We wish to see Jesus

In the twelfth chapter of his gospel, the apostle John records an incident when pious Greeks came to Philip. It was the time of the Passover and they asked to see Jesus. The verb ‘to see’, as given in the text, can mean to see with the eyes, but I do not think that these Greeks were merely tourists. The verb can also mean to ‘know, perceive, understand’. This makes better sense, considering Jesus’ own response to the request. He spoke so that those Greeks, and others at the feast, would understand him and his mission.

First, our Lord responded by speaking of the necessity that a grain of wheat should die before it may germinate to produce more grain. We will ‘see’ that this is a reference to his own impending death for the life of his people. From verse 27, Jesus spoke of the death that he would die in glorifying the Father and himself. When he was lifted up (a euphemism for crucifixion), he would draw all to himself (v.32). Yet this is not all that Jesus told the Greeks.

In vs.25 & 26, the Lord Jesus said that the one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for ever. This is not an encouragement to suicide. The point is about one’s attitude to life in this world. The word ‘world’ has two basic uses in the New Testament. It can simply mean the place where humans live, or the humans who live on the Earth. John 3:16 uses ‘world’ in this sense. But the word ‘world’ is sometimes used to mean that place of enmity against God. 1 John 5:19 say, in part, that ‘the whole world resides in [or with] the evil one.’ It seems to me that our Lord Jesus is urging people to abandon their place of acceptance with that rebellious world and to follow him instead. To hate the life that they have lived as God’s enemies and to embrace the life of an outcast. Later Jesus will say, ‘If the world hates you, know that it hated me first’ (John 15:8). The one who follows Christ, we are promised, will be where he is, and the Father will honour such as follow the Son. This implies the need for the new birth (John 3:7) as it is a radical change of mind and character that is described here.

So, the Greeks wanted to understand Jesus. His reply was that in order to understand him, they must come to terms with the necessity of his death in their place. We are no different. Our guilty enmity against God requires our death forever. If we are ever to hate our lives in the world, we need Christ to die as our sin bearer. On the basis of Jesus’ atoning death, sinners are born again into newness of life by the Holy Spirit. There is no longer any condemnation for those who trust Jesus. In the place of eternal death, Christ provides eternal life. Hebrews 2:9* says, ‘But we see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that he might by God’s grace taste death for all.’

Do you see Jesus?

Note*: In Hebrews 2:9, the verb is ‘blepo’ not ‘eido’, but it has similar uses: to see, perceive, understand.

Notes on Romans 6:1-14 — How shall we live? Part 2

[Continued from Part 1]

If we are rescued from judgement by unity with Jesus in his Death, we are also united with Jesus in his resurrection. We are to be united to his new way of life. To emphasise this reality, Paul uses a ‘much rather’ phrase, as if to say: ‘If one is rescued from sin, so much rather will that one live now as a new sort of person.’

Why is this so? Well, Paul says that even our death with Christ implies the doing away with our old way of life.

Knowing this, that our Old Man was crucified so that the body of sin might be brought to an end.

Our Old Man is our pre-Christian attitude. We had bad attitudes

• To God as king – we had rejected God’s rule
• To Christ as saviour – we thought we were fine as we were.
• To God’s law – we made our own rules as if we were God.

We were once slaves to sin and death. We were bound to it and could not (and would not) free ourselves.

• Jesus said so (John 8:34-36), but Jesus sets these sorts of slaves free.
• Paul says that Jesus’ death puts an end to slavery to sin (old man crucified so that we might no longer be slaves to sin — Romans 6:6b).

This is true because death deals with sin (verse 7). ‘The one who has died [with Christ] is justified [set free] from sin.’ The flow of Paul’s argument seems to be this:

• Death is the just end for a sinner; it is what justice requires. A sinner’s death does not make a sinner clean.
• Christ’s death alone justifies because Jesus was not a sinner when he died for us — the just one died for the unjust.
• If we are one with Jesus in his death, we ought to be one with Jesus in his life.
• Jesus lives – raised from death – because He was just  and He continues to live a good life.
• Our lives as Christian should be modelled on the good life of Jesus – Live with him.

Knowing that Christ is raised, never to die again, leaves us with these conclusions:

• Jesus has done with sin – his once for all time death provided complete salvation.
• There are no more sins for him to deal with – all the sins of all his people from all time (past, present and future) have been suffered and died for.
• Therefore Death no longer has any authority over, or claim of any kind upon, Jesus Christ.

Jesus died once for sin, Jesus now lives for God, so…

• We are to regard ourselves as dead to sin (having died with Christ)
• and as alive to God – alive to doing things God’s way.

