“The question, “What on earth is God doing?” is an issue that concerns every single one of us.” William Taylor stated on the night of October 12 at the Petaling Jaya Heritage Center. “Not simply the individual, but any church, movement, mission agency, or denomination that likes to call itself ‘Christian’ should be concerned with the work of God.”
The rationale is simple: “As an individual, if I want to please God, then I’m going to want to line my life up with what it is that God is doing. And if I don’t know what God is doing then I’m not going to be able to line myself up with His work.
“What I want us to do individually and corporately is to hold up a plumb line against what we think we’re building and asking the questions, ‘Is what we’re doing [in line with] what God says He’s doing? Is the analysis or judgment that I’m making of the Lord Jesus Christ based upon the right criteria, or something that He never actually promised to be doing?”
Ref: blogofthetwelve
In order to answer these questions, William Taylor conducted a time of expository reading from the book of John, focusing mainly on Chapter 5.
16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
(John 5:16-20)
“The Bible is so clear!” William Taylor exclaimed. “It’s so insistent that we get the point. If you have a thick skull like I have, it drums it in: ‘Work, work, do, do, do.’ It’s all about the work of God. Indeed the whole of this section running from Chapter 5 in John’s Gospel through to Chapter 9 and 10 is all about the work of God.”
He pointed out that in John 9:3, Jesus says, “This happened so that you might see the works of God,” and then in Chapter 9:39, Jesus explains the work of God: “I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Photo Credit: Klang Valley Bible Conference
What is the Work of God?
Jesus claims to be doing the work of God. As we see:
19 The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing” (John 5:19-20).
In other words, Jesus is saying, “If you want to see what God is doing, look at Me. In fact, you could equally say, God is doing what Jesus is doing. For God the Father has entrusted all of His work to God the Son.
William Taylor gave the example of a grand craftsman with a family business that entrusts all of his work to his dear son whom he has trained and equipped. When you look at the family name and business—it’s all entrusted to this one individual.
That is why in verse 18, the Jews, understanding exactly what Jesus is saying at this point, wanted to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, He was calling God His own father, making Himself equal with God.
So if the Son is doing the work of the Father, then what is the Son doing? Jesus explains His work in verses 21 to 23, and summarizes it in verse 24.
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
(John 5:21-24)
There are only two positions to be in:
- Death and condemnation
- Life and salvation
God the Father in heaven has entrusted God the Son on earth the task of giving spiritual life to His people such that they move from a position of death to a position of life—from a position of condemnation to a position of forgiveness—From being out of the family of God to being in the family of God. This is the work of God.
So we know that Jesus brings life and judgment, but when does He bring life and when does He bring judgment?
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
(John 5:25-26)
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
(John 5:28-29)
So here in the present, He is bringing spiritual life. Life, life, life. No more condemnation. No more spiritual death. Alive to God through Jesus’ death on the cross where He carried God’s judgment and our sin to bring forgiveness to those who have lived a life of rebellion against God.
Then on the last day (a time that is to come), the Son, who is the resurrection, will raise the physically dead from their graves to judgment. “This explains why all this happens on the Sabbath,” William Taylor said, “for if we rightly understand the Sabbath, we will realize that Sabbath has little to do with not working, and everything to do with God’s supreme work.
“God didn’t stop work on the Sabbath. He just stopped the work of creation. The Sabbath points forward to the eternal purpose of God to have people in relationship with Him in perfect rest—perfect Sabbath.”
That is why Jesus says in verse 17, ‘My Father is working and I am working.’ This is the work of God: To bring people into relationship with the Creator for eternity in His new creation. That’s what the Sabbath is all about!
But then we think about all the problems in this world, and we question why? With all turmoil going on, why is God’s primary work not to solve the social, physical, and political problems of the world?
Why is this the Work of God?
In order to answer this question, we must first look again at verse 24:
Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
(John 5:24)
Here, Jesus makes an assumption about the nature of humanity. He assumes that apart from the Word of Jesus and faith in Him, we do come into judgment (are condemned), and are spiritually dead.
William Taylor then went on to look into a list of verses found in John 6, 7, and 8 which sum of Jesus’ analysis of humanity as He shines the spotlight into our hearts.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
(John 6:63)
Apart from Christ, we are helpless.
