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Jesus Summarizes His Teaching (John 12:44-50)

 Jesus gives the credit and authority to God the Father in everything. This doesn't mean that Jesus has no power and authority; it just means that he submits to the Father, and sees himself as the Son of the Father, and the one the Father sent, nearly all the time.

Jesus says that anyone who sees him sees the Father. This question will come up later, because one of the apostles really wants to see the Father, and Jesus says that if you have seen him, you have seen the Father.

He also says that he is our Savior, more than our Judge. He says the Father will be the judge. Between saving and judging, we don't want to say that there is only saving in what Jesus does, but it seems clear enough that saving is more at the front of Jesus's mind and heart. I do believe that we could not possibly imagine the depth of Jesus's love for us. And the difficulty of keeping his commands doesn't change this. God will give us the power to obey what he commands. All we have to do is to accept that help, and to use it the best way we can. This is not the only time that Jesus says that his words are what the Father tells him to say. Therefore, if we have a problem with what we're being commanded to do, Jesus says we should take it up with the Father. Then he says that if we keep what he commands, we will receive eternal life.

Our true struggle will always be either against sin, and our tendency to sin, or simply the pride of believing that if we do well, it is because of our own efforts. I think we can see from these words here that God is actually giving us everything we need. Technically, we give to God nothing that he needs, but we offer back what he has first given to us: Himself, and His love, which are essentially the same thing, because God is love.

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