How Can You Believe?
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John 3:12 The Context: Nicodemus, a Pharisee, one of the religious rulers of the Jews had come to Jesus in the dark of night and was questioning Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of God. Jesus reminded Nicodemus of the things He had been teaching the crowds about God’s desires for His people the Jews. There had been plain statements about the obvious hypocrisy of the Jews but the Pharisees (evidently including Nicodemus) refused to believe what Jesus was saying. That unbelief carried over into the spiritual realm and blinded Nicodemus to the things that Jesus was trying to tell him.
God Asks Us: If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
jne: The real question is not what I believe but Who I believe. Do I believe whatever God tells me in the Bible or do I pick and choose what I believe on the basis of some personal criteria? There was a popular phrase about fifty years ago that said: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Though probably well intentioned it was horribly misleading. In fact if God says it, it is settled regardless of whether I believe it or not. Like Nicodemus, what are the things in my background, my training, my presuppositions that keep me from simply believing whatever God says? To not wholeheartedly believe God locks us out of truly knowing Him and the Life He desires to give us.
John 3:12 The Context: Nicodemus, a Pharisee, one of the religious rulers of the Jews had come to Jesus in the dark of night and was questioning Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of God. Jesus reminded Nicodemus of the things He had been teaching the crowds about God’s desires for His people the Jews. There had been plain statements about the obvious hypocrisy of the Jews but the Pharisees (evidently including Nicodemus) refused to believe what Jesus was saying. That unbelief carried over into the spiritual realm and blinded Nicodemus to the things that Jesus was trying to tell him.
God Asks Us: If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
jne: The real question is not what I believe but Who I believe. Do I believe whatever God tells me in the Bible or do I pick and choose what I believe on the basis of some personal criteria? There was a popular phrase about fifty years ago that said: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Though probably well intentioned it was horribly misleading. In fact if God says it, it is settled regardless of whether I believe it or not. Like Nicodemus, what are the things in my background, my training, my presuppositions that keep me from simply believing whatever God says? To not wholeheartedly believe God locks us out of truly knowing Him and the Life He desires to give us.