Tag Archives: believed

FREE TO OBEY

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FREE TO OBEY

“Even as He spoke, many believed in Him.

“To the Jews who had believed in Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” John 8:30-32 (NIV).

Freedom! Is that not what the human race craves? Everyone wants to be free but free from what? What is freedom? Is it freedom to have no boundaries so that I can do as I please? Millions have tried that and found it doesn’t work. In fact, that kind of “freedom” produces the worst kind of bondage.

It’s the trap Adam and Eve fell into in the beginning. When the devil offered them “God-likeness” in exchange for disobedience, did they not believe that to be like God meant that they could make their own rules?

The essence of true freedom is not only freedom from…but also freedom to…There is no freedom without boundaries. When boundaries are in place, within those boundaries we are both safe and free. When God put Adam and Eve to the test, He gave them one restriction to check their compliance. Up to that point they were like God because they were in perfect oneness with Him. Would they protect that unity at any cost?

Slavery is the consequence of believing that we can make our own rules. The problem is that disobedience to God’s way produces the fear of punishment which is essence of slavery. God created human beings to be His sons and daughters who would live with Him in submission and obedience. It is self-will that had produces the spirit of slavery in the human race and the enmity against God that goes with it.

When Jesus offered His disciples freedom, He was saying that true freedom is to come back under His authority and do life His way. Real freedom is returning to God and becoming one with Him again. That means recognizing that His way works and submitting to Him in love, trust and obedience.

Living in obedience to Jesus is like playing an instrument in an orchestra under the direction of a conductor. Imagine the cacophony if every instrument played a different tune! Every musician plays his own part but, under the master musician and when each part is played under his direction, the orchestra produces beautiful and harmonious sounds.

It takes the greatest power in the world, the power of the Holy Spirit, to control our self-will and submit ourselves to God’s authority and God’s will. Strangely enough, submission to Jesus is the only way to experience freedom. Real freedom is freedom from the beliefs and behaviour that produce shame, guilt and fear. The problem is that that more we try to be free by doing our own thing, the more we are enslaved by the emotions our behaviour produces.

Jesus’ offer includes setting us free from those enslaving emotions by forgiving and removing our sin and reconciling us to the Father. It is our rebellion that has alienated us from God and set us on the path of self-destruction.

As we read on, we see that even Jesus’ followers did not understand the nature of their slavery. There are many of Jesus’ so-called followers today who are just as much in bondage as unbelievers because they do not understand that true freedom is to be one with the Father and with His Son. Jesus was a true son because He refused to do anything that would break His union with the Father.

Imagine the impact the church would make on an unbelieving world if it returned to the simplicity of Jesus’ invitation, “Follow me; remain in me.” Just as He protected the love and unity He had with the Father by His submission and obedience, it is our task to protect love and preserve unity with our Father and with His children at all costs. Then we will truly be free.

The greatest freedom of all is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and the peace of God which transcends all understanding when we allow Him to direct our paths.

Are you free to obey Jesus?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

CONVINCED?

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CONVINCED?

“While he was still on the way his servants met him with the news that the boy was living.

“When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’

“Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.” John 4:51-54 (NIV).

The second sign? What was the first sign?

Just as God kicked off His creation story with a wedding, John records how Jesus began His miracle ministry at a wedding. After the first wedding, man messed things up but Jesus came to begin the process all over again. He turned water into wine, the best wine, as a sign that He had come to reunite people with God in a union as close as a marriage, and it would be a good marriage, filled with the wine of God’s Spirit. John was selective about the stories he recorded because he wrote with a specific purpose in mind. Each miracle he recorded which he called “a sign”, ended with a response of faith in those who were involved in it or those who witnessed it.

Why did he call them “signs”? A sign points to something. The purpose of John’s gospel was to point to Jesus as the Son of God so that His people would believe in Him.  “Jesus performed many other signs, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in His name.” John 20:30, 31 (NIV).

John left his readers in no doubt as to the purpose of his book. It was not just an interesting and well-written story. It was about a man who was more than a man, the God-man, the Son of God and the one chosen and anointed by the Father to represent and reveal Him to the world so that the facts would speak for themselves of who He was.

The sick boy’s father believed that Jesus could heal his son and acted on His instruction, ‘Go home. Your son will live.’ Jesus did not need to be physically present to heal his son. The confirmation came when he learned that the miracle happened at the exact moment when Jesus had spoken the words, ‘you son will live.’

Why was this another sign? To what did it point? Jesus made claims beginning with “I AM” which incensed His enemies because they recognised how outrageous His claims were if they were not true. Since His opponents had already decided that He was a blasphemer and refused to weigh up the evidence, every time He said, ‘I AM’ was another nail in His coffin. This “I AM” was His witness to His authority and power to heal.

