Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Despite all that they've seen and learned from being with Jesus, Phillip is still looking for something further, some definitive stamp of accomplishment. I don't think Phillip is just looking for proof... keep in mind that the disciples have seen Jesus walk on water, heal the sick, feed thousands and raise the dead. It's hard to ask for more proof than that.
Rather I think what Phillip is seeking is something so overwhelming that it will make future disbelief impossible. Phillip is trying to insure against his own free will, against the possibility that he might cease to believe at some point in the future. Jesus gently pushes him away from this, reminding Phillip and the other disciples that they have the choice to believe. Free will isn't an obstacle to true Christianity, it's the point. Paul puts this most succinctly in Galatians 5:1,
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free....
If God were to simply force people to believe, it would defeat the point. Instead, we have to have faith. The miracle of grace is that God has revealed his love to us through Jesus Christ so that we are able to believe. Asking for more than this, though, for something that would force us to believe wouldn't be Grace, it would just be a new kind of slavery.
No comments:
Post a Comment