This means we are not to let sin boss us around, precisely because we are saved sinners.

We are not to obey sin with regard to our desires.

• Human desires were created by God and they were given to us as good things.
• Our sinful nature messes with these desires, for example:
  • Our human desire for partner was messed with, producing unfaithfulness, pornography and prostitution.
  • Our desire for useful work was twisted by laziness, workaholic attitudes and careerism.
  • Our desire for food is blighted by over-eating or other difficulties.

Next, Paul’s language seem to echo the 10 commandments, which begin with a statement of how God had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt and how they are now his people.

• We are not to present our physical and mental abilities as weapons of unrighteousness.
  • You are my people.
  • You are to show love by not doing evil.

• We are to present our physical and mental abilities as weapons of righteousness.
  • You are my people.
  • You are to show love by doing positive good.

If you are a Christian, if you trust Jesus Christ, you have been made alive from the dead. You are united to Christ. You are Children of God.

You are no longer under law to be condemned by it. Jesus has dealt with your sin. You may now say with the Psalm writer, ‘Oh, how I love your law!’ (Psalm 119:97)

You are now a child of God’s grace in Christ, under his fatherly protection and love. You have been saved to show love and do good.

We have new attitudes toward God and our fellow human beings because Jesus has died and risen again for us. As Christians we are no longer to live as if God isn’t there, no longer to live as if we were our own boss. We are to love God with all our mind, strength, will and heart, and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Why is death certain, and what can be done?

People from all sorts of cultures fear death. Some say death is normal, and we should just get over it. But if death is simply a natural thing, why is it a terror to us? An ancient book, the Bible, tells us why.

The God who made everything, also made human beings to live forever. But this life was conditional. The first man, Adam, was told that the world was his to enjoy, all of it, except the fruit of one tree. That tree was not for him. Leave it alone, God said, and you will have life to the full. Adam and his wife decided not to be content with all that God had given; they took bad advice from a rebel creature and they stole the fruit. God pronounced the sentence of death upon them. But Adam’s situation was unique. He didn’t act for himself alone, but he represented all his future children as well. His act condemned not only himself, but all human beings who would descend from him in the normal way. Each child of Adam willingly follows Adam in his rebellion. Death is a terror because it is the judgment of our creator against our rebellion.

Even though Adam’s act was inexcusable and brought disaster into God’s good world, the news wasn’t all bad. The God whom they had offended, the one against whom they had rebelled, promised Adam and Eve one way of escape. God himself would eventually come as a human being to put right what Adam had done wrong. This one is known to the world as Jesus Christ.  Why is Jesus Christ our only hope? The Bible calls Jesus the second Adam, because he was the second person in all history who made a real difference to the human condition. By Adam’s disobedience, death came to all people. By Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, life comes to those who trust him.

Jesus’ life was one of love; love toward his God, and love toward his enemies (people like us). Jesus lived an obedient life; a substitute life to replace our bad lives. He did this as a human being. He was born a human being, yet the Bible says that God himself is his father. Jesus is the Son of God. As God, his good life can be donated to us. His good life is accepted as a replacement for our bad lives when we trust him.

Jesus’ death was also a substitute. Rebels against God deserve to die and undergo everlasting judgment, because — left to ourselves — we would and could never stop rebelling. We love our bad ways, even though they will bring us to a bad end. But Jesus died once for rebels, to take death in their place. Jesus was not personally bad, so the only way he could die was if God regarded him as a substitute. Jesus died as a sin-bearer, but the sins he bore were the sins of other people, people like us. Because he is human, he could die; because he is God, that death can be accepted as the death of sinners who trust him.

Jesus really died but he didn’t stay dead. When Jesus came back to life, it showed that Jesus is truly good. Death could not hold him, because he wasn’t personally bad. The resurrection of Jesus means at least two things. First, he will never die again, and second, those who trust him will be raised to endless life too — because his death finished the punishment that their sins deserve. The Bible tells us that those who trust Jesus are regarded by God to be as sinless as Jesus. The reason people die is because of sin. So those who do trust Jesus, are deemed to be ‘sinless’ and are given an endless life just like Jesus.

The Bible says that a judgment is coming. At that judgment every human life will be compared to the righteous life of Jesus Christ. Those who fall short of that high standard will be condemned. We all personally fall short of that standard; we don’t even maintain the low standards we set ourselves. Our only hope is to have our Judge as our Saviour – to receive his goodness as a gift, by faith. We can know that we have everlasting life simply because of who Jesus is and what he has done.  The Bible says that, if we trust Jesus, we will be saved.