"You Have No Part of This" (John 13:8)

“You Have No Part of This” (John 13:8)

The way to salvation is a narrow one indeed (Matthew 7:13-14). A person can be baptized in Jesus’ name; serve in a church that proclaims His name; be a witness to many miracles associated with ministry and yet not really have a part in salvation.

Jesus knew that Peter would submit to allowing Jesus to wash His feet. But the cautionary statement made to Peter (“If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me”), indicates that something very basic to the Christian faith was about to take place.

It was a necessary thing, not only for Jesus but for His disciples — including Judas. There are some things that must take place in the life of each Christian that are essential to the faith. Without them, no matter how much we participate in other things (e.g. preaching, singing, ushering, praying, fasting, tongue-speaking), we have no part of the essential things.

Jesus was telling Peter, and through the Scriptures telling us, that unless you can submit, you have no part of this. Consider the following four points:

1. Many have refused the reasonable requests of Christ.

• Peter refused a reasonable request of Christ. When he discovered that Christ was going to wash feet, he replied, “thou shalt never wash my feet” (John 13:8).
• Forgiveness (Matthew 6:14-15; Ephesians 4:32), confession (James 5:16; 1st John 1:9; Proverbs 28:13), and reconciliation (Matthew 5:23-24; 2nd Corinthians 5:18-19; Colossians 3:13) are the reasonable requests of Christ.

1. The commandments of Christ require submission.

• Jesus gave the command that they wash one another’s feet (John 13:14-15).
• Jesus gave up any attempts at status so that He could be free to serve (Mark 10:45).
• Servant leaders must have humility (1st Peter 5:5).
• Being a husband requires submission in how he loves his wife (Ephesians 5:25-28).
• Being a wife requires submission in how she responds to the reasonable requests of her husband (Ephesians 5:22).

1. To refuse a teaching as being servile (or humiliating), is to have no part in Christ’s Kingdom.

• Jesus told His disciples, and He is telling us, through the words of John 13:16 in the ESV: “Truly, truly I say unto you, a servant is not greater than His master; nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”
• Christ is our example of humiliation (Philippians 2:5-8).

1. Submission is a necessary part of your sanctification.

• By submitting to the will of God, Christ was being sanctified in the flesh (John 17:19).
• Although Christ is the Son of God, He learned obedience through what He had to submit to (Hebrews 5:8-9).
• The will of God is also for your sanctification (1st Thessalonians 4:3).
• Submission is deadly to the flesh (Galatians 5:24).
• Jesus told Peter that through the symbolic act of washing their feet, they would be made clean (John 13:10).
• Jesus knew that Judas would leave that very gathering to go arrange His death, but He washed Judas’ feet anyway (John 13:30).
• Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him three times that very night, but He washed Peter’s feet anyway (Luke 22:34).
• Despite all Christ’s good teaching, James and John would argue over who was going to sit on His right and left side in the Kingdom, but Jesus washed their feet anyway (Matthew 20:21).

“Christ First, Christ Only, Christ Always”