There is NO other way to eternal life except through JESUS CHRIST!!!
11/28/2017
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You search and keep on searching and examining the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and yet it is those [very Scriptures] that testify about Me; and still you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. John 5:39-40
{1}Today’s passage shows us the more
things change, the more they stay the same. The verses come from a discourse
Jesus offers after the Jews plot to kill Him for breaking the Sabbath and for
claiming to be the Son of God. He tells them flat out that while they think
they can find their salvation through the scriptures, they are wrong.
The religious conservatives of the
day knew the scriptures inside and out. They knew the predictions about the
Messiah and yet when He stood before them, they didn’t think He matched their scriptural
understanding. They didn’t expect Him to do things like violate Jewish law, or
proclaim Samaritans and Roman pagans had greater faith than they did, or
interrupt the righteous stoning of a woman caught in adultery. This was not the
kind of Messiah they anticipated. They wanted the thing they did expect; a
triumphant king who would kick the Romans out of Jerusalem and be a good and
faithful Jew like David. The hyper-religious authorities were so outraged by
the Jesus who stood in front of them they decided He had to go. He had to die.
The reason the Gospel accounts are
important is not merely that they tell us what happened during the days Jesus
walked the earth. They are also important because they show us these things are
still happening today. Hyper-religious Christians scour the Bible to sculpt a
Messiah which fits their own ideas of justice, despite the Jesus who sits
before them in stories of outrageous, inclusive, love. They proclaim that an
inclusive Jesus is fiction, and the real Jesus has eyes of fire and wields a
sword of righteous damnation. And like the Jews who demanded the life of
Christ, they demand eternal life can only be found through the scriptures and
all its accompanying law. Like them, they do not want to come to Jesus to have
life. They want to come to the image of Jesus they construct from a subset of scriptural
passages. The image that matches their view of what He should look and act
like.
If Jesus were to walk around with us today, He would undoubtedly be killed again for not matching that image. Like the Jews described in the John 5 passage, too many of us are not willing to look to the radical nature of love as the source for eternal life.
If Jesus were to walk around with us today, He would undoubtedly be killed again for not matching that image. Like the Jews described in the John 5 passage, too many of us are not willing to look to the radical nature of love as the source for eternal life.
Jesus
tells us that NO ONE comes to the Father except through HIM.
Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6
We
also find in scripture a most accurate description of the modern day
Hyper-religious that Jesus describe in detail about the hyper-religious of His
day. He also warns that you should not follow them. Instead look to Him because
He alone should be our example.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work]. Hebrews 12:1-2
Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’ “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.Frauds!
“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your livesare roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.“You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons? “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something. “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count. “Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’”
Jesus
came down hard and heavy on those hyper-religious men who continually put the
people of God in chains of bondage through the law, instead of SETTING them
FREE from BONDAGE through the GOOD NEWS of the Word of God.
It
is my soul desire to never weigh anyone down with the laws that have been
perverted by man. It is my soul desire to point you to the JESUS of the Word of
God that will bring you PEACE, LOVE and FREEDOM through the TRUTH of the WORD
OF GOD. Remember, JESUS came to set the captives FREE, save the world and NOT
CONDEMN the WORLD.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me
(the Messiah), Because He has anointed Me to preach the good
news to the poor. He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives,
And recovery of
sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy),
to proclaim the
favorable year of the Lord [the day when
salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].” Luke
4:18-19
“For
God so [greatly] loved
and dearly prized the world,
that He [even] gave
His [One and] only
begotten Son, so that whoever believes and
trusts in Him [as Savior] shall
not perish, but have eternal life.
For
God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world
[that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but
that the world might be saved through Him.
Whoever
believes and has decided to
trust in Him [as personal Savior
and Lord] is not judged
[for this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation]; but
the one who does not believe
[and has decided to reject Him as personal Savior and Lord] is
judged already [that one has been
convicted and sentenced], because
he has not believed and trusted
in the name of the [One and] only
begotten Son of God [the One who is truly
unique, the only One of His kind, the One who alone can save him]. John
3:16-18
So Jesus was saying to the Jews who
had believed Him, “If you abide in My
word [continually obeying My teachings
and living in accordance with them, then] you
are truly My disciples.
And you will
know the truth [regarding salvation],
and the truth will set you free
[from the penalty of sin].” John
8:31-32
So from the these three scriptures alone we can see that JESUS is the Messiah who was anointed by GOD to preach the GOOD NEWS and that NO ONE can come to the FATHER in HEAVEN except through HIM. It is JESUS who ANOINTS those who God has Ordained to Preach the GOOD NEWS of the GOSPEL.
Lord I pray that everyday of my life I will be willing to listen to YOU and NOT mankind who only wish to see me fail You. Let my life glorify You Lord so others may see You in Me and want to come to know You as their personal Lord and Savior. Amen.
Blessings and Peace be upon all so they may read and understand the truth,
{1} Day
3 page 15 about what the Bible is found in Where True Love Is written by Suzaane DeWitt Hall
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