Hoekstra's Day by Day by Grace (April 20th)

Living as Jesus Lived

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works…As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." (John 14:10; 6:57)

We are to live by trusting in the goodness of the Lord. "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" (Psalm 34:8). Jesus is the ultimate example of living by such trust. When we think of being like Jesus (or we ask, "What would Jesus do?"), the biblical perspective is far more profound than prevailing opinion might provide.

Jesus lived by depending upon the intimate relationship He had with the Father. "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." When Jesus spoke or took action, it was not on His own initiative or by His own resources. "The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works." Although Jesus was God coming to earth as a man, He did not live by exercising His deity: "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:6-7). Jesus lived as a dependent human servant, trusting in the Father to work in and through Him. The prophets of old predicted this path, as they recorded the confessions Messiah would make about His ministry here on earth. "For I [that is, the Messiah, Jesus] shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My strength…The Lord God will help Me [that is, the Messiah, Jesus]; therefore I will not be disgraced" (Isaiah 49:5; 50:7). Jesus would depend upon the Father.

Jesus eventually applied this kind of dependent relationship to us. The structure of His teaching was "As… so." As it was between Jesus and the Father, so it is to be between us and Jesus. Jesus lived His life by depending upon the Father. Without ceasing to be God, He lived as a man, showing us how man is to live. "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father." Jesus lived by trusting in the Father to work in and through Him. We are to look to Jesus to do the same through us. "So he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." Jesus taught that feeding on Him involved coming to Him in trust. "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).