Fear No Fear

“Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24, MEV). Jesus tells us the TRUTH. When He said ‘truly, truly’ He was making a strong statement of truth. It was serious. It was not metaphorical. Jesus is saying that the words He is about to say are EXTREMELY important. Jesus is telling us that our salvation is rooted in what Jesus said and our BELIEF in God. It is NOT rooted in WORKS. Jesus didn’t preach a series of RULES, but principles of TRUST. Jesus talk BELIEF and TRUST. And IF we believed and IF we trusted in God, we wouldn’t be able to HELP ourselves from performing His works (James 2:14-26). Paul preached the SAME gospel message (Romans 10:8-10). They were NOT lying to us. Our salvation is because of what is in our hearts, what we believe, and whether or not we are willing to choose to trust in Jesus. To trust in Holy Spirit. To trust in the Father. To be willing to have a relationship with God (John 17:3). It takes some effort. We have to humble ourselves. Put God first. That’s the cross we have to carry on a DAILY basis (Luke 9:23). The good news is that our WORKS aren’t required for admission. If we miss it, we’ve stumbled. We haven’t launched ourselves in the opposite direction. If we forget to do something, we haven’t spit on the Throne. We WILL miss it. We WILL do wrong. Because we are selfish and if for a moment we forget to trust in Jesus, we will be choosing US and not HIM. That’s why Holy Spirit is with us. To convict us of not trusting Jesus. To guide us into and through His Word. To correct us. To help us through the process of REPENTANCE when we align our thinking with God’s thinking and CHOOSE Him over us (1 John 1:5-10). And it all comes down to what we BELIEVE and what we choose to TRUST. It all comes down to hearing Jesus’ words and deciding that HIS way is THE Way. Jesus loved us enough to spare us decades of empty effort. Jesus loved us enough to tell us the truth about receiving and walking in salvation.