by Luke 22:41-44
John 19:30
Romans 5:6
John 14:16
Beloved brethren, the above scriptures have come before me in relation to the thought of strength. Particular how, as looking at the Lord Jesus, we learn what strength really is in God’s things.
In Jesus we see, in every instance, at every moment of His pathway on earth, utter perfection. Moral perfection, spiritual perfection. In every situation in which we find the Lord, we find Him acting perfectly, speaking perfectly, and we know that His inward thoughts were perfect. So, we if we’re to look for an example of perfect strength, we therefore find it in Jesus. We need to look to the One of Whom the Father could speak thus out of the bright overshadowing cloud, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him” (Matthew 17:5).
The scriptures which have been brought before me in particular as displaying the strength of the Lord are Luke 22:41-44 and John 19:30. The scene in the garden is not what the world would associate with strength – the world would see a Man on his knees, a Man experiencing so much pressure that His sweat became bloody. However, the Spirit of God has given us the immense privilege of hearing the words which passed between the Son and His Father at this time: “Father, if thou wilt remove this cup from me:—but then, not my will, but thine be done” (v 42). Here, the holy perfection of Christ shines out – He recoils from being made sin, so abhorrent is it to His perfectly holy nature. None of us can concieve the horror of it – it is entirely beyond us as fallen creatures to comprehend the feelings of the Lord at this moment. And yet, having recoiled, He is ever in unbroken submission to the will of His God and Father. There is great strength of Jesus in perfect display – going on steadfastly to receive that cup of wrath from the hand of God. You might say to me here, but wait a moment: if you read on, an angel appeared to Jesus and strengthened Him – it wasn’t all Him! Well, dear friend, this incident simply draws our attention to another beautiful characteristic of Jesus in manhood – His perfect dependence. In that also, His strength shines out – He would not be turned aside from complete dependence, not through all the temptations of Satan, not in that hour of intense, indescribable pressure. When He was tempted in the wilderness, on completion of those temptations, angels ministered to Him – again here we see Him receiving angelic ministration. Heaven’s answer, we might say, to His perfect, unwavering strength in adversity.
Then we have that awesome moment seen in John 19:30 – the work of atonement having been completed. Again, in the eyes of the world there is nothing but weakness evident here. To those who had taken Him with wicked hands and nailed Him to the cross, it was their victory: “When will he die, and his name perish?“ (Psalms 41:5). We know otherwise. We see Him as having endured and exhausted the wrath of God against sin, and then utter this expression, written in the original Greek of John’s Gospel as “tetelestai“: “It is finished”. In the Greek it is a powerful expression, conveying a sense of a work definitely and decivisively completed, with results continuing into the present. And then, in a decisive display of strength, “having bowed his head, he delivered up his spirit”. Again, you might say to me, where is the strength to be seen in dying? Ah, but He delivered up His Spirit – and it might be as well again to emphasise the words He delivered up. No-one takes His life from Him – He lays it down of Himself. He has the authority (John 10:18)! And, so vitally important for us, He goes on to say in that same verse, “and I have authority to take it again.” And He has done so! If that last part of that sentence had not been true, and if Jesus had not exercised that authority of His, then we would be all at sea. If the apostle Paul says: “if Christ is not raised, then, indeed, vain also is our preaching, and vain also your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Yes – the fact of that matter is that without His death, the shedding of His blood, and His resurrection, the perfect life of Jesus, His holiness, His moral beauty, His strength – none of that would have been of any avail to us. And if He had gone only part of the way – into death but not out of it – indeed, the preaching of the gospel would be a vain, and so would our faith in the Saviour.
