Thoughts from John 7

In Chapter 6, John reported Jesus had been teaching in Galilee. As his custom was, though, whenever a high feast day arose Jesus would end up in Jerusalem, and so it is now. Despite the fact that the authorities in Jerusalem have decided to kill Jesus (5:18), the feast of Tabernacles has come and Jesus goes to Jerusalem, but privately (v.10). About the middle of the feast Jesus begins teaching openly in the temple.

The question arises: “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” (v. 15). The question does not imply that Jesus never went to school. Every boy (and a few of the girls) in ancient Israel knew his grammar and studied the scrolls. Instead, the implication is that he has not been through the recognized higher levels of education as was common among the rabbis of the time. The teachers and scholars of that age did not see, however, that lower levels of schooling prepared one for true knowledge. Indeed, we see their scorn of the common crowds precisely because of ignorance of the law (v. 49) “But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed”.

In answer to the question of his teaching authority, and as he has previously, Jesus insists that his learning comes directly from the one who sent him. Two dozen times or so in this gospel we hear Jesus speaking of the one “who sent” him. Jesus presents himself as one who comes not by his own initiative, but as an obedient servant of God, on a mission appointed by God. Indeed, he speaks of someone unknown to his hearers as the one who “apostled” him (vv. 28-29), that is, who sent Jesus as his personal emissary. Jesus has not come here for his pleasure, but he is come for the Father’s pleasure. His whole life is wrapped up in the desires of the Father, not his own.

In the close identification between him and God, his Father, Jesus wants it to be no question in anyone’s mind that he views himself as subordinate to the Father, yes, but to the Father alone.

When his mother (2:4) or even his brothers (7:3) present their plans for him, he points out that he operates not on anyone else’s time schedule, not even his own, but on the schedule of the Father. Their time is now, but his time is not yet come (7:6-7). When religious authorities confront him with his breaking of the Sabbath law, his answer points to the Father who “is working still” (implied: is working on the Sabbath), and so Jesus, too, is working – on the Sabbath (5:17). Throughout the gospel we hear Jesus saying in so many different ways and even in more of the same ways, that he operates by the power, by the initiative, by the authority, by the example, by the words, by the vision of God, his Father.

And so it is in this case. “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (v. 16). Not only does he operate under the will of the Father, nothing he does is by his own personal initiative or authority. What Jesus sets up in these discussions is that to receive Jesus is to receive God, and to reject Jesus is to reject God.

The issue is not that Jesus means, here, to insist on his own deity and that people should bow before him on account of his own status. Quite the contrary: His point goes well beyond personal claims to godhead to emphasize that inasmuch as his will is to do the will of God, when one either believes in or rejects him, that one believes in or rejects God himself.

This is not mere propositional believing in or rejecting of the “second person of the Trinity.” Rather, the concept is entirely in keeping with Paul’s later assessment of the matter, that Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking on the form of a servant.” Phlp. 4:6-7. Or again, as the Hebrew writer said, “It was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” (2:10).

Still, it is one thing to make claims about one’s authority and another to have the necessary documentation or evidentiary proof for those claims. Jesus has already addressed the evidence in the latter part of chapter 5 when he presents his five witnesses who testify to his authority. He will return to the question again in chapter 8. But now in answer to the question: How can a person know that Jesus does act indeed by direction of the Father? he offers this answer. “If any man’s will is to do the will of the Father, he will know.” (v. 17).

Note: It says not, “Anyone who desires to know God’s will” comes to the solution. He says, rather, anyone who desires “to do God’s will“ comes to know whether Jesus’ teaching and life is from himself or from God. Subtly and surely Jesus makes a powerful distinction between having a lot of information about God (knowledge) and the practice, the doing of God’s will.

Biblical faith, believing, is not altogether an intellectual event, but leads a believer to practice. It is in the practice of God’s will that one comes to maturity, that one’s faculties may be trained distinguish between good from evil (Heb. 5:14). Training does not only take place in the head, in the mind, but training finds its resolution in the experience of the practice.