But, while they refused to be convinced, there were those who responded with simple faith to the miracles that were a witness to whom He said He was.

In the Jewish legal system, there had to be two or three witnesses in a court of law for an accusation to be valid. When the Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy, He called His witnesses — John bore witness to Him, the Father bore witness to Him and His miracles were signs to point to the validity of His claims.

His first miracle at the wedding in Cana in Galilee bore witness to His claim to be the source of the new wine of the Spirit. His healing of the dying boy in Capernaum spoke of His power to give new life to those who are dead in their sin. On both occasions Jesus did nothing more than speak the word and the miracle happened. John’s introduction to Jesus in the first sentence of His gospel was, “In the beginning was the Word…”

As the story of Jesus unfolds, John gathers evidence and piles on witness after witness to show his readers rhat the absolute authenticity of Jesus’ words…miracles…responses…all point to the same thing; this man, Jesus, is none other than the Messiah, the Son of God. However, the Jews in the main still rejected Him. Why? It was their choice.

What’s yours?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

HE KNOWS ALL PEOPLE

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HE KNOWS ALL PEOPLE

“Now while He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs He was performing and believed in His name. But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person.” John 2:23-25 (NIV).

One would think that Jesus would have been delighted with the success of His ministry. This was exactly what He wanted, wasn’t it?

But John makes a tongue-in-cheek comment about their response to Him. They trusted Him, but He didn’t trust them! Now there’s a problem! Jesus didn’t not respond to their faith as they expected. Is John saying that there was no work of God’s grace in them? That is drastic! Why not?

Firstly, they had not yet seen and heard enough of Jesus to make that commitment. Like the disciples, the Jews had an expectation of the Messiah that was not in keeping with His true identity and mission. They were expecting Him to get rid of their enemy, the Romans. He came to get rid of their real enemy, the devil, and to deal with sin and alienation from God, their Father and restore fellowship with Him.

Secondly, they were guilty of the most heinous of sins against God — self-seeking self-interest. Is that why John said that Jesus knew what was in man’s heart?

Of course, Jesus knew! From the beginning of human history, when Adam chose to listen to the devil and defy God, man’s nature has been polluted with selfishness. He lost his God-awareness and became self-aware. He became the centre of his world, and everyone and everything else was to serve him, so he thought. He does everything to suit his own ends — hence war, greed, crime, divorce, promiscuity and every other evil you can think of.

The book of Job addresses this absolutely fundamental issue with regard to our relationship with God. Satan challenged the motive for Job’s righteousness. He accused him of being in it for what he could get out of it. ‘Take it all away and he’ll curse you,’ he sneered. ‘Okay,’ said God, ‘you can strip him of everything, but don’t touch his body.’

Satan let rip and in one day Job was stripped of all his possessions and even his family, yet his response was, “I was born naked and I’ll die naked. God gave and God has taken away. I still praise you, God!”

God said to Satan, ‘See, I told you Job is a righteous man.’ But Satan was not satisfied. ‘Just touch his body and see what happens,’ he challenged. ‘Go ahead,’ said God, ‘but don’t take his life.’ This time the devil did the worst he could think of without killing him.

Job put himself on the ash heap where he thought he belonged because of his terrible disease and the stench and disfigurement he suffered, From being a man of standing and influence in his community he had become trash. Because he was not given access to the behind-the-scenes exchange between God and Satan, he had no idea why God was treating him like this.

His so-called friends had the logical answer, ‘You must have sinned.’ Job denied doing wrong and turned to God for answers. God remained silent until Job had exhausted all his arguments, accusations and the defence of his integrity. When he had nothing more to say, God spoke. And did He speak! He gave Job the tongue-lashing of his life for daring to question Him.

However, at the same time, God was pleased with Job. Why? Despite his suffering, he refused to give up on Him. ‘”Though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him.’” Job 13; 15 (NIV). That’s all He needed to hear to confirm that Job’s faith was not in what God could do for him but in God Himself even if the worst happened.

In an environment of “prosperity” teaching, the “name-it-and-claim-it” movement and, even worse, “if things go wrong, you have sinned” philosophy, how many true believers are there in the church, to whom Jesus has entrusted Himself in response to their truly trusting Him even if He slay them? What a terrible insult to God that so many of His people are in it for gain, not for worship.

Are you?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Faith Is The Key

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FAITH IS THE KEY

“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.” Romans 4:1-5.

Having laid out his case for the guilt of the whole world, and the impossibility of satisfying God’s righteous and holy standards by trying to keep the law, Paul moved on to build his case for God’s way of declaring people “not guilty” and making them acceptable to Him.

