The Good News and the Bad NewsSample

Who Will Represent Me?

Unfortunately, there is more bad news, which we find in John 16:26. It is Jesus who is speaking, and He says, "In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf."

Did you hear that? This is crazy…Jesus is saying that when we ask God, in Jesus’ name to forgive our sins, that He is NOT going to speak up on our behalf. He’s not going to put in a good word for us, be the advocate middleman He said He would be. He isn’t going to convince God to treat us nicely just because He died on the cross for us.

What’s going on here? Doesn’t Jesus love us? Isn’t He supposed to be our representative?

But this reminds me of a time when I was at a camp, sitting on a couch in the outdoor youth tent. My friend came up to me and she calmly said some interesting words. She said, "I’m not saying there is a spider on your back, but…" And she swiftly removed a massive spider from my back! Now you need to know that I am terrified of spiders, and she isn’t the biggest fan of them either, but out of pure love, she took it with her hand in such a calm way that I didn’t even have time to freak out! WHAT LOVE! But did you hear what she said?

"I’m not saying there is a spider on your back, but…" Yet there was a spider…

Jesus is phrasing something in the same way. If we stopped reading there, we would become a bit worried right?! What does He mean He won’t speak to God on our behalf!?

But thankfully, Jesus doesn’t just leave it there. He never does.

After giving us the bad news that He won’t represent us, He continues to clarify. There comes a "but", just like the way my friend said it. "I’m not saying I will talk to God on your behalf…but…"

The next verse in John 16:27 says, "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God."

Isn’t this awesome! Jesus doesn’t need to convince God to love us because He ALREADY does! God doesn’t need to be convinced that we are worthy to come to Him.

In fact, maybe it is more the other way around! Think about this for a second. Jesus is sitting there trying to convince US that we are worthy to come to Him!

Write "but" on your hand and try every time you read it, to say to yourself, "The Father Himself loves me, no buts."