Science. It is not uncommon to think that knowing a lot of facts about the physical universe makes a person wise in the ways of science. Unquestionably, there are more scientific facts than any human being should ever have to know. But knowing even all those facts makes no one a scientist. It just makes one an encyclopedia. And the main thing encyclopedias do is to sit on a shelf. In distinction to this, science is the practice of the principles of science, however humble that person’s bank of knowledge may be. Science is no mere reading and accepting that the earth is round. Science is to get out there in the real world and to experience, to practice the events that give evidence of the roundness of the earth.

Just so Jesus says that it is the practice of God’s will that makes one a believer, indeed. And to highlight the lack of such practice, Jesus speaks to the Law: These authorities who make such a big deal about it, do not keep it (v. 19). Witness the fact that they want to kill Jesus.

At this point in the dialogue, his detractors deride Jesus to say he has a demon. Jesus answers their charge on two levels.

First level: Since the conversation originated with Jesus’ healing a man on a Sabbath day, he returns to that event. He shows that the authorities, while claiming knowledge and wisdom of God in the Scriptures, in fact make a general mess of it. While they claim that no work at all may be done on the Sabbath, they in fact keep circumcision on the Sabbath. Jesus brings up a moral dilemma: when two laws appear to contradict each other, what do you do? Do you keep one to break the other? Rather than answering in the abstract, Jesus simply points out that the practice of the authorities is to keep the custom of circumcision despite the fact that the law says, “Thou shalt not work.” So, Jesus chides, if they can make some cuts, why can he not operate to make an entire person well?

Second level: Then he comes to his point. Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

The sense here is that wisdom comes out the context of the Scriptures. Godly wisdom is not limited to a given detail divorced from that context. Rather, it is this detail in particular within the context of all other details, and in proportion to its place in Scripture. In contrast, the Pharisees and their ilk sought to paint all the commands of God, or at any rate far too many of them, in one dimension: flat. Is every command in the Law equally important with every other command?

Jesus clearly states this not to be case, and calls for judging, that is, for making discernments, determinations, and decisions, based not on appearances, but on substance. Substance is the same as what the apostle Paul calls for in Timothy: rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), distinguished from certain persons “desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” (1 Tim. 1:7).

Godly wisdom recognizes that some parts of Scripture are more important than other parts of Scripture. While tithing, for example, was indeed to be kept in its smallest detail, tithing itself does not occupy the same place as justice, mercy, and faith. (Mt. 23:23). These are “weightier” matters.

And more to the point, it is the practice of justice, the practice of mercy, the practice of faith that leads one to make right judgment. When knowledge is theoretical and has no experiential doing, when knowledge has not had the test of practice, then discernment finds but shallow, subjective appearance for its weak base.

At the feast of Tabernacles, the custom was that water should be collected at the pool of Siloam and brought up to the temple where it was poured out, symbolizing God’s riches outpoured on the land and its people. On the last day of that feast, Jesus placed himself firmly in the temple and cried out loud, “If any one thirst, come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” (v. 37-38).

His hearers' response varies from believing Jesus as a prophet, to Jesus as the Christ, to skepticism, to making outright attempts to arrest him altogether.

Once again we hear Jesus making the claim of marvelous relationship with God: Come to Jesus, and God’s blessings well up from within! As John presents the gospel of Christ Jesus, he affirms that the river welling up to eternal life was a reference to the Spirit which would be received by those believing in Christ.

So why didn’t those who believed then receive the Spirit? because, John says, Jesus had not yet been glorified. That is, Jesus had not yet lifted up on his cross, had not yet died, had not yet been resurrected, and had not yet ascended back to the Father. Until such time, the Spirit would not be received in such a manner.

But what does it mean to drink from Jesus Christ? It means to believe in him as being indeed one with the Father inasmuch as the Father sent him.

