In Jesus there's life!

John 3:31-36

[After speaking to Nicodemus,  Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and stayed for a while in Judea and baptized there. Then John the Baptist told the people about Jesus:] “He has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. I am of the earth, and my understanding is limited to the things of earth. He tells what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Those who believe him discover that God is a fountain of truth. For this one—sent by God—speaks God’s words, for God’s Spirit is upon him without measure or limit. The Father loves this man because he is his Son, and God has given him everything there is. And all who trust him—God’s Son—to save them have eternal life; those who don’t believe and obey him shall never see heaven, but the wrath of God remains upon them.”

Food for thought!

JOHN the Baptist is telling the people about the supremac y of Jesus. He is saying that if we want information, we have to go to the person who possesses that information. If we want information about a family, we will get it at first hand only from a member of that family. If we want information about a town we will get it at first hand only from someone who comes from that town. So, then, if we want information about God, we will get it only from the Son of God ("For this one—sent by God—speaks God’s words, for God’s Spirit is upon him without measure or limit. The Father loves this man because he is his Son, and God has given him everything there is."); and if we want information about heaven and heaven's life, we will get it only from him who comes from heaven.

When Jesus speaks about God and about the heavenly things, he's not telling us second-hand tale; his information is not from a secondary source; he tells us that which he himself has seen and heard. To put it very simply, because Jesus alone knows God, he alone can give us the facts about God, and these facts are the gospel.

The gospel says, "And all who trust him—God’s Son—to save them have eternal life; those who don’t believe and obey him shall never see heaven, but the wrath of God remains upon them." Believing in Jesus means at least three things. (a) It means believing with all our hearts that God is as Jesus presented him to be. It means believing that God loves us, that God cares for us, that God wants nothing more than to forgive us. (b) It means that we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that in him is the mind of God, that he knew God so well, was so close to God, was so one with God, that he could tell us the absolute truth about him. (c) It means that we must stake everything on the fact that what Jesus says is true. Whatever he says we must do; whenever he commands we must obey. When he tells us to cast ourselves unreservedly on the mercy of God we must do so. We  must take Jesus at his word. Every smallest action in life must be done in unquestioning obedience to him.

1 John 5:11-12

And what is it that God has said? That he has given us eternal life and that this life is in his Son. So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son, does not have life.