TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

Jno. 6:68 ... "Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.'"

      After Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000 with a young boy's lunch, He returned to Capernaum to resume preaching to the multitudes there. But many of those who had eaten of that unusual meal followed Jesus and searched until they found Him engaged in the synagogue. When He saw them, Jesus said, "You seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled," (v.25). They had not diligently sought out Jesus for the "bread of life" He could give them to nourish their souls (v.35), but rather for the literal bread that would fill their bellies. Jesus refused to comply with their wish. To the contrary! In a exposition that makes John 6 one of the longest chapters in the New Testament, Jesus dealt out to them a generous measure of the "bread of life" in the event any of them cared to feed their souls upon it. Almost none of them, however, had that inclination. Instead, we read in v.60, "Many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, 'This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it.'" Then v.66 reports: "As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him any more."

      As they departed to contend with life without God, Jesus turned from them to His apostles with a question that was also a challenge: "You do not want to go away also, do you?" It is noteworthy that Jesus refused to soften His doctrine or make any compromise with the departing multitude in order to retain their membership in His movement. How different with many of those who profess to preach for Him today! It is no secret that Christian participation is presently decreasing because it is more popular, more entertaining, and more sensually gratifying to indulge one's life in the activities that occupy human attention. Many preachers and church leaders are saying that we must reinterpret the Scriptures so that we can incorporate some of what is so appealing from the worldly scene into Christian activity. They insist this is necessary lest the exodus from the church continue. Jesus faced the same crisis in John 6, but He responded quite differently from these people today. Jesus explained to them the truth without compromise or appeasement, and when they rejected it, He allowed them to go away to their fate. In fact, He even turned to His most devoted followers, the apostles, and gave them the opportunity also to depart. "You do not want to go away also, do you?," was His sober question to them.

      Peter answered for all of them by saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life." This Galilean fisherman, uneducated and unsophisticated as he was, gave a brilliant answer that no one can improve. As we make our way through life and are confronted by its difficult issues, we all seek help and advice from those whom we trust to be wise. Thus people read the philosophers, seek out the experts, and follow after those who seem to know where they are going and why. Yet, when you turn from the essyas of the philosophers to the stories of their lives, you find they suffered the same vicissitudes of life as the rest of us. In fact, the more imminent philosophers experienced wretchedness and torment to the extent that death was the best part of their lives. Likewise, we are often amazed when some "expert" suffers shipwreck with his life and is discredited after years of dispensing his profound "wisdom." The fact is that no one has been through the world before, and no one from within himself knows the best path. On the other hand, Jesus is God who descended from heaven into human life to reveal reality to us and invite us to follow His sure leadership to eternal security and joy. Anyone who is wise will recognize Christ as "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," (Jno. 14:6), and will then answer with Peter of long ago, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."

THE IDENTITY OF JESUS

      During the past century a multitude of books has been published which attempt to tell us who Jesus was (is!) and what His role has been in human history. Each book has presented someone's own understanding, according to how he has interpreted available information. Preconceived ideas and philosophical bias usually factor into the process.  Often the view of Jesus is little more than speculation, which in many cases becomes rather bizarre.  In this article I would like to let Jesus Himself identify His nature, His position, and His role with respect to people. He does this with economy of words in Rev. 1:17-18, when He revealed Himself to John.

      "I am the first and the last, and the living One. And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more. And I have the keys of death and of Hades."

      In this statement Jesus identifies Himself to us in terms of four aspects of His divine nature and transcendental powers. First, He says, I am the first and the last.  This declares that He is an eternal Being. He was first because there was no one before Him. This is the same assertion with which the Fourth Gospel opens: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God," (Jno. 1:1-2). As the past of Jesus is eternal, His future is also eternal. When this earth and universe have been annihilated, never more to be, Jesus will still be fully existent in heaven, a glorious dimension beyond time, space, and matter.