The structure of New Testament language does not call for abstract faith: almost always the Scripture says to "believe in" or to "believe into". The text of the Scriptures places highest emphasis on the object of faith, not on the person having faith. The living and abiding Word of God calls men and women to believe in God, and believing in God, to practice one's life in keeping with a faithful God.

Our thinking tends to be somewhat intellectually propositional: The thing to be believed is out there as a proposition and one either accepts or rejects the proposition in one’s own mind. While biblical language does not deny this propositional aspect of faith or belief, biblical language calls for a considerably greater sense of personal commitment to the object of faith. It is one thing to believe that a tightrope walker may carry a person in a wheelbarrow across a waterfall, and quite another to trust that same tightrope walker with one’s own life by getting into the wheelbarrow.

Just so, to believe in Jesus is not merely to believe a fact, or series of facts, about him. It is, rather to trust in him and to commit oneself to the practice of faith in the hands of Jesus.

And Jesus’ claim is that, by drinking from him one would receive his Spirit, a spiritual well of ever flowing spiritual water that would quench spiritual thirst throughout the ages. Coming to Jesus gives life through eternity, because the Father has set his seal on Jesus as his Anointed, his Christ, his Messiah.

Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus and drink! Your thirst will be quenched and spiritual water will well up through eternity. Receive his eternal-life-giving Spirit and live!

Thoughts from John 6

Starting with five barley loaves and a couple of fish, Jesus ends by feeding 5000 men ready to go to arms. After each of the mob has had his fill, his disciples collect twelve basketsful of leftovers. The 5000 man army sits impressed, so the men conclude he must be the long-sought-for prophet as they prepare to take Jesus forcibly to make him king. Jesus, however, will not become anyone’s king by force. He neither forces his kingship over men, nor will he be forced into kingship by men. If you are to crown Jesus as king of your life, it will be on his terms, with his agenda, and not on your terms with your agenda.

Jesus makes his way across the lake, walking on the water's surface tension. Meeting his disciples rowing hard against the churning wind, he enters the boat with them, calms the storm and their fears, and they find themselves suddently, immediately at Capernaum, their destination.

The next day at the synagogue in that city, the army finds Jesus. Wasting no time, Jesus readily challenges their motivation for seeking him out. They have not come, he says, because they saw signs, that is, because they saw signs pointing to spiritual realities. Rather, they have come because they found a way to feed their bellies, they have come because they found a way to satisfy their political passions. So they think.

Jesus uses a press to draw from people faith in him. Like most presses, an oil press has two plates that slowly move against each other in order to squeeze oil from the olives placed between the plates.

One plate of Jesus’ press consists of the signs which he performs, the miracles for which there simply is no natural explanation and which therefore stand as unequivocal evidence for a supernatural source. The other plate consists of his teachings. He says, “Do not work for food that perishes, but work for food that endures to eternal life.” 6:27.

A main goal of work is to acquire food in order to live. We eat bread in the sweat of our collective face, just as God decreed would be the case (Gen. 3:19) ever since the fall of man to the present day. And now Jesus says, so to speak, “Don’t do that.” Instead, he calls us to labor for a different type of bread, the eating of which enables one to endure in eternal life.

Jesus introduces a profound irony related to this labor inasmuch as he will give this bread. The bread is a gift that cannot be worked for! Understandably, the army asks, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” The irony is now fully developed, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 6:29. The work to be pursued is not work at all, but is faith in Jesus!

The people are not ready to hear talk about faith in Jesus, so they ask for proof, for a sign that tells them they should accept Jesus’ teachings. (We remember that Jesus had accused them earlier of not seeking signs, so now that they’ve collected something of their wit, they’re asking about them.)

We human beings are a curious lot: Jesus had just fed us the day before and we were going to make him king violently. Today we’re asking for a sign whether we should accept bread from Jesus that gives eternal life.

