JESUS AND THE FATHER ARE ONE:
THIS IS FOR BOTH DOCTRINE AND EVANGELISM
Prayer: Lord, we love Your Shepherd’s voice, Your watchful eyes shall keep our wandering souls among the thousands of Your sheep. You feed Your flock, You call our names, You bear us as Your tender lambs. We will be safe as You display Your power and guardian grace. Amen. (Isaac Watts, “Join All the Glorious Names”)
Sermon Text: St. John 10:17-19, 23-31. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth; Your Word is truth. Amen.
With this portion of the Nicene Creed:
God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made.
In the name of Jesus our Good Shepherd, dear fellow redeemed:
Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” It sounds like He’s teaching, which He is. But not in a neutral classroom-type setting with submissive students. It’s in the midst of an argument. He says it to Jews who rejected that this is who He is, not only that He’s the promised Messiah but the very Son of God.
These words come shortly after Jesus said, “I Am the Good Shepherd.” We love those words! But notice, He doesn’t address these lovely words to those who love Him. He says it to people hating and rejecting Him. We’d say, “Why waste it on them?” Well, Jesus says, “you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.” He speaks His “I-Am-the-Good-Shepherd” to them because they’re rejecting Him, He wants them too; they’re part of “the other sheep I have which are not [yet] of this fold; them also I must bring.”
So we see that these words and this truth that Jesus and the Father are one, is for teaching – for doctrine – but it’s also for evangelism, for winning them.
We see this also in the portion of the Nicene Creed that we consider today, where we confess that Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father, by whom” – meaning Christ – “all things were made.” This part of the Nicene Creed is refuting a major doctrinal error about Christ. It’s doctrinal. This is for teaching the truth about who Jesus is, and rejecting what’s false. But it’s also evangelistic. It’s also for the people who are straying, who don’t believe the truth and are thus not in His flock, so that when the Holy Spirit – through the Word – turns their hearts, they’ll find in this creed a clear way to voice the faith they now have.
This creed came about because a 4th century pastor named Arius taught falsely about Christ; his teaching was influential and deceived many. He said that Christ, the Son of God, didn’t share the divine nature; that He was created by the Father. Arius’ followers said “there was a time when He was not.” That means He isn’t eternal, isn’t equal to the Father, is less than the Father.
We wonder how people could believe that. But there was subtlety in it. Arius and his followers would call Christ “divine” but that it wasn’t the same divinity as the Father’s. They would say that Christ was “the image of God” as the Bible says, He was “like” God – but only the way a picture of a thing is “like” the original. They said He was of similar substance with the Father.
So now you can see why the Nicene Creed uses the language it does:
· We confess that Christ is “begotten, not made.” So He is not a created being, He wasn’t “made” by the Father. He’s eternal. There is not a time when He didn’t exist. It says by Him “all things were made,” so then He wasn’t one of the created things. This excludes from Christianity the false belief of Arius – which Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses share.
· We also say that Christ isn’t just “like” God, not of a “similar” substance with the Father, but He is “of one substance with the Father.” He has the same essence. He is God the same way the Father is. He isn’t less than the Father, but equal with Him in glory and power.
We confess these things, and they wrote the creed this way, because the Bible teaches it. This is what Jesus said of Himself. He said: “I am in the Father, and the Father [is] in Me” (Jn 14:10). See what He says here in John 10:
· First He says: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” He says that He is omnipotent – all-powerful, which is an attribute of God. He says He’s able to guard and keep you and no one can take you from Him.
· Then He says about God the Father: “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” What Jesus says of Himself and His omnipotence and doing omnipotent things, He says the exact same thing of the Father.
But not only did Jesus say this. See what He did that proves it. Here Jesus predicts His resurrection: “No one takes My life from me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Then He did it: laid down His life and on the third day “took up His life again,” rose from the dead. Romans 1 says His resurrection “declared Him to be the Son of God.” His resurrection proves He is “the Son of God” as He said.
This question – “Who is Jesus?” – is about knowing Him. If you don’t know Him you can’t be saved. This is about the salvation of souls – actually being His sheep, hearing His voice and following Him to eternal life.
