Jesus’ amazing power to change lives . . .

 

READ John 1-4

As the year nears its end, this reading brings me back to the beginning when I was a new Christian. My sister told me to read John five times, then Romans twice. John begins with awesome truth about the mystery of Christ being fully God and fully human:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 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 . . . No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:1-18)

This Jesus walked into my living room. He convinced me that He is God in human flesh. No utterance: I just knew. How little did I realize the profound changes He would make in my life. This reading is so familiar and so precious. Its truths have affected me greatly, particularly this one:

The next day (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (1:29)

Jesus set to work removing my sin. At first, I didn’t realize the extent of it, nor that this would continue to this day, fifty plus years later. However, if I met the person who I was then, I would not recognize her, even so, He still has much to do!

Jesus gave me gifts. One is the ability to ‘get it’ when it comes to seeing the needs of the human heart. John wrote: “Jesus did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” He knows what to do with what He sees, but I still try to figure out what that knowledge requires of me: compassion, mercy, confrontation, or mostly prayer! (2:24–25)

I see the truth in what Jesus told Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (3:3) Blindness because of sin happens even to Christians, me included, not just those who do not believe. In other words, I know what it is like to not ‘get it.’ However . . .

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (3:17–19)

John makes my part clear with “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (3:30) Being like Jesus is vital. It fills my heart with knowing and caring that “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.” (3:36)

I also relate to the woman at the well. Newly divorced when Jesus first came to me, He impressed me the same way as He did her. She told everyone: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (4:29)

He has also brought me to realize the most important thing: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (4:34) My God-given tasks may not seem earth-shattering, but I am to be like Jesus in every area of life. I am “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that I should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) and each day seek His will over my desires and plans. I’m to let the gospel rule, living as a vessel of His love, centered, settled, focused, yet lingering in His presence to seek His plans for me and finally — realizing that everything else will take care of itself.

 

Responding to Jesus

 

 

READ John 1-4

When I became a Christian, my sister told me to read John’s gospel five times, then the book of Romans twice. Prior to that, I’d read the Bible for years, but without understanding it. This was the first thing that God helped me understand:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1–6)

Even though many deny it or debate it, and one of the cults puts “a god” in the first sentence without knowing there is not an ‘a’ in the Greek language, I know this is true; Jesus is God.

What follows deeply convinces me that John had it right. Those who believe it experience a great change — God gives them the right (meaning authority) to become His children (John 1:12–13) through what Jesus later calls a new birth. But before that, John explains much more about the identity of Jesus. He says, “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”  and “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:14,18)

This Jesus is God in human flesh. The Father is God, the Son is God, and later he will write about the Holy Spirit who is God. No wonder John said, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie . . .  And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:26–27, 34)

Soon Jesus gets to work. He calls the first disciples, then does a sign that reveals His power and affirms His identity — He turns water into wine. From there He went into the temple and drove out the money-changers who had invaded this place of worship instead of staying outside where they were allowed.

The Jews questioned everything Jesus did. He told them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” speaking about the temple of his body. They didn’t get it nor did the disciples until after He rose from the dead. Little wonder that Jesus did not entrust Himself to others at this time. He knew their hearts.

He also knew their need to be reborn, an act of God that would open their eyes and make it possible for them to enter the kingdom He would establish. He told a religious leader:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, 5)

His explain further, words that are plain to those who have experienced that rebirth:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:16–19)

Soon Jesus repeats His invitation: “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)

Jesus takes this message of eternal life to a Samaritan woman at a well (Jewish men did not speak to women or Samaritans) and 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) She responded and ran to tell others she had found the Messiah.

John then reports a second sign: Jesus heals a sick boy and his father “believed, and all his household.” (John 4:52–53)

My summary is patchy but even this quick review points to a mystery: how could anyone want to cling to sin and dismiss this incredible Man who is God who saves us from sin? He came to earth because God loves us and wants us to know Him. How can so many reject Him, even curse Him, as if He is their biggest problem? What a strange and sad reaction to a sinless and powerful Savior.