Let me tell you about a tale. A man declares His love for the woman and tells her of the palace that He is building for her. He is going ahead of her and preparing the place, and she was to follow him later and reach their dream home. She does love Him. She is quite excited about the home He is building for her. Though the man had asked her to take a specific flight, tempted by exciting offers mentioned in a random flight, she begins her journey by getting on the wrong flight. She later overhears some terrorists planning to destroy the flight. She really wants to get home, to her Man. But all the love she has for Him now, couldn't save her. Her following the rules of wearing a seat belt is not going to save her now. All the good things she has done, or the friends she made on the flight are not able to save her either. She had failed to listen to His advice and she is on a flight that is plunging to its destruction taking her along with it. She then remembers a gift He had asked her to take with her on her journey. She opens it and finds a parachute. There was a note which read, 'If anything goes wrong, believe in me, wear this and jump, and you will be safe'. She didn't have any idea of what a parachute was, or how it would work. She was baffled of why He would ask her to wear it and jump out of the emergency exit. How could that save her she wondered. She still had an hour before the flight would crash. Now was not the time to exit. Maybe she should believe that the terrorist probably could change his mind. Maybe believing in herself, she could do something to save herself, even fight with the terrorist herself. Maybe she could believe that flights don't crash. The clock was ticking. She remembered His gift. She wanted to believe Him. Yet, she wanted to have options. She thought maybe she would wear the parachute, but sit inside and see if she could figure some other way to save herself. What should she do to be saved?
John 6: 28, 29 (Jesus was talking to them about eternal life) Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
We have been deluded to think that we could save ourselves. The people who spoke to Jesus wanted to know what works God requires to give eternal life in return. On another occasion, another young man asked Jesus - what good thing he should do to get eternal life (Matt 19:16). We somehow think we could do something to get us out of the mess we are in. We think we could earn our way out. Well, that is how it all started right? The belief that we didn't need God to tell us what is right and wrong, and that we could do it ourselves is what got us here in the first place. Now to accept that we can't do anything to get ourselves out, and to rely on Him totally and completely seems unobvious, and even difficult.
God's word is clear that there is no other option. Jesus repeatedly answers that believing in Him is the only way. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life (John 5:24). 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). And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John11:26). This is the gospel preached by the disciples too. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:31). For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8).
Believing in Jesus doesn't just mean we believe He exists, and that He is good, and even that He is God. We need to believe in Jesus for our salvation, which means, we accept we are sinful, that we can't do anything to save ourselves, that we desire to be free from sin, and that we believe and trust the finished work of Jesus to accomplish it for us.
Really! Is the remedy to sin that simple? How could we get rid of this disgusting, evil, cruel, and enslaving problem called sin by just believing? How can this be?
If like Nicodemus, you are asking 'How can this be?' - Well, that is the question for tomorrow.
Link to the previous article: What is truth? Link to the next article: How can this be?
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