He could not sweep sin under the carpet. In the beginning He made it clear to Adam that the penalty for disobedience would be death. He was obliged to honour His own word. When the first pair disobeyed Him, they were alienated from Him and brought the judgment of death upon themselves, the human race and the cosmos itself. There was nothing they could do to undo what they had done.

There was only one way to satisfy God’s justice and, at the same time, justify the guilty – if a human being, who had no sin of his own, would take on himself the penalty for sin on behalf of the sinful human race, then God could forgive sin and reinstate the sinner. God came in person, became a human being, subject to the same law that condemned all other humans, and passed the test. He was killed as a lawbreaker but rose from the dead to prove both His innocence and His fulfilment of God’s requirement.

But how does what Jesus did become ours? Paul used accounting terms to explain how it happens. Each of us has an account with God. In the debit column is the record of our debt of sin. It begins with a nature that is bent on rebellion. Then to our sin nature is added the mounting debt of sin that we do day by day through thoughts, motives, attitudes and actions. All our efforts to add to our credit balance to try to cancel out our debt are futile because everything we do is tainted by sin.

“All of us have become as one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:6.

But Jesus’ death paid our debt in full. Not only that but He also cancelled the very law that accuses us.

“He forgave all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us, nailing it to the cross…” Colossians 2:13b, 14.

“But,” you argue, “How can God remove the standard by which He judges us? Does that mean that it does not matter what we do? Is there no longer any law by which God measures our behaviour?” God’s standards do not change. But He satisfied His own demands through the perfect life of His Son. He cancelled every debt in our debit column, writing across our debt “PAID IN FULL” and wrote in our credit column the name of Jesus which includes His perfect obedience.

There is one more step needed to complete the transaction. It has to be personally received or else it remains ineffective. The basis of Adam’s sin (and confirmed by ours) was the rejection of God’s authority and a declaration of independence. To receive God’s gift of forgiveness is only part of the deal. The other part is to submit once again to His authority and return to His way of doing life.

God appointed His Son, Jesus, to be the ruler of His kingdom. He said to the rebel kings who tried to throw off His rule, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” Psalm 2:6.

Because of His perfect obedience, even to death, “God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10, 11.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Believing Is Seeing

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BELIEVING IS SEEING

“A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’

“Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” John 20:26-29 NIV.

Poor Thomas! It was his misfortune to be absent when Jesus appeared to His disciples for the first time. I often wonder whether it was doubt that drove him to demand his own personal audience with Jesus. Could his doubt have been linked to a disappointment that had caused him such deep pain that he was not willing to take the risk of entrusting himself to anyone again?

Perhaps we should call him Disappointed Thomas, or Disillusioned Thomas or even Devastated Thomas rather than Doubting Thomas. I think his doubt was a symptom rather than the cause of his unwillingness to believe the story that Jesus was alive. He had not yet learned that, unlike fickle human beings who are fallible and unfaithful, he could trust Jesus’ word because He will never break a promise. He said He would rise from the dead, and He did!

Did Thomas do what he said he would do? I think that it was enough that he saw and heard Jesus and witnessed with his eyes that it was indeed the crucified one. He didn’t need to finger His wounds to be sure that it was Jesus. All his doubts, disappointment and disillusionment were swept away in that moment. He fell on his knees and cried out, ‘My Lord and my God.’

What was it that convinced Thomas once and for all that Jesus was both Lord and God? Was it the wounds in His body that spoke of His death and yet He was alive? Was it  the teaching and miracles that Thomas had heard and seen, now suddenly come alive in Him/ I think the fact that Jesus invited Thomas to do what he said he would do when Jesus was not present that convinced him that Jesus was God. How did He know what he had spoken unless He was invisible yet present?

The memory of Jesus’ gentle rebuke and tender invitation would remain in Thomas’ mind forever. Many months before, Jesus had asked His disciples the question: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Peter responded with little understanding, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ Now Thomas was convinced that He was the Son of God and would go to the ends of the earth and face the fury of hell because he knew!

Thomas saw and was convinced. But that is not the way of the kingdom of God. God works in another way. It is not seeing that released faith but faith that releases vision. Faith is the invisible link between the unseen realm and power of God and the natural world in which we live. We bring God’s power into action on earth through faith in His word. Miracles do not beget faith. Faith begets miracles.

The mighty miracles of God which the children of Israel saw in the wilderness did not produce faith. Every time a new crisis arose they forgot God’s miraculous intervention and turned on Moses with accusations and demands. Jesus responded to faith with healing power. ‘Your faith has made you whole.’

The more confidence we place in Jesus, the more we experience His intervention in our lives. True blessing, the supernatural favour of God on us, comes when we are willing to stake all on His promises because He delights to be trusted.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.