      Second, Jesus identifies Himself as the living One. As the eternal One Jesus is also the essence of life. He possesses to the fullest all the functions of life: consciousness, energy, personality, power. We are told in Jno. 5:26 that "just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself." Before there were angels and people on earth, Jesus lived in heaven with the Father. In fact, we humans are alive and have being only because Jesus, the Source of life, gave that gift to us. In Jno. 1:3 we are assured that "all things came into being by Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."

      Third, Jesus identifies Himself as the One who was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more. This refers to Jesus' time on earth in human form, in which He was crucified, buried in a tomb, and then raised to live again. This historical FACT! is the centerpoint of the Gospel, emphasized over and over throughout the New Testament. It is the foundation of Christian faith that Jesus of Nazareth was in reality the Son of God from heaven, to which He returned after His resurrection. This was Peter's proclamation in his sermon before Jews assembled for Pentecost in Acts 2:23-24, "[This Jesus], delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power."

      Fourth, Jesus identifies Himself as the One who has the keys of death and Hades. Hades refers to the state of confinement of the souls of the dead between death and the resurrection. When Jesus died, His soul also went to Hades and spent three days until He was resurrected. In that great triumph He was granted absolute power over death and Hades. At the time of God's choosing, Jesus will use the keys given Him to unlock the gate of Hades and release all souls held there. This is the subject of a major scene in Rev. 20:11-15. There in v.13 it says, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every one of them according to their deeds."

      My friends, this is the presentation of who Jesus is and what He does in which I put my faith. Any which does not accord with it I dismiss as the product of fallible human construction unworthy of serious consideration.

   

THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-DENIAL

Jno. 5:30 ... "I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."

      When God created man and set him on earth to inhabit it, he did not make man to be a robot programmed to do what God intended. Rather, God endowed man with a mind capable of making moral decisions. He even allowed man the capacity to choose whether he would acknowledge his Creator and pay any attention to the advice and instructions He gave him. His first directions to Adam and Eve were: "From any tree of the Garden you may freely eat; but from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you shall surely die," (Gen. 2:16-17). God gave them license to enjoy the fruit from every tree in Eden except one, which He explicitly commanded them to leave alone. Nevertheless, He allowed them to exercise their own will when Satan tempted them to partake of that very tree. When they chose to take fruit from it and eat, God did not intervene. He could easily have come between that couple and the beguiling serpent to prevent what was about to occur, but He refrained. Knowing what the catastrophic consequences of their bad decision would be, God nevertheless withheld His power and watched as they exercised their freedom of choice.

      If a person had not the liberty to choose evil, his worship of God and service to Him would be devoid of meaning and honor. Religion can begin only when a person chooses to deny his own will and submit the direction of his life to God. As long as one vacillates between pleasing himself and trying to please God, he is not yet ready to profess religion. And whatever religion he does profess in that state of vacillation is offensive to God and laced with hypocrisy. Jesus made this very plain in Mt. 16:24, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." The most prevalent and also the most serious fault of Christians is the reluctance to submit EVERY part of their lives to the will of God.  Nearly everyone reserves some area of his life to himself, and will not let Christ enter into it. Our most fervent prayer should be that the Lord would show us these restricted areas before He takes full possession of our existence in death and condemns us for our failure to submit totally.

      Jesus lived on earth as the Representative Man unto God. His life is now our model, both in attitude and behavior. Thus we are instructed to "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," (Php. 2:5). Jesus' attitude is that which we are to develop within us. In I Pet. 2:21 we are told that Jesus "suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps." Therefore, His manner of conduct is the one we must follow in our daily behavior. The lead text (above), Jno. 5:30, reveals the essence of Jesus' attitude and behavior; He denied His own will in order to obey the will of His Father. Many might think, "Well, Jesus could not have done anything else but subject His will in the path predetermined for Him." But this is far from the truth! Jesus could have denied God and sought His own glory anytime He wished. The devil knew this and therefore exerted every effort he could to persuade Jesus to sin, (Mt. 4:1-11). Had Satan succeeded, even for a second, to influence Jesus to think and act on His own and without reference to God, he would have destroyed Jesus.

