of heart, His magnanimity of nature, thus invites the race laden with evil, worn with the conflict of life: "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Gladdening words! And as welcome as from the lips of a beloved mother!
But to what extent, and in what respect, shall we be like Him; be made one with Him and the Father? Not in creative power, certainly; not in power to recreate, restore, lives forfeited thru sin; not in ability to lay down our life that we may redeem others, but in holiness, in righteousness, in happiness, in readiness to subjugate self, in power to go and to do whatever spiritual beings of lofty nature may accomplish. We shall be one with them in refined, elevated, mental state, in exalted affection, in taste for high7occupations. Our interest in other worlds in all the universe will be one with theirs.
"We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." John 3:2.
