Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls
into the ground and dies,
it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces
much grain.
He who loves his life
will lost it,
and he who hates his life
in this world will keep it
for eternal life.
If anyone serves Me,
let him follow Me;
and where I am,
there My servant will
be allow. If anyone
serves Me, Him My Father
will honor.
John 12:24-26
Jesus was speaking of His death, that by means of His death many would become saved, but so long as He was alive salvation was not possible. The very foundation of our faith is the death of Jesus Christ, and that His death was all that was needed to meet the justice of God. Do you believe that fact? Is it indeed a fact for you, inasmuch as the truth of His death has converted you from a life of sin into a life without sin, a life that while on this earth is being sanctified and is a witness to our Savior? God has never sought decisions for Him. Decisions are so unstable for if a decision is not grounded upon a belief that is true, such as that Jesus Christ came, lived, was innocent from all sin, and that He was God incarnate, and His innocent death, His purpose for coming to earth, for God to take on a human body, just to save all He elected to salvation, then your decision can be changed when another doctrine is found to be true. In fact, if you have not settled the question of pain and suffering with the goodness of God, then you have not converted, you are still undecided! If we believe that God should do it this way or that way, that if we were God then we would not allow for all this pain and suffering, we would do it differently. But this is not what God asks of us, we are not God, we are not omniscient, we are human and God is not. Either God is Good, not just an attribute, rather that God is Good, and that all He does is good, then we have not truly converted and decided to follow Him. But this is what He asks of us: "He who loves his life will lose it..." (John 12:25a). What does it mean to love this life? This is important as Jesus clearly points out that we must not hold so tightly to this life: eternity awaits for all of God's children, this life is temporal, and when we hold onto it as though this is all there is, then all we have done is not truly believe in God, that He is Good, and that His promise for an eternal life without sin, that it is not true: you have then lost your life. But, "and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 25:b). We may not understand all there is about this life, and how God operates, but we do know this that He is Good, all-knowing, and that all He does is for good, and He has promised by His Son's own words, that to hate this world is to be kept for eternal life. This being so, then the question for each of us is: why are we not living like it is true, why are we holding on to this world so tight, that we live as the secular world is teaching that a person is to live. They don't understand God either only they will not believe upon Him, and we say that we do, that we will follow Him anywhere. Will you? Will I? We say that we are serving God. Are you? or is it just that we serve and we feel so holy, so just, so Christian, but when the rubber meets the road, that is when your faith is put to the test will you actually follow Him? Jesus says: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me:.... (John 12:26a). What does it mean to follow Jesus? Does it mean to go to Church? To serve as an elder? To serve as a deacon? To serve as a Sunday School teacher? Or is it more than all of that? If you follow Jesus, if you truly walk in His steps, then you must be willing to go all the way, and His way was to the cross. Jesus came to earth for one purpose; to do the will of His Father, and what was that will? For Him to die! He didn't come to just heal, to cast out demons, to confront the Pharisees and other priests in regards to their theology that was no longer that what was taught in former times: No! All of that was to admit that He was Divine, that He was the promised Messiah, and that by those acts of His He pointed to Himself as the One that is the Savior, and He came to pay the price of death, that which was lost in the Garden of Eden, life. Jesus came to to settle man's account with death and free him from the primal transgression. By His death upon the cross, He showed Himself mightier than death, displaying His won body incorruptible as the first-fruits of the resurrection. Our faith is in Him, not in our having total understanding in regards to this life, a life that is stained and corrupted by sin, a life that is far removed from all that God intended, but Who has not forgot His will that He made man and He has promised that He will give to man eternal life without the stain of sin. We look upon Him, we trust Him, and we try our very best to understand those things we don't, and with the help of the Holy Spirit we do come to understand, that we are new creatures, we are incorruptible when we die, for we go to live with God, with our Savior, so now in this life we live for Him, we make disciples as commanded and we do not regard this life as the only life we have, we have the honor that God gives to those who follow His Son: "and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26b).
A question for all who say that they will follow Jesus: "Will you be able to take Jesus with you wherever go and whatever you do? Or is there things in your life that you would not take Jesus Christ so that He is with you at all times? Do you believe the words of Jesus when He says: "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:16). Jesus prayed for you, for all of those who would believe on Him, that God had sent Him. Do You? First allow me this caveat: The NIV and ESV, as well as others, who derive their translation from the critical text have it wrong, for they do no use the word "will" in association with believe. Upon examination I found only four citations where the word "will" or that the word for believe is not in the future tense. Why is this important? Because the world in the majority of texts, those thousands of texts you the word for believe in the future tense, and it is not that everyone who believes will be saved, that is that anyone will be saved, rather it is those who are believing, because the Greek word is a participle in the future tense, therefore it is to those will be believing who Jesus is praying for, and it is those who are believing that will be honored by God. Are you believing? Does your life demonstrated that fact? Live life, obey God! Yes, there is tribulation in this world, and we as children of God suffer just as those who are not children of God, but we have a sure hope, and we can live cheerfully under any persecution that comes, whatever form it has come into your life because Jesus Christ did not stay dead! He rose again, and as we approach that time of year where take time to celebrate His death, His resurrection, and His ascension into heaven, we rejoice because He has overcome the world: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). John in his little letter to the Church writes: "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is greater that he who is in the world" (1John 4:4). Finally, John writes this most important admonition: "We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1John 4:6).
This is the week just prior to the crucifixion of our Savior Jesus Christ, this is the week that He had come to fulfill all the Law, and the purpose of God, for His mind, His feet, His determination, was to go to Jerusalem and there complete His task. This He did, and every time that you celebrate the Lord's supper, when you take a piece of that broken bread, we are reminded of His broken body, and when we drink of the cup, we are reminded of His blood poured, a blood that washes us whiter than snow. Do not let the celebration of "Easter" overcome the importance of this time, Nissan 14 was the date of Jesus' death, and while we do not necessarily celebrate His death on that exact date, we do celebrate His death, resurrection, and ascension, that is what is most important, and it that which we teach our children, it is that which will remind us of who we are and whose we are.
Believe that first, then when I write on other subjects you will not just receive some information, rather you will sanctify yourself, and prepare yourself to fulfill your mission, and that mission is to live for Him, at all times, and in all places, there is where there is freedom, there is where joy resides.
Lift up our heads,
O you gates!
And be lifted up,
you everlasting doors!
And the King of Glory
Shall come in.
Psalm 24:7
Praise God With Your Life
Richard L. Crumb
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