Here, I will lay special emphasis on John 6:60-71 and John 7:37-52.
The Gospel sets before each of us a choice. It is a choice between futility and fullness.
Life without Christ is a life of futility. Life in Christ is fullness
of life. The situation facing us today is strikingly similar to the
situation the first disciples. we are told in John 6:66 that "many of
the disciple drew back and no longer went about with Him." The same
thing is happening today. Many people are turning back from following
Christ.
What are the consequences of their choice?
What is the alternative to their choice?
Peter
answers these questions for us in John 6:68. Jesus has asked the
twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" (John 6:67). Peter replies,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
To
turn away from the Lord Jesus is to head off into a spiritual "no man's
land." There is nowhere else to go. To turn back from following Jesus
is to drift into a life of futility. there is, however, an alternative
to the life of futility. It is Jesus Christ, in whom alone there is
fullness of life.
The contrast between futility and fullness may be
highlighted by stressing the difference between the words of
Ecclesiastes 1:2 and the words of our Saviour in John 10:10.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 describes very aptly the mood of our time:
"Meaningless! Meaningless! ... Utterly meaningless! Everything is
meaningless!"
Into this situation of futility comes the Lord Jesus,
bringing, with Him, fullness of life: "I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full."
If we are to enjoy fullness of life
in Christ, we must go forward in faith, refusing to turn back from
following Christ. as we seek to follow the Lord Jesus, we will soon
discover that there are many obstacles along the way. Jesus makes this
very clear. When He speaks of fullness of life, He also warns us that
there is a "thief (who) comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (John
10:10). There are "thieves" who would steal us away from following
Jesus. these "thieves" seek to kill the life of Christ within us. They
seek to destroy our fellowship with the Lord, leading us away from a
life of fullness to a life of futility. In this spiritual conflict, we
are called to be faithful. Faithfulness to Christ is not something that
we can take for granted. There is always the life of futility,
threatening to pull us away from the fullness of life, which is in
Christ.
We must always remember the real contrast between life without Christ and life with Christ.
In
the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), we see the difference
between futility and fullness. Away from the Father's house, the
prodigal son lived a life of futility. Once he had returned to the
Father's house, he was no longer the prodigal son. He had become the
restored son. he had been restored to a fullness of life, which he
could never have known while he was away from the Father's house. No
matter how long we may have been in the Father's house (or in the
Father's love), we must never forget what life is like away from the
Father's house.
As we look at the two ways of life - the way of
futility and the way of fullness - , we must not look back with a
yearning to return to the old life. rather, we must look back and say,
"That life is over, finished." We must look back and say, "That way
-the way of futility - is a dead-end street, a road that leads me
nowhere. I have no wish to return to that life." As we look back, we
must learn to say, with thanksgiving to God, "I was lost but now I am
found" (Luke 15:32).
What is the life of fullness into which the Lord Jesus brings us?
Peter, in John 6:68, describes it as eternal life - "You have the words of eternal life."
Jesus,
in John 7:37-39, stresses that this life is not to be written off as
'pie in the sky when you die', life in a far-away and distant heaven,
life which has no relevance for our life here-and-now. It begins with
the new life of the Spirit.
Once, I was speaking at a meeting which
had two sessions. During the first session, I stressed that eternal
life is not merely 'pie in the sky when you die.' During the interval,
someone said to me that it's also 'steak on the plate while you wait.'
Jesus does not only give us a place in heaven. he also gives us
fullness of life here-and-now,
This fullness of life, this new life
in the Spirit, is described by Jesus in John 7:38 - "He who believes in
Me ... Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." Through the
power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can look at the many temptations
to return to the life of futility and we can say, "We are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). With the Spirit of
the living God in our hearts, we can "see the sights that dazzle", and
we can turn from them to the solid joys which only Christ can give. we
have the new life of the Spirit, the fullness of life in Christ. We can
say, "Fading is the worldling's pleasure", for we know that the world
can offer us nothing which even begins to compare with Jesus Christ. No
longer is there "a God-shaped blank" in our lives. Jesus has filled our
lives with His fullness - the fullness of a love which will never let
us go, the fullness of a love which will never let us down, the
fullness of a love which leads us onward to victory and upward to
heavenly glory.