the claim that matters most

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:24

 

This is a remarkable statement from Jesus. It is a claim that He makes that matters most to any person in the world. It states that a relationship with Him (obeying His word) is really belief in God the Father and leads to a new life and a new eternal destiny. He claims to be the only true path to spiritual peace (see also John 14:6), and this is very significant.

 

Jesus had just performed a miracle that had all of the Jewish authorities upset. He healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath and made a claim to use God’s power, asserting God’s preferences in the use of it (John 5:21). This was a clear demonstration of deity. He had physically renewed and enlivened this man on a day of rest and worship. And only God could do what they had just seen done, The scribes and Pharisees knew this. But they refused both to hear Jesus on the matter and to believe what they had just witnessed.

 

Jesus is the source of my life and my destiny is to always live with Him. It is a natural part of my life right now and is what eternity will be. The power of Christ that turned cripples into dancers, made the blind see the artistry of God’s world, brought music to deaf ears, and confronted the hard hearts of the religiously indifferent is at work in my heart and life forever! That is a pretty amazing experience… right now and forever.

 

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The Well

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

 

I lower a dirty bucket

down way deep

into a hole in my heart

and I draw up dust that

clogs my throat

still thirsty… still parched

 

And I look for another

place to drink

flies buzzing in the air

but bothered and smothered

in a desert where

no water eases where I suffer

 

And then You, Jesus, met me

at my usual door to hell

and there you offered to me

eternal life from Your flowing well

I drank from there and knew eternity

 

And in me now

is eternal life knowing

so that in Christ I found

real satisfaction is growing

and heaven lives as I show

there my Savior is flowing… vibrant streams where fruit grows.

 

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faith & obedience

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36

 

The New Testament does not separate obedience from faith. When it comes to following Jesus and believing in Jesus, both are necessary for true possession of eternal life. That fact is that obedience to the gospel necessarily follows faith in the gospel. We struggle always with the “correct” degree of obedience.

 

I prefer to let Jesus Himself settle the matter. It is not necessarily about who we associate with. He was the friend of sinners, yet He perfectly obeyed the Father. And it was religious legalists who only stayed in their own company who could not stand what Jesus did. So the obedience that was found in following Jesus was not rote legalism. It was a life committed to knowing Him. Those who followed Jesus in this way were transformed by Him.

 

So today, faith in Christ for forgiveness of sin is followed by a willing heart to follow Him. it is not about legalism. But it is always about a serious, life-changing, personal commitment. And the obedience that follows that follows is to Jesus, not human ideas or lists of Christian activities. Without that faith and obedience to the Son, no one will see life or forgiveness of sin. That is clear from this text. Real faith longs to obey and follow Jesus. False professions are not compelled to obey the voice of the Master.

 

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Wine that showed God’s glory

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

John 2:11

 

This was the first miracle that anyone ever saw Jesus do. The people who really knew about what happened were Jesus’ disciples, His mother, and the servants at the marriage feast. And exactly what did Jesus do? He provided the wine for the party. Given current evangelical sensibilities, what would we have thought of this had we been there? What would we say if we heard that someone like Billy Graham showed up at a shindig bringing with him an ample supply of the best booze? This is sort of what happened at this event.

 

How did furnishing wine for partygoers show the glory of God in that culture? First, it revealed Jesus as the Creator God with control over the material world. He took a very simple chemical compound, water (H2O) and converted it to a complex, nuanced consumer item and organic compound. Wine ranking is notoriously nuanced and snobbish, but everyone agreed, this stuff was the best ever. So there was something of the artistry of God being displayed. And not once did Jesus need to touch the water to convert it over. He just created with control over the material world.

 

He was also seen as merciful in supplying joy to the people. In the Old Testament wine is symbolic of joy, not drunkeness (Psalm 104:15; Proverbs 3:10). Jesus provided joy, which is always an outcome of mercy. Wow!

 

The result of this first miracle was FAITH in Him. His first disciples believed in Him. They knew what had happened by him. What had they gotten themselves into?! This was no mere man, and this miracle proved it.

 

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Springtime Nativity

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

 

This is John’s theological version of the Nativity story. It is about Incarnation. I think thoughts of Jesus entering this world just a few weeks removed from Holy Week reflections about His death and resurrection. But I am not limited to any strict liturgical church calendar guidelines when it comes to thinking about my Lord. And John’s gospel is good for breaking up the typical way of talking about Jesus (it was a purpose behind his writing). I can thin of the miracle of God come to us to redeem us at any time. Why not in spring, when the world is born again?

 

And I am filled with an awe. I remember the birth of both my children. How wonderful it is to hold a newborn (even though they are just little depraved sinners) and then to think of the perfect Son of God when He was a new arrival… God in a body, full of grace and truth! I find the thought alone just overwhelmingly beautiful!

 

So the wisdom of God’s plan of redemption is that it stirs us at this deep level. The Father’s glory touches my heart in the place where I am a father. That Jesus came at all is the greatest work that God has ever wrought into human history. I am proud of my kids and see them as my greatest work… how much more does the Father love the Son! That I have access to Him now by faith is the amazing privilege of being Christ’s disciple.

 

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Family Legacy

So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.

Numbers 36:9

 

The perpetuity of the inheritance in the Promised Land by tribe was prescribed in the Law by Moses. Why? Because the land was God’s blessing. It was home, family farm, and livelihood. And God did not want the nation to become a patchwork quilt of cross-tribal holdings. Keeping land within tribes assured that disputes over what was an important and vital possession would be minimal.

 

God cared enough for how Israel handled possessions and income that He prescribed common sense regulations to minimize property disputes. He knows that as human beings we get caught up in the stuff we have.

 

There is also a wonderful picture of the importance of family in this last chapter of Numbers. The daughters of Zelophahad were promised a share of their father’s allotment as long as they married within their father’s tribe. A sonless family could still carry on a legacy and keep its inheritance. This was something unheard of at that time. It speaks to the family’s crucial and indispensible role in society. And it was designed by God to promote continuity in families that obeyed Him throughout generations.

 

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respect for life & respect for God

You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.

Numbers 35:34

 

This is the only verse from which I find personal spiritual instruction in a chapter detailing how to deal with murder and manslaughter. God is making a point to Israel: senseless, non-defensive taking of a human life disrespects HIS holiness. He would not tolerate it.

 

That principle holds true for today because it is rooted in relationship with God. That exists now, though in a different dimension than that which Israel experienced as a theocracy. Taking of a human life defiles what God desires. And Israel was to obey God in judicial handling of human justice in these matters, which really is the whole point of Numbers 35.

 

So the principle is simple but impacting: human life is treated as special and important out of reverence for God. Remove any reverence for God, Who is truly holy, and human uniqueness devalues as well. Voila! We have today. In a truly secular society there is little basis of human life being valued. And today their reigns a growing disrespect for human life all the way from conception to the last breath in old age.

 

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