Monday 31 Mar 2014

Monday Reading: John 5:19-23

Key Verse: John 5:19
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

Devotion:
Jesus did not hide the fact that He is the Son of God; but many people at that time could not come to terms with the way Jesus was trying to teach them and to enlighten them. What they though was blasphemy was just Christ showing His true position at the right hand of the Father; listening to God was not something that came to the religious leaders at that time.

Jesus did not act alone. He did nothing but what God the Father said should happen. And yet the people ignored that part and focused in on what they wanted to so they could blame someone for daring to be more God-like than they appeared to be! None of us have the right to judge others and we must never pretend that we are any better than any other person either. Christ is our judge because He is the one who has paid for our lives with His own life.

God provided us with a Saviour; His Son. God provided us with an advocate; His Son. God provided us with a way to get to Him even though we are separated from Him by our sin; His Son. Because of what Christ has done, He alone has been given final judgment over mankind and because He is the Son of God, that judgement will be final as well as just. Nobody will be able to get away with saying that they did not know about God and that they did not know about Christ.

If we want to be more Christ-like, then we should be aiming at following His example and not going our own way or following the way of the world. The religious leaders at that time followed what they thought was best even though they knew that the Messiah was coming; they were not trying to seek out the truth but rested on what they wanted themselves. Christ made sure that all actions He took and all directions He chose came from God and not His own choices. We should be doing the same – following God’s example and not mans.

Points to Ponder:
What do you base your decisions on?

Do you strive to be more Christ-like?