What this rag-tag army asks for, of course, is a continual daily feeding as was the case with Moses so many years before in the wilderness. When Jesus speaks of bread that abides to eternal life they are thinking of manna in Moses’ day. Under Moses’ leadership, for forty years Israel ate manna found on the ground and collected every morning (save the Sabbaths).

Jesus makes two assertions concerning the matter. (1) It was not Moses who gave the bread, but God. It did not simply fall out of the sky because Moses was a wonder-worker. It came from the Father himself in heaven. He later points out that this bread, manna, as providential as it was, did not confer life. All the ancients died. (2) The real bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life.

So the sign of multiplying the barley loaves and fish pushes one plate in Jesus' press. Here’s the other plate.

The people clamor for this bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and Jesus says, “I’m it.” “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” 6:35. Jesus is that which comes down from heaven and gives eternal life.

Jesus' press works: the signs give evidence, the teaching causes stress. Considerable argument and eventually even fighting among the people broke out on account of Jesus’ claim that he has the power to give eternal life.

Now, there are two strands in Jesus’ discussion: a premise strand and a promise strand. Here is the premise.

Jesus presses ever more the claim that the Father and he are of one mind: All people that the Father gives to Jesus will come to Jesus. 6:37. Jesus came from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of the one who sent him, God. 6:38. It is the Father’s will that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. 6:40. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. 6:44. Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Jesus. 6:45. Jesus, who alone is from God, has seen the Father. 6:46.

Throughout his talk Jesus returns to the notion that he is the bread that came down from heaven. 6:41. I am the bread of life. 6:48. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. 6:51. My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 6:55.

The promise strand in Jesus’ statements to the people in Capernaum consists of eternal life.

“Him who comes to me I will not cast out.” 6:37. “I should lose nothing of all [the Father] has given me, but will raise it up at the last day.” 6:39. “Every one who see the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” 6:40. “He who believes has eternal life.” 6:47. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 6:54.

Then Jesus states: “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” 6:63. This is the final squeeze of the press. Jesus clearly identifies the bankruptcy of the flesh. You can eat all the steak you want, but you will die. You can eat all the tofu you want, but you will die. You can labor for all the varieties of food there are in this world, but you will die.

Jesus’ promise stands that he will give life, eternal life, to those who come to him. He gives life to those who hear him, to those who feed on him, on his words. His words give life. He gives life to those whose sustenance and power to live remains the living and abiding word he speaks, the word that he is. He himself is the Word that feeds the spirit. And he gives life to any that come to him.

“This is why I told you no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 6:65. The Father and the Son are one in purpose and nature so that Jesus will not receive whom the Father has not sent.

Some use the thought to support the notion that God preselects destinies of all human beings, some he selects for eternal life, the rest he selects for eternal condemnation. It is not difficult to see why this verse should be used in such a manner, however mistaken the notion may be.

Nonetheless, Jesus’ plain meaning remains that in order for someone to come to him, and for Jesus consequently to save such a one, that person must accept God’s condition: belief in Jesus as his Messiah. It is not adequate to believe that Jesus was a good man. Not adequate to believe that Jesus was a pretty special guy. Not adequate to believe that Jesus is the world’s best moral teacher. Not adequate to insist that Jesus was the top religious figure in all history to be admired.

God sent Jesus as his own personal, unique, one-and-only, never-to-be-repeated representative as a lamb sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus is God's own son. Jesus is God in the flesh. God with us. If a man or a woman will not believe this of Jesus, then Jesus promises nothing of coming to him for salvation.

As the immense crowd of disciples concludes that Jesus’ statements are too hard for them to accept, they begin to leave. The army, once ready to make him their king, disbands. Jesus demands too much of their passion, of their food, of their comfort.

This is the difference between olives and human beings. Olives can have no say concerning placement in the press. People, however, are in Jesus’ press only as long as they choose. They either get out as the pressure mounts, as their own desires conflict with Jesus' call, as friends or family turn against them, as the values of the world entice them; or, they yield in the richness of faith to Jesus to eternal life.

