Wasn’t it only for him?
Haven’t you heard people say it? I have. It is one of the main way preachers, evangelists, and just ordinary people deal with this uncomfortable passage in the New Testament:
One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me. (Mark 10:21)
Wasn’t that for the rich young ruler alone? Wasn’t it only for him and not for the rest of us? You know, only for those people who have a “problem” with their riches. Isn’t that what the context of Yahshua’s words tells us? You can tell that the rich young ruler had a “problem” with riches because he went away sad.
But who has riches and doesn’t trust in them? When the Great Depression began and the stock market crashed, people jumped out of windows and killed themselves. When their wealth was gone, they had nothing to fall back upon. They certainly trusted in riches, and when their riches were gone, they had nothing left to trust.
If you read the story carefully you can see that the rich young ruler did trust Yahshua to a remarkable extent. He might have known Him and His message better than we think. After all, he came to Him because he knew that He had the ability to grant him the one thing he lacked - eternal life. He even knew there was something that he must do to gain eternal life. But the answer to his question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” was not at all what he thought it would be.
It was a very hard thing to do - if you love your own life in this world - but not if you hate your life in this world. (John 12:25-26)
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1/17/2005
I know that I know that I know that I’m saved…
We Know That We Have Passed From Death to Life Because…A litmus test is a test in which a single factor is decisive in proving the presence or absence of something. “I have eternal life,” many said, as I did, but passing the litmus test determines whether someone has truly believed as the Scriptures say.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39)
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water (the Holy Spirit).” …whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:10,14)
So how do the scriptures say one must believe in order to have this river of living water flowing out of him? For the scriptures give us the litmus test in order that we could know whether we have passed from death to life and have truly received the Holy Spirit — the Water of Life. John 5:24 presents the good news in very clear and simple terms:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed out of death and into life.
But how does anyone know he is saved? Does he know because the preacher tells him so? Is it enough to hear, “I know that I know that I know I am saved”? It wasn’t enough for me. I still wasn’t sure. Something very deep seemed to be missing. Then I discovered, well friends showed me, the marvelous first letter of John. It tells everyone how they can know. It gives all of us the litmus test. Take it yourself. Read through 1 John, chapters one through five. Then especially consider verses 3:14, 16, and 17. They utterly disqualify mere mental belief (Gnosticism).
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
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1/11/2005
“Unintentional” Community
The only reason we started living together was because we loved one another, not because we read about it in Acts 2 and 4. We didn’t plan on a community, but simply lived together because we didn’t want to go home or leave one another. We enjoyed being around one another — working together, singing together and praying together.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” John 5:24
The result of hearing His voice and passing from death to life, was that we began to love one another.
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14
Later, we understood that there was no possibility of really knowing that you have passed out of death and into life unless you were living the life of faith, where all those who believe actually live together and love one another and share all things in common.
Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common. Acts 2:44
So now all things are possible through our Master Yahshua (1 Cor 12:13). How else could we live if we love our Master (John 14:15,21; 1 John 2:4)? How else could we live considering that all men will know we’re His disciples because of our love and unity with our brothers and sisters?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
“…and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. …that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. John 17:10,11,21-23
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1/7/2005
Seeing the Worth of the Son of God
To understand that man is born with the possibility to do good is to begin to understand the value of what Yahshua did by paying for our sins. Rather than being helpless puppets doomed to a life of depravity, we sin because of choices we willingly make. To sin is to do what you know you should not do, therefore it requires suppressing the voice that gives you that knowing - your conscience. It is a matter of choice. The “cowardly and unbelieving” became that way because of choices they made, just as “the abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars.”
If sin were not a matter of our own choices, but merely our lot from being born incapable of doing good, then God sending His Son to die for our sins could hardly be called mercy. Even good people have gone to great lengths to save the life of a helpless victim like a baby. But the love of God far surpasses such human responses. It enters into a dimension of righteousness that is far above that which human beings can understand in their own experience: His mercy extended to our deliberate disobedience.
The Son of God partook of man’s struggle on this earth and overcame every obstacle that man faces. No man is without those moments when he has made choices he knew were bad. No man except Yahshua. He chose always to do the will of His Father, triumphantly conquering every obstacle. This qualified Him to be the spotless Lamb needed to pay for our sins. In death, He paid the full wages of our sins. We were truly worthy of the torment of death because of the choices we made. He definitely did not deserve it, yet He chose to receive the full wrath of God that was due for the sins of the whole world.
If a man cannot see the worth or value of what He did, how could he possibly make the right response? What you pay to gain something always reveals its worth to you.
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1/3/2005
To Know Him Is to Love Him
Yahshua’s death on the cross was only the culmination of Him daily laying down His life. Everything He did was for our sake. And that’s what He calls His followers to do — live entirely for others. If somebody wants to argue about it, they can, but I didn’t argue. I knew that I was lacking the definitive fruit of a disciple. I didn’t obey, and I didn’t love — not any more than any unsaved human being might do. I would be kind to people from time to time, letting people in line in front of me at the checkout if they only had one item and I had a whole basket full, and so on. But to live my whole life for others? How could I even do it? Become a medical missionary for the rest of my life? Maybe. But somehow, the original disciples found a way to love without traveling to Africa with a suitcase full of antibiotics. The Master commanded them to “love one another, just as I have loved you,” in John 13:34 and 15:12. He wouldn’t have said that if there wasn’t some way to do it.
It may be perfectly obvious to some people that the way it all works is to dwell together in community like the first disciples did. That way, you can “serve Him where He is” as He mentioned in John 12:26. Your brothers and sisters are always around, so you can always love them. You can always drop what you had planned and serve someone else. You can give your time, your energy, your resources, and so on, to benefit “the brethren.”[1] But it wasn’t obvious to me. All I knew was that I was completely enthralled by the Son of God. I wanted to know Him. I wanted to belong to Him, heart and soul. And He said I had to deny myself. He said I had to hate anything that stood between me and Him. He said I had to carry my cross, and I really had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t sound like something I would naturally like doing.
Yet, still I wanted Him. The more I knew of what He required, the more I said in my heart, “Yes!” It seemed like I was in love with Him, but the true test would be whether I would actually do what He said. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” He told us in John 14:15, and in verse 21, He said it again, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.” I had His commands right there in my New Testament, but could He love me and reveal Himself to me, the way He was speaking of there?
So what it comes right down to is this: the greatest man who ever walked on earth, the very incarnation of the Creator, has spoken. The Savior of mankind, who loved us without reserve, all the way to the end, has made things very clear. He is so magnificent that we can truly say, “To know Him is to love Him.” But there is no true knowledge or real love of Him that does not produce obedience to His commands.
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