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T H E K ING ’S BUS INESS
He says, “Believest thou.not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” Now what has our Lord said? Virtually this, “My disciples, this is how I have lived this life of mine. I have lived a life of fellowship with and absolute dependence upon the Father. I had a kind of contract of Divine grace with the Father. That contract was this, ‘My Son, believe Me for everything and I will never fail you,’ and as I have lived my life among men, every breath has been a prayer, my ear has always been to ward the Father, my heart has always been with the Father, I have never looked anywhere for anything except to My Father. Satan offered Me all the kingdoms of this world, I would not have them from his hands at any price. I have lived a life of absolute dependence as a self-emptied Man; at the entrance of every duty, every task, facing every temptation, for grace, for strength, for power, for wisdom, I looked straight into the face of the Father and I lived by this1simple con tract of Divine grace; Trust Me for everything and I will never fail you, and as I have thus looked up to the Father, My Father has responded to my faith, filling Me with Himself moment by moment, so that when I open my mouth to speak, God spoke through Me and when I stretched out My hand for work, God worked through Me. That is the secret of what you have been seeing and hear ing for the last three years.” HIS INNER LIFE. These verses come the nearest to being the interpretation of the inner life of Jesus Himself of any verses
in the whole New Testament. Now I don’t belong to that class of men who talk glibly about the psychology of Jesus, who believe they can paw around into the soul of Jesus—I have no measure great enough to measure the soul of Jésus Christ. I am think ing this moment about some words that were written once of Napoleon. You remember he died in St. Helena. Someone started the story that he had asked to be buried in the ocean. I don’t believe he ever made the re quest, but there was a poet who wrote the following words upon it: “Bury me deep in the boundless sea, Let my heart have a limitless grave, For my spirit in life was as fierce and free As the course of the tempest’s wave, As far as the reach to grapple control, With the depths of my limitless mind; And the ebbs and flows of my single soul Were tides to the rest of mankind.” These last two lines are an enormous exaggeration when applied to Napol eon: they are the sober truth when applied to Jesus Christ: “The ebbs and flows of His single soul Are tides to the rest of. mankind.” Believing as I do that the soul of Jesus Christ is greater than the com bined soul of the whole human race, I have no measure with which to measure the soul of Jesus; the only authority we have on the inner life of Christ is Christ Himself. And the peculiar value of these two verses is that our Lord Jesus Christ opens His heart and tells us how He lived His life. Here it is, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? the words that I speak I speak not from myself, but the Father which dwelleth in He, He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in
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