      The challenge of every person is to learn to deny his own will and submit his life in every respect to God through Christ. The extent to which we exercise our freedom to choose to yield decisions to God's direction is the same extent to which we gain God's approval and favor. The extent to which we claim the right to go on thinking and acting as we wish is the same extent to which we risk the eternal ruin of our souls. Faith is the key to success in this great struggle, for it convinces us that God's choices are best for us. Those who demand their selfish right to make their own decisions without reference to God are saying that their wisdom is greater than His.

FULFILLING OUR REASON FOR EXISTENCE

Jno. 4:23 ... "An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers."

      These words of Jesus, spoken to a woman at a well in Samaria, are well known to Christians, having been quoted in numberless lessons in which great emphasis was placed upon the requirement that our worship be "in spirit and in truth."  This emphasis was well placed, for we know not how to worship acceptably unless God tells us.  Worship performed without the full engagement of one's mind, or spirit, is vain and will be rejected by the Father.  And worship conducted without divine instruction, being designed rather to satisfy human desire, is likewise vain and unacceptable to God. In Mt. 15:9 in this regard Jesus declared, "But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men."  In our efforts, however, to maintain the correct manner and motivation to worship, it may be we have neglected what our Lord said in the latter part of this verse. Therefore, in this brief exposition it is my object to draw attention to the essential message in the text above.

      Notice Jesus' declaration that "the Father seeks (us) to be His worshipers."  It is a thing of major importance to God that all people worship Him.  In Psa. 100:3 we are told to "know that the Lord Himself is God, it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture."  This Scripture reveals many points of truth that are disregarded, and even denied, by perhaps the majority of people of the present generation.  It first proclaims that God's existence is a reality, not a question for debate or speculation.  "Know that the Lord Himself is God."  Second, it declares that human existence is the result of God's creative act, and not of some mindless force in nature, and especially not of human ingenuity.  Third, it states that man is God's possession, since we are His handiwork.  And fourth, this verse affirms that the earth is "His pasture," that is, it belongs to God who made it.  So we see that there is, above all, a self-existent God who created man by His own will, who therefore owns man, and who also owns the very world upon which man lives.  

      No one knows why God created us, for in His revelation to us He never gives a fully developed explanation.  But there are statements which seem to show something of God's purpose, and Jno. 4:23 is one of them.  God made man to worship Him.  He created us as intelligent beings with souls reflecting His image, so that we would be able to offer Him meaningful worship "in spirit and truth." When we make that response, we are fulfilling our reason for existence.  A person is therefore at his best when he/she engages in worship to his Creator and Master.

      How pathetic it is when people decide not to take God's existence seriously, or worse, to deny that He who made us is real.  How blind is the creature who does not believe in the One who created him, thus rejecting his Master's ownership of him!  And how presumptuous is man-the-tenant who claims ownership of the land that, in fact, is the property of its Creator, God!  And how unresponsive and ungrateful is the person who disregards the desire of his Maker that he worship Him!  How can a person enjoy life and health that are given him by God, and daily use the earth and its fruits to enrich his life, and yet feel no inward compulsion to worship God?  In effect, this callous mentality amounts to tempting God, and Jesus said in Mt. 4:7, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."  In conclusion, I implore everyone who reads this presentation and does not worship to awaken from complacency and begin to fulfill the express wish of God to worship Him.  Please make that response while He still shows you mercy in continuing to grant you the blessings of life, health, and opportunity.

BORN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT

Jno. 3:5 ... "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"

      The "kingdom of God," as the name indicates, is the kingdom that belongs to God.  He is the King, or monarch, over it.  His word is its law.  Those who are privileged to enter into this kingdom to be citizens of it do not own it, do not share in its government, and are absolutely subject to its law. Furthermore, it is not their prerogative to determine by what means they may enter into it.  God, as the Designer and Builder, alone decides how people may enter to enjoy citizenship.  It is the ultimate of the sin of presumption for people to act as though they own some part of God's kingdom and try to dominate its affairs by their own power, and to redesign its constitution to suit themselves. Nevertheless, the history of Christianity is a long, complicated affair of men who have intruded into God's domain to do these things.

