salvation

  • John 15:1-8

    What It Means to Abide in Jesus.

    Jesus gives us a beautiful illustration in John 15. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we will have life and bear fruit.

  • 1 Corinthians 1

    Being In Christ Jesus.

    Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, there isn’t much for a Christian to boast about. Therefore, there is no greater expression of the Christian life than the words in verse 30: "it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus." The phrase "in Christ Jesus" is repeated in the beginning of many of Paul’s letters. The phrase can become commonplace and lose the depth behind these familiar words. However, they underpin the several doctrines of the Christian faith.

  • John 14:7-15

    Believe in Jesus, Who Is Enough.

    The conversation with the disciples continues in John 14:7-15. Jesus is going away, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Their hearts are troubled.

    Philip, representing all the disciples, desires more. He wants to see the Father and that will be enough (John 14:8). The problem from Philip’s perspective is bigger than who he sees Jesus as being. Yet, Jesus is enough. Enough for the disciples then, and enough for each believer now.

  • John 14:1-6

    Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

    John 14 opens in the midst of Jesus’s dialogue, a continuation from the previous chapter. The evening had begun with Jesus, their Rabbi and Messiah, humbly washing the disciples’ feet, followed by Jesus’s troubling statements that He was going away, and they could not come.

    The disciples are troubled. Jesus leaving them is an unimaginable situation for the those who had left everything to follow Him. Though they claim they would lay down their lives for Him, Jesus predicts that the disciples will fail Him.

  • John 12:12-19

    The Triumphal Entry of Christ.

    The Scriptures describe past military parades and conquests of Israel’s kings (1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles) as well as one to come (Rev. 6). John 12:12-19 is an explanation of the Christian’s greatest parade of conquest to this point in spiritual history. Recorded in all four gospels, the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover is the commencement of Christ’s passion week. We see an irony of faith in this grand parade for the Son of God who has come to suffer and die for the sin of the world.

  • John 11:45-57

    Symptoms of Unbelief

    John 11 marks the turn of Jesus’s public ministry to His private ministry. Jesus states that the purpose for the death and resurrection of Lazarus is the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified (John 11:4). The response to this miracle by the Jews and the religious leaders is the focus of the remainder of this chapter. Though some Jews believe in Jesus because of this miracle (John 11:45), many who were eyewitnesses to the death and resurrection of Lazarus do not believe in Him (John 11:46). We see unbelief acknowledge the miracle but resist submitting to the lordship of Christ.

  • John 11:38-44

    The Power of Jesus Even Over Death

    Many scholars have called the raising of Lazarus, Jesus’s seventh sign and last public sign, the climax of Jesus’s ministry and the greatest of His public signs. In this chapter, John is preparing the reader for the cornerstone of our faith in Jesus Christ, which is the resurrection of the dead. We cannot have Christianity without the resurrection, and there cannot be resurrection without Jesus having authority over death.

  • John 10:22-42, Part 2

    Attributes of God Manifested in Jesus Christ.

    During the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22) and only three months away from crucifixion, Jesus is confronted for the final time in His public ministry by the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus’s desire for these religious leaders to believe is an act of His mercy, an attribute of God manifested in Christ. Though not mentioned in this passage, the twelve disciples are witnessing the debate between Jesus and the religious unbelief at Solomon’s portico (John 10:23). It was customary for open theological debates to occur during festivals and for followers to be near their Rabbi. Jesus’s followers were only three years old in Christ or less. Though Jesus is specifically addressing unbelief, He is mindful of those listening to Him and how His words might strengthen them. Just as Peter had to be instructed by Paul (Galatians 2), it is normal for the followers of Jesus to become unsettled at times by circumstances and situations.

  • John 10:22-42

    The Mercy, Patience, and the Long Suffering of Jesus.

    We learn in John 10:22-23 that Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication, a national holiday not mentioned in the Old Testament. It was winter, and Jesus walked in the portico where it would have been warmer. Here, Jesus was confronted for the final time in His public ministry by the religious leaders. Only three months away from crucifixion, Jesus boldly proclaimed (John 10:30) that He and His Father are one, and the Jews picked up stones to kill Him (John 10:31).

  • John 10:1-18

    Jesus, the Door and the Good Shepherd.

