The Cross Of Understanding

Posted on by korgrocker

“But they still didn’t understand that he was talking about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I Am he. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” Then many who heard him say these things believed in him.”
John 8:27-30 NLT

The crowd of people were still hanging around Jesus, listening to what He was saying. In modern times, if someone was talking about Himself as Jesus was, there would probably not have been a crowd. As soon as something religious or spiritual is mentioned today, people move away and carry on with their business. But the crowd around Jesus were staying the course, probably thinking that this Man had something they needed to hear, or hoping that He had a miracle waiting in the wings that they would then observe. They found that the teaching they were hearing was nothing like anything they had heard before, and to trump it all, this Man claimed to be the Son of God Himself. Jesus made the claim that His Father was God Himself, and all His teachings had come from His Father. Jesus then told them that His Father was there right with Him and what He did was pleasing to God. We then read that many of those in the crowd believed in Him.

But what did they make of what Jesus said about the Cross? The people of His day would have known about the cruel way in which capital punishment was dispensed by the Roman occupiers, so Jesus was prophesying about the death He would encounter in just a year of two. Such an announcement would have had an impact on the people, particularly as Jesus said it would bring understanding and confirm His claims about Himself. Previously. Jesus had told Nicodemus much the same thing, as we read in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life”. 

John wrote that many people believed in Him, but I wonder how many of these same people were still believing in Jesus when He was crucified. Before Pilate, were they there in the crowd calling out for Jesus to be crucified? Or were they standing to one side, grieving deeply about what was happening? I’m sure there were some in both groups. I suppose we could ask ourselves which group we would have been in, if we bothered to be there at all. But such a question is purely academic because it was the sins of mankind that nailed Jesus to that Cross, not the crowds in the street. If there was no sin, then there wouldn’t have been a need for God to send His Son to die in that way. A sobering thought? But aren’t we glad that God had a plan for the salvation of sinners like us? What love and grace!

Dear God. We thank You for Your plan for the salvation of mankind. In fact, we will never stop expressing our gratitude, and love, for the One who died in our place at Calvary. Amen.

Adultery (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.””
John 8:1-11 NLT

Imagine the scene. The crowd of people around Jesus moved back to allow a group of religious leaders – we don’t know how many – to enter the space in front of Jesus and publicly display a woman who they accused of being “caught in the act of adultery”. Hands full of stones, they dragged the poor woman into Jesus’ presence, right while He was teaching the crowd. They were trying to trap Jesus and draw Him into their legalistic and unloving world, a world where laws and rules were the only arbiter of human behaviour. A world where more and more rules were invented to attempt to cover all eventualities. We pilgrims can only look on through the lens of time and feel sorry for the woman. The public humiliation. The fear gripping her heart. Surrounded by cruel and brutal men. Knowing that she had committed a forbidden act. No opportunity to present a mitigating defence. No mercy available.

The religious leaders demanded an answer from Jesus, but He was doodling something in the dust on the Temple floor. They were persistent, probably thinking we’ve got Him now, but Jesus stood up and, in a few words, put His finger on the real issue. He acknowledged what was written in the Law, but He then went on to expose the leaders’ hypocrisy. How many of them had been involved in a similar situation to the adulterous man, conspicuous by his absence from the scene? How many of them had sins committed in the past that were still hanging heavily on their consciences? Jesus said, “let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone“. Perhaps the religious leaders realised that they too deserved punishment for the sins that they had committed.

We read about what happened next. Jesus had returned to doodling in the dust. The crowd was quiet, mesmerised by the scene before them. Those at the back straining to see what was going on. Perhaps in the quiet the woman’s sobbing would have been heard by all. But then a series of thuds were heard, the sounds made by rocks being dropped on to the Temple floor. Footsteps then shuffled off into the distance. Jesus looked up and saw that only the woman remained. Her accusers, those brutal and harsh leaders, had disappeared. “Where have your accusers gone”, Jesus asked the woman. “Are there any left who condemn you?” What follows shows the incredible love that Jesus had, and still has, for sinners. He showed His love to the woman by the word “Go”, and then told her to stop sinning. She was free to return to wherever she had come from. I wonder what was going on inside of her? Relief must have flooded over her. The tears that had previously been running down her face started to dry. The crowd parted to let her go about her business.

We pilgrims know that God loves sinners but hates the sin, and He provides the opportunity for everyone to be reconciled to Him by believing in His Son, Jesus. Jesus refused to condemn the woman, instead giving her an opportunity to embrace His grace and love.But do we pilgrims sometimes look on at another sinner and adopt a holier-than-though attitude? Do we forget that we too are sinners? It is no good thinking that our sins are not as bad as someone else’s. Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, ”For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard“. But with grateful hearts we echo what Paul wrote next, “Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins” (Romans 3:24). Thanks to Jesus, we can stand before God with confidence that He died for us in our place, as a punishment for our sins.

