Jesus Christ: Without Sin! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 3:5,

“You know that he [Jesus Christ] appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

There is something different about this One! In Jesus Christ there is no sin! Can that be said about you or me? Can that be said about any of the heroes of the faith? What about our model of faith, Abraham? Scripture recounts his lying. What about Moses? We read of him dishonoring God by striking the rock that produced water for the Israelites in the desert. What about David? We read of his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, Uriah. There is something different about Jesus Christ. Like us, all others have shortcomings, all others have faults, all others have sinned – but not this One.

Paul pulls several passages of Scripture together in Romans 3:9b-18. He says, “We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.' 'Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.' 'The poison of vipers is on their lips.' 'Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.' 'Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.' 'There is no fear of God before their eyes.' But not all: all save this One. This One is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God! Paul had mankind in mind as he quoted these Scriptures, not our sinless, holy and righteous Savior! This One is different!

Peter tells us “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18-19. This One has impeccable character! This One has no hidden motives, no wrinkle of duplicity! He is faithful, he is consistently honest, trustworthy and entirely without sin! “In him is no sin.”

I can’t think of a better proof that this man, Jesus Christ, is the Son of God. He is without sin!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Our God Answers Prayer! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 5:14-15,

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Our God answers prayer! John throws a caveat in here, that it is the request that is “according to his will” that is answered. But not just that, he says “whatever we ask” that is according to his will we will have from God. Imagine that! We can approach the Creator of the Cosmos and he listens to us!

Jesus says in John 14:13-14, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Also in John 16:23-24, “In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

As we read the book of Acts, we learn that following the resurrection of our Lord, he told his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. Following the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Lord raised up certain ones to complete a collection of inspired writings to provide us with a fuller revelation of the things of God. Of sacred writings, Peter says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

As such we learn additional things the Lord wants us to know as we read and study our New Testaments together with what we refer to as the “Old Testament”. Contained within its passages, our Lord has additional things to say about prayer. Through John here, he lets us know that it is the prayer “according to his will” that gets heard.

The Lord, through James, also has some insight into prayer. In James 4:2c-3 we read, “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” So, how do we know what we should ask for? How can we know what would be according to his will? How will we know if we are asking with the wrong motives?

We know we should be praying, and quite often. “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:18.

We are promised by the Lord himself that he will answer prayer. We learn it is not just any prayer that he answers but prayer that is according to his will. As we study the Scriptures we become better at ascertaining just what that is.

But the amazing thing I am captured by this morning is that, as believers, we have God’s ear. He will listen to us! Our God answers prayer!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

God Wants Us To Know We Have Eternal Life - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 5:13,

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

I hold to a conviction that what we read in Scripture is what God wants us to know. All Scripture is intentional.

As Paul points out in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” I believe it is God communicating to us through the differing individuals who penned the Scriptures.

As Peter says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21.

Given that as a deeply held belief, when John says “I write these things to you… so that you may know you have eternal life”, I understand it is God himself who wants us to know we have eternal life. By my count, in at least 26 passages in this short five-chapter letter, we read of how we can know we are saved. It is the same criteria John provides to know who false teachers are as well.

My thoughts this morning center on how our loving heavenly Father seeks to help us in our weaknesses. Although he has provided his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and enabled us through one way or another to get the message of this atonement applied to us through our embracing him in faith, we still struggle with doubts and uncertainties at times.

Our God has done all the heavy lifting. All we need to do is grasp it by faith, and yet we still struggle at times. God knows this, and rather than just shaking his head and rolling his eyes (which to me would seem appropriate), in love, he continues to encourage us with the words of this wonderful letter.

We can know we are saved… our God has told us how we can know in this letter in a number of ways. Check them out!

It is just like our God to care for us in this way…

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

The Excitement Of Eternal Life! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 5:11-12,

“This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

This testimony that John speaks of is the testimony that God the Father has given about his Son. We who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith have eternal life, and this eternal life is in his Son, Jesus Christ. In verse one of this chapter John says that “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God". And, as John quotes Jesus in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

As I attempt to meditate on this wonderful gift of eternal life afresh, I find it somewhat difficult to wrap my mind around all that is implied with the notion that I have eternal life as my own possession today! As all others (accept those who are here when the Lord returns), I will pass through physical death. But on the other side of physical death there will be a loving Savior waiting to receive me into his presence, together with all those believers who have preceded me. And then at the appointed time, on the day of the resurrection of life, I will be united with my transformed body for an eternal existence.

Will I have the same or similar talents and abilities in the resurrection that I have in this life? What kind of projects and purposes will I be engaged in? Will I be doing some kind of work for a living? What might that be? What kind of language will we all be speaking and will there be different languages? How much of our past will be reflected in eternal life? Will there still be gender and race? Will we all be in our biological prime for all eternity? Will it be impossible to skin my knee? Will I get to go fishing? Will we play Hearts or Monopoly? What kinds of holidays will we have on our calendars? Will we have family identity? Will I have a checkbook to balance?

There are just all kinds of questions that can be asked about eternal life, life in the resurrection. I could take a stab at answering a few of them but I myself don’t know much with certainty. One thing I am certain of though is that I do now possess eternal life and that life is in Jesus Christ. I know with certainty that life in the resurrection is going to be wonderful as we will be communing with our God. It is the presence of Jesus Christ that makes eternal life the wonder and fascination it will be!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.