Author: Jesse Walz

Will you believe?

‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him’ (John 3:36).

The Bible presents all people with a stark choice between two options. Only two. Will we believe in the Son, or not? Will we obey him, or not? And this choice divides humanity.

Of course, this choice isn’t what the world around us is insulted by. It’s the stated outcome of each choice that gets people up in arms. Believing in Jesus results in eternal life, but disobedience to the call to believe results in God’s wrath, judgement and hell.

This is unacceptable to our society, and illogical to a world that is increasingly moving away from believing in a binary, believing things are either A or B, and there is and nothing in between.

There were numerous times when I was in university ministry, presenting this verse to people. I would ask them which they were – were they believing in Jesus, or not? Were they living God’s way, having trusted in Jesus, submitting to him as King, and repented of sin? Or were they living their own way?

Repeatedly, people would say they were in the middle. They could see that the preferable option from this verse was to believe, because that resulted in life. But they were convinced they could have life without submitting to Jesus. So, they thought, they were in between. Not trusting in Jesus but getting life instead of wrath.

When we present the truth of the gospel to our neighbours, this is one belief we must undermine. You can’t be half pregnant. You either are or not. Binaries exist. Truth exists. You either have Jesus, or you face God’s wrath. What an important message we have.

Death or life

Death. It’s an event that fills people with fear, uncertainty and grief. Many around us are desperate to shut their eyes to it. While we include it in movies and TV shows to attempt to lessen our fear, we avoid thinking seriously about it as much as possible.

The way we deal with death is vastly different from our past. Death has been placed in the hands of the funeral industry. Caskets are closed. Funerals are a celebration of life but no longer also a time to mourn their loss.

But, as always, the Bible refuses to let us hide from the truth. Death is not merely a tragedy. As Paul says in Romans 6:23, ‘For the wages of sin is death.’ No matter how far we run, death is coming. It is the judgement of a holy God against sinners. All of us have rebelled against this life-giving God, which led to the entirely appropriate judicial sentence of death.

This is why we fear death. We know it is wrong, an intruder on what should be our experience of this world. We have an innate sense that we should live forever, which expresses itself in beauty products and medical technology.

Death is the wages that all of us are owed and will one day pay. But Paul continues in Romans 6:23, ‘But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Here is our hope. This is what a world full of people ignoring the realities of death need to hear. We all deserve death, but we can escape it. God in his mercy has provided a way. In Christ he died our death, so we could have life. But only if we are in Christ. What a story we have to tell the nations.

The only answer

Anyone who’s spent more than a second really thinking about life in this world knows there is something wrong. Live long enough and everyone’s experience is full of pain and heartbreak.

After recognising this pain, our question becomes, ‘how can it be fixed?’ We look to education and we wonder, if it were better would all the ills within society and me be eradicated?

One of our society’s greatest problems is that we don’t stop long enough to really consider what the cause of our problem is. This means that the ‘solutions’ will never be appropriate.

We must turn to the Bible to understand what the cause of our pain and heartbreak is, because it is there that God speaks and reveals what we would prefer hidden. And in the Bible, we find that the cause of our problems is sin; our own and others’.

And because we are the problem, we can’t be the solution. Anything we do will only continue to exacerbate the problem. More education only results in smarter sinners. Technology relieves some pain but is used to inflict other kinds of pain. We need someone else to deal with the cause (our sin) so the symptoms (our suffering) can be alleviated.

And that’s what God did. The whole of the Old Testament was promising and leading up to the solution, until finally we see Jesus on the cross. Taking our sin upon himself he cries, ‘It is finished,’ (John 19:30).

It could be said the cross was stage 1 of the inoculation; stage 2 is Christ’s return, when not only is sin forgiven but is completely removed along with its ill-effects. For those desperate for a world free of suffering we have an important message; ‘come to Jesus.’ He is the only solution to our problem.

What love!

One of the most beloved verses in the Bible is John 3:16. They are waters that the youngest child can paddle in, and yet the most mature Christian never reach the bottom. And they are words in which the unbeliever could find life, if only we shared it with them.

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’

God loved the world. Incredible! This is the world that had rejected him and hadn’t recognised him when he came in the flesh. This world was dark, with no knowledge of God, and no desire to know him either. Yet, God loved the world. He loved us.

Why did he love us? Not because we were lovable! Our hearts, our inner being, was totally corrupted by sin. Sin oozed out of every thought, word and action. We worshipped and served created things, living for them even when outwardly it seemed we were doing the right thing.

Yet he loved us, and his love led to him giving his Son. The Son who had been with the Father for all eternity, who had never rebelled but had only honoured and adored his Father, was given up for the rebellious and rotten world. This love is beyond comprehension.

This Son was given over to die, so that those who believe in him wouldn’t perish themselves, but instead would find eternal life. In Jesus’ death he takes the punishment, shame, guilt, anger of God which our sin brought on ourselves. In him we have the offer of eternal joy and peace, eternal life with God.

God loved the world, gave his Son, and offers eternal life. This is our message. Who can you share that with this week?

The Greatest Servant

Can you imagine the Queen cleaning a toilet? The very idea might be scandalous to some. The Head of the Commonwealth could hardly be expected to clean the toilets of her palace. That is a job for servants, and those without servants!

And yet, one far greater than the Queen has come who did something far more shocking. The Son of Man came, that glorious figure in Daniel 7:13-14. The ruler, not only of a nation, or a Commonwealth of nations, but of all peoples, nations and languages. The Great King came.

What did this Glorious One come to do? In his own words: ‘For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45).