      And so today, within the broad sphere of churches nominally Christian, there is a babel of confusion about the means of entry into the kingdom of God.  But in the test above Jesus simply tells us what God has determined.  It is important to note, moreover, that in spite of all human conceptions and zealous debates to defend them, no one enters the kingdom of God in a way different from what Jesus here specifies.  The word "cannot" is specific and absolute when He declares, "Except a man ... he cannot enter the kingdom of God."  One might indeed enter some church of human origin by subscribing to a human methodology, but he will not also enter into the kingdom of God.

      Jesus sets two requirements that one must meet in order to enter.  First, he must be born of water.  Second, he must be born of the Spirit.  These seem like simple provisions, and indeed they are.  Nevertheless, many have tried to complicate them in order to establish something other of human origin.  For example, it is argued that being "born of water" refers to one's physical birth and being "born of the Spirit" refers to one's spiritual birth.  This view, however, interprets Jesus to say that one must experience natural childbirth in order to move toward entry into the kingdom.  Since no one would be alive to consider entering His kingdom had he not been physically born, obviously this view is illogical.  One suspects that it is rather an attempt to dodge the true meaning of the phrase, "born of water."  

      In Acts 2 we are told that on Pentecost the apostles "were all filled with the Holy Spirit ," (v.4). This had been promised by Jesus, who said that the Spirit would "guide you (the apostles) into all truth," (Jno. 16:13).  So when Peter spoke on that day, his message was the truth from the Spirit.  By that message he convicted his audience of sin and generated within them faith in the Lord whom they had crucified.  When they cried, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?," Peter, still guided by the Holy Spirit, answered, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2:37-38).  Then we read in v.41, "They that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3000 souls."  The events of Acts 2 explain the words in Jno. 3:5.  Through the gospel, which the Spirit communicated to man, the Spirit produces faith within the individual, and induces him to undertake a new course of life with a new allegiance.  This is the birth of the Spirit.  Then, still through the gospel, the individual subjects himself to baptism "for the remission of sins."  This is the birth of water.  Having accomplished these two essential things, the Lord opens the door of His kingdom for that person to enter.

Destroy This Temple

Jno. 2:19 ... "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'"

      Jesus made this statement in the Temple in Jerusalem on the first Passover after He had begun His earthly ministry.  Upon entering the Temple compound He was filled with indignation at "those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money seated," (v.14).  These were people who had commercialized the sacrifice of animals prescribed by the Law of Moses.  Along with them were men who exchanged foreign currency for Jewish coin, capitalizing on a law that required sacrificial animals to be purchased only with Jewish money.  Of course, they also imposed a hefty fee for making this exchange, thus exploiting the pilgrims from distant lands who had come to worship.  After Jesus watched all this for a short time, He "made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the Temple ... and poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables," (v.15).  

      This action had a considerable impact upon the priests, who had authority over everything that went on in the Temple.  They permitted and supported these people who were making "My Father's house a house of merchandise," as Jesus exclaimed in v.16. They even maintained a police force within the Temple precincts to enforce their control, (Jno. 7:32,45-46).  Evidently, however, Jesus' work of clearing out this mess was so sudden that these officers did not have time to intervene. When the priests saw what had happened, they immediately came to Jesus to determine by what authority He had acted.  It says in v.18 that "the Jews ... said to Him, 'What sign do You show us, seeing that You do these things?'"  It was in reply to this challenge that Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

      The priests did not comprehend what Jesus meant by this.  They assumed He was referring to the great edifice in which they were standing, for they replied with contempt, "It took 46 years to build this Temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" (v.20).  They interpreted Jesus' statement as some kind of threat against the Temple, and three years later used this construction against Him in the trial in which they sentenced Him to death.  But the apostle John carefully points out that Jesus "was speaking of the Temple of His body," (v.21). The Bible occasionally refers to the human body as the "temple" of the soul, and that is the sense employed here by Jesus. In essence, He was telling His interrogators that He would for sure give them a "sign" (or proof) of His authority for clearing out the Temple, as well as for everything else He said or did.  He challenged them to destroy His body, knowing they would crucify Him before long anyway.  Then He said He would "raise it up in three days."

