A FRUITLESS SEARCH
When that day comes, you will make your requests to him in my name, for I need make no promise to plead to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you. John 16:26, Phillips.
I had heard it so often that I finally decided I would find its biblical basis. I had been hearing that Christ's righteousness is something like a robe that He puts over us to make us acceptable to the Father, and that the Father then agrees to view the sinner differently because of the substitutionary merit of the Son. In brief, I heard that Jesus changes the Father's mind and heart towards us, which is necessary in order for us to be saved.
Assuming that no biblical personality knew more about the plan of salvation than Jesus did, I decided to go to the Gospels, particularly the spoken words of Jesus, to find evidence for such a view. I searched for any place where Jesus expressed or implied that His Father's attitude toward us was changed or modified by the Son's appeal, merit, substitutionary life, or legal covering. I found none. I would encourage you to check for yourself; it just isn't there.
Instead, I filled a half dozen notebook pages full of verses in which Jesus is telling us how much the Father already loves us and pleading with us to change our opinion of the Father! And in the context of this particular quest, how grateful I was to come across the familiar text quoted above. What could be more excellent? Jesus is promising not to plead with the Father to change in any way toward us! The Father, He assures us, is already steadfastly loving toward us.
What is more, Jesus has just finished saying "the time is coming to give up parables and tell you plainly about the Father'' (John 16:25, Phillips). With only hours left with His earthly friends. Jesus needed to move beyond limited insights, trimmed down to accommodate the dull understandings of the masses. He wanted to speak the most accurate, complete, and vital truths about His Father that their growing minds could grasp. He wanted them no longer to cower in fear before God, rendering the trembling obedience of a whipped slave. Rather, He wanted them to be made whole by His Father's loving acceptance.
My search, then, was far from fruitless!
When that day comes, you will make your requests to him in my name, for I need make no promise to plead to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you. John 16:26, Phillips.
I had heard it so often that I finally decided I would find its biblical basis. I had been hearing that Christ's righteousness is something like a robe that He puts over us to make us acceptable to the Father, and that the Father then agrees to view the sinner differently because of the substitutionary merit of the Son. In brief, I heard that Jesus changes the Father's mind and heart towards us, which is necessary in order for us to be saved.
Assuming that no biblical personality knew more about the plan of salvation than Jesus did, I decided to go to the Gospels, particularly the spoken words of Jesus, to find evidence for such a view. I searched for any place where Jesus expressed or implied that His Father's attitude toward us was changed or modified by the Son's appeal, merit, substitutionary life, or legal covering. I found none. I would encourage you to check for yourself; it just isn't there.
Instead, I filled a half dozen notebook pages full of verses in which Jesus is telling us how much the Father already loves us and pleading with us to change our opinion of the Father! And in the context of this particular quest, how grateful I was to come across the familiar text quoted above. What could be more excellent? Jesus is promising not to plead with the Father to change in any way toward us! The Father, He assures us, is already steadfastly loving toward us.
What is more, Jesus has just finished saying "the time is coming to give up parables and tell you plainly about the Father'' (John 16:25, Phillips). With only hours left with His earthly friends. Jesus needed to move beyond limited insights, trimmed down to accommodate the dull understandings of the masses. He wanted to speak the most accurate, complete, and vital truths about His Father that their growing minds could grasp. He wanted them no longer to cower in fear before God, rendering the trembling obedience of a whipped slave. Rather, He wanted them to be made whole by His Father's loving acceptance.
My search, then, was far from fruitless!
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