“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.” – Hebrews 13:8 NIV
Most of us may believe that Jesus Christ
changes His mind all the time or sometimes so that we think the Spirit of God,
whom is within us as an advocate, also changes. This is because we receive His
Spirit once we commit our lives to Jesus Christ and decide to follow Him until
the end of the age, as the Spirit of God is the one who guides us to do the
will of God until the end of the age (John 14:15-27). Hence, this is the reason why
Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected (John 16:7-15). Nevertheless, we think that
following Him until the end of the age is too hard, due to the fact that the
weight of the law of God burdens us and we cannot actually see the freedom.
Thus, for this reason, we would rather travel in the freedom that we consider
to get to the kingdom of the heaven.
Yes, following Jesus Christ until the end
of the age is hard to everyone, who has devoted their lives to Him, since He
declares, “Enter by the narrow gate. For
the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who
enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to
life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14) However, the Spirit of God
is also the Spirit of the freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17) and the Spirit of the
truth (John 16:7-15). In addition to this, Jesus
Christ has called us to come to Him and rest in Him because of the burdens of
the worldly laws, and because His laws are gentle (Matthew 11:28-30). The Spirit of God does
not force us to do the will of God and does not change but the Spirit empowers
us to do the will of God from time to time (2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Acts 1:8) In fact, God is omniscient God,
which means He knows everything (Romans 11:33-36) even before when we are
born (Psalm 139:13-18).
What then? Shall
we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you
know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are
slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,
or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the
pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set
free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
I am using an
example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used
to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so
now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you
were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What
benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those
things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have
become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:15-23)
Furthermore, we cannot be justified with
God by only doing works for Him in our own ways. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For
we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) Instead of doing works
for Him first, we should rather let God to pursue us, which means letting the
Spirit of God to work powerfully within us before we do the will of God (Matthew 7:21-23). The Spirit of God is
available to everybody, and God is willing to pour His Spirit into us. In fact,
Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God (Colossians 1:15) is currently knocking on
the door of our hearts, whose hearts has not been yet opened to Him, to fully
come in and dwell within us (Revelation 3:20) through faith (Ephesians 3:14-21).
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by
all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated
and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior
appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because
of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so
that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope
of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these
things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote
themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for
everyone. (Titus 3:3-8)
Since Hebrews 13:8 proclaims, “Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday and today and forever,” what is your new
year’s resolution is going to be? As for me, my new year resolution is going to
be putting my obedience more to Him because I believe that I was not fully
obedient to Him. The main reason for this is that I think I kept on resisting the
Spirit of God, especially while I am watching television. This happen to me few
times in the past years. If this keeps happening, there would be no point for
me to follow Jesus Christ until the end of the age. This is because Romans 12:1-2 and Matthew 16:24-27 say that we have to
sacrifice and deny our selfish desires if we want to become true follower of
Jesus Christ. Therefore, I think my main verses of this year would be James 1:5-8 that declares, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask
God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to
you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person
should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is
double-minded and unstable in all they do.”
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