In this message we shall complete our study of Christ’s work in His earthly ministry.
The Lord Jesus cleansed the temple twice, at the beginning of His earthly ministry and at the end. John 2:14 through 16 says that He “found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting there. And having made a whip of cords, He drove them all, both the sheep and the oxen, out of the temple, and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned the tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” Here the Lord Jesus dealt with the house of God by cleansing it with a whip, or a scourge, made of cords. Verse 17 says, “His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Your house shall devour Me.” Within the Lord Jesus was a zeal for the house of God. This zeal devoured Him, ate Him up, consumed Him. He was absolutely for God’s house. When He saw the corrupted situation in the temple, He could not tolerate it. Because His heart was pure for the Father, He could not bear to see that the temple, His Father’s house, was defiled, contaminated by the things of man’s greed. Therefore, driven by zeal for His Father’s house, He cleansed it, driving the defilement out of it.
Christ’s cleansing of the temple the second time is recorded in Matthew 21:12 and 13. After He entered the city of Jerusalem, the first thing He did was to cleanse the temple. Any earthly king, upon entering the capital, would immediately have ascended to the throne. But the Lord Jesus did not do this, because He was not for His own interests but for God’s interests. His heart was not for His kingdom but for God’s house.
In John 6:57 the Lord Jesus said that He lived because of the Father. Christ lived on earth not merely by the Father or through the Father but because of the Father. His living had a cause, and that cause was the Father. Hence, the Father was not simply an instrument through which or by which the Son lived; rather, the Father was the cause of the Son’s living on earth. Today Christ should be the cause of our daily living. We should live not only by Him and through Him but also because of Him. He should be the cause of our living. Otherwise, our living will be meaningless. Without the Father as His cause, the Son’s living on earth for thirty-three and a half years would have been vain. But His living was not vain, because the Son’s living had the Father as the cause.
In John 5 the Lord Jesus did the work of enlivening an impotent man. The religious Jews persecuted Him because He enlivened the impotent man on the Sabbath. He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (5:17). In their religious concept they were resting and keeping their Sabbath. They did not know that there was no rest for the Father and the Son as long as the poor sinners were not saved. While the religious Jews were resting in keeping their Sabbath, the Father and the Son were working so that sinners might receive life and have rest.
Although God’s work in creation was finished (Gen. 2:1-3), in Christ’s earthly ministry the Father and the Son were still working for redemption and building (John 5:19-20). This work includes the Son’s life-giving, which is manifested in John 5. In this matter the Father and the Son are one. Whatever the Father wants to do in the matter of life-giving, the Son does accordingly.
The Lord Jesus never did any work without the Father. He always worked with the Father. This required the absolute denial of the self. Christ denied Himself in order to work with the Father.
As the Lord Jesus worked with the Father, He worked in the name of the Father (John 10:25). Having come in the Father’s name (John 5:43), He never did anything in His own name; He did everything in the Father’s name. For Him to work in the name of the Father means that He worked as the Father. The Lord Jesus and the Father were not working separately. On the contrary, the Lord was working with the Father as one.
When Christ worked with the Father, He worked not with the Father who was merely in heaven, but with the Father who was with Him and in Him. This truth concerning Christ’s working with the Father is contrary to the traditional teaching which says that when the Son was on earth, the Father was merely in the heavens. Economically, the Son was on earth and the Father was in the heavens. Essentially, however, while the Son was working on earth, the Father was living in Him and working with Him. Essentially, the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30); They cannot be separated. Therefore, Christ worked with the Father in the way of being one with Him.
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