Synonymous

8/1/2009

John 3:36 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” New American Standard Bible

In John 3 are two masterful sermons: one by Jesus to Nicodemus and the other by John to his disciples. One is the testimony of Jesus about Himself and the other is the testimony of John about Jesus.

John makes an interesting statement in the last sentence of his message – he equates belief with obedience; “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life…” He who believes has eternal life but he who does not obey [because he does not believe] the Son will not see life. To John, belief and obedience are synonymous; you can’t have the one without the other. The true test of our belief is this: do I obey Jesus Christ with all my heart in all I do?

Obedience takes my belief out of theory and puts it into practice. Obedience is the weight of credibility behind my words. Obedience is the super-glue that holds my testimony of Jesus Christ to others together. Obedience is the thing for which I am (or will be) persecuted. My waking and closing thought for each day must be: “how am I doing in obeying my Lord? Is it obvious to others and is my conscience clean?”

Father in Heaven,

You have called me to believe in You, and in the salvation You’ve provided in Your Son, Jesus Christ. My belief however will only be measured by my obedience to my Lord. Therefore I will seek Him and serve Him and will make that the singular focus of my life. So, I will forsake the American Dream, and seek the Eternal Reality that is mine in Christ – in His Name, amen.