We are Offspring Of
John 8:31-36 ESV
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
We can believe in Jesus with human faith, but if we don’t
believe in him with God-given and divinely persuaded faith in Jesus Christ,
then we don’t have believing faith. We may have a human acknowledgment of who Jesus
is and of what he did for us, but it takes God persuading us to believe in
Jesus for us to have genuine faith, the kind which saves us from our sins.
So, even though this says that they believed him, it is
clear by this discourse that they did not have genuine believing faith in Jesus
Christ. For, they were relying on the fact that they were physical descendants
of Abraham to be acceptable to God, but physical heritage is not what saves us.
So, Jesus explained to them what it means to have salvation
from sin. We must abide (continue in, remain in, keep) his word, for if we don’t,
we won’t have eternal life with God (see John 15). We must also recognize that
we are slaves to sin and that we need to be set free from our slavery.
We must also believe what the word of God says about sin. If
we make sin our practice, our habit, willfully, deliberately, and
premeditatedly, we are still enslaved to sin, and thus we don’t have eternal
life with God. But we aren’t free by a mere confession of Christ as Savior, but
by us dying with Christ to sin and living to him and to his righteousness, in
his power.
Doing the Works of Your father
John 8:37-41 ESV
“I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
Genuine faith in Jesus Christ is not evidenced by what we
profess with our lips, but by what we do in submission to Christ as Lord and in
obedience to his commands. And, again, we aren’t Christians just because our
parents claimed to be Christians or because we grew up going to church
gatherings.
If we genuinely believe in Jesus Christ, it will be
evidenced by what we do, not by what we say with our lips alone. So, if we profess
faith in Jesus Christ, but what we do, as a matter of practice, is in direct
contradiction to what his word commands, then that speaks evidence against our
claims.
If we do not abide in Christ and in his word, and we feel we
don’t have to, but we just go about our daily routine doing whatever we want to
do, then we don’t have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, for we are not following
him with our lives, but we are following our own flesh and the devil.
If Jesus is truly our Lord (owner-master), then we should be
doing the works he prepared in advance that we should walk in them. We should
be doing the kinds of things that he did, and we should be speaking the same
messages he spoke with regard to salvation and eternal life with God.
You Would Love Me
John 8:42-47 ESV
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
If we claim to have faith in Jesus Christ but we balk at the
idea of following him with wholehearted devotion, and at the notion of obeying
his word, and if we feel that we don’t have to repent of our sins, but that we
can continue living in deliberate sin against God, God is not our Father. The
devil is!
For, if God is our Father, and Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior,
then we are going to do what they tell us to do, and willingly. For, that is
love for God to obey his commands. But if we do not love the Word of God, and
if we are not obeying the word of God, then we don’t love God.
The Scriptures teach that we are either following the Lord
Jesus or we are following the devil. Either sin is our practice or
righteousness is our practice. They do not teach that we must never sin again,
but that if we make sin our practice that we will die in our sins. We will not
have eternal life.
We can’t be saved from our sins, and have God as our Father,
and Jesus as our Lord, and heaven as our eternal destiny, and then still live
like the world, doing what we want to do, living in deliberate sin against God,
as a matter of practice. This is taught all throughout the New Testament.
If we think we can live like that and still go to heaven
when we die then we are being lied to and we are believing the lies. And if we
are teaching that we can live however we want and still believe in Jesus and go
to heaven, then we are telling lies to other people and we are sending them to
hell.
You cannot ignore the teachings of Scripture (the whole
counsel of God) and live like you want and be of God. It doesn’t matter what
you profess with your lips, for lip service will not save you. Your faith is
evidenced by what you do in obedience to your Lord, not by what you profess.
So, don’t believe the lies which tell you that you can
believe in God and have heaven guaranteed you but that you can still live for
yourself and that you don’t really have to give Jesus the time of day. It doesn’t
work that way. Don’t believe liars and deceivers, but believe God’s word, for
it is the truth which will set you free. The lies will keep you in bondage with
no hope.
For
Our Nation
An
Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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