Witness to the Word: Receiving Jesus

Every human being comes into this world by birth. There’s simply no other way to get here except to be born. And the same is true for those who enter the kingdom of God, you must be re-born.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. [John 1:11-13]

John listed the ways that people mistakenly think they can come to God.

First, he said, this new birth is not of blood, or by natural descent, in other words, not by inheritance, or by human ancestry. What that means for you and me today is that we don’t inherit being Christians because our parents or grandparents were Christians. Being raised in a Christian home and going to church all your life, going to a Christian school, being involved in lots of Christian activities does not automatically make you a Christian.

Next, John listed “the will of the flesh,” or human decision. When you were born into this world, it wasn’t your idea. In fact you didn’t have anything to do with it at all except to be there. It was all your parents’ choice. Being reborn carries with it the same idea that it is God’s gift to you and me out of His grace, His generous, undeserved love. Being reborn is not accomplished by your or my volition. It’s God Who gives new birth.

Third, John brought in “the will of man,” or some translations say “the husband’s will.” In other words, you and I can’t make ourselves Christians through positive thinking, or simply calling ourselves Christians, or by deciding to live a good, Christian life, or turning over a new leaf or any of those things.

By the same token, no one else can decide for you. Your parents couldn’t make you a Christian and neither can a minister or a priest, or your friend who prays for you every day or your spouse, or anyone. This is between you and God.

In the same way, you and I can’t make our children Christians either. Each individual must respond to Jesus’ light on their own terms. This is between each person and God.

No ceremony, no reciting of words or saying special prayers or creeds, or going forward, or performing certain rituals makes a person a Christian. John was saying that God’s children can only be “born of God.”

It is a new birth, accomplished by God within the human heart. Because it is all God’s doing, and no one else’s, it is accomplished beyond any human effort.

And it is available to all who believe the Word, who with their mind accept the facts and understand the light, who with their emotions respond with desire and with their will give themselves to Jesus and receive Jesus as their own.

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Witness to the Word

It might seem strange that John the Baptist would appear so early in John’s account. But this points to one of the heresies that John was combating – there were groups of people in as late as 200 A.D. who were worshiping John the Baptist as the Messiah.

The apostle John had started out as a disciple of John the Baptist; he knew him well. So the apostle John quoted the Baptist several times as saying he was not the Messiah, but a messenger.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. [John 1:6-8]

The emphasis here is right at the end, the Baptist understood that he was not the light, but he was to prepare the people to believe the true light when they saw it.

The task of a witness is to point to the truth. You know the phrase “to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” We use that in a court of law because that is what everyone is expecting the witness to do, to bring out the truth.

In fact everyone who knows Who Jesus really is, is called to be a witness to the truth. Witnessing is both verbal and nonverbal – to keep integrity, the words have to match the life of the person saying the words.

* How well does your life act as a witness to the true light of Jesus? Well how much of Jesus’ light, His wisdom, is active in your life? That’s how you would know.

* How capable are you of telling the whole truth about Jesus? Give it a try today, and see.

The Baptist identified Jesus, Who otherwise looked like an ordinary person, as the true light. Some would be repelled by the light, and others would be drawn to it. Most people did not even recognize the light - in spite of the Baptist’s testimony.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. [John 1:9-10]

The Creator came and the creatures didn’t even know Who He was.

“World” is another word John uses, in most cases, to refer to the created order that is now in rebellion against the Creator. John said that this light was coming into the created order which was now in darkness, in rebellion, against the source of light. The world couldn’t apprehend the light because of spiritual blindness.

But even more amazingly,

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. [John 1:11]

Jesus came to His own home, that’s the sense in the Greek, and even His own people did not recognize Him.

These were the covenant people of God, who had been entrusted with God’s law, His covenants and His promises for thousands of years. These were a people who had been actively waiting for their messiah since the days of Moses. God had specially made these people to be His own treasured possession. Of all people, these people were by far the best equipped to recognize and receive the Messiah.

But they didn’t.

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