Sunday 30 Jun 2013

Sunday Reading: John 8:21-24

Key Verse: John 8:24
24  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

Devotion:
Can you remember a time when you were told that you could not go where others were going? Maybe it was when you were younger and all your friends were allowed to go to the shop but you were not allowed to because you had been naughty! I can remember a few things like that but I’m pretty sure that I have put many more such things behind me and moved on. Unfortunately there will be a time when that journey will be the final journey and you will have to put up with that final answer!

I am thankful that I was surrounded by people who were willing to show me the truth about God and Christ and allowed me to come to Jesus. I am even more thankful that His grace was sufficient to cover all of my sin and that He has forgiven me! But as I sit at home and think of all the young children who are growing up and not getting that opportunity that I had, I want to change society so that they take more notice of the pending final journey that we shall all have to face one day. It is easy to say that it’s not going to happen today so I can put it off until tomorrow, but Jesus wants us to do things today – to make a difference here and now, not put it off for another day.

When the people around Jesus challenged Him about their faith He turned it back on them by showing them that they were doing things in unbelief. Even though they may have been doing the right stuff they were still doing it in unbelief and it is that unbelief that is the one sin that Christ cannot and will not forgive. If we persist in our unbelief then we have to pay the price for that unbelief – we will not be able to join Him in paradise!

The law does show us that we have to pay for our sins. We need to believe that law. But that in itself is not enough because if we do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day, then we are following that law in unbelief! Christ clearly states here that we will be required to die for our sins because they will not be covered through no other fault than our own unbelief. Christ came to show us the right choices to make and to complete what God had ordained from the beginning. We need to believe that in our hearts to gain His eternal freedom.

Points to Ponder:
Do you still feel left out?

Are you trusting Christ fully?