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
(John 7:7)
Apart from Christ, we are evil.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
(John 8:12)
Apart from Christ, we are blind.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(John 8:31)
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
(John 8:34)
Apart from Christ, we are enslaved.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
(John 8:44)
Apart from Christ, we are children of Satan.
Why is the primary work of Christ to bring spiritual life? Because apart from Him, we are dead, condemned, helpless, evil, blind, enslaved, and children of the devil.
In the western secularist culture, such a view is quite unpopular. The enlightenment philosophy says that we are all essentially good—that if we believe in God at all, then God would be useful to give us some help along the way. On our own, however, we’re basically on the right track, and all is going well.
“Man is naturally good. I believe I have demonstrated it.” —Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“I believe that the sum good of humanity outweighs the sum total of evil despite evidence to the contrary.” —Ben Elton
Such is the blind faith of the secularist. But Jesus knows what we really are, and His analysis of you and me apart from Himself is stark, and real, and honest.
Recognizing that Malaysia is made up of a more religious population, William Taylor inserted that his “suspicion is that the western secularist view of humanity as essentially decent and good is little different from the view of all human religion.”
Most, if not all religions have that same premise: You’re basically on the right track. Keep the rules. Recite the creeds. Do good works.
But Jesus’ analysis is far more direct. Each and every one of us—the nearest and dearest of us, outside of Christ, are dead, condemned, helpless, evil, blind, enslaved, and children of the devil.
Photo Credit: Klang Valley Bible Conference
Our spiritual state and desperate need for a savior explains Jesus’ words and actions, and why our spiritual life is His priority. In Chapter 6, he feeds 5000 men. The people respond by wanting to make Him their king by force. They want a political fixer. They want a nation builder. He refuses.
The next day, this same group of people chases Him around and they say, ‘Feed us!’ They want a material provider. Jesus tells them that He is the bread of life. They say, ‘give us work to do.’ And He says, the work of God is to believe. They ask for signs and wonders to prove who He is, but Jesus refuses play the role of a magician.
The primary work of God is to solve the primary problem of man, and the primary problem of man, wherever you go across the globe, is that you and I outside of Christ are dead and condemned.
How does God do His Work?
If you want to line up your life with the work of God, you need to know how He does it.
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
(John 5:5-9)
Here at the beginning of Chapter 5, we read about a paralytic man whom Jesus heals. If you have ever broken a limb before, you will know that over the span of several weeks, muscles that are not put to use will go completely limp and even distorted from contractions.
William Taylor testified that it took him 12 months of physiotherapy to regain strength in his leg when he broke it, after just 12 weeks in a cast. Yet here was a crippled man who had been lying in his pallet for 38 years. And what does it take to bring him to his feet? Jesus simply spoke.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
(John 6:63)
How does he bring life into a dead soul? He speaks. This is the very passage through which William Taylor became a Christian. In December 1979, 18 ½ year-old William Taylor, a spiritual corpse—dead and condemned, opened his heart to receive Jesus.
“Why, it was as if life… was breathed in,” he said. “I remember opening my Bible the next morning for the first time in years, and finding, literally—it was as if God was speaking to me from the pages of Scripture. Life! How does God do His work? Through His powerful Word.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
(John 5:24-25)
Through His Word, the Word of the Gospel, God the Son brings people from spiritual death into spiritual life. He is not primarily a material fixer, a political maneuverer, or an ecological messiah (although those who follow Him may very well become involved with such endeavors and still serve Him accordingly). The primary work of Jesus Christ is to save helpless men and women like you and me—corpses—to bring us life for His glorious future Sabbath.
“I wonder if you are clear on that,” William Taylor said, “for if you are not, your church will be involved in any number of projects and fancy sideline activities that are not the primary work of God. You could set up thousands of hospitals in Africa—what a wonderful thing to do! Compassionate and loving. But if you’re not involved in the primary work of God, you’ll be healing people who remain dead.
“Do you see? You must be clear on the work of God. Jesus is clear. And that is why He infuriated the religious leaders so much—because they did not understand the true plight of humanity.”
God is bringing spiritually dead corpses to life because outside of Christ we are dead are condemned, and He does it through His Word. Our job therefore, is to first and foremost channel all the energies of the church, Bible study groups, and personal missions into speaking the Word of God; for that is how Jesus does His work.
|Share The Good News|
Esperanza Ng
Leave a Reply