The Divine Logic and Pattern of Grace & Power

The New Revised Standard Version Jesus the Good Shepherd

John 10: 17-18

v.17: The logic and pattern of incarnate grace

The New Revised Standard Version Jesus the Good Shepherd

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

The Father’s love for the Son is linked with the Son’s offering of his life to defeat death and rise again.

This does not focus on the origin or motivation for that love, but focuses on the destiny and manifestation of that love.

The unanticipated pattern of the Son of God’s incarnate life as the Son of Man;

In becoming incarnate, God the Son becomes obedient to the Father, now as a human one - passively obedient, he learns obedience in a new way, as he submits to the Law;

actively obedient in a broken world held by our enemy, the Evil One, he establishes and advances the kingdom of God on earth in solidarity with the human race, by displacing death, disease, evil, and fear in the power of the Spirit;

his assumption of the role of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah); his death on the cross, and

his resurrection from the grave - this ENACTS the love of the Father, and serves as a PANTOMIME of God’s grace.

NONE of this happened, in any detail, outside of the plan of God. The fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, the fulfillment of Israel’s destiny to be a blessing to the nations, the fulfillment of the ancient promise made to Eve, - all of this occurs within the sovereign will and plan of God, in the fullness of time.

Jesus lays down his life of his own accord; at his arrest, not one could touch him (18:3-11); in his trial, he told Pilate he had no authority over Jesus except was was given him from above; even from the cross he knew he could call upon legions of angels to set him free, if he chose; yet he freely, voluntarily, and obediently surrendered his life for our salvation - and to overthrow the powers and principalities, exposing them for what they are.

The full life of Jesus reveals the heart of God, as much as the teaching of Jesus reveals the will of God.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus SATISFIES and EXEMPLIFIES the LOVE of God for the world.

The Father is glorified just as he glorifies the Son in His resurrection; For the Son and the Father are “One” - that is they participate in a Union that is indivisible, eternal, and dynamic.

Some views of the cross give primary emphasis on the satisfaction of God’s WRATH - the release of fury provoked by the frustrations and threats against God’s love and righteousness. While God’s wrath is real, and is unfurled when His love is spurned, Jesus gives primary focus to the revelation of the Father’s love in the pattern of Jesus’ free offering of himself in service and sacrifice.

We are being taught by Jesus’ actions what LOVE actually looks like.

It gives itself away by choice. Jesus is exercising divine sovereignty in the way He lives, the way he suffers, the way he dies, and in his resurrection on the third day.

This pattern is rehearsed in fellowship with His Father. Before the foundations of the world were laid, before the Word of God spoke, “Let there be light…”, the Father and the Son were choreographing this manner of self-giving, along with the Spirit of God, in their inner and immanent life as God.

This is the mystery that Jesus pattern of life, with his Father, and with the Spirit, reveals to us.

Since the days of Moses, Israel has confessed daily “The Shema” - “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” And this is most certainly true! We do well to continue to confess this, even in the light of Christ: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism - One God and Father of us all…”

And, by coming into the world incarnate, in living in union with His Father, and with the Spirit, we receive a further revelation about God. This One God, has an interior life - a mysterious and marvelous inner relation of speaking and hearing, of giving and receiving, of willing and obedience, of sending and going, of loving and sharing, of generosity and reciprocity. God has been practicing the dynamics of love, life, and self-giving forever - before creating the heavens and the earth; the pattern and logic of grace flows from the inner beauty and simplicity of God’s own heart.

This is what God most desires to impart to the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

God is light - and in him is no darkness at all.

God is life - and in him death is no rival - it is a defeated foe.

God is love - it is the most elemental aspect of the Divine nature.

Not love in sentiment, but love in action. Love that freely gives itself away at great cost.

Love of brother, love of stranger, love of enemy.

This love is the strongest power in the universe, for this love never fails.

Love precedes and succeeds history and the universe itself.

When the last star in the universe implodes into a black hole, Love will prevail.

And Jesus lives, dies, and rises in step with His Father’s love.

This is what the early Church sings about and celebrates, as we read in Philippians 2.

This is what the Divine power that resides is Jesus is focused upon - revelation and reconciliation by persuasion, not coercion. God is not a warrior; God is a lover; a Father; a Good Shepherd.

[Transition: Grace and Power]

v. 18: The logic and pattern of incarnate power

The New Revised Standard Version Jesus the Good Shepherd

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.

I have received this command from my Father.”

The Risen Jesus is not ashamed to be our Brother.

His way of being “Brother” to us is different than Cain’s way of being brother to Abel.

Cain’s way was violent, and he became a murderer. Abel, who was righteous, became a victim of injustice. His blood cried out from the ground, and God heard the cry of his innocent blood, spilled on the ground, forced to drink it in.

Jesus’ way was non-violent, and he became a savior. Jesus, the Righteous One, suffered unjustly, but became a victor over injustice by his resurrection. His blood cried out from the cross, and speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. God heard the cry of his Innocent One, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us.

Love, to be true love, must be embodied. It must act or die trying.

God’s life does not dwell in a murderer;

God’s love does not dwell in a miser;

God’s life and love dwell in in those who lay their lives down generously for one another.

“Love one another: for love is of God.”

God’s life and love dwells in Jesus Christ, who laid down his life, and took it up again.

An innocent victim of our cruel injustice, we who preferred the release of Barrabas a murderer, rather than the release of Jesus, our master, —- Jesus’ innocence and resurrection defeated our injustice, indicted our folly, and overcame sin, death, and evil by rising from the grave on the third day, victorious!

In rising he did not seek vengeance, but offers forgiveness and reconciliation.

His first words to his disciples were “Peace be with you!”

Acts 2:23–24 “this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.”