Sunday 31 Mar 2013

Sunday Reading: John 3:14-18

Key Verse: John 3:17
17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Devotion:
God has shown his love for us in some pretty remarkable or strange ways over the years; do you think He has been trying to demonstrate to us that His love is beyond our imaginations? Back in the desert the Children of Israel were being exposed to the deadly threat of poisonous snakes and God wanted to show them that simply by believing in Him they could all be saved. They did not have to make any special anti-serums, nor to rid themselves of the snake, but instead to believe that by looking at a bronze copy of the snake they could live… not because it was some sort of god but because that would show that they had just a tiny bit of faith!

Our faith may well come into question when we face dangers in our lives, but not by God. He knows what is inside our hearts but wants us to show what is in our hearts openly. If we continue to hide our love for Him then we are not spreading the good news that Christ has risen. If we continue to hide our love then we are effectively saying that we are ashamed of God in some way.

God showed His love to us openly by allowing His only Son to come to earth, be born as a human, live as a man, die as a criminal and then to be raised up from the dead so that He could defeat death on our behalf once and for all. He did that without hiding behind anything or disguising Himself in any way. God told us what would happen in the beginning. Prophets foretold what would happen throughout history. Jesus told the disciples what would happen just before it did. Christ carried out everything according to God’s plan every step of the way.

We now have all we need to know about God’s love toward us; we have all we need to know about God’s plan for our salvation. All we need do is to look and live in exactly the same way as the Children of Israel had to look at the bronze serpents and to live. As Christ reminds us here, He came to save the world and not to condemn the world. He already knows our guilt and now He wants us to acknowledge it, admit it to Him and leave it behind to show that we believe Him in everything He has done for it. It is that tiny bit of faith that God is looking for; He does not require us to have truckloads of faith in the beginning, just to look and live.

Points to Ponder:
How do you show trust?

Are you showing God you trust Him?