The power and the love of God demonstrated in Jesus’ teachings being the Father’s and not his own
July 25, 2025
Jesus teaches as recorded in the Gospel of John that his teaching is not his own but that of the Father. He mentions that in John 7:16-18 and in 8:28-34.
16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s[e] will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. (John 7:16-18)
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. (John 8:28-30)
This is a significant testimony of the essence of God and the Trinity. It is a selfless expression of obedience to the ultimate truth when limited by the human flesh of incarnation. If Jesus as the Son of God is also the Son of Man, that puts limitations on him and requires that he act in his human form in a way that is adequate to the limitations of living in the flesh. The flesh of fallen man succumbs to sin and pride. We want to teach our teachings and receive glory. Jesus teaches what the Father has revealed (or rather entrusted) to him and does it for the Father’s glory. In sin we seek recognition. In the Trinity and his relationship with the Father Jesus acts out of love that is perfect and that he knows firsthand as part of the Trinity. Hence, he seeks the recognition of the Father and his teachings. Jesus appears as a man and for that reason he is not trusted because man is not God. However, his teachings show not a typical fallen human’s behavior but one that reflects the perfect love of God. He came as a man so he can demonstrate and transfer to men that ability, to love like God because of receiving the love of God. Receiving it not only intellectually but also essentially, by our human essence being transformed through the birth of the Spirit, the birth from above, into a new creation. This is the part of Jesus’ teaching which is so difficult to grasp with only human minds.
That is the reason that Jesus says that when the Son of Man is lifted up (see John 3:13-14; 8:28; 12:27-34). Here “lifted up” has a double meaning. One, the most obvious is that “lifted up” refers to his death on the cross, as the cross is lifted up. But there is a meaning that points to the spiritual reality beyond the cross, and that is the resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, in heaven. We see that allusion in John 3:13: “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Some manuscripts add also “who is in heaven.” Thus, we understand – we don’t have a mere man here, this is not a mere human perspective on life and the things as they are.
The “other-worldly” essence of Jesus’ teaching we also see in his call to the disciples to love one another (John 17). He states that by the love among his followers the world shall know that they are his disciples. That we are his disciples. It is not the love produce by human effort and soulish emotion that remains dis-attached from God. Sinful love imitates true love, but it is shallow, empty, and before all self-centered and hence sinful. It is impossible for fake love to be sacrificial. Love is impossible outside of knowing Christ and accepting the grace to love from him, through faith in him. It is impossible to grasp love without truth. And truth is Jesus. One needs to believe in Jesus to begin to understand God, to have his eyes opened to the truth and begin to understand that God is love: “They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father” (John 8:27).
Jesus says that “when you see me lifted up you will know who I am:”
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. (John 8:28-30)
In essence he is saying that when they crucify him and when he is resurrected, he will be lifted up in his crucifixion but also in his resurrection and ascension, and they those who believe will understand who he is through his act of selfless birth, ministry, death and resurrection. Thus, “lifted up” means lifted up on the cross, and lifted up into heaven. Only then they (we) will be able to understand that what he teaches and does cannot be taught and done by a mere sinful human. The resurrection is the proof that the Father “has not left him alone” (v. 29). But the crucifixion even if being a “lifting up” to glory is only a way down to abandonment from the Father, because of sin and punishment through death. Quite paradoxical but even if lifting up is a way down it is still one step up on the way to glory by full obedience to the Father. Jesus can sacrifice because he knows the love of the Father. Only those who believe in him can come to understand and embrace the love of the father and the sacrifice as victory and strength and not as loss and defeat.
Also, if Jesus teaches the doctrine of the Father, he is distanced from proving that the teaching is worthy or true. It is the Father’s it is from God. Jesus only acknowledges that it is his task (for us a privilege) to be chosen and seen worthy to be ambassadors, conveyors and the teachers of the Father’s love and sacrifice of his Son, so man can be saved from the curse of sin and death. At least we as Christians do not have to do what Jesus did. It is finished (John 19:30). We need to only believe in him and that will release the power and the love of God in our lives. We will be born from above, as he is, not only from below, but we will also not be of this world any longer, as he is not of this world (John 8:23).
We have a perfect example in Jesus. His teaching was not his, it was the Father’s. Our teaching is not ours, it is Christ’s; our commission is not our own it is Christ’s; we do not send ourselves, we are sent by God (Matthew 28:18-20). We are purchased with a price that reveals the ultimate love of God (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23). We do not seek recognition from others but the fellowship of love which is from God. And the truth is that Jesus showed us that love and its ultimate power: defeat of death and bringing forth eternal life.