“A faith that saves”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, August 29, 2022

John 8:21-32 (Forward, p. 31) CEV p. 1112

I’m afraid that nothing has changed. Just as people today can hear the same information and have the same experiences and come to entirely different conclusions based on this, so was it in Jesus’ day. Some of His listeners were entirely confused over Jesus’ words. When He said that He was going away, but that none of them could go where He was going, they jumped to the conclusion that He was going to take His own life. And when He spoke about the one who sent Him, they simply could not get it into their heads that He was talking about God. These, Jesus said, would die with their sins unforgiven because they refused to have faith or trust in Him.

And yet, there were many others who heard and saw the very same things and did decide to put their faith in Him. But even here that faith needed to be more than a ‘one-shot’, one time, affair; it needed to be continuing and sustained. As Jesus said, “If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (verses 31-32). So, what a contrast: freedom vs. dying with one’s own sins still unforgiven.

So, what made for a saving faith in one case, but not in another? It is a hard question to answer categorically and definitely, but I cannot wonder whether it has to do with an openness of mind, an openness to hear and then receive what is heard. Here I think of a young man who, in hearing that God knows him, loves him and has a plan for his life, simply said, “I’ll say ‘yes’ to Him. I would be a fool if I didn’t.” And truly that is indeed the case. If God truly cares for us in this way, why wouldn’t we give our lives over to Him? Sadly, unfortunately, there are many who aren’t quite so open, and therein lies their loss. Instead, let each of us always be open to Him, open to His plans, His leading and where He wants us to go. Amen.

Forward notes: “Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’” (verses 31-32)

“People often picture students at desks piled high with books and papers, with their heads and shoulders bent over notebooks. But learning takes place in many ways. Children learn both to tie shoelaces and to tell the truth. Teenagers learn to drive and to control their emotions. As adults, we never stop learning from those who are true teachers.

“Jesus tried to explain that he too was a student when he said to the crowd, ‘I speak these things as the Father instructed me.’ It is not until his crucifixion, though, that they understand the real lesson: ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he.’

“We are invited to continue in Jesus’s Word, to become his followers and students, his disciples. To do that, we need to listen to the lesson taught by the greatest teacher of all, the one whose words come directly from God. The truth will free us from death itself.”

Moving Forward: “Reread today’s scripture passages. What new learning can you glean from them?”