Readings for today: John 3-5
All human beings fall into same trap. We fall for the same lie. We make the same fundamental error. We believe we can be like god. We believe we exist on the same level playing field as God. We believe we have the same choices as God. We even believe we have the right to judge God or question God. Don’t believe me? How many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t believe in God?” A statement like this suggests we have the ability or authority or knowledge or understanding or wisdom to make such an evaluation. It is almost nonsensical. It would be like saying, “I don’t believe in gravity” or “I don’t believe the earth is round.” These things are reality whether we believe them or not just as God is a reality whether we believe in Him or not. Additionally, have you ever heard someone say, “I couldn’t believe in a God who does…?” Or “I couldn’t ever worship a God who…?” Statements like these suggest we have the moral and ethical standing to judge God. To question God. To put God on trial as it were and demand an accounting for His decisions and actions. Even more insidious are the attempts we make to know God or define God or understand God apart from His revelation in Jesus Christ. We try to define God according to human terms. We project onto God our own wants, needs, and desires. We try to remake God in our own image.
Jesus confronts this temptation in the third chapter of the Gospel of John when He tells Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Born from above. Born of the Spirit. Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He is a master at arguing and manipulating the Law. He is a master at seeking to use God’s Law, not as a means of getting to know God, but as a means of controlling God. He expects his obedience to God’s Law will influence God in some way, perhaps even forcing His hand so He will intervene and deliver His people from the hands of the Romans. But Jesus exposes the poverty of his spiritual thinking. Nicodemus is bound by earthly thinking. He is limited by the natural world. He cannot see outside himself and that’s why he must be born again. He must be born of water and the spirit. He must be born of the Holy Spirit so he can transcend the thinking of this world and gain a heavenly perspective.
The simple truth of the matter is this…we cannot get from earth to heaven. We cannot understand God apart from the revelation of His Son. In order to know God, we must listen and learn from the One whom He sent. We must surrender our need and our desire to be like god ourselves. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. There is no other way to heaven. No other way into the Father’s presence. No other way to salvation. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven by which we may be saved. Jesus Christ is the name above every other name. He is the One who has descended from heaven. He is the eternal Word of God now made flesh and dwelling among us. He is the perfect revelation of God and the exact representation of His divine being. He is the radiance of the glory of God and He has come to initiate a relationship with us that will last for all eternity. To believe in Jesus is to be born again. To believe in Jesus is to receive the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit. To believe in Jesus is to know God in all His fullness and greatness and glory. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
Readings for tomorrow: Matthew 8:1-4, 9:1-17, 12:1-21, Mark 1:40-45, 2:1-28, 3:1-21, Luke 5:12-39, 6:1-19