Saturday 13th July
Read John 10:34-39
“Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your Law, “I have said you are ‘gods’”? 35 If he called them “gods”, to whom the word of God came – and Scripture cannot be set aside – 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, “I am God’s Son”? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.’ 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.” (NIVUK)
The blind man, when challenged as to who Jesus is by the Jewish leaders, answered quite simply. Whoever He is, He must be godly, because no one ungodly can do the things He did. ‘I was blind, but now I see.’ (John 9:25). Jesus repeats the argument. What He does testifies to who He is (v38).
The old saying that ‘actions speak louder than words’ is no more true than here. It remains just as true for us. John states as much as a letter to later believers.
“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” (1 John 3:7-10) (NIVUK).
True faith is not abstract in any way – it is evidenced by actions. As with the Lord, so with His people.
