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THE KING’S BUSINESS
an appalling presumption and arrant blas phemy. He does not hesitate to say, “If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also.” And then He adds, “From henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him,” i. e., “in knowing me and see ing me you have known God and seen God.” If Jesus is not God had He any right to-say that? But Jesus had a right to say, “If ye had known me, ye would have known God,” for He is God. God perfectly and fully revealed Himself in Jesus; in Jesus dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead in a bodily form (Col. 2:9), so Jesus could say what He did. To know Jesus is to know God; to know Jesus fully is to know God fully. We can learn some thing of God by the study of nature; we can learn something about God by the study of man, but we can learn all that there is to be known about God by the study of Jesus. If we know Jesus we,know the Father also. To see Jesus is to see God, God manifest in the flesh. That was a cry of deep significance that Philip uttered, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Yes, that will suffice us, to see God; nothing else will. But for several years Philip had been looking at God and not seeing Him or knowing Him. God was in Christ, but Philip had not recognized Him. There are many in this day who are just as blind as Philip was, they look at Jesus but they never see God. There was a deep longing in the heart of Jesus to have Philip and the rest of the apostles believe that He was in the Father and the Father in Him, and there is the same longing in His heart today to have us believe it also. His works prove it to all who have a discern ing eye. Tuesday, July 25 . John 14 : 12 - 14 . Verse 12 contains another of the com forting thoughts that Jesus leaves with His disciples. The words into which that thought is put are wonderful words, amaz ing words. This verse certainly does not describe the experience of the average Christian today. But we must not bring
God’s word down to the level of our expe rience, but bring our experience up to the level of God’s word. Let it be said fear lessly that no matter how' amazing Jesus’ words may be, that Jesus means just what He says. We are now by our faith united to a risen Christ,, to one who possesses “all power in heaven and on earth,” and by rea son of this union we have at our disposal power to do greater things than Jesus did during the days of His humiliation. This amazing promise of our Lord was fulfilled to those to whom He first spoke it on the day of Pentecost. They did on that day a far greater thing than any that Jesus did during His earthly life. They saw three thousand converted in a single day. That was a far greater work than any Jesus-did while He lived. Works in the domain of the spiritual are “greater” than works in the domain of the ¡Shysical. To raise one dead in trespasses and sin is far greater than to raise one physically dead. It is for us to claim our share of this power also. Verses 13 and 14 tell us how to claim it. These verses tell us of the prayer that gets just what it asks and anything it asks. It is prayer “in the name” of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to pray in the name of Christ? It is to pray upon the ground of Christ’s claim upon God, not upon the grounds of any claims/we imagine we have upon God. It is far more than merely to add to your petition the phrase, “all this I ask in Jesus’ name,” or the other phrase, “all this I ask for Jesus’ sake.” , We may say that and in reality not be praying in Jesus’ name at all, but in reality praying in our own name. When we approach God on the ground of some merit that we im agine that we have in God’s sight, or on the ground of some claim that we fancy we have upon God, we are praying in our own name, even though we add the phrase, “all this I ask in Jesus’ name,” but when we renounce all thought that we have any claim upon God whatever, and see our selves as poor, worthless, utterly undeserv ing sinners, with no claim of any kind upon God, but believing in Jesus’ promises approach God on the ground of Christ’s
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