Which Messiah?

“Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.” (Joh 8:21 AV)

The challenge with the book of John is the use of metaphorical speech by our Savior.  The words and ideas our LORD uses are not clearly black and white.  They are meant for meditation.  They require an extensive use of context.  In the above verse, it would appear there are those who desire to seek after Christ, yet to no avail.  All their seeking will result in damnation instead of salvation.  This seems paradoxical.  This is not the Savior that I know.  That is, if we assume they seek Him for forgiveness of sins and salvation of their souls.  This is not the Messiah they seek.  They seek a political one.  They seek a savior from Rome, not a Savior from sin, death, and hell.  The following verse affirms this understanding when Christ testifies they are of this world and mind worldly things.  They want a tailor-made savior.  They do not want the Savior they truly need.

Which brings us to our application for the day.  There are things we desire from the LORD.  There are certain attributes of the divine that are attractive.  There are others aspects of the LORD that we would rather not entertain.  In a generation that is self-centered and has a hard time seeing life outside of themselves, we tend to relate to the God that we want and not the God that we need.  The result is there is not real change in our lives.  We use God for our own perceived needs of affirmation, comfort, forgiveness, and encouragement.  We reject those attributes of God like authority, justice, judgment, owner and master.  Our worship is all about how it makes us feel rather than true worship which are acts of surrender, obedience, and obeisance.  The God we desire is the God who will save us from problems of this life.  What we reject is the God who also demands our complete and total surrender to His will.  We want forgiveness of sin because it makes us feel better.  We do not want forgiveness of sin because we have offended God.  We want just enough change in life so that we can enjoy life.  What we do not want is significant change that will make our lives significant to the Master.

We wonder why there is no real change in our churches.  Sin runs rampant through our pews.  We blame lack of discipline.  That is certainly a major factor.  What we do not consider is we worship a partial God.  We do not consider holiness which begins with surrender.  We do not stop to meditate upon the reality that God is Creator, Owner, and Master: therefore, His demands upon us are legitimate, just, and right.  Our worship teams are shallow.  Emotional manipulation at its best.  How do we know this?  Because fidelity, purity, holiness, righteousness, etc. are unchanged.  Our churches have lively services, but the lives involved have not significantly changed.  Sin still runs rampant through our ranks, making a mockery of the very God whom we say we love.  Which Messiah to you look for?