Wednesday 15 Sep 2021

September 15: John 12:30-36
 
Key Verse: John 12:32
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
 
Devotion:
If you are worried about how you explain Christ to others, think about how Jesus had to explain Himself to the people! Jesus knew what was going to happen, but did not want to totally discourage people by saying He was going to die outright, after all the scriptures talk about a Messiah who is going to come and be with the people of Israel forever...
 
The easiest way I find of talking about Jesus is to remind people He became a real human being in order to accomplish what had to be done. If He remained as God, He would not have been able to die. But, by lowering His status temporarily to human form, He was able to lay down His life so the scriptures could be fulfilled!
 
Thus, by physically laying down His life, He was able to be raise up Physically to show us He has authority over death so we do not have to worry about physical death. He also showed the physical death did not take away what "He is" because that lived on in His soul or spirit; so coming back to life He had total recall of everything which had happened beforehand.
 
So when you have to try and explain things again – think of yourself in parts just like God – after all, He made us in His image. We have a physical body which will die in the end, but we also have a soul and a spirit through which we continue to live on even after physical death. The most joyous thing is God will raise our physical bodies in the end just we Jesus was raised up. We don't have to understand the minutia of everything, just believe in what Christ has already achieved by example.
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you get worried what will happen?
 
Take comfort in how Jesus lived, dies and was raised up again!