My Father's Will (John 6:28-40)
Posted by:
SeLahGirl on
April 2, 2008 at
1:02PM EST
My Father's Will
(John 6:28-40)
28Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
God doesn't mind when we ask him sincere questions. Often times people
distort the Truth that we should not question God, and they use it to
manipulate people to obey something other than God. Often times when we
ask such questions from teachers or pastors or leaders they direct the
answer toward something they want us to do that they feel we should do
rather than toward Christ. It is a fine line. I am convinced that some
people don't even realize the error of such teaching, but others see
only their own will and nothing else. Such people are the blind guides
mentioned in Scripture by the Lord.
Instead, we should be
bold in our freedom to ask anything about God, to talk to him as though
he were that perfect parent or Father. As a mother, I have always
stressed communication to my children and encouraged them to ask me
anything as long as it is in sincerity and with a Godly measure of
respect. Our heavenly Father is a far better parent than we are as
earthly parents and a flawed humanity. We should not fear to ask him
anything if we ask with a pure heart. He encourages us to ask such
things in his word. Remember "Ask.. Seek... Knock...?" And he promises
to answer every time. Our Dad truly is the greatest.
So...
what must we do to be saved... believe Jesus, all that he did, all that
he said, and all that he is. Remembering that that belief, that faith,
goes far beyond just a confession. The words must be said and welcomed
and embraced and cherished and owned.
30So they asked
him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and
believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the
desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"
"Seeing is believing." But not in matters of Faith. Faith is believing
without having to see, believing simply based on the integrity and the
character of the person who has testified to you... as they delivered
the news... good or bad. Do we trust him? Would we stake our life and
the lives of those we love on what he claims is Truth? Are we willing
to give up our right to everything we have a right to if he says it is
necessary? That's Faith. That's believing... Not merely saying, "I
believe." People make that statement every day, that confession of
faith, but they have not truly calculated the cost of the house. They
have not invested themselves fully to the mission -- to the call -- to
the God that sent the news/message.
The people were used to
signs and wonders as proof. They did not realize that God was doing
something new, that a new covenant was being fashioned. They did not
realize that there would be no more ritual sacrifice, that the
fulfillment of all had come, and the burden of postponing judgment for
our sins was about to end. The final price was about to be paid, and
everything would change... they were still looking to the past, to the
old, instead of where their feet stood in that moment and forward into
the future. All that God had promised was coming. It was at hand. God
had returned to them in the flesh, he was with them again, Jesus had
come to the earth.
32Jesus said to them, "I tell you
the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but
it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the
bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world."
Jesus tried to explain to them that the old
covenant, all things past, were given by God to point them to this
moment. He tried to help them understand that the manna that Moses gave
was simply sustenance until they could comprehend that it is Jesus
Christ who gave them life and sustains them even to this day. The manna
is not the giver of life. Moses is not the giver of life. God is the
giver of life, and the work of Jesus becoming flesh is the
manifestation of LIFE. The manna coming from heaven to the earth was
simply a reminder of the promise of God since the fall of man... one
day God would come from heaven and restore life to each of us... the
death we partook of as we ate of rebellion would be washed from our
bodies and our being by the only thing that could cleanse such a stain.
The blood of God.
Death could only be stayed if a price was
paid to bind it and cast it into the lake of fire for eternity... to
remove it from existence... to make it no more. Something had to die.
That was the price. Not a man or a woman or a child because death
already owned all of us. It had to be something that he didn't have a
right to, something he didn't own, something precious... innocence made
flesh.
There was none innocent. There was none who could
become flesh. There was no one who could represent. No one among our
ranks who was worthy and without guilt, without sin. And so Jesus came
to earth and became one of us. The beauty of God confined and contained
in a body of dust and clay. The miracle that is the incarnation. Clean
and without spot, yet a man, possessing the right to have dominion over
all that is in the earth.
Oh how he must love us!
And so he laid himself on the altar as the only thing that could do
away with death once and for all... the only one who owned the one
thing that could clean the stain of sin and break the chains that bound
us to it... he offered himself like a gentle lamb, willingly, without a
fight, in his perfection as God and his innocence as the second Adam...
and the blood of God was poured upon our heads washing down into the
lowest places of our being and the darkest places of our hearts --
and sin and death were no more...
for all who would believe.
34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."
35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will
never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But
as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All
that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I
will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my
will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of
him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me,
but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that
everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
How great is our God...
Oh how I love him <3
