The messsage was sent in love. And the message is love. But the message also has a response required from us – believe. What are we to believe? Again, simple and profound. We are to believe:
-that God always had us in mind and was working toward a re-establishment of relationship,
-that Jesus, His Son, was involved in this and had accepted the assignment to come to the earth to redeem us back to the Father,
-that Jesus was born of a virgin so to know the reality of being human and was both God and man and no, we don’t have to completely understand this but we do need to believe it,
-that Jesus suffered and died so that we could once again, through belief, be reconciled to God,
-that Jesus rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for us.
This is the beginning of our assignment – to believe. However, it is the foundation and structure of everything that comes after. Without our believing we are stuck in a no man’s land… and worse. Without belief there is no ever lasting life. Recall John 3:16… ‘that whosoever (that’s you and me) believes … shall have ever lasting life.’ That’s the gift we’re given and the start of all the other gifts we’ll receive as a result of believing.
We don’t earn ever lasting life, we don’t strive to ‘do good deeds’ so we can have that life… we believe. Ultimately it’s our decision, our choice – no one can believe for us. Whether or not we fully understand or comprehend the magnitude of belief, it is our choice to believe.