Focus on Jesus JESUS WAS NOT FORSAKEN
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. John 14:10.
"Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts....Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences....He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God....His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God."--The Desire of Ages, p. 24.
How did Jesus live His life of obedience to God? Through dependence upon a power from above Him, rather than depending upon the power within Him. His weakened human strength would have been insufficient. He lived through dependence upon another power, in the same way that you and I can live. Jesus said, in John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing."
Jesus' life was a life that was lived as a result of the faith relationship with His Father. He became a mighty demonstration of the fact that this is available to every one of us. Not even His miracles were performed by His divine power. They were performed by faith and prayer (ibid., p. 536), by the power of God through the ministry of angels (ibid., p. 143).
In coming to the close of His life and finding Him struggling in the Garden and sweating drops of blood, some of us have concluded that from then on, He had to go it alone. That although throughout His life He had been living in dependence upon His Father, from Gethsemane to the cross He had to do it alone. But Luke 22:43 says that an angel came from heaven to the Garden and strengthened Him. On the cross, when Jesus said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" we have said, From then on, He was on His own. But God and the angels were there at the cross (ibid., p. 754). Jesus didn't feel as though His Father was there. He felt forsaken. But God was there, in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. John 14:10.
"Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts....Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences....He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God....His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God."--The Desire of Ages, p. 24.
How did Jesus live His life of obedience to God? Through dependence upon a power from above Him, rather than depending upon the power within Him. His weakened human strength would have been insufficient. He lived through dependence upon another power, in the same way that you and I can live. Jesus said, in John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing."
Jesus' life was a life that was lived as a result of the faith relationship with His Father. He became a mighty demonstration of the fact that this is available to every one of us. Not even His miracles were performed by His divine power. They were performed by faith and prayer (ibid., p. 536), by the power of God through the ministry of angels (ibid., p. 143).
In coming to the close of His life and finding Him struggling in the Garden and sweating drops of blood, some of us have concluded that from then on, He had to go it alone. That although throughout His life He had been living in dependence upon His Father, from Gethsemane to the cross He had to do it alone. But Luke 22:43 says that an angel came from heaven to the Garden and strengthened Him. On the cross, when Jesus said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" we have said, From then on, He was on His own. But God and the angels were there at the cross (ibid., p. 754). Jesus didn't feel as though His Father was there. He felt forsaken. But God was there, in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
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