Accept or Reject

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

ACCEPT OR REJECT

John 12:44-50

44 Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. 47 "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." 

NIV

These words of Jesus that John records for us are just after, and most likely a response to the fact that even though Jesus did all those miracles in front of them, they still would not believe in him. John also told us that it was just as the prophet Isaiah had foretold it would be. Now Jesus makes it clear once more that he is the Light of the world. If we see Jesus we also see the Father. Did Jesus mean in regard to a physical appearance or in regard to his personality or both? So many people want to make God a non-gender entity, or a spiritual force of types, a non- being. But Jesus consistently referred to the one who sends him as Father. The Greek word which is always translated as a father is pater, and it always means a male parent. There is absolutely no mistake here as the Greek word for mother is meter, pronounced like may-tare. So we have no doubt whatsoever that Jesus, who was a man, indicated that seeing him was just like looking at his Father, both in appearance and in character. It is not uncommon at all within humanity for a son to look like his father. He has much of his father’s genetics. As God, whom that word denotes the whole of the Trinity, said, “Let there be light” referring to the sun or daylight, those words were also prophetic in regards to Him being the Light, His Son, Jesus being the true Light who came into the world to show men the way to eternal life. Now here is where it gets a little dicey. What exactly did Jesus mean about a person who hears his words but does not keep them? We should not confuse the words, keep them, as trying to obey every word of Jesus or making a set of laws to follow in order to attain perfection so as to have eternal life, or not be judged and condemned on the last day. How could we ever hope to not be judged because it is impossible to be perfect, to perfectly follow every command of God, every word of Jesus, and keep them all absolutely one hundred percent? If we think we are able, if we say we have no sin, we only deceive ourselves and call God a liar. The truth is we have been freed from the guilt and penalty of sin. Within the context of what Jesus said here, he is referring to accepting him, accepting his words that he is the Light of the world, rather than rejecting him. Those who reject Him will be judged for that and that alone. We who have accepted him will not be judged or condemned, but we will be judged as children of the light, accepted as children of God, invited into the paradise that Jesus went ahead of us to prepare specifically for those of us who accepted him and kept his word, his invitation to follow him, to have eternal life. Our salvation has absolutely nothing to do with how good we are, how many rules we can follow correctly, how few times we sin, or how many times we sin, for as we are still in this flesh we will fail, the question is not how many or how few, the fact is we will fail. If we fail only once in our lifetime of being a Christian, it is the same as if we failed once each day, failure is still not perfection. No, we have accepted the words of Jesus, we have accepted him as being our Messiah, the Christ, our Savior, our Lord, our one and only source of eternal life. We have accepted being freed from the penalty of sin, that Jesus paid the price for our sin in full. No other payment is needed. We have accepted that he has washed us, cleansed us completely in, and by his blood. We have accepted that all our sins have been washed away, forgiven forever. God will never bring them up to us again, never, ever will be held accountable, because we are in Christ. God sees us as holy and blameless because we have accepted and are in Jesus. Do we try to live rightly? Of course, we make every effort to live in a manner that pleases God. But the only and the best manner we could ever live in order to please God is to accept the words of Jesus. Although we also try to live as good a life as a believer we can, we know it will never be good enough, no matter how good we think we are, we will never be good enough. Should we then just give up trying? No, of course not, but we also cannot and should not get caught up in some set of rules or regulations that we have determined to be the right way to interpret his words. Let us just know for sure that we have accepted Jesus, and we will keep accepting his words. We have not and will not reject Jesus as our Lord and Savior as he is the only way to the Father. The Last day will come down to either being in or out, based only on accepting or rejecting Jesus.