Father God. On our knees in worship before You we express our gratitude for Your grace and mercy. Amen.

Jesus, the Sent One

Posted on by korgrocker

“While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.” Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.”
John 7:28-30 NLT

Jesus didn’t just appear in this world as part of the normal reproduction of human beings. He was born in humble circumstances as a male baby, the first-born of a Jewish peasant girl. He went through all the stages of growing up as a boy did in those days. However, when He reached the age of twelve, He knew His mission in life. He stayed behind in the Temple one Passover and His parents found Him there. We read in Luke 2:49, ““But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”” A reminder perhaps to His parents of that fateful day when Mary had a visit from an angel. We read in Luke 1:35, “The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God”. Jesus was born as a baby with Mary’s and God’s DNA. He was both human and divine. 

So, Jesus informed the crowd around Him at the Temple that, although they knew most of His humble origins, He had in fact been sent by His Father in Heaven. This statement of truth, however, was lost on the religious leaders who instead wanted to eliminate Him. After all, they couldn’t have someone claiming to be God’s Son around them, because if they believed Him, the consequence would be that there would be a tremendous upheaval to the political and religious life in Israel. We then have the intriguing statement that the leaders “tried to arrest Him”, but failed. The problem to them was that they were afraid of the crowd around Jesus – any attempt to arrest Him might cause unrest and threaten their authority. They needed to get Him on His own somewhere so that they could carry out their dark deeds. But there is perhaps a hint that Jesus’ Father in Heaven might have sent a few angels to protect Him, because John wrote, “His time had not yet come”. There would come a day when Jesus would be arrested but this wasn’t that time.

Jesus had been sent from God. It wasn’t a sudden appearance – that would happen at His Second Coming – but the first time round, Jesus had to come as a human being because in that way He would act as the bridge between God and mankind. We have a sinless, human and divine Saviour, who in spite of all the opposition, left us with a timeless message of love and hope, a message finally coming to fruition on a cross at Calvary. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for coming to this world in the way You did. Through Your sacrifice at Calvary we now have a way back to God, forgiven of our sins. Amen.

Stop Sinning

Posted on by korgrocker

“But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.”
John 5:14-15 NLT

The man healed by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda had been pulled up by the Jewish leaders for carrying his sleeping mat on the Sabbath. They accused the man for working on the Sabbath, exposing their nit-picking approach to religious life. But they sensed an opportunity to extend the focus of their policing, by asking for the name of the person who had told the man to carry his mat. Perhaps, they thought, there was an imposter interpreting the Jewish law incorrectly. But they were too late because Jesus had disappeared into the crowds.

But we read next in John’s account that Jesus found the man who had been healed in the Temple. Did he still have his sleeping mat with him? Was he there to praise and thank God for his healing? Or was he making his way home and found himself in the Temple because he had been caught up with the crowds? But whatever the reason for him being there, Jesus found him, “and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” An interesting statement, loaded with meaning, and one which was just as spiritually life changing as the physical healing had been. I suppose an obvious question we can ask is if the man’s thirty eight years of disability was due to some sort of sin in his life. The implication is there that it was. The psychiatrists and medics today have apparently made a connection between a mental state and a physical ailment. There are also some who may draw the conclusion that the man at the Pool had been punished by God for his sin. But Jesus wasn’t interested in the reason for the man’s paralysis – that was history. He was now concerned about the man’s future.

Regarding sin, we are all expected to follow repentance and forgiveness by a change in lifestyle or behaviour. So, for example, if a man repents of his addiction to pornography, he is subsequently expected to turn his back on the magazines and internet sources of the material. Repentance, God’s forgiveness, must be followed by a change in behaviour. Of course, we will stumble and fall again, but our heart-felt desire is to change and be set free from the sin that has entangled us in its web. Thankfully, God is gracious and merciful, and quick to forgive a repentant sinner.

We don’t hear any more about the man at the Pool. But I’m sure that after his healing encounter with Jesus he would have turned his life around. What else could he do? And for us pilgrims, we too have had an encounter with Jesus. We have turned our backs on sin and sinful lives, choosing instead to follow the Master for the rest of our lives.

Dear Lord Jesus. As the old hymn says, “I have decided to follow Jesus, … no turning back, no turning back”. We sing that song again and again, Lord, each and every day. Amen.