One of the saddest phrases in all the Bible comes now. It says, “They no longer walked with him.” 6:66. These who a day before would make him king, today no longer walk with Jesus. This is no slipping away slowly from mounting cares of the world. This is a deliberate choice that wants to leave the glory Jesus offers in order to find approval among men.

But really, even the slipping away slowly finally comes to the same thing: Leaving the glory of Jesus for the decay and rot of the world.

Jesus turns then to the few people left, “Do you also wish to go away?” 6:67. And they say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

(However, even among them who do not leave, Jesus warns, is a devil, speaking of Judas who would eventually betray his Lord. 6:70.)

Still, the question comes not only to them 2000 years ago, but to us, to you. Are Jesus’ words too hard for you? Are you walking with Jesus? Or have you decided no longer to walk with him?

Jesus asks you the same question: Will you also go away ...

... yet, to whom shall you go for real life, if not to Christ?

Come to Jesus, come to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Pt. 2:4-5.

Thoughts from John 5

When you read from the passage, listen for the trial that takes place.

Jesus heals a man paralyzed for 38 years, but on a Sabbath. In those days, in that land, it was against the law to engage in the healing arts on the Sabbath so the authorities pursue Jesus to bring him to justice, as they see it. As they later interrogate Jesus about the matter, Jesus points out (7:22) that even they themselves set aside the Sabbath law in order to perform circumcision, so why can’t he perform healing on an entire body? Rather than to acknowledge their own inconsistency, or even to provide a rational answer for their practice, they decide to kill Jesus because he called God his Father, making himself equal with God. 5:18.

In this event, we see Jesus’ true love for people in trouble. He does not care what happens to himself, but he acts on their behalf whatever the cost to himself. If helping a paralyzed man causes Jesus grief from the authorities, so be it. Jesus will help just the same.

Jesus now continues to speak of healing, but he takes the discussion from healing a physical body to healing the human spirit, the soul, the inner being of persons. He now speaks of life beyond this world: he speaks of resurrection after death.

If people are impressed by Jesus’ healing of a paralyzed man (and we are!), then what will they think when they see the dead raised to life? What will they think when they see Jesus himself raised from the dead to rise into heaven to be with God? Jesus makes the claim that God has given him power and authority to give, not only healing, but life itself!

Whoever hears Jesus’ word, and believes in God who sent him, has eternal life. Jesus gives to that person eternal life right now! It is so immanent, so real, that the person does not come into a future judgment or condemnation, but the person passes from death into life (5:24). Jesus further emphasizes the certain future: Oh, Yes! there will be resurrection. All the dead -- every dead person who from time immemorial ever has lived and has died and has decayed into the dust of the earth – all will hear the voice of Jesus calling them to life.

Those who have done good will rise to life, that is, to eternal life; those who have done evil will rise to judgment, that it, to condemnation. (If this cataclysmic event took place today, in your own estimation which would be your own end: life or condemnation? Have you done good or have you done evil?)

We note Jesus equating doing good with hearing his words and believing in the God who sent him.

The authorities, as we have seen already in earlier passages, have a great concern for Jesus’ own authority. Who gives him permission to come into the temple, to bring a quick end to religious commerce, to stop the making of money off people in the name of God? Who gives him permission to break the Sabbath laws? Who gives him permission to encourage others in breaking the Sabbath laws?

Before giving a listing of authorities who support him, he affirms that he does not make decisions from himself, but that every decision he renders is the will of the Father who sent him. He does not judge, except as he hears. 5:30. He agrees that he does not have the right to simply decide for himself, so he will not offer his own person, that is, his own personal right to make decisions, as an authority source.

Jesus offers five sources for the authority vested in himself. 5:30-47.

