I don’t want Him to have to believe in me! I am glad that He knows up front that I am not to be trusted, and that I am a sinner, and that even all of my righteousness is selfishly and sinfully motivated. I need a savior who does not require my faithfulness and trustworthiness. I need a savior who sees me exactly how I really am at my worst and still offers Himself as the Lamb who takes away my sin.
People are proud of their idealism. They believe that their high standards and their perfectionism are a sign of integrity and success. Actually our ideals are weapons that will ultimately turn on us and kill us. What we need is a rescue and an escape from our ideals. We need to be seen and loved and accepted and forgiven as we really are, and we need a way to love others the same way. This is exactly what the gospel offers us!
He has fullness. There is a completion, an abundance, a sufficiency in His glory. In verse 14 John says that the Word made flesh is full of grace and truth. This fullness, this grace and truth, is something we have received. It isn’t distant and theoretical and ephemeral; no one has seen God, but we have received of the fullness of His grace and truth in Jesus Christ. His fullness of grace and truth is something which can be apprehended by people.
John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” Testified. Once again, John’s chief role as a testifying witness is highlighted. God presents His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and we are in […]
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word became flesh. Since we know the story, it is easy to become numb to the shock of this verse. it is all very […]
Our faith does not depend upon our love for God, but upon the real-world demonstration through the cross of His love for us. Mere belief in this knowledge is our entrance into the world of perfect love, where God’s love outlasts, outshines, and outlives our imperfections. It is His love for us which is the […]
If you live and breathe and think and exist in an environment where you believe in the power of Christ’s blood shed for sinners, you have escaped the two-dimensional prison. You really have come to believe, not simply that you alone are forgiven, but that there is a possibility of real lasting definitive forgiveness at all. You believe in substitutionary atonement.
Here is some counsel I gave someone who is a true and beautiful believer but who is having trouble, perhaps because of some bad teaching in their past, accepting that their faith in Christ is true: When Jesus died and said “it is finished”, it was finished. It is not dependent on some change in […]
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. who were born. This is the Greek word “gennao”, which means “to procreate”. Those who received Him are given the right to become (“ginomai”) children. this procreative becoming is a birth, a second […]
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, As many as received Him. There is no constraint specified as to who received Him. This doesn’t mean just Jews: “as many as” means, anyone who received Him. So, […]