WHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND what God is saying about life, He patiently puts it another way.
God dressed in skin was standing right in front of them. They didn’t recognize Him, so Jesus…went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end” (John 8:21a, msg).
When Jesus talked about going somewhere they couldn’t go, they thought He might be speaking of suicide. But He was talking about going to God the Father, going back to ultimate aliveness. “You can’t reach God and ultimate aliveness,” Jesus said, “because you’ve misjudged Me. I’m not just going to ultimate aliveness, I am the one and only way to get there.”
Jesus was speaking to people who were physically alive but spiritually dead. Physical life is terminal, but spiritual life, life offered by God through Jesus, is a longer, deeper, higher form of life. Spiritual life is life from above. If Jesus hadn’t come from above to bring us life from above, we couldn’t be born from above and end up living above, happily ever after.
He continued, “You are from below; I am from above…if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:23a, 24a).
When Jesus spoke of “dying in sin,” He wasn’t just talking about why they would die (they sinned) but how they would die. Sin is anything that disconnects us (partially or completely) from God. Jesus is the way to stay connected to God. If I don’t believe in Jesus, I miss the only way to be connected to God’s eternal aliveness. Jesus said it plainly: “If you don’t believe and receive Me, you’re on a dead-end road.” But they still didn’t get it… So Jesus tried again (8:27a, msg).
I love God’s persistence. I love how He explains it yet another way when I don’t get it the first, second, or third time. I love how He kept after me, even after I had turned my back on Him. When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe (John 8:30, msg).
Me, too.
Life Challenge: Do you know someone who seems blind to something that is obvious to you? Instead of giving up on that person, ask God to help you “put it another way.”