Believe

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

BELIEVE

John 3:9-15

9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.   14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  

NIV

We just went through the previous statement of Jesus about having to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God, and this is a rebirth of the spirit rather so than of the flesh. Nicodemus still does not get it, so Jesus continues to reveal truth to him, but first Jesus sort of slams him. How can someone who is supposed to be a teacher of the law not understand the truth? Now it gets personal. Having conversations with a certain pastor we know, we have been told there are pastors in the ministry, who really do not have the truth or understand the truth. That seems odd, but then we have to also know that we are all ministers, we are all a royal priesthood, a holy nation, who have the responsibility to be witnesses, to testify of the truth, of what we have seen. Now, it is truth that Jesus is fully and maybe the only true witness of the truth, as he is the truth, the way and the light. He tells that to Nicodemus in different words, but it is saying he is the one who came from and is going back into heaven. He has seen everything. What this all comes down to, as Jesus explains to Nicodemus, is in order to gain eternal life we have to believe in Jesus. The question is, what does it mean to believe in Jesus? There seems to be many letters written by the Apostles explaining what life is about for those who believe in Jesus. We have the instructions we need to live the life of faith required for eternal life. It boils down to this one word, believe. Sometimes we think we need more, we need our rules for life, our regulations to live by, our lists of the do’s and the don’ts in order we can check off all that we are doing right and what we are not doing wrong. We might have turned this word, believe, into more that Jesus intended it to be. We may well have created a form of the law for ourselves instead of simply believing in Jesus. How much more can we attain beyond eternal life? Once our spirit has been born again, are we going to trap it inside this flesh? Just exactly what does it mean to be a believer? Are there degrees of believing? Are their different levels of belief? It seems it comes down to either we believe or we don’t. It is black and white. There is no grey area, no middle ground, and no fence riding. But have we added to this simple word, believe? The dictionary defines this word as to accept (something) as true; feel sure of the truth of. This is how the Greek word which is translated believe means.  To think to be true; to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in. We cannot put any confidence in anything we do, other than having been born again, thus believing in Jesus. We are persuaded we are saved by the grace of God and of nothing else. But then what is life for us like? What then do we do? Must be work out our salvation with fear and trembling? Certainly we cannot attain perfection in order to get saved, or after we have been saved. Is there more reward for us because of all our works or good deeds? What did Jesus say? He said that he must be lifted up, that is hung on the cross, die for our sin, be the sacrifice once and for all for all our sin, past, present and future, so that if we believe in him, put our confidence in him, we will have eternal life. Believe.