Introduction
In this world, we all seek friends so that we don’t feel lonely and have someone to share our lives with. However, by becoming a follower of the Lord Jesus, one can have the best friend in their life: the Lord Jesus Himself. And, as followers of the Lord Jesus, we need to believe in Him and His word and follow Him as servants (John 12:26, 1 Peter 2:16); so, the question for a follower of the Lord Jesus is how to be a servant and a friend of God at the same time.
Servants and Friends of the Lord Jesus
To understand how we can be both a servant and a friend of the Lord, we begin with the Bible passage describing the Transfiguration event of the Lord Jesus, found in Matthew 17:1-13.
1 And after six days Jesus takes with Him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain by themselves.
These three disciples have been called up here for a reason; not that they are special, but each one has a duty in a different way from the others, and these needed to see the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus.
2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone as the sun, and His outer garments became white as the light.
This transfiguration was the transfiguration of the human body to reveal the heavenly body of the Lord Jesus, the body that only heavenly beings possess. Imagine two bodies overlapping as one: the human body and the heavenly body within; no one else on earth can have this. The Bible tells us that there are two kinds of bodies: the earthly body, made from the dust of the ground, and the heavenly body, made of substance beyond human knowledge and understanding. The heavenly body of the Lord Jesus cannot be touched by human flesh; you can see it, but you can’t touch it because it has too much power for the human flesh to touch. The heavenly body of the Lord Jesus was with the Father until this point of the transfiguration, and just for a short time, the Lord Jesus’ heavenly body came to overshadow the human body and then returned back to the Father. It is essential to note that the human body of the Lord Jesus remained unchanged or untransformed in any way during this transfiguration because of the cross. The Lord Jesus must be completely (one hundred percent) human from birth until the cross in order to fulfill His mission on earth. The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was by the will of the Father to show to the disciples; it is a mercy from the Father for the disciples’ sake. This transfiguration was the Father’s will for humans that they would see the heavenly body of the Lord Jesus and believe.
It is important to believe that the Lord Jesus’s transfiguration was real. His heavenly body overshadowed his earthly body, but because of the cross, His earthly body was not altered in any way; He still remained one hundred percent human and one hundred percent God.
3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him.
Everyone asks the question when reading these verses: Why did these two (Moses and Elijah) appear to the Lord, and what did they talk about? In the Bible, we see that Moses was the friend of God and Elijah was the servant of God. These two were chosen by God the Father to meet with the Lord Jesus; each one has a specialty in a different way. The Bible doesn’t tell us what they talked about, and we should not speculate; instead, we should understand that it is not the Father’s will for us to know the nature of the meeting.
But the question for us as followers of the Lord Jesus is how to be friends with God, like Moses, and servants of God, like Elijah. The Bible tells us about Moses, in Numbers 12:3: “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.” And in Exodus 33:11 we see that the LORD spoke to him as with a friend: “And the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
About Elijah the Bible tells us that he was an obedient and faithful servant; in 1 Kings 18:36 we read: “And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou are God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word.”
However, the Lord Jesus is above both of them. He is the beloved Son of God, yet He is the most humbled and obedient to the Father. He humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross; therefore, having faith in the Lord Jesus and loving Him makes us automatically friends and servants of God through Him. In the Transfiguration event, in verses Matthew 17:4-5, we truly understand that the Lord Jesus is above these two, Moses and Elijah, by the disciples witnessing the Voice of the Father coming from heaven and testifying about His beloved Son:
4 And Peter answering, said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here; if Thou will, I will make here three tents; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
This verse reveals Peter’s character; he loved the Lord and always sought to please Him. Peter wanted to do what he could to please the Lord, and that is one of the reasons the Lord chose him.
5 While he was yet speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a Voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!
“... behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.” It is clear from the Bible that no one has seen the Father. This passage is another proof of this fact; even the disciples had not seen the Father, but they only heard His voice coming from the bright cloud.
The Lord Jesus is above (more important than) Elijah and Moses; to be a beloved Son is more important than anything else.
Also, we see that the disciples heard the voice from the cloud but didn’t see the Father Himself. The Bible tells us that no one has seen the Father except through the Lord Jesus; no human can see the Father except through the Lord Jesus and the Word of God as we read in John 14:8-11:
8 Philip says to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.
The disciple with the beloved Son of God still wonders, and all humans, after the beloved Son of God is not on earth anymore, will also wonder how they will know the way. But also remember that the beloved Son of God has told us He will not leave us alone; He is going back to heaven but has promised that He will come back again to take us with Him. So, if you truly believe this, look forward to the day when we all will be with God’s beloved Son to glorify the Father with Him. At that time, we don’t have to ask where the Father is because we ourselves will be glorifying the Father and standing there behind the beloved Son of God to shout out and glorify the Lord.