The Second Sign

Posted on by korgrocker

“This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea. Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.”
John 4:54-5:1 NLT

A miracle happened when Jesus turned water into wine, and here John records that the healing of the government official’s son was the second that had taken place in Galilee. Both events were, as John wrote, miraculous occasions, inexplicable to anyone taking them at face value, but there will always be someone who attempts to explain them away by attributing to them some natural cause. Perhaps, such people say, the healing of the official’s son was a coincidence. The boy might have been very sick when his father decided to journey to find Jesus, but in the meantime he became well through the normal course of an illness, in which some people get better and others died. Perhaps the water turned into wine was some form of hoax perpetrated by the bridegroom or someone else at the wedding reception. We will always be able to find the sceptics and deniers, people who don’t want to believe what they see or hear, because to do so would result in them having to abandon their world view and take on board something that will change and even transform their lives. These people are very comfortable with their sinful lives, for now.

Jesus said, as recorded in John 4:48, “ … Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” What was there about the Galileans that seemed to indicate that they didn’t believe Jesus’ message on its own? Was Jesus a bit exasperated that His words of eternal life were rejected until He reinforced them with a miracle or two? After all, He had a tremendous reception in Sychar, and the people there believed what He said, not what He did. John 4:42, “Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Saviour of the world.“”

The people in Jesus’ day had the benefit of the Son of God living with them. He walked amongst the Jewish people spreading His message of hope about the Kingdom of God. He preached in their synagogues, He taught in the fields and educated His disciples as they journeyed from one place to another. And yet, most people He met had a problem believing what He said. But before we condemn them, we need to walk in their shoes. If someone came to our societies today, even Jesus Himself, preaching the message that Jesus preached, what reception would they get? It would be even more difficult today, because the spirit of the age promotes any message, any ideology, that feels good. Anything that satisfies the sinful yearnings within human beings. So people today will reject any message that confronts their sin, even if their rejection of it comes with a warning that hell beckons, just over the horizons of their lives. There is a man who lives close by who I shared the Gospel with, and his response was that he would be taking part in the “big party downstairs”. Not for him a life with God in Heaven. Such a response staggered me, because its intensity in its rejection of the love of God was basically a self-imposed death sentence.

Do miracles happen today? There are many that have been documented, but still most people choose to reject the Gospel. They reject even the resurrection of the Man who was cruelly put to death on a Roman cross, perhaps the biggest miracle that this world has ever seen. But miracles or not, there is only one way to Heaven and that is through repentance and believing in Jesus. Our Heavenly Father loved the people He created so much that He was prepared to sacrifice His only Son to save them from the consequences of their sins. The people of Galilee had a choice, and that same choice is still hanging in the air, for now. It won’t be there for ever, because one day we will die and the option of believing in Jesus will die with us. We pilgrims have an opportunity to tell others about the wonderful future people can have, both in this life and beyond. And every time someone we tell about Jesus decides to believe in Him, they hold a party in Heaven. There is nothing more important in this life than the Good News brought to this world by the Son of God.

Dear Father God. All we can do is to worship You, with grateful hearts. Amen.

Light and Dark

Posted on by korgrocker

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
John 3:18-21 NLT

It is a fundamental physical fact that all earth dwellers experience light and dark. So when the sun rises it brings light with it, and when it sets darkness ensues. Biological functions such as photosynthesis rely on it. God created light as we read in Genesis 1. But this natural phenomenon is not what Jesus was referring to. He was telling Nicodemus about spiritual light and dark. God’s light, Jesus, came into this world as a once only event bringing an opportunity for the salvation of mankind. The Word illuminated the sinful ways of mankind, and we read in Hebrews 4:12-13, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable”. We associate the “word of God” with the Bible, Holy Scriptures, but we mustn’t forget the opening verse in John 1, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God”. 

But sin brought evil into the world, a darkness that has prevailed ever since the days of Adam. There is something attractive about sin, and Jesus very perceptively pointed out to Nicodemus that people prefer to walk in spiritual darkness for one simple reason – if they go anywhere near the light of God then their sins will be exposed. A person thinks that their thoughts, and deeds done in private, are safe from scrutiny, but God sees all. But people are generally in denial, deluding themselves that what they do and think is just for them.

We pilgrims saw the Light of the world and brought ourselves into God’s presence. We exposed all our sins before His cross in repentance and received forgiveness. But there are many people who know all about the Light and refuse to go into His presence because they prefer to continue with their sinful lives. Around us in the work places, the schools or colleges, the leisure and amusement facilities, we see the outworking of sin. People’s behaviour exposes the darkness within them, and last thing they want to do is change so that they can live in the light.

