March 25, 2016
John 5:24
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
The month of March reminds me of that old saying about this month’s weather: “In like a lion, out like a lamb!” Since the month encompasses the last of winter, the weather frequently comes roaring in! But on March 21 Spring returns. And we often see the outgoing weather more pleasant and gentle, like a lamb!
I see a spiritual application in this old weather saying. Consider what Jesus tells us in John 5:24:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes in Him
who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but
has passed from death into life.
I chose this Scripture because it shows perhaps as well as any other the instantaneous change that occurs in an individual’s life when they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior! Here is how that change is described in The Sermon Bible Commentary:
This life which Christ offers to every man is a present possession; it is a
fact. The moment that you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you live,
and there is no more death….The elements of death are taken away. You
did die with Christ upon the Cross, as a member of His mystical body. Now
you essentially live with Christ; therefore, there is no more death for ever
and ever.
We come into this Christian life “like a lion”! How so? In I Peter 5:8 it tells us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Satan’s nature and purpose, according to John 10:10, is “…to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” That’s who he is and what he does! Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.” And it is not just the scribes and Pharisees that are fathered by the devil! We all are, for we all carry his sin nature! (See Romans 3:10, 23; 5:12). Such a nature is more often than not gentled by the moral and social standards of our upbringing, but it is not eradicated by moral and social standards! Our condition is only changed by receiving a new nature when we come to Christ (see II Corinthians 5:17); and when we then nourish and depend on the Holy Spirit’s leading of that new nature! As it says in Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (See also Colossians 3:8-10).
How do we go out like a lamb? When John the Baptist, in John 1:29, “…saw Jesus coming toward him…[he] said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And Jesus is referred to as “the Lamb” 27 times in the book of Revelation! When we come to Christ and accept Him into our heart and life as our Savior, when we are born again, as Jesus described salvation to Nicodemus in John 3:3 through 8, He imparts to us His very nature – the nature of the Lamb of God!
Now let’s go back to our featured Scripture, John 5:24: The moment we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – that He is the only Savior, and that I am the needy sinner – the following changes instantaneously take place:
• We go from spiritual death to eternal life! (See John 11:25, 26; I John 5:11-13).
• We go from being ‘Godless’ to having God the Holy Spirit living in us! (See Romans 8:9-11; Ephesians 2:12, 13).
• We are no longer on our way to hell, but destined for heaven! (See Matthew 25:46; John 3:15, 16, 36; Colossians 1:5; I Peter 1:4).
• We receive a new heart, sensitive to God! (See Ezekiel 18:31; 36:26; I Corinthians 2:14-16).
• We change residences – from Satan’s kingdom to God’s! (See Colossians 1:12-14).
There is so much more that occurs the moment we open our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ. The above is but a sampling! So be sure you are like the month of March! Come to the Savior, and you will “come in like a lion, and go out like the Lamb”!