Watching the Master at work

David W Palmer

(1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV) “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

Jesus is our leader, Lord, and role model; he alone has the power to live a sin-free life. Therefore, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is only his holy power that can enable us to be holy. That is to say, before we can walk in holiness ourselves, we first must recognise that Jesus is the only one with what it takes to be absolutely loving and sin-free.

The good news for us, however, is that his holy power is already inside us—if we are born again, have made Jesus our Lord, and have received the Holy Spirit (John 1:12, 7:39, 20:22). Yet, even though we can never measure up to his benchmark by our efforts, we can measure up through releasing His holiness to work in us. We must never look at his perfection and give up believing that we can achieve his standard. We can! God expects us to … “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16 NKJV). But how do we do it? Before we can answer this, we should first ask, “How did he do it?” How did Jesus walk in complete holiness every day of his life?

When Jesus was concluding his 3? years of personal, public ministry on earth—as recorded in the gospels—he made the following statement to his disciples:

(John 20:19–22 DKJV) … “Peace be to you: as my Father has sent me, even so I send you.” (22) And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

In verse 21, Jesus said that he sends us, “As my Father has sent me.” In other words, we have the same commission from Jesus that he had from his Father.

The very next thing Jesus did was to breathe on his apostles and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (verse 22). After all, at the beginning of his ministry, he received the Holy Spirit—who guided and empowered him (Luke 3:21, 22, 4:1, 14). Therefore, to fulfil the same commission, we also need the same empowering. The Holy Spirit was the power of Holiness inside Jesus that enabled him to do it, and he will enable us too; if we have received the Holy Spirit, he lives in us (John 14:17).

So, what was Jesus’s secret? How did he live a sinless life (2 Cor. 5:19)? How did he fully please the Father in everything he did (John 8:29)? How could he say, “The prince of this world comes and has nothing in me” (John 14:30 AKJV)? In other words, How did Jesus tap into the supernatural holiness of the Holy Spirit and allow it to flow through his life in sin-free miraculous words and actions?

Was Jesus able to do this simply because he is God’s son? If so, we cannot do it. But we see that this is not the case; because he said, “As the father sent me, I am sending you.” And, Scripture tells us repeatedly to “be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16 CSB). Therefore, God does expect us to live as Jesus lived. If he expects it, then it must be possible for us to do it. Yet, as Paul discovered, and as we have seen, we cannot achieve holiness through law via willpower; we need to learn how to do it the Jesus way.

Is there a key to how Jesus achieved his holy, obedient, submissive, God-pleasing lifestyle? I believe there is, and that Jesus himself shows us how he did it. This can be best understood from the following account from John’s gospel.

In John 5, the Jews challenged Jesus about healing on the Sabbath day. In his response, Jesus explained how his miraculous, holy life worked. (As we defined earlier, holiness includes living a clean sin-free life, but it is more broadly defined as being totally devoted to God’s purposes, and fully living his purpose in our calling and assignment—as well as doing nothing wrong.)

(John 5:16-20 DKJV) “And therefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath day. (17) But Jesus answered them, “My Father keeps on working until now, and I am working” (18) Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Verily, verily, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless he sees the Father doing something; for whatever he does, this also the Son does in like manner. (20) For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that he does; and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel.”

Here, Jesus clearly connects several things: First, he says that he does “what he sees the Father doing” (verse 19). Next, he states that the revelation of what the Father is doing comes to him because “the Father loves the son, and shows him …” (verse 20). Jesus connects “doing” with “seeing,” and “seeing” with “love.” He says that his doing came by imitating or mimicking what he saw; and he saw it because his Father loved him and showed it to him. Finally, he relates it back to the miraculous works that he had been doing, and that these were to make men marvel. Therefore, Jesus’s works—all done in this way—were holy works done sweatlessly by God’s grace.

(We note here that, obviously and by definition, the Holy Spirit is holy. He led Jesus in his earth ministry, so everything Jesus did in this way was a holy act.)

From this, we see that the key to Jesus’s miraculous and holy life was through imitating what he was “seeing” and hearing with his [spiritual] Father. How did this come about?

When I first began my journey of discovery on this topic, the first phrase of verse 20, “For the father loves the son and shows him …” didn’t really connect with me. I could understand the seeing and imitating, but I needed to grow in my understanding of why the subject of love was mentioned in this context. After years of meditating on this verse, and some experiences (that I will relate tomorrow), I now have a couple of sayings that I hope shed some light on why love precedes the doing of holy works:

“In true loving intimacy, there is transparency and disclosure.”

“God finds intimacy irresistible.”

Today, in the light of this, I encourage you to walk as Jesus did; seek intimate, relational closeness with God. After casting all your cares on him, confessing any hindering sin, and praising him, still your heart and mind to listen to him. Watch to see what he is showing in the spirit. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice,” and this is the time to hear. Do what Jesus did in his loving communion with his Father; knowing that the “Father loves the Son,” expect him to find the intimacy irresistible and to show you things:

(John 16:13 WEB) “But, when he, the Spirit of truth is come … he will show you things to come.”

The Holy Spirit will show you the works you are called to walk in (Eph. 2:10). Then, walking in these holy works will happen through you as simply and effortlessly as any loved child imitating the parent they love. Draw near to him today, and he will drawn near to you and show you what he wants you to see, know, hear, say and imitate. “Father, what are you showing me today?”