Summary of Jesus’ Teaching

This Gospel Passage in the culmination of Chapter 12 of the Gospel of John. In the previous chapter Jesus has raised Lazarus and the elite of the Jews are plotting to kill Jesus. This is the Transition chapter from Jesus’ public ministry to His time of glory. Mary has anointed him for his coming passion and death, He himself has received indication that now is His time of Passion and Death. He concludes his public ministry with these bold words of this passage.

The world is blind, they cannot see the truth for themselves. Jesus identifies himself as the light for their blindness. He is the living personification of their God and Lord – i.e. God amongst them, but their blindness will always prevent them from understanding and seeing him as such. This is the reason His Father in Heaven sent Him to provide them with the Light of his Words and Ministry. Now the onus/responsibility is on them. They can either BELIEVE and come into the Light of God’s Presence or remain outside in the darkness. And for this no one can blame God or anyone else. Each is responsible for his own action. Each one has been gifted the grace of Free Will. Therefore God cannot force himself on anyone. Yes we can be part of His Kingdom, and the Key to this is Believing.

Believing is spelt out in John 3:16 & 36.

• Believing God Loves us
• Therefore he sent His Son to Save Us
• We acknowledge this and live this belief.
• It is not just a mental exercise
• It is mental in the sense we need to understand and acknowledge Jesus’ deity
• And his love action to put aside the Death Sentence by dying in place of us.
• And yes it is a physical exercise.
• Physical in the sense that now that we know and understand Him to be the Lamb of God, who has taken away the shame of the cause of separation from God
• We need to live this fact, celebrate it in every action, in the words of our speech and in the general way we live.
• There cannot be difference between what we mentally believe and physically live day to day.

I have been challenged also, do I take God’s Word as Truth and live according to this belief or be one with a separation between what I believe and how we live (despair). But do not confuse what God demands of us with how we actually live. We will never be able to live perfectly, yet our tendency in such a situation is to run away when we notice our failure to live without falling time and again. But what God really demands is that we Believe mentally and physically acknowledge our shortcomings and come before Him everyday. It is for Him to change us and He does not do this overnight. He will deal with the most important thing first, and then take you through a thorough and long process to make us in His image.

So Believing holds the balance of your walk with God. What we believe and how we believe is Key. The Truth which we need to believe can be found in the Bible, not in worldly wisdom and customs. So take up the Bible and start reading, this is the starting point. Invite the Holy Spirit to help you understand Gods Wisdom in the Bible correctly. And take everything you understand / do not understand to Jesus and dialogue with Him. Slowly but surly God will lift up the veil from your eyes and you will start noticing Him and His Kingdom around you.