Christian Message Boards: God Making His Abode With Us

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Posted by Found in Him (Member # 7596) on :

God Making His Abode With Us
Rev. Herman Hoeksema

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23

That is the answer that Jesus gave to the question that arose in Judas' (not Iscariot) mind, after Jesus had said that He would manifest Himself to them and not to the world. Judas did not understand how that could be. He did not understand how that Jesus could manifest Himself unto them without manifesting Himself unto the world also. And we can easily understand why Judas could not see that.

The disciples stood prior to the resurrection; the resurrection had not yet taken place, and the Spirit had not yet come. Jesus was still in His earthly form; and how He would be after the resurrection they could not possibly see. As they knew him and saw him before the resurrection, they could not understand how Jesus could manifest Himself unto them, and not to the world. Of that higher, that spiritual, that heavenly manifestation of Jesus after His resurrection they had no conception. Therefore Jesus had said that He would pray the Father, and the Father would give them the Spirit. "Yet a little while," so Jesus had said, "and the world seeth me no more; but ye shall see me." And again as Jesus had said before, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." It is almost the same as in the text, but there is this difference. Instead of saying, "I will manifest myself to him," Jesus in our text says, "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

So it was that Judas had asked, "How can that be?" To this Jesus answers, "If any man love me (now notice the connection) if any man love me, he will keep my words." That is inevitable. If any man love Christ, he will keep His words. And, "If any man keep my words, My Father will love him." Also there you cannot separate the two. If any one keep the words of Jesus, the Father will love him. And in the third place, "If the Father love any man, we will come to him, the Father and I, and we will make our abode with him. That will be my manifestation to you, and not to the world."