What does this verse mean? So often teachers and preachers
speak of the action of laying down one’s life and they speak of what it means.
They use the example of Christ and use it as the motivation for us to do the
same for Him. I want to look at the actors in this verse. There are three:
Jesus, His disciples, and others.
We each go through life as the child of our parents, the
partner of our spouse, and the employee of someone else. Jesus came to give us
life abundantly. That gift has given us a new relationship title. We become the
children of God who serve the High King like the Levites served God in the
temple. This allows us the title of co-heir with Christ. As we grow, we become
disciples of Christ. Farther in this relationship, we become friends: to Jesus
and to others.
In
the first phase, we become as the Israelites were when God first chose them to
be His people. He wanted a relationship with the people He created. He wanted
to be their God. He required their reverence and worship. As His children, they
also had to remember they were subservient to Him. They, as His worshippers,
had to realize who they were in relation to Him – small and humble compared to
His majesty and power. There was such awe that they feared being in God’s
presence. Our relationship with God, when we are first re-born is like this. We
see how small and insignificant we are in relation to how infinite and mighty
He is. We come before Him in humility and adoration knowing who we are and what
He has made us to be by His love. We feel as if we should serve our heavenly
King through our subservience since we can never be as great and mighty as He
is. The humility we feel is correct. God is mighty, powerful, and majestic. He
should be worshipped for who He is and for what He has done: Creator,
Sustainer, Redeemer, and Lord. We must go beyond this point though if we are to
be in a growing relationship with God, though. We must never lose our awe and reverence
for Him nor our perspective of Him and His might and majesty.
In the second phase, when we grow beyond our initial
gratefulness, subservience, and awe, we become aware that Jesus saved us for
more than this. He left us with eyewitnesses who wrote His teachings down. We
begin to see who the disciples are and become disciples ourselves. We walk with
them through their three years with Jesus. We learn about the Son of God as
foretold in the prophets of the Old Testament and as fulfilled by the coming of
Jesus, God incarnate. We learn He has power over demons, illness, life, and
death. We learn Jesus will be our judge on the last day. We also learn how to
be His followers and what that means. Jesus is our Rabbi now, our teacher. We
sit at His feet. We eat at His table. We walk in His footprints down the road with
Him. In living with Him and learning to do these things, we learn to be like
Jesus. As Jesus said, “He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing.”
(John 5:19 [AMP]) As Jesus learned from His Father, so we learn from Jesus our
Lord. We are His disciples. This growth phase includes the first phase of awe
and subservience, but it includes discipleship now. It includes a commitment of
our lives.
The third phase of our growth in relation to God Jesus
states in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” [NASB] It is this phase of growth where
our joy is made complete. This phase is when the Son and the Father are pleased
with us and count us worthy to be called friend. What does this new status in
regard to Jesus mean? He states it Himself like this: a friend lays down his
life for his friend. (vs.13) Just as Jesus could not act without having seen
the Father, we cannot act unless we see our teacher, Jesus, do it. So many of
us read verse 13 as God telling us how great love regards one’s self - as
nothing in compared to the value of another friend’s life. What I am saying is this
verse tells us how to act and gives us value because of who we are - friends of
Jesus. According to Jesus, His friends abide in Him; they live in Him just as
He abides in the Father. Jesus states that we know we are abiding in Him if we
keep His commandments. He says twice in the chapter what a friend is: friends
have love for one another (the brethren) just as Jesus loves us. He states this
in verses 12 and 17.
This is the point we are growing toward – to be like Jesus,
to love as Jesus loves. When we see beyond ourselves and how an act will affect
us, we are no longer just disciples, but are identified with Christ. Prior to
this we counted the cost when we were young converts and learning at the feet
of Jesus. We are now walking in the shadow of Jesus and becoming the cost
without thinking and without hesitation because we are so identified with Christ.
This phase does not mean we have stopped growing in Christ, but is a phase
where the growth is unconscious because the life of Christ through His Holy Spirit
within us guides us in the way of Christ so we are unconsciously doing as He
did, being as He is, and speaking as He spoke. When we reach the phase of our
growth when we are unconscious of our own selves and no longer desire anything
for ourselves is when Jesus is most consciously visible to others in our words
and actions. That is when Jesus calls us friends.
Jesus calls us His children, His disciples, and His friends.
There is nothing we can do to earn any of these privileged titles. The gift of
faith, which God gives us, enables us to believe Jesus is the Son of God. The
gift of salvation enables us to have eternal life with Him. The gift of the
Holy Spirit enables us to follow Jesus and grow more like Him. The only thing
Jesus says we can do is this, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.”
(John 15:10 [NASB]) Our
part of all this is to keep Jesus’ commandments, His teachings. In doing this,
we grow out of ourselves and into more unconscious Christlikeness. We do
nothing to earn Jesus’ friendship other than lay down our lives for His. Be
filled with His Spirit. Become a believer in Jesus as the Son of God. Become
children of the Most High God. Be identified with the Messiah.
