Thursday, July 31, 2014

That Whoever Believes in Me


John 12:44-50

Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."


What a mouthful! All this believing! Truth, wisdom, knowledge. Jesus, the Son of God, fully God, fully Man. The Word made flesh. Come to earth to reveal Himself to us that we may have life. A humble Man. A Man willing to submit to a higher Authority, God, His Father. Don't we sometimes struggle with this thing of submission? Um, yah!

I am reminded of what Peter said earlier in John: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." He submitted to Jesus and what He spoke. We too must take Jesus at His word. We are called to believe in Him, to believe that what He speaks will bring life, even if those words are difficult to hear.

Yet not His words, but the words of His Father. God's words to us! Like Adam received in the garden. Jesus came to this world to do His Father's will, and that included dying for all of us. Jesus asks us to believe in and do the Father's will as He did/does. He is our Heavenly Father, after all. I realize we haven't all had wonderful earthly fathers, but we have one in heaven Who wants us as His own, who loves us more than any earthly father can.

But we need to believe in He whom the Father sent. We need to believe that all His words are true and just, the words of encouragement and the words of judgment. There are always two sides to something. It is wrong to believe that He is only a God of love. If we find Jesus' hard words unpalatable, we reject His words, therefore reject Him, and ultimately God Himself. This is a very dangerous place to be. One cannot say they believe in God but not believe all He has to say, the easy words and the hard. We have to see that.

Jesus did not come to judge but He did come to save. If we do not believe, God the Father will be our judge. (And yet, Jesus is also God!) This is He Who created all things. Not sure I want to be on the wrong side of Him. But if we receive Jesus, believe what He says is true, abide in Him, listen to and heed His words, obey those words, we have the hope of an excellent future, salvation in Jesus Christ.

So He speaks! He speaks of everlasting life. He speaks that we may believe and have life. He speaks under one Authority, a life-giving God. God gave us life in this world, He desires we have spiritual life also, through His Son. That whoever believes in Him... In whom do you believe?

1John 5:10-11 - He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

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