Jesus said He is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Jesus said He is the vine and we are the branches. Do you see that it is a relationship with Jesus that He is describing? If a particular sheep does not acknowledge Jesus as his shepherd and goes his own way then that sheep is lost. That "lost sheep" must make a personal choice to enter into a relationship with the shepherd. If a branch does not belong to the vine then it will be thrown into the fire. That "branch" must make a personal choice to enter into a relationship with the true vine. There is no other name (no other person ) that can save us. We receive salvation through Jesus, through our relationship with Jesus. Take a look at the following passages:
Romans 14:10 ...It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.So we can see that each one of us must make a personal choice to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with us. However, He wants much more than just a relationship, He wants an intimate relationship with us based on love and trust and devotion. As we demonstrated earlier (in Part Two), Christians are the bride of Christ. Let's take a look at some of those passages again: Jesus is our "one husband" and we are to be "as a pure virgin to him" with a "sincere and pure devotion to Christ." (2Corinthians 11:2-3). Husbands are to love their wives "just as Christ loved the church" (Ephesians 5:25-32). The apostle Paul said that "a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh," but he said he was "talking about Christ and the church"! (Ephesians 5:25-32):John 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 15:1,4-6 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ... Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
John 5:39-40 ...These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
John 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved...
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
1Thessalonians 5:9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Corinthians 11:2-3 I [the apostle Paul] am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.What other illustrations could the Holy Spirit have given the apostle Paul that would more strongly indicate our intimacy with Christ than the analogy of a husband and wife!Ephesians 5:25-32 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church.
Jesus told us that just as the Father loves Him, so He loves us, and He told us to remain in His love so that His joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete. The apostle Paul elaborated on "this love that surpasses knowledge" so that we will be able "to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ":
John 15:9-11 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 8:39 [nothing] in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1Corinthians 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord--a curse be on him. Come, O Lord !
Ephesians 3:17-18 ...And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge --that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 6:24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
1John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Notice in the following passage that when Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha, Martha loved Jesus and wanted to be the best servant that she could be, but Mary, in her love for Jesus, wanted nothing more than to sit at His feet in a position of intimate devotion. Jesus' reaction was that Mary's desire for intimacy with Him was better than Martha's desire to serve Him:
Luke 10:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
Do you know what Jesus said the two greatest commandments are? The two greatest commandments that God has given us are to love the Lord with everything that is in us and to love our neighbors as ourselves! The stress and the emphasis is always on love!
Mark 12:28-31 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
A husband and wife share a personal and intimate relationship, but they only live with each other. Jesus loves us so much that He lives in us! You can't get much more personal and intimate than to be actually living within a person's heart!
Romans 8:9-10 ...if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.2Corinthians 1:21-22 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
Not only does our Lord want a personal relationship with us, He wants an intimate love relationship with us! He doesn't want us to just "visit" Him in church for an hour on Sundays, He wants to share deep intimacy with us on a daily basis, an hourly basis, in fact every moment of our lives! When we receive our glorified, immortal bodies we will enjoy this deep joy and intimacy with Christ continuously throughout eternity in a way that we cannot even comprehend at the present time ("No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1Corinthians 2:9)).
Dear friends, we're going to need immortal bodies because our mortal, physical bodies could not handle the joy, love, and intimacy that we will be experiencing for all eternity!!!
Everything we have was made by and given to us by God: our money, our possessions, even our very bodies. He owns it all! Jesus purchased our lives with His blood, we owe Him everything! But do we act as if we owe Him everything, do we live our lives in recognition of this fact, not just on Sundays but every day of our lives?
We put money ahead of Him, we put our jobs and careers ahead of Him,
we put our busy lives ahead of Him, we put the desires of our flesh ahead
of Him. Who has deceived us into living this way? For the answer to this
question we invite you to read our three part study on Spiritual Warfare.
Spend some quiet time alone with the Lord every day. Remember, God is
your Daddy, sit quietly with Him. Just be with Him, be His devoted and
adoring child, enjoying the security of your Father's embrace. He is in
control. Leave your problems and worries and petitions with Him.
Let this be a time of quiet, deep intimacy, unlike anything you may have
ever experienced before.
May the God of Peace, Joy, and Love bring you to new levels of
spiritual maturity. Our prayer is that you will live the rest of your life
for Him.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (R). NIV (R). Copyright (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Because of Him;
Rev. Marshall and Ruth Lawson
Lighthouse Ministries
Sussex, New Brunswick
Canada
This material is not copyrighted. Please feel free to copy and distribute it in its entirety for the greater glory of the Lord.