Yesterday we talked about the one the serpent addressed Eve with there in Genesis 3. His question was in regard to God’s word or command. “Has God said...?”, the serpent asked her, as if sowing a seed of doubt on what God declared. So subtle...so profound and yet, so effective it would turn out to be.
There’s another profound question we see in the NT and it was asked by Jesus. He had come across a man who had been lame for 38 years. The scripture uses words like he was ‘infirm’ and had a ‘sickness’, but it is quite clear that he was unable to walk. Walk, I might add, in the manner in which he was created or designed to walk. (1 John 2:6 tells us how WE are supposed to walk IF we are abiding in Jesus) He was lame an unable to do so...due to some form of illness. We have no idea why or how he ended up in this condition.
And Jesus saw him lying there...knowing he had been in that condition a long time. (You can read this all in John 5:1-15).
So Jesus asked him: “Do you want to be made well?”
Don’t you find that to be a peculiar question? I do. I mean...wouldn’t the answer be obvious? Of course he wants to be made well...right? Well, Jesus asked him that very question and He must have had some reason for doing so.
Do you suppose it is possible that some folks really don’t want to be ‘made well’? Have you ever known people like that? Come to think of it...we probably have all come across people who really don’t want change as they have grown quite comfortable remaining in their place of misery. It is tragic and hard to understand, but sadly, it is true.
Do you know why God sent Jesus into the world? He came to ‘seek and to save the lost’. (Luke 19:10). According to the bible, we were ‘all like sheep who had gone astray’. (Isa. 53:6)
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”. (John 3:17). If you read the next few verses, it indicates that He came as ‘light’ or truth but...not everyone came to this ‘light’ because men loved darkness rather than the light. (19)
So I would think this supports the theory that not all men want to be ‘made well’. But that has never stopped God from reaching out to us ‘lost sheep’. We read that the eyes of God continue to roam throughout the earth looking for hearts that will turn to Him so that He might show himself strong to them. (2 Chron. 16:9). It has never been His will for ANY to perish. (2 Pet. 3:9)
There is a beautiful and insightful passage found in Ps. 107. We read how there was a people who ‘sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons.’ (10). You might also make note of Luke 1:79 as well.
And would you care to know how these people ended up in such a condition? The very next verse tells us: - “Because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High”. (11)
Look at vs. 17 which adds: “Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, they were afflicted.” (Would you read that one more time, please?)
Continuing on...’they drew near to the gates of death...and then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.” They ‘cried out to the Lord’.
Now here is where it gets really good. - “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.’ (20). HOW....did God do this?
He. Sent. His. Word. And. Healed. Them.
John opens his gospel with this oratory...”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” (1:1,14)
We also read that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” (11-12)
There seems to be something...substantial, significant, even in the realm of miraculous and powerful to this ‘Word’ that God sends to us. Not just any word, but His word. Which might explain why this invisible enemy, known as the devil, would seek to hinder or thwart us receiving God’s word. Do we not read in the parable of the sower ...as to who comes immediately to snatch the word from men’s hearts lest they believe and are...saved?” (Luke 8:12)
I mean let’s be honest...did we not read yesterday in my post how the serpent showed up immediately there in Gen. 3 to hinder, cast doubt, and refute God’s word? “Hath God said?”, he asked the woman regarding God’s command about eating off that one tree?
God said: “...for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” (2:17). Now those folks we read about in Ps. 107....what was the reason they ended up in chains and in darkness and afflicted? (vs. 11 in case you forgot)
Enter talking serpent...he cast doubt as to what God even said...then proceeds to flat out say something just the opposite to Eve: “You will not surely die.” (3:4)
Then comes the ‘spin’ and justification...according to the deceiver saying how God knew that if they ate off the tree that their eyes would be opened and they would be like God. (5)
Here’s what is amazing about this ‘spin’ that Eve hears and believes...the serpent tells her if she eats off this tree, she ‘will be like God’. Would you flip back to Gen. 1:26-27 and read how God made them to begin with please.
Do you see it? Eve was ALREADY LIKE God...created IN HIS Image and Likeness. Satan had to convince her something was lacking and that he could provide that by rebelling against what God had clearly stated in His word.
So when Paul expresses concerns that we (modern day believers) could be led astray in the same manner that Eve was, by the serpent, (2 Cor. 11:3), it will always tie back to how we regard and...respond to His word.
Reading on, we are told that Eve ‘saw that the tree was good for food, (lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes, (lust of the eyes), and a tree desirable to make one wise, (pride of life), she took of its fruit and ate.’ (3:6)
She then gave some to her husband and he ate and their eyes were indeed opened. (7)
You might go make a short visit to 1 John 2:16-17 were we are told that all that is in the world (which we are told not to love and get attached to -15) is made up of the ‘lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’. But...he who does the will of God abides forever. (17). As in, who does what God says. And He gives us the same choice He gave Adam and Eve. Choose life or choose death.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will (word) of My Father who is in heaven.’ (Matt. 7:21)
Which brings us back to that profound question asked by Jesus: “Do you want to be made well?” Do you truly want a genuine change in your life? (Remember, Jesus said it’s not the healthy that need a physician but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance-Mark 2:17)
The gospel Jesus came preaching was not another ‘self-help-book’ to be used to improve your life. It is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. (Rom. 1:16). But just like those servants at the wedding in Cana who desperately needed a miracle of transformation (water changed to wine-John 2) there was one single factor that would be needed to be followed in order for this miracle to take place. Mary, the mother of Jesus, made it known to them when she instructed: “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5)
Being just a ‘hearer’ of the word, or familiar with it or even a ‘student’ of it, will never be enough. You have to be a ‘doer’ of the word. (James 1:22). And Peter would later drive home the point as to why all this is so serious. You can read that in Acts 3:22-23.
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