      The authority of Jesus is still a burning issue after some 2000 years.  In the New Testament He teaches a unique doctrine and then commands us to adapt our lives to it.  Moreover, He models that doctrine in His own life and then tells us to "follow Me." When people now read the New Testament, or listen as faithful Christians teach it, they want to know, "By what authority does this Jewish zealot and visionary make these demands of us, and what proof can He give of that authority?" The answer continues the same from the day Jesus first spoke these words.  His authority is from heaven, and the proof is His resurrection from death after His enemies had crucified Him.  There is nothing further to be said about it. If people will not accept this proof and be convinced by it to submit their lives to Jesus' authority as laid out in the Gospel, there is no hope for them.  They will die and be lost.  Our pathway to eternal salvation begins with faith in Jesus' resurrection and submission to His authority.

The Word Becomes Flesh

Jno. 1:14 ... "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

      The first fourteen verses of the Gospel according to John are the prologue to this account of Jesus, which is different in so many ways from those of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  They also constitute one of the major Christological passages in the New Testament.  Since volumes have been written to discuss the meaning and significance of what these verses reveal about Jesus, I confess that is rather presumptive of me to devote this brief article to such a vast subject.  If I can succeed, however, in focusing the reader's attention for a few minutes upon the central Figure of mankind and the only hope for our future, then my feeble effort is worth it.

      The text quoted above declares the fact of the incarnation, the descent of God to earth to enter into human flesh and dwell among us as a Man.  That this would happen was prophesied centuries earlier in Isa. 7:14, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name IMMANUEL."  In Matthew's account of Jesus' birth, (i.e., His incarnation), he quotes Isaiah's prophecy and explains to us that "Immanuel" means "God with us."  It is an astounding fact to the sensitive mind that God would choose to humble Himself to the human plane of existence and submit His presence and activities to the limitations of our physical condition.  If anything should cause our hearts to overflow with gratitude and thanksgiving to the Father, it should be the consideration of Jesus' assumption of the human state to share life with us in all its varied situations.

      John, an eyewitness of Jesus' human experience, emphasizes here that he and his companions were privileged to behold in Jesus "the glory of the only begotten of the Father."  It is difficult, if not impossible, to explain the full meaning and significance of the word "glory," but to say that it refers to "the sum total of God's perfections" may be a working definition.  The divine glory was constantly manifested to select men in the Bible as a brilliantly radiant, utterly beautiful light.  John, along with Peter and James, were honored to behold that glory when Jesus was transfigured before them one day on a mountaintop.  On that occasion "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was as white as the light."  In the initial text above, John may be ultimately referring to this experience when he declares, "and we beheld His glory."  As a member of the Holy Trinity Jesus was endowed with glory which He left in heaven on His journey here to earth.  But on the remarkable occasion in Mat. 17:1-8 He was transformed back into it briefly before the awestruck eyes of His three disciples.

      Two other manifestations of Jesus' glory, though not beheld as a radiant light, were nonetheless wonderful.  John says that Jesus was filled with "grace and truth."  Grace refers to everything God gives us, although here the emphasis is upon His gift of salvation which we receive at Christ's expense.  Jesus did what no one else could.  He assumed the collective sins of every human and paid the price of death for their absolution.  What greater gift could God give us than release from the death penalty for sin and the promise of eternal life in heaven?

      Truth refers to the reality of spiritual existence which we can know only by means of revelation. Our perception is limited to the physical world, but Jesus taught us accurately about what exists in the spiritual world and what relation it sustains to us.  Others, who were of course inspired by God, revealed small bits of information about that other sphere of existence.  But the fullest picture we shall ever receive in this life is the truth which was revealed by Jesus when He was here among us.