    In John 10, Jesus refers to Himself twice as the door/gate as well as the Good Shepherd twice. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees (John 9:40), the religious leaders and spiritual shepherds of the Jewish people. These men, spiritually blind and deaf to the truth of Jesus (John 10:6), are causing division (John 10:19).

  • John 8:31-59

    True Confessing Faith

    As Jesus continues to teach from the temple during the Feast of Tabernacle, He interacts with religious unbelief. We learn from John 8:30-31 that some have proclaimed faith in Jesus. The life of a true believer will bear forth the fruit of repentance. While some profess faith in Christ, others confess faith in Him. This passage in John helps us discern between profession and confession. Earlier in this book, we read how some professed faith in Jesus as King, trying to forcibly crown Him. However, these people did not confess Him as Savior and Lord. John writes his gospel with the purpose of proving that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that we might believe, and in believing, that we might have life through His name, not just professing but confessing Him as Lord.

  • John 7:14-24

    Knowledge, Love, and Obedience.

    John 7 is a chapter full of assessments as people try to figure out who Jesus is and Jesus continues to make statements of Himself and His divine authority. It occurs in the middle of the week-long festival of booths, just 6 months before He would be tortured and crucified for our sin.

  • John 7:1-14

    A Time to Assess.

    John writes his gospel three decades after the other gospel writers with the purpose of proving that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that we might believe, and in believing, that we might have life through His name. It is interesting to note that John 1-11 covers almost three years, while John 12-21 covers three days. A chapter of assessment, John 7:1-14 is specifically an assessment of the situation. Jesus is at the end of His Galilean ministry and has reached the zenith of His popularity. In Galilee, not even Jesus’s biological brothers are believing in Him (John 7:5), and the fury against Christ in Jerusalem is increasing as the head Jews seek to kill Him (John 7:1). Knowing His death will be the following year in Jerusalem, Jesus proceeds with the wisdom of God to perfectly observe the Mosaic feasts as the sinless Son of God.

  • John 6:22-71

    I AM the Bread of Life.

    John places a discourse of teaching before or after each of the miracles he writes about. A chief discourse is found in John 6:22-71 after the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus' walking on the water. In this passage, Jesus is at the end of His Galilean ministry. Having fed the 5,000, He and His disciples are along the shores of the Sea of Galilee near Jesus’s hometown. Those who have been fed and healed have found their way to the other side of the lake, marveling that Jesus is there too, knowing He had not set out in the boat with His disciples the evening before.

  • John 5:39-47

    The Third Witness of Who Jesus Is.

    John 5 is a robust chapter recounting Jesus’ time spent in Jerusalem telling religious unbelievers that He is God. This is where threats upon Jesus’ life begin. For the next 3 years, He lives under these threats because of His works and His words, which proclaim that He is God.

  • John 4:46-54

    Obedience with Divine Purpose

    Jesus modeled for us perfectly how to trust and obey the Father with divine purpose. Philippians 2 explains how Jesus was obedient even unto death on the cross. Even the beginning of His public obedience had as its aim His duty on the cross of Calvary. This model of obedience unto gospel purpose is for each believer to follow from the moment of conversion until the point of heavenly transformation.

  • John 4:1-42

    The Atonement of Jesus, Accomplished and Applied.

    Old Testament and gospel narrative is the product of inspiration, revealing historic accounts inerrantly and infallibly. In these accounts, God is always the hero, and Jesus is the heroic representative of the Godhead in the Gospel of John. We are reminded in 1 Corinthians 10 that these accounts are given to us as examples. Jesus’s atonement, accomplished and applied, dramatically changes life for the coming new faith community, the church.

  • John 3, Part 2

    The Mission of God’s Love

    Written to people who need to know Christ, the gospel of John is clear about God’s initiating love towards each of us. John desires for us to understand God’s amazing love so we would surrender our hearts to Him as Lord and Savior.

  • John 3:1-15

    Jesus and Nicodemus: Situation, Discussion, and Recognition.

    John introduces the reader to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, in John 3:1-2. The name Nicodemus is a common, proper Greek name in history, and during the time of Jesus, it was also a common, popular Jewish name. The Pharisees were a sect of the Sanhedrin, the highest-ranking Jewish school of the time.

  • John 1:43-51

    Belief in Jesus requires a personal relationship with Him.

    One of the most fundamental questions a Christian must ask is "what constitutes true belief?" How do I know if my own or someone else's belief is genuine or sincere? Do I have enough faith?