I hope that everyone reading this feels their need of a Saviour. And I hope that if anyone is reading this and has not yet put their trust in the Saviour Whom God has provided – Jesus Christ – then they would do so now, without delay! There is good news – glad tidings – being announced. All those who feel the burden of their sin can come to Christ and be freed! “For we being still without strength, in the due time Christ has died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). I want to draw attention to the first part of this verse, and contrast it with what we’ve just been considering. We were “without strength”. This doesn’t mean that we couldn’t go to the gym and pump iron – it isn’t physical strength we lacked. It doesn’t mean that we couldn’t process complex ideas and equations – it wasn’t intellectual strength we were short of. In our fallen state, as sinners away from God, we lack moral and spiritual strength. We are, as the verse quoted above clearly states, ungodly. Someone might say to that, hold on a minute! I’m an upright person – I don’t cheat on my taxes, I don’t commit adultery, I’ve never stolen a penny or a cent… isn’t it a bit harsh to call me ungodly? Well, the answer to that is, do you measure up to God’s standard? Do you measure up to Christ? R.C. Sproul once said that if you made a measure of goodness and put Jesus at one end and Adolf Hitler at the other, and put everyone in the world in a place on that scale, then the entirety of mankind would end up standing right up close to Hitler – such is the overwhelming, incomporable, exquisite goodness of the Lord Jesus. So, one might say that comparison is impossible. However, He sheds a necessary light on our condition as away from God. If He is righteous, I am unrighteous. If He is holy, I am unholy. If He is just, I am unjust. If He is dependent, I am independent – i.e. wilful. In short, if Christ is the standard, then I don’t even fit on the bottom end of the scale! Bad news for me when I come before a holy and righteous God, sitting in judgement upon me, the sinner – or is it? If I am ungodly, then Christ has died for me.
Much could be said here about the benefits – for want of a better, more expressive word – which belong to those who trust in the Lord Jesus as Saviour. However, my subject in this piece is strength. How can the strength we see in Jesus be known by the believer? Here, John 14:16 is helpful to us. In this chapter, the Lord tells His disciples that He is going away. This, of course, raises some anxieties and questions for them, but He reassures them: “And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter…” Now, I have always found this verse to be a source of personal reassurance – we have a Comforter. The word brings to mind our experiences as young children, when we would be upset and run to our parent or some other trusted grown-up to be comforted and have our tears dried. Now, the Spirit would comfort us – there is no doubt about that – but that’s not quite what’s meant here. The Greek word, translated “Comforter”, is Paraclete, or “paraklétos“. This is a legal term: if you were a member of a wealthy family in the Greek world, you could have a family attorney on retainer – a paraklétos. This word can be translated as a person close to you, on whom you can call, or whom you can trust to make a right judgement. The practical meaning of that was that if someone unexpectedly brought accusations against you, you could immediately bring in the paraklétos to stand with you and act in your defence. To unpack this a little further, we then have to ask why the translators of the New Testament into English mostly use the word “Comforter”? Elsewhere in the translation I use (New Translation by J.N. Darby, 1 John 2:1) the same Greek word is translated “patron”, which we would consider to be closer to the Greek original. However, the word comforter doesn’t mean today what it meant to the translators of, for example, the King James Version. A 17th century scholar would have the Latin root of the word in mind – the word fortis (strong) with the prefix com (with). So, com-fortis means… with strength! Let us put all this together – the Holy Spirit is, then, one who can be called upon at any time to stand by us, who knows, intimately, our situation, has perfect judgement, and will strengthen us. What a Comforter we have! And notice that Jesus says that the Father will send another Comforter – He is the first Comforter. It is not as if Jesus has – speaking reverently – given up with job of strengthening His own when He ascended to the right hand of God. When the apostle Paul says “I have strength for all things in him that gives me power” (Philippians 4:13) I’m not sure if he’s referring to a particular divine person – perhaps someone reading this can edify me – but I get the sense that he speaking of the Triune God. The three Persons of the Godhead, together in strengthening and empowering the believer.
So, we can avail ourselves of divine strength. It is very near to us. The Spirit of God indwells us: much closer than a paraclete of old. Paul asks, rhetorically, in Romans “Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect?” Satan is an accuser (Revelation 12:10), but we have every resource to meet him and send him away defeated. If we stand, not on a foundation of our own making, but on the Rock which is Christ, then we shall not fall. If we walk in the Spirit, then no accusation of the devil will find its mark. I hope these words will serve to encourage the saints in these last days.