JESUS

It's all about Jesus!!!

At the end of John 13, Jesus tells his disciples, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward."  Peter responds, saying that he will follow Jesus now, even unto death; however, Jesus reveals that Peter will deny Him three times instead of follow him unto death at this time.  Jesus continues in John 14:

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going."

One of the disciples, Thomas, then asks the question that any one of us asks, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"  How often do we ourselves ask this question?  "How do I overcome this sin?  How do I show others the love of God?  How do I do the work that God has planned for me?  How do I become more like Christ?  How can I have a deeper and more personal relationship with God?  What do I do after college?" etc. etc.  The questions, doubts, fears, and sins are boundless, but the single answer is bigger than boundless.  How can we know the way?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Jesus is the answer.  God created, ordained, sustains, redeems, frees, restores, saves, "upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3)."  Life, the purpose, the plan, the answers, the truth, the way are found in Jesus because that's where creation originates, that is how it is sustained, and in Jesus justice will be served, creation will be restored, and His saints will dwell with their Father for eternity.

"He [Jesus]  is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him [Jesus] and for him [Jesus]."--Colossians 1:15-16

We are created by God and for God, yet we are separated from God because of sin.  We turn our back on God, ingnoring the Creator our Father, and believe that we can be fulfilled and satisfied by creation.  How can our relationship to God be restored, what is the answer?  Look "to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross...(Hebrews 12:2)."

Because Jesus died in our place on the cross, taking our punishment for our sin, we are able to have an intimate and real relationship with God our Father by turning from our sin and believing in Jesus.  In John 6, Jesus proclaims God's invitation, the gospel:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

How does one believe in Jesus, in an unseen God?  By faith that come from God's grace.  We are not even capable on our own to believe because we are slaves to sin.  However as we saw in Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith, through which we believe in Him and have eternal life.  Again we see this amazing promise in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  We see here that even our faith is a gift from God.

This leaves us in an amazing position.  We are separated from God because of our sin.  What's more is that we are incapable of believing in God on our own because we are slaves to sin.  However, because of Jesus, God tells us we can approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and grace in our time of need/separation from Him.  He will give you faith to believe in Him even though deserved His wrath and death.  Not only does He give us faith, He sustains it so that it proves genuine when He returns.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.--Ephesians 1:13-14

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.--Philippians 1:6

if we are faithless, he remains faithful--for he cannot deny himself--2 Timothy 2:13

When He gives you faith, He (the Holy Spirit) dwells inside of you and you are a new creation, being renewed and transformed into His likeness.  Furthermore, He does not fail, His plan can not be thwarted, nothing can reverse the work He has done in your heart (nothing can separate believers from the love of God), which is why, for His glory, He cannot deny Himself (the Holy Spirit) dwelling in you.

Jesus gives faith and sustains faith, but for what?

Jesus is also the goal of faith.  We saw that in John 6 (and throughout the Bible) eternal life is stated as what those who repent and believe in God are to receive when Jesus comes back to judge the living and the dead.  In John 17:3, Jesus explains eternal life:

"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Eternal life is having an intimate relationship with Jesus, with God the Father forever.

What is the answer to our doubts, fears, questions, and sin?

Jesus.  Jesus says to you and me, "Come, follow Me, and you will find rest for your souls for my love is true love and is better than life itself.  You were made by Me and for Me.  Come, follow Me, for I am the way, the truth, and the life."

the answer is...

 ¹³Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. ¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. --Romans 7:13-25

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
   but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. --Proverbs 28:13 

⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. --1 John 1:7-10

Psalm 51

¹Have mercy on me,^[a] O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.
²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin!

³For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me.
⁴Against you, you only, have I sinned
   and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
   and blameless in your judgment.
⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
   and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
   and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and renew a right^[b] spirit within me.
¹¹Cast me not away from your presence,
   and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
   and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
   O God of my salvation,
   and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵O Lord, open my lips,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
   you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
   build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹then will you delight in right sacrifices,
   in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. --Romans 8:1

 ¹⁵And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,¹⁶"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," ¹⁷then he adds,"I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." --Hebrews 10:15-17

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

   "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
   nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
   and chastises every son whom he receives." --Hebrews 12:1-6...

JESUS

Lt. General Thomas Jackson speaking to then Captain John D. Imboden,
Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War,
G.F.R Henderson, Vol. 1, p. 163."