JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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TOTAL DEPENDENCE
The same knowledge, power and authority that was available to Jesus is now available to
us. Jesus promised:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age" (Mt 28:18-20).
The implication here is that because Jesus has committed Himself to be with us forever
that His authority and power is available to us so that we can fulfill the Father's will: Going into
the entire world, discipling and baptizing all nations and teaching them everything Jesus has
commanded. Power for holy living and effective service is available to us as it was to Jesus,
only in complete, utter dependence upon the Father as we yield ourselves to the work of the Holy
Spirit.
We see paradox everywhere as we examine the dependence of the Son on the Father.
Christology is more than anywhere else interwoven with the paradoxical human confession:
"I . . . yet not I, but the Father." On the one hand we have Jesus making His human choice
moment by moment, a choice on which everything depends:
● "The one who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone for I always do what
pleases Him" (Jn 8:29).
● "The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up
again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have
authority to lay it down and to take it up again. This command I received
from My Father" (10:17-18).
Yet on the other hand all Jesus' words and choices depended on God the Father:
● "By Myself I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just,
for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me" (5:30).
● "Jesus gave them this answer: 'I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by
Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever
the Father does the Son also does" (v. 19).
● "Jesus answered, 'My teaching is not My own. It comes from Him who sent
Me. . . . He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he
who works for the honor of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; there
is nothing false about Him" (7:16,18).