A believer doing right in an evil world finds themselves in a difficult and lonely place. Shunned by evil-doers. Denied promotions in the workplace. Persecuted for their faith in God. But God is pleased with such people because “they are doing what God wants”. I think we all would prefer God’s approval rather than follow the crowd, as they stumble through the darkness.

Dear Lord Jesus. You said that You are the Light of the world. Please help us to reflect Your light to the people around us. In Your precious name. Amen.

The Lamb of God

Posted on by korgrocker

”The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ I did not recognise him as the Messiah, but I have been baptising with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”“
John 1:29-31 NLT

The sacrifice of lambs was an important part of Jewish religious life. We can perhaps remember the story in Exodus of the Passover, where a lamb was killed and its blood wiped over the door posts of the Israelites’ dwellings. The application of blood indicated to the angel of death that he was to “pass over” all those living inside. Also, lambs were offered as sacrifices in the Temple, morning and evening, as part of the offerings for the sins of the people. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the Jewish system of offerings all pointed to the coming Messiah, and the people hearing John’s message would have been familiar with the Passover celebrations and the whole purpose of the sacrificial lambs. The prophecy in Isaiah 53:6-7 clearly made the connection between the sacrifice for sin and the role in that played by the Messiah. “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.”

Today we pilgrims don’t depend on the slaughter of animals for the forgiveness of our sins. The “Lamb of God”, Jesus Himself, became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. It is only through Him that we can receive redemption. Isaiah wrote, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own“. Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). One of the constants we meet in life is sin, a spiritual disease endemic in every human being. But through Jesus we can be released from the consequences of that sin, and be able to stand before God clothed in the righteousness of the Messiah. So today, and every day, we turn to the “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.  There is no other way into God’s presence. Jesus made a profound statement, eternal in its reach and consequences. It is timeless and irrefutable. He said in John 14:6, “ …I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me“. We pilgrims burrow our way into the implications of this verse, as we journey towards our goal. The gateway to the narrow path that leads to eternal life starts at the Cross of God’s Lamb, Jesus.

Dear Father God. Who ever heard of a god who became a human being! But Jesus did and we are eternally grateful. Amen.

Grace Upon Grace

Posted on by korgrocker

“From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”
John 1:16 NLT
“For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favour upon favour, and gift heaped upon gift].”
John 1:16 AMP

We can’t get past the word “grace” in our Christian lives. The reality that Christ took on Himself the consequences of our sin, dying on a Roman cross, so that we could stand before God clothed in Christ’s righteousness, is grace beyond anything we could expect, or even deserve. A reality that can only drive us to our knees in grateful thanks, in worship of God’s Son Himself. The acronym for grace – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense – is well known but it is underpinned by today’s verse from John 1. There is no limit to God’s grace. 

A church leader I used to know was a great public evangelist, and one of his methods of gaining attention to the Gospel message was to try and hand out a bank note to a stranger in the shopping mall, emulating in a small way God’s grace. Many rushed on by, too busy or too uninterested, to stop and take the gift. Such are those who reject God’s offer of salvation, eyes blinded by the world and its sinful pleasures. They fail to see that the best offer they will ever receive in this life, worth far more than any of the world’s riches, has passed them by. For all those who have turned their backs on God, rejecting His free offer of salvation, spurning that “grace upon grace”, there is an awful alternative. Jesus said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The alternative to accepting God’s graciousness is eternity spent in a place, as Jesus described it, “where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:48). 

For those who accept God’s offer of salvation will truly discover “spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing“, as they journey towards their goal of eternal life spent with God. To send His Son to live and die with human beings was the ultimate act of grace. 

Dear Father God. On our knees we thank You for Jesus and His willingness to die so that we might have life. Such grace! Amen.

Look

Posted on by korgrocker

“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
John 1:10-11 NLT

John wrote that the people in the world failed to recognise their Creator. And even the Jews, God’s own chosen race, failed to recognise Him. Worse, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah, even though they had been expecting Him. And to this day, people fail to realise that the Messiah and the Creator visited this world 2000 years ago, a problem that is endemic. There were as many as 400 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament so how did the Jews miss Him? Specific prophecies such as in Isaiah 7:14, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” But the key word in Isaiah’s prophecy was “look“. The Jews had developed in their minds a picture of a different Messiah, selectively taking prophecies to suit their own expectations, particularly regarding the hated Roman occupation. They desired a Messiah who would come as a Man of war, not a baby in a manger. Not all Jews thought this way, though. There was Simeon, who was waiting for the Messiah. “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25).‭‭‭ Further on we read, “Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:28-30). There was also a prophetess called Anna. “Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. …  She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36a, 38). ‭‭

