The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Psalm 25:14

The knowledge of the LORD and understanding of His covenant of mercy toward us is revealed to those who honor and revere the LORD God for who He is.

Through His Word, the Spirit of God reveals to us our utter sinfulness and failures to keep His holy commandments but also reveals to us our Savior, the Son of God made man that He might keep the law for us and bear the curse and punishment for all our sins by His innocent sufferings and death upon the cross.

Jesus Christ, by His atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world, established a new covenant of mercy and forgiveness whereby all who trust in Christ are forgiven and accepted by God as His dear children. Under this new covenant, their sins are washed away in Jesus’ blood and God grants to them the everlasting joys of heaven.

Show us Your truth, O God and reveal to us Your covenant of mercy in Christ Jesus, our God and Savior. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.” 1 John 5:1

Do you remember when Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matt. 16:13)? And when His disciples answered, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (v. 14), Jesus asked His disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 15).

What did Peter, speaking for all the disciples, answer? “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16).

Do you see the difference? Most people recognize that Jesus was a great teacher and prophet because of His words and miracles, but only those to whom the Spirit reveals Jesus’ true nature and identity recognize Jesus for who He really was and is: “The Christ, the Son of the living God.”

As Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (v. 17), so it is a true blessing, of God’s gracious working, to recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah (the Christ) and Savior of the world.

And what does John say of love? Those who love their Father in heaven who gave life to them by bringing them to faith in Christ Jesus will also love those begotten of their heavenly Father. They will love their brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus because they recognize that the same God who generated them and gave them faith and life also did so for their fellow believers.

And, such love for our fellow believers is evidence of our rebirth from above – of our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We love God when we come to know His love toward us in Jesus Christ and His innocent sufferings and death in our stead. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ because God loves them, too, and gives them salvation for the sake of Jesus.

Reveal to me Jesus as the promised Messiah, Your Son and my Savior, O God. Grant that I see and take hold of Your great love toward me in Jesus, and grant that I also love You in return and love my fellow believers, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (Read John 15:1-6)

Can a man do good works in God’s sight without having saving faith in Jesus Christ? Many would say “Yes” to this question, but Jesus says “No.”

In the Parable of the Vine and the Branches, Jesus teaches us that only those who abide in Him — those who are connected to Him through saving faith — are able to produce fruit acceptable to the LORD God; and God the Father will cut off those branches which produce no fruit for Him. He also prunes and purges those branches which do produce fruit that they might bring forth more fruit for Him.

Those who through faith are joined to Jesus Christ have forgiveness for all their sins and evil works. They are clean through the Word of the Gospel spoken to them — all their sins are washed away by the precious blood of Jesus which was shed upon the cross for the sins of the whole world!

As long as they have true and saving faith in Christ and His redemptive work, they will be fruitful and do works which are acceptable and pleasing in God’s sight. This is so because Christ, by the indwelling Holy Spirit, abides in them and empowers them to live for Him, and because the sin and impurity yet in their works is forgiven and not held against them.

Apart from saving faith in Jesus Christ, one cannot do good works in God’s sight, for one remains spiritually dead to God and unable to truly love Him and honor Him with pure and holy works. He is like a branch which has been severed from the vine. It will not produce grapes but will wither up and eventually be thrown into the fire and be burned.

So also, the one who does not trust in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for forgiveness and life will not only be unable to do good works in God’s sight; he will be gathered up on the Last Day, together with all others who were unbelieving and fruitless, and be cast into the eternal fires of hell!

Abide with richest blessings among us, bounteous Lord; let us in grace and wisdom grow daily through Thy Word. Abide, O faithful Savior, among us with Thy love; grant steadfastness and help us to reach our home above. Amen. (TLH, Hymn #53, Verses 4,6)

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Many would attempt to place Biblical Christianity alongside the other religions of this world as if it can be viewed as one of many ways to worship and serve God and obtain eternal rewards. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Jesus, the founder of the Christian Faith, makes it very clear that Christianity is an exclusive religion and that the only way to come to God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, is through faith in Him as God the Son and God’s Messiah and Savior!

After speaking of the many mansions (or dwelling places) in His Father’s house, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Jesus and His cross are the only way to achieve fellowship with God the Father. He is the truth and only His doctrine is truth. And, only through faith in Him and His innocent sufferings and death on the cross for the sins of the world is there life in fellowship with God now and forever in the mansions of His Father’s House.

Jesus, through His teaching, reveals our utter sinfulness and failures to measure up to the demands of God’s holy law (cf. Matthew 5:20). And He calls upon all to trust in Him and His cross for life everlasting.

Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:14ff.). And He also said: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (3:18; cf. 3:36; 5:23-24; 8:24).

This means that all the other religions and “isms” of this world are false – lies of the devil – and can save no one. Those practicing Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, etc. may be fine people in this world but they are deceived and lost forever. Even within the outward pale of Christianity, those who do not acknowledge their utter sinfulness and look solely to the crucified and risen Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and life everlasting are lost forever and will suffer in the fires of hell!

It is as Peter testified of Jesus before the Jewish rulers and people: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

So, can Jesus and Christianity be lumped together with the other religions of this world as equally valid ways to God? Not according to Jesus and Biblical Christian doctrine! It is as John writes in his first epistle (1 John 5:11-12): “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, grant that we see the exclusiveness of true Christianity and place our hope and our faith solely in You and Your cross for our salvation. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible]

“And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” John 20:30-31

Why was the Bible written? And, why does it not tell us of every miracle and word of Jesus?

Why was the Bible written? The apostle John answers that for us when he says: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

The teaching and the miracles of Jesus recorded in the Bible are there for us to read that we might believe that Jesus truly is the promised Messiah, the very Son of God in human flesh come to be our Savior, and that believing we might have life eternal through His name.

The apostle Paul also encouraged Timothy to continue in “the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

And, why does the Bible not tell us every miracle and include every word preached or taught by Jesus? John also answers that when he writes: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” (John 21:25).

But the Bible provides us with enough witnessed accounts of Jesus’ life, His teaching, His miracles, His sufferings, His death and His resurrection that we might, by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, come to know and believe in Jesus as our God and Savior. The Bible provides us with all that we need to know to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus and atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world.

God grant that we read and believe the witness of the Bible and place our faith in Christ Jesus and His sufferings, death and resurrection that we, too, might have life through His name. Amen.