I developed in a very conservative religious community. As a very young man and relatively new believer I memorized John 3:16 with its assurance of God’s love, but I was also taught that those who played cards, danced, smoked, went to movies, or experimented with sex were not likely to go to heaven. When I went to Bible College I was taught that those who were not baptized couldn’t go to heaven, and that baptism had to be by immersion or it didn’t count. As a young minister I was counseled to avoid losers like alcoholics, drug users, divorced people, and criminals, lest their influence take me to hell along with them.
If they could only see me now.
A reading of the gospels shatters many of the stereotypes that were part of American culture in the 50’s and 60’s. I have lived a life of difficult passages, and I’m glad to be where I am now. Along the way I have had much of the poor teaching ground out of me. I have been humbled more times than I can remember or count. Along the way the grace of God took form and growing importance in my life. First, because it is only by his grace that I could ever be saved. Second, because the rest of the human race is in the same boat.
That’s why I have grown to love, and then memorize, John 5:24 and its following verses. The word of Jesus…”I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”
Lovely! It’s not how I was baptized, or who I associated with, or how orthodox I’ve been. It has nothing to do with me, save that I hear his word and believe God. Or, as the apostle Paul later said in his letter to the church in Ephesus: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
“…WHOEVER hears my word and believes him who sent me HAS ETERNAL LIFE (!!!!)…he has crossed over from death to LIFE.” That’s you. That’s me. That’s incredible!
Prayer: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness. With you, amazing grace. And all the sins I’ve ever committed, washed away. Amazing!!”