But back to that keyword, “look”. Isn’t it strange that when we look at something we find that our interpretation of the scenario before us is tailored by our thoughts and desires? We read Bible verses and try and extract a meaning from them to perhaps justify a sin, particular when the misdemeanour isn’t specifically mentioned. Or we look at a person, a politician or a pastor perhaps, and expect more from them than they can provide. And we try and get someone to follow a course of action to suit our world view rather then provide a remedy for the good of all. Isaiah said that the people had to “look” for their Messiah, implying that they must see what God was doing, not what they wanted Him to do. The people who heard Anna excitedly talk about the Messiah Child, were waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. God’s plan was salvation for the world. The Jerusalem Jews were expecting a political solution.

So how do we come to recognise our Creator and Messiah? There is rarely a day when I don’t thank God for His creation. In my morning rambles around the West of Fife in Scotland, there is always some wonder that catches my eye. The colours of the Autumn leaves. The birdsong echoing through the trees. The flowers bursting forth time and again each Spring. The deer crossing my path. I look up on a clear night and see a myriad of stars. There seems no limit to what God has done. And yet there are those who fail to appreciate God’s creation. There was a day recently when I stopped by a tree that stood out because of its vivid red Autumn leaves. I pointed out the beauty to a passer-by, but he was unimpressed and continued on his way. People fail to “look” for God and miss seeing their Creator in the natural world around them.

The Messiah came and was rejected by His people. But one day they will recognise Him. We read in Zechariah 12:10, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died“. They will “look” at last and will find Him.

We pilgrims have a personal relationship with Jesus, the Messiah, though. We have, as Simeon, seen His salvation. Simeon saw what was to come. We experience at first hand the saving grace of God. And we praise Him, and continue to praise Him, this day and forever, for all he has done for us and the rest of mankind, if only they would “look”.

Dear Father God. As we share Your messages with those around us I pray that You open their eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Returning To Sin

Posted on by korgrocker

“And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.””
2 Peter 2:20-22 NLT

This is a tragedy. I know people who once came to experience God’s saving grace through Jesus, who travelled for a while in His presence, but who then rejected Him and returned to their old sinful ways. Some of these people are personal friends and who are now in a spiritual desert, cynical, disillusioned and in denial. Often it is not God they have rejected, but the church, a fellowship of believers, who has turned them away. There may have been a misunderstanding, or a situation that was clumsily dealt with. But it may have been nothing to do with the church of which they were a part. Perhaps they started the journey but found the going too tough for them. Perhaps sin was so entrenched in their lives that they found themselves unable to rely on God and His love and grace. But in the end, they turned their back on the One who was their Saviour and Lord. 

Why is it that some people, who have received a glimpse of God and His Kingdom, who have even experienced God’s healing love and grace, then turn their back on Him? There was the case in Palestine of people who believed in Jesus but succumbed to peer pressure. John 12:42-43, “Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn’t admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God“. In the parable of the soils, there was the case of the good seed that quickly grew up but didn’t last for long. Matthew 13:5-6, “Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died“. In both cases, worldly pressure and the pleasures of sin created an environment where following Jesus was too big an ask for them. Their lives were dominated by short term considerations rather than the prospect of eternal life after they die.

After Jesus fed the five thousand, He went on to teach about Him being the Bread of life. We read the account in John 6. He said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh” (John 6:51). He went on to say, “But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day” (John 6:54). ‭Hard teaching indeed for a people who recoiled in disgust at anything that superficially looked like cannibalism. But the outcome was, “Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”  … At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him” (John 6:60, 66). There are some Christians who started their pilgrimage only to find some Biblical teaching that they couldn’t accept. A lady I know has a son who is a homosexual, and she was unable to accept what the Bible says about such a lifestyle choice. Even after much counselling infused with God’s love and grace, she finally decided that God and His ways were not for her. 

The writer to the Hebrews said this, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6). Hard words that surely must penetrate through the façade of those who have rejected Jesus. 

There are some people in my community who have known God in the past, but have rejected Him. People who think they are good people (and they are of course by the world’s standards) but are unable to once again turn to God. Of course, “It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance” by my own efforts. But God will never give up on His children. His Spirit will always be there, drawing them towards the One who has the words of eternal life. Sadly, Peter had to write, “It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life“. But we pilgrims pray for those we know who now live in a life away from the One they once knew. God’s grace in without limit, even for them.

Dear Father God. What else can we do other than kneel at Your feet with grateful hearts? Amen.