Tag Archives: Gospel

Another look at those who Come to Jesus

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I agree with John Calvin, writing his two volume commentary on the Gospel of John, when he says that the phrase “come to Christ” is used as a metaphor for believing in Christ. And it would be hard to miss the repetition of the phrase “comes to Me” as one reads through John 6:25-65. Examining these verses we can deduce the following:

  • Everyone that comes to Jesus has been given to Jesus by the Father (37)
  • Everyone that comes to Jesus will not be cast out (37, 39)
  • Everyone that comes to Jesus has eternal life (40, 47, 53, 54)
  • Everyone that comes to Jesus will be raised on the last day (40, 44, 54)
  • Everyone that comes to Jesus is drawn by the Father (44)
  • Everyone that comes to Jesus has heard and learned from the Father (45)
  • Everyone that comes to Jesus has been granted by the Father (65)

A person that comes to Jesus can draw great encouragement from the promises that Jesus makes in John 6. They will have eternal life, will be raised on the last day, and will not be cast out or lost. Continue reading →

Come to Jesus – a look at John 6

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Tabgha Mosaic

Tabgha Mosaic

When people use the term “come to Jesus” they are often describing that moment when the “light bulb” goes on and something suddenly becomes clear. It also refers to a moment in time where a crucial decision must be made.

In John chapter 6:25, we join the narrative with a crowd getting out of some boats, having arrived on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. They are heading to the lakeside village of Capernaum where they continue their search for Jesus. When they find Him they also find themselves in a literal “come to Jesus” moment. Continue reading →

Happy Reformation Day

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Originally published on Oct. 30, 2009

Martin Luther

Martin Luther

On Oct. 31, 1517 Martin Luther (reportedly) nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany thus sparking the Protestant Reformation.
The immediate problem Luther was dealing with was the selling of indulgences to pardon sins and free souls from purgatory. This was an offense to the real good news that we are saved by grace through faith!

A few years after posting the 95 Theses Luther would write Concerning Christian Liberty describing the inner and outer man, and the relationship between faith and works. In this work he gives the following illustration:

To make what we have said more easily understood, let us set it forth under a figure. The works of a Christian man, who is justified and saved by his faith out of the pure and unbought mercy of God, ought to be regarded in the same light as would have been those of Adam and Eve in paradise and of all their posterity if they had not sinned. Of them it is said, “The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. ii. 15). Now Adam had been created by God just and righteous, so that he could not have needed to be justified and made righteous by keeping the garden and working in it; but, that he might not be unemployed, God gave him the business of keeping and cultivating paradise. These would have indeed been works of perfect freedom, being done for no object but that of pleasing God, and not in order to obtain justification, which he already had to the full, and which would have been innate in us all.

So it is with the works of a believer. Being by his faith replaced afresh in paradise and created anew, he does not need works for his justification, but that he may not be idle, but may exercise his own body and preserve it. His works are to be done freely, with the sole object of pleasing God. Only we are not yet fully created anew in perfect faith and love; these require to be increased, not, however, through works, but through themselves.

Let’s remember the courage of Martin Luther and other reformers who took a strong stand for Jesus making sure that the truth of the Gospel was clearly taught at a time when it was dangerous to do so.