He didn’t come expecting the people to bow before him. He didn’t come to show his splendour and have the crowds grovel at his feet. Instead, he came to serve.

But what does it mean that he came to serve? He came to give his life as a ransom for many. Our rebellion against God had made us debtors to him, and we would pay with our lives. His judgement was inescapable and terrifying.

And Christ came to be the ransom, to pay the price we couldn’t so we could go free. The Glorious One came to serve, to die for many. The one who is most holy and pure came to have our filthy sin placed on him and to suffer in our place.

This is the shocking gospel we have to tell. To a society that prizes self-sufficiency, they must come relying on the work of another. To a world that dismisses the horror of sin, they must see its dreadful cost, and come in faith and repentance.

Peace through chastisement

The Bible is unique. Though written over many generations by many different authors, there is one unified story. It’s the story of God’s work to save his people from their sin. How ready are you to explain this gospel to any who’d ask you ‘for a reason for the hope that is in you’ (1 Pet 3:15)?

Wondrously, because the Bible is a unified story there are numerous verses that act as glorious summaries of that good news and are enormously helpful in proclaiming that good news to others. One of those is Isaiah 53:5.

‘But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities’ – This was written 800 years before Christ’s birth, yet it could have been written by the apostles themselves. A man would act as a substitute. The painful reality that so many want to ignore is that we have all transgressed God’s holy law. We have sinned and are full of iniquity. We all deserve God’s holy justice.

But Jesus was pierced for us. He suffered on our behalf. It’s the tragic news of the gospel, that someone needed to die. It’s also joyous news, because Christ was willingly crushed for us.

‘Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.’ The good news of the gospel is not only that the punishment for sin has been borne by Christ, but also that through him we have incredible blessings. We now have peace with God; something that was impossible while we still carried our guilt. That rupture in the relationship has finally been healed because Christ suffered those wounds.

The good news of the gospel is simple: Christ died our death that we could have life with God. Who could you share that message with today?

Who am I?

‘Who am I?’ I remember watching Sale of the Century as a child. It was incredible to watch the contestants compete against each other in the ultimate (in my opinion) game of trivia. They were fast and knowledgeable. Often there was a runaway winner, but there were occasions where, incredibly, there was a draw. The tie-breaker question was always a ‘who am I?’ as details of someone’s life were read out and the contestants guessed who it was.

There are numerous times in the Bible where some aspect of God is described. He speaks the truth, is holy, brings justice, and is powerful. There is one place, though, that stands out.

The people have just been punished for making and worshipping a golden calf, but because of Moses’ intercession they were not destroyed. More, God would not leave them, but would travel with them as they journeyed to the Promised Land. And Moses prays, ‘Please show me your glory’ (Ex 33:18).

What does God do? Does he send thunder and lightning? Do the trumpets sound from heaven? Do angels appear to sing his praises? No. All these happen at other times, but not here. Rather than the spectacle of his power, God speaks. He explains who he is, the essence of his character.

While Moses was in the cleft of the rock in the mountain, ‘the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation (Ex 34:6-7).

This is our God. Let all people worship.

God’s sure plan

‘And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”’ (Matthew 2:14-15)

Matthew’s Gospel has only just begun, and already God’s plan of salvation was under threat. Christ had been born, his mission was clear, the Gentiles had come; and when Herod discovered the Wise Men would not return to Jerusalem as Herod had asked, he would be enraged.

This hope of the nations was fragile, a delicate piece of china. One was coming who would want to throw it to the ground and crush it beneath his feet.

But God would not allow this to happen. God had determined mankind’s fall into sin even before he created the world, because he had planned to save mankind through his Son (Eph 1:4). So, God again sent an angel to Joseph, warning him and sending him to Egypt for safety. God’s plans cannot be thwarted (Job 42:2).

It is easy to look around at our society and fall into despair and fear at what is coming. Christianity is no longer seen as good for society, but harmful. Our views on the unique place of Christ as the only way to the Father are seen as disparaging to those of other or no faith. Our views on marriage, sexuality, gender and abortion are called hateful and bigoted. Religious freedoms are under attack.

These verses remind us that the evil one has always been against God and his people, but he is not threatened. Our hope is not in legal protections or stricter border security. Our hope is in the transformative gospel of Christ. We find salvation in him alone.

Rejoicing in the Saviour

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” (Matt 2:10)

The gospel of Matthew is clearly written for a Jewish audience. It regularly points out when prophecy is being fulfilled. There are numerous mentions of being clean or unclean, and other references to the Old Testament law.

And yet peppered all-throughout are Gentiles. Even before the telling of Jesus’ birth the reader was introduced to the non-Jews in his family tree. And now that he has been born, who rejoices exceedingly with great joy? In Matthew, it is the Wise Men.

These Wise Men are strangers in the land. They saw his star, telling us they looked to the stars as interpreters of the events here on earth. They understood that this star announced the birth of a king who would rule even over them.

How is it possible that they would grasp this great truth from the stars? Divination was forbidden by God, and yet God apparently communicated to these pagans from the East in a manner they would understand. What a mysterious God we serve, that he would do this to draw these men.

Yet the star is not enough. They arrive at Jerusalem, and only when the Word of God is read can they can continue their journey. The star hinted at what the Word proclaimed loudly: The King had been born in Bethlehem. This passage is not an invitation to look to the stars, but to grasp the Word which reveals Christ plainly.

At the beginning of the incarnate life of Christ it was Gentiles who honoured him. The rulers, the chief priests and scribes did not come. These pagan Wise Men rejoiced at him. Jesus is not only the King of the Jews. He is King of the nations. Of us. Rejoice!