Because the beloved Son of God has spoken many times about the Father, this has stirred the hearts of the listeners to think they are with the beloved Son of God, even though they haven’t seen the Father yet. Still, the beloved Son of God has talked about the Father, so where is the Father? The same question will be to all: show us the Father, but when you have seen the beloved Son of God, you also have seen the Father. In this verse, Philip has asked the beloved Son of God, as all humans would want to ask, but when the time comes, this answer will be before their eyes.
9 Jesus says to him, So long a time I am with you, and do you not know Me, Philip? The one having seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, Show us the Father?
“So long a time I am with you …” During this time, the beloved Son of God was physically present with the disciples, and Philip also was there with Him. The beloved Son of God has been teaching all the disciples; they have seen Him and listened to His teachings, but they did not yet completely understand or know who He was. When Philip asked to show them the Father, it also revealed that the disciples themselves did not fully understand the meaning of the Lord’s words. Still, the beloved Son of God would impart that understanding to them when the right time came, and they would all understand the meaning because each would have work to complete, and all things would happen in due time.
“The one having seen Me has seen the Father.” When the beloved Son of God has told the disciples that they have seen Him and have seen the Father at the same time, this answer that they have already seen Him and the Father who sent Him will be with them for the work to come. The work for all disciples in spreading the teaching relies on this knowledge they have; the full knowledge about God has not been given to them yet. Still, when the time comes, the full knowledge will be given to them for the work.
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak from Myself; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works.
“Do you not believe …” The beloved Son of God asks all believers this question: do you truly believe the Three in One? When the verse has told the Father, that means two as well: the Father and the Holy Spirit are together, and both are in the beloved Son of God together. Therefore, when He was on earth as a human, the beloved Son of God was never alone; the Three in One were always together.
“The words that I speak to you …” When the beloved Son of God was on earth, everything He spoke was not from Himself alone; the living word comes out from His mouth because in Him is the Trinity of God at work on earth.
“… but the Father dwelling in Me does His works.” As the verse has told all true believers, the Father dwells in the Son and not just dwells alone, but He is at work as well; the work that the beloved Son of God has done on earth is the Father’s work as well. The beloved Son of God has not spent His life on earth doing nothing; He always did the work of the Father; the life on earth for Him, even if it was short, but every moment has meaning from the Father.
11 Believe Me that I in the Father, and the Father in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves.
These verses discuss the Trinity of God and explain that the Trinity has given the living Word to be the Holy Bible. As these verses have told, the Holy Bible is from the Father, not from God’s beloved Son alone.
“... but if not, believe because of the works themselves.” Therefore, because the Holy Bible is from the Father, whosoever does not believe in the Holy Bible, believe in the death on the cross of the beloved Son of God, the love beyond human words can say that God of heaven was willing to taste the death in order to help the creatures He has created, no love is greater than this.
When the verse says “but if not,” it refers to believing in the death on the cross and the resurrection of the beloved Son of God because, after the resurrection, He did not spend time alone but returned to the Father. In our faith, we must have both together: crucifixion and resurrection; to be complete faith, it must be faith in the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; when the beloved Son of God has accepted His death on the cross, the Father has already wept for what will happen to the Son.
[The meaning of this verse would be: believe in the Holy Bible, and if not, then at least believe because of the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross.]
Furthermore, in John 10:30, the Lord Jesus says: “I and the Father are One.” And in Colossians 1:15, we are assured that the Lord Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Therefore, all readers must keep this in their hearts: the beloved Son of God and the Father are One. Thus, because God is One, you cannot worship only One person, but you must worship the God of Three in One.
Therefore, we must believe that the Lord Jesus is above all the Old Testament prophets; He is Holy, and He is One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Moreover, since the Lord Jesus is part of the Trinity of God, and “He is the image of the invisible God,” we cannot impersonate Him in any way or make images of Him in any way, either as a baby or an adult (Read our article: “Who is Your God?”). We must respect the Lord Jesus from all our beings and treat Him as a Holy God.
Conclusions
In conclusion, by believing in the Lord Jesus and becoming His followers through baptism in the water for the remission of our sins, by seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and by reading and meditating on the Word of God, we become servants and friends of the Trinity of God through the Lord Jesus, the beloved Son of God.
Meditation Tasks:
- Meditate on the importance of the Trinity of God.
- Study our blog: “The Teachings of the Lord Jesus.”