What happens when a process in finished? What happens at the end of an assembly line? What happens when a woman has carried a baby for nine months? When you see big, red, juicy apples hanging heavily on a tree, don’t you just want to pick one and eat it? When things are at the end of their process, when they mature and meet their intended design, then they are ready to be fully used.
When God’s love is fully at work in our lives then we are meeting God’s design for us. There is a connection that wasn’t there before. We live in Him and He lives in us. This is something new, something unexpected. And we know this because God’s Spirit lives in us. We get a taste of intimacy with God. We don’t have the full measure of God’s Spirit. Our human bodies couldn’t take all of God in us. I think we would explode. The sin in us would have to be removed. Kapowee!
So how could John be so confident in what he was writing? That is easy. He had been any eyewitness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. He had been there on the Day of Pentecost and was filled with the Spirit. The message had been confirmed repeatedly as he and the other Jesus-followers had scattered and spread the Good News. Everywhere they went people accepted the message and were transformed by the power of God. There is no other logical explanation for this explosive growth other than the reality of Jesus being sent by the Father as the Savior of the world.
And yet people still try to explain away the transformation that happens across time and cultures. They just can’t accept the reality of Jesus. To do so would require admitting their sinfulness and their powerlessness to stop its ravages. To do so would mean that their way of living was a lie. The Gospel means dying to the old way of life and choosing to live in line with God’s character instead of our own.
Narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it. This dying to self is hard work. I am sure dying as an innocent for the guilty was pretty tough as well. But that is exactly what Jesus did. Some call it the Great Exchange. His life for our life.
How much are you testifying about Jesus? How much with words? How much with action?
The Arnold Journey 