God, the Life Giver

Posted on by korgrocker

“For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.”
John 5:21 NLT

Jesus was confronted by the Jewish leaders for telling a man healed by the Pool of Bethesda, and on the Sabbath, to ” … Pick up [his] mat and walk” (John 5:11b). Such an instruction was, to the Jews, a violation of the Law of Moses, which forbids working on the Sabbath. A petty, nit-picking, interpretation that overlooked, or ignored, the wonderful and life-changing healing of a man, paralysed for thirty eight years. But as we see at the start of John 5:19, “So Jesus explained…”. Jesus’ explanation was lengthy and detailed, and we don’t know how, in the end, it was received by the Jews. I suspect that they failed to understand, in line with the prophecy in Isaiah 6:9, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’“”

Jesus said to the Jews that His father “gives life to those he raises from the dead”. Did He mean physical or spiritual life? I believe that Jesus was explaining spiritual life because Jesus’ primary mission to Planet Earth was to bring abundant life. John 10:10b, ” … I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly“. In this context, we read what He said to Nicodemus in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life“. And to anyone who believes in Jesus, comes the God-given promise that they will never die. In effect, Jesus said that His Father, through His grace and love, brings about a miracle in the lives of spiritually dead people, who, when they believe in Him, can experience eternal life. 

We pilgrims are people who will never die. Yes, one day our mortal bodies, will die, but through God’s promise of eternal life, our spirits will live on. And then one day after that we will receive our new bodies, as promised and as we read in Philippians 3:21, “He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control”. We can read more about our new bodies in I Thessalonians 4. But the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:1-3, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies”. Jesus told the Jewish leaders that His Father raises the spiritually dead people to eternal life with Him, and that He too gave the same life to anyone He wanted. Oh, and for good measure, He can raise physically dead people as well.

Jesus said, and as recorded in John 14:6, ” … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. The only way in which human beings can experience being raised from the dead is through Jesus. It takes faith, that God will do what He has promised. But the alternative is a life snuffed out when we die, with our spirits heading for eternal life in a place where we don’t want to be. We can experience this new life now while we are still alive, through our growing relationship with God. We find that he is a real Person, who loves and cares for us. He helps us in times of difficulties. He leads and guides us in our journey through life. And we can share this hope we possess with those around us.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for the life that You have given us. We look forward to the time when we will join You in Paradise. Thank You. Amen.

Spirits in Prison (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“So he went and preached to the spirits in prison— those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 3:19-21 NLT

In a previous blog we asked ourselves three questions – what was the message that Jesus preached, what happens to our spirits after we die and why select just this particular group of spirits. We have considered what happens to our spirits when we die, and concluded that they go to one of two “compartments” in a place called Hades or Sheol. This is the holding place for spirits pending God’s final act of judgement, and believers end up in a compartment called Paradise and unbelievers in another compartment which seems to be a most unpleasant place, and is perhaps a taste of what hell will be like. 

But now taking the first question, what message did Jesus preach? Theologians seem divided on this and some have concluded that He made an announcement to a group of either demons or humans from the time of the flood. But what would be the point of an “announcement”? God will provide that soon enough on Judgement Day. Another suggestion is that Jesus preached in the spirit through Noah at the time of the flood, but they rejected His message. Yet another possibility is that Jesus preached the Gospel to a generation, now represented by their spirits, that otherwise could rightly complain that they were short-changed and unfairly treated. But literally, Peter wrote that there were people who were disobedient to God during the time leading up to their drowning in the flood and Jesus preached a message to them.

While on earth, Jesus devoted His teaching to the message of salvation through repentance of sins. The mechanics of how that message would apply to the spirits of dead people is a mystery, but there is no other logical explanation. The fact that His audience were imprisoned indicates that they were in a place that wasn’t the Paradise promised to the penitent thief. C S Lewis wrote a book called The Great Divorce which fictionally described a spiritual holding place, “hell”, from which the spirits, or “ghosts”, were given the opportunity to travel to Heaven, where salvation became an option for them. But it was of course fictional without any Scriptural basis.

We don’t know anything more about Jesus preaching to spirits in Hades, so we must draw our own conclusions. But we do know about the preaching Jesus did while He was here with us on Planet Earth. Faithful disciples recorded His many messages, often illustrated in a way that everyday people in His generation could understand. And Jesus underpinned His messages with practical deeds, such as healing the sick or raising the dead. As far as we aware, there is no post-death opportunity to hear the Gospel message in the world of spirits. If there was, what was the point of Jesus delegating the preaching of His Word to His followers? And people would become even more complacent than they are. Acts 1:8 reads, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth””. We pilgrims are at the sharp end of spreading God’s grace and love to those around us. The Holy Spirit will bring conviction of sin and repentance. So we must be ready and willing to share all that God has done for us.

Dear Father God. Please bring us to people who don’t know You. Please prepare the ground we pray and give us just the right words to say. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.