John 10:30-38 "I and My Father are One." Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, "I said, You are gods"? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him who the Father sanctified and sent into the world, "You are blaspheming" because I said, "I am the Son of God"? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me, but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."
Jesus said that He and the Father are One. When they question Him, Jesus points to the works or miracles He has done to prove to them that He is the Son of God. This shows that the secret to Jesus producing miracles was His identification with His Father. Jesus will pray for His believers in John 17 that we may be one with the Father as He is One with the Father. That is how we will do the same works that Jesus did. Jesus also quotes Psalms 82:6, where God said that men are gods. We are not God, but God has made people in the image and likeness of Himself.
Philippians 2:5-13 "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."
We must have the same mind as Jesus. Jesus existed in the form of God and did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. But He humbled Himself and became a man and became obedient to God by dying on the cross. Because He was obedient, God highly exalted Him. For us to have this same mind or mindset, we must see that we exist in the form of God. We are not God, but He has come to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit. That is how we exist in the form of God. As Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to God, we must follow His pattern and become obedient to God. In verse 12-13, Paul said to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. This is not saying that we need to work for our salvation. Jesus purchased our salvation and gave us His free gift of righteousness. It is saying that we must recognize that God dwells in us. We must let Him live His life in and through us. We are to work out our salvation from the inside of us to the outside, where people can see God living in us through our love and good deeds. This all begins by recognizing that He came to live in us when we asked Him to be our Lord and we were born again.
Keith Oliver
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