So first think of the lie and the false teaching that He is not one with the Father, not of the same substance with the Father, not eternal, not God. This is what these Jews thought who responded to Jesus’ statement, “I and the Father are one,” with such unbelief. It’s also what so many people in our world think, whether they think He was only a great teacher, or if it’s people of other religions, such as Unitarians, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, followers of Judaism, Muslims; even anyone who says they have no religion.
This lie and error isn’t just doing without the truth that Jesus is God. It takes away the Redeemer. If you don’t believe that He’s God, you leave the Savior, you have no salvation. Jesus was able to atone for the sin of the world, because as God He is able to die a holy death. St. Paul said we’re redeemed by “God’s own blood” (Acts 20:28). Luther said: “If it cannot be said that God died for us but only a man, we are lost.” To say Jesus isn’t God erases your Redeemer.
It also erases His power to guard and keep. As our Shepherd, this is what He does. He guards you body and soul. Hebrews 1 says that Christ is “upholding all things by the word of His power.” By His Word He keeps the world going. As our ascended Lord He’s in control of all things. He watches over you so no evil will befall you. He watches over your soul and preserves you in faith. To think He isn’t God takes away all safety and security.
But the good news – the Gospel! – is that He is one with the Father. This can be true apart from you. But in fact you are included in this. He chose you as His own before time began, before the creation of the world. You are the object of the great love in which the Father and Son (with the Spirit) are one.
This truth makes us certain that Jesus and the Father are one in what their will is. The plan of salvation – for saving you – was and is a fervent desire of the Father, and it’s equally a fervent desire of Jesus. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. Jesus came willingly to suffer and die for all. The Father and the Son were one in planning our salvation, were one in carrying it out, and in being stronger than Satan to bring it to completion. Jesus said: “My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it [up] again. … This command I have received fromMy Father.”
Jesus and the Father are also one in their power to guard and keep you in body and soul. The Father in His providence gives you all that you need, protects you from all danger, guards and keeps you from all evil. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who is taking care of you, never leaving you, even walking with you through the valley of the shadow of death, your hand in His. He says you’re securely in His Father’s hand and in His hand as your Shepherd.
For all these reasons, shouldn’t we love to say these words in the creed about who Jesus is? But also we look at the world around us, those who don’t believe this, what do we think of them? We should learn from Jesus. He saw the Jews who wanted to stone Him as sheep who should be in His fold.
Whether it’s people of other religions or if it’s someone who is of no religion, the fact that they can’t say this creed with us, don’t yet have this faith or the right understanding about who Jesus is, doesn’t mean they never will! Jesus wants us to see them as the “others who are not yet of His flock.”
The faith this creed expresses – the true faith – is waiting for them, God is waiting for them and seeking them! God wants them to share in it. He gives you – who know this truth and say this creed – the chance to be the means by which He brings them. They don’t just come to this faith. They come to the true God: to Jesus, to the Father. 1 John 1 says that “truly our fellowship” – our shared life – “is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
We should notice that the words in this creed very carefully express God’s eternal truth. The church doesn’t lower the standard. In the early church, they were desperate for the survival of the church too; but they didn’t minimize the doctrine, they were careful with it. They thought enough of each soul that in the creed everyone is brought in to the clearest confession of the faith.
This creed helps us to know what to say to others. Not that we recite the creed to a stranger, but when you know how the Bible teaches these things, this creed gives you an outline of what to say. It starts with who Jesus is.
What I’ve learned is that the oneness that Jesus has with the Father means the way Jesus thinks of you, that’s how the Father thinks of you; the way the Father thinks of you, that’s how Jesus thinks of you. The love for you that drove Jesus to the cross is the same love the Father had for you in sending Him. The watchful care for your body and soul, for every thing that happens to you, is something the risen Jesus and the Father in heaven share.
It gives a great sense of safety and security when you think of God and His love by knowing who Jesus is, that He and the Father are one and we are one in Him, that “truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” We want everyone to share this with us. In that, we are one with Jesus and the Father in the true God’s will and love for each person. Amen