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You are here: Home / Devotions / TAKE 5–JULY 4-7, 2017

TAKE 5–JULY 4-7, 2017

July 7, 2017 by beardonnam Leave a Comment

“The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The One who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what He has seen and heard, yet no one accepts His testimony. The one who has accepted His testimony has affirmed that God is true. For God sent Him, and He speaks God’s words, since He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 3:31‭-‬36

One of the earmarks of the book of John is that he often stops to commentate on the subject he just wrote about. Remember, the Gospel of John is written from the prescective of an old man who had followed Jesus since he was a teen and who has had lots of time to reflect on the events of his life and on what Jesus taught. So in this passage, he’s thought through what Jesus said to Nicodemus, in the light of the totality of Who Jesus is and was.

Remember Jesus talking to Nicodemus in verse 6? He said, “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit”? I believe that John is unpacking this idea for us. “The One–Jesus–Who comes from above is above all” while “the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth. (vs. 31) SPIRIT IS SPIRIT while FLESH IS FLESH!

He further explains . . . The One from Above–Jesus– “testifies to what He has seen and heard, but no one accepts His testimony” (vs. 7) Remember John 1:10-11? John had noted, “He–Jesus was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. (vs 11) He came to His own, and His own people  did not receive Him”. John again, in chapter 3, reiterates that though Jesus–God Who had came as a man–showed the world what God is like, shined the light of God on us and in every way.

He further explains . . . The One from Above–Jesus– “testifies to what He has seen and heard, but no one accepts His testimony” (vs. 7) Remember John 1:10-11? John had noted, “He–Jesus was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. In vs 11 He came to His own, and His own people  did not receive Him”! John again, in chapter 3, reiterates that though Jesus, God Who had came as a man Who showed the world what God is like, shined the light of God on us and in every way, illuminated the way back to the Father, but in general, the world had ignored Him.

Verse 33, however, goes on to say that though most ignored Him, those who did recognize and accept Him has certified that God is truthful and that the One Who speaks God’s words–Jesus, has been given an unlimited amount of the Holy Spirit, thus He possessed an unlimited amount of of God’s power to do miracles, cast out demons or anything else that needed to be done on the Father’s behalf!
John wraps up his comments by acknowledging that God the Father loves the Son and reinterating that He’s given Jesus all authority, as well as power (vs 35).
So . . .the bottom line is that whoever of us believes in Jesus, recieves eternal life and whoever does not, remains in a lifestyle that continually spirals towards death.
So which are you? Jesus, day after day draws each of us to His kind of Life by His love. Will you receive His love and light or stay in the dark?
Think about it!

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