I spent years arguing about whether God chose me or I chose God. Scholars on both sides warned me that the other position was unbiblical, dangerous, or even heretical. The debate taught me to think about the Bible as an ammo depot. I developed a habit of going to the Scriptures to get armed for battle. But when I viewed the Bible as a battleground, it distracted me from looking at Jesus.
John 6:35-47
"I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. But as I told you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." Therefore the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Isn't this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. "Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life."
If we're approaching it from an either-or framework, Jesus seems to contradict himself. He says, "Everyone the Father gives me will come to me" and "Anyone who believes has eternal life." But if we listen to Jesus in the context of relationship, the tension disappears. When I'm anxious about God's love, trying harder doesn't help. If the first prayer of salvation didn't do it, neither will the second or the third. No matter how many times we get baptized, go to church, avoid a particular sin, or beg God for forgiveness, we still suspect it isn't enough. Jesus puts our concerns to rest. His message reassures us that he doesn't want us to ever hunger or thirst again. He promises that not only will he never cast us out or lose us, but he pledges to give us eternal life and to raise us up on the final day of judgment. By contrast, if I am taking God for granted, I need my complacency disturbed. When I treat faith as an intellectual exercise so I can justify hiding my heart from him, Jesus warns me. The crowd grumbled about his credentials, even though they had just witnessed him miraculously multiplying bread and crossing the Sea of Galilee without a boat. Jesus isn't asking them to believe in the absence of evidence. He's the Word become flesh, speaking directly to them. They are hearing the divine voice in their ears. It's echoing in their hearts. And yet they say, "But what about his parents?" I don't remember the moment my attitude towards this debate shifted, but it happened sometime during ten years of campus ministry. Students who wanted to fight about theology rarely seemed to grow. But people who had the humility to recognize their need for God and approached Jesus for help? It's the difference between being malnourished and well-fed. Jesus is the Bread of Life. Stop grumbling. Come and eat. The feast will never end.
Do you feel a greater need for reassurance of God's love, or the warning to stop grumbling and come?
Has the Bible ever felt more like an ammo depot than a way to encounter Jesus?
What's one theological debate you might need to put on the back burner to focus on knowing God?
Tell God, "I trust that your love for me is complete, eternal, and secure. I bring you my hunger and my thirst. Please be the one who satisfies me today." When you're done praying, share this study with a friend.
Get 5 practical emails to help you follow Jesus with a friend.
121 friends have opened a study shared with them.
If any organization should have represented God well, it was Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. I worked...
"The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You...
I was on a global Skype call with RZIM's senior leaders and Ravi Zacharias himself—the famous apologist whose...