The thing that made me read this again is this statement, ‘…If you follow me…’ We need to understand that when we accept Jesus we are not trying to learn to lead we are learning to obey. Our obedience is what makes us change and our change is what shows that we belong to Christ. The Pharisee’s believed in a Messiah but they only thought in the worldly sense of who he would be. We must let go of this world and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord.
In verse 23 Jesus says, “You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world, I do not.” When we accept Jesus for who He is we must surrender our will and our thoughts and let our worldly flesh go. Jesus continues in verse 24 by saying, “That is why I said that you will die in your sin; for unless you believe that I am who I claim to be, you will die in your sin.” The Pharisee’s wanted so badly to have the Messiah come but they weren’t willing to listen and follow. I love what Jesus says to some believes in John chapter 8 verses 31-32, “Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Our belief is shown by our faith and our faith is shown by our surrender because we believe. As we read on in John chapter 8 Jesus goes on to share this in verse 51, “I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!” The most amazing thing about this is that Jesus came to this world, God in the flesh, surrendering all for us because He obeyed the Father. He knows what needs to be done and he prayed often so His relationship stayed fresh. Verses 54 and 55 are great examples of our Lord obeying and working on glorifying the Father. “If I want the glory for myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who will glorify me. You say, ‘He is our God, but you don’t even know Him, I know Him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But I do know Him and obey Him.”
As we open our hearts and learn we grow in our understanding and we also grow our relationship so we desire to obey and desire to follow what Jesus has already done. Then we see our Lord and we work hard to emulate His life and we forget ours. This is a never ending process of our relationship that is so worth our time. Let’s be thankful and let God work in us to move us to be different. Amen