The picture Jesus draws is that of a trial. Are you hearing it already? In this trial, Jesus stands accused of impersonating an authority he reputedly does not have. Jesus serves as his own defense counsel, the religious authorities serve as the jury. Jesus calls a number of witnesses to the stand to testify in his behalf, and they do testify overwhelmingly in favor of Jesus. Incredibly, however, the jury will not hear the witnesses’ testimony.

So, first he reminds them of John the Baptist, whom the people believed to be a prophet of God. 5:31. Jesus reminds the authorities that John, about whom they themselves had inquired, had born witness to Jesus. But then, Jesus says he does not really need John’s authority; he does not need authority from a human being to do the works he does.

This brings Jesus to his second source of authority: The very works he does bear witness to his authority. 5:36. The works Jesus does are twofold. On the one hand, he means the miraculous deeds (changing water into wine, healing a child long distance, giving walking legs back to a man paralyzed, and so on). On the other hand he means the teachings he gives, and the actions he takes such as cleansing the temple with impunity. He says these works are given him by the Father.

Indeed, the Father himself is Jesus’ third witness. 5:37. The challenge here, however, is that the authorities have not listened to God. They do not have God’s word abiding within them. This “not abiding” should not be confused with inability to quote the words of God. It is, rather, a heart that all the while knowing what the words are, will not yield to the truth of those words.

Nonetheless, the fourth witness to take the stand is Scripture, the Bible itself. 5:39. Scripture bears witness to Jesus but the religious authorities will not listen. The irony in the matter is that these religious authorities study the Scriptures all the time, they “know” them inside and out. But they cannot see the forest for the trees. Jesus says that these religious authorities “search the Scriptures thinking that in them they have eternal life.” Unquestionably, the Scriptures speak of eternal life. The religious authorities think that by being able to read or to memorize the Scriptures, that by this knowing and by this memorizing they have attained eternal life.
However, Jesus turns all this on their head to say that the Scriptures stand as a testimony to something other than their own righteousness, namely, to himself. They, the Scriptures, do not have life in themselves, but they point to where life is: life is in Jesus, the Son of man, son of the Father, the Messiah.

And this heralds the fifth and last witness to the stand: Moses. 5:46. Moses had lived centuries earlier and stood as a major contributor to the writing of the Scriptures. The law of God had been handed down to the people through him. The record of God’s dealings with the people until they came to the Promised Land had been kept in the main by Moses. Moses was rightly known as God’s outstanding prophet until the very day of Christ Jesus. The religious authorities sought to find in Moses’ writings everything that they needed to know in order to live.

But the religious authorities will not hear what Moses wrote about Jesus. Consequently, Jesus points out, he, Jesus, will not accuse these religious authorities before God, but the very Moses on whom they set their hope will accuse them before God, because they did not receive the written witness of Moses himself. The words on which they had set their lives for study, but words which they would not hear, those words written in the earlier ages, those words which they had memorized, those very words would stand to accuse against the religious authorities, because these religious authorities would not listen to those words and believe in the Christ of whom those words spoke.

Jesus, no longer a defendant, but a judge in a different trial, renders a decision, the religious authorities suddenly on the defense. Jesus’ conclusion of the matter: Why will these people not listen? His judgment is quite harsh – because they do not have the love of God in themselves. 5:42.

Here is the key to hearing God: having God’s love within.

Now, what does “having God’s love within” mean? In the clear context here, Jesus provides the fundamental answer: He contrasts between seeking glory from God and seeking glory from men. To have God’s love within means that the core of one’s life pursues God’s approval, rather than to find approval from the world's authorities. It means that in the work place, at home, in private time, a person’s activity and thought turns on the will of God. It means a most excellent quality commitment to the pursuit of God’s will in one’s life.

Against this backdrop, the religious authorities pursuing Jesus have interest in making each other happy. They give each other little gold stars, so to speak, when they please one another religiously. How can you believe God, Jesus asks, when your interest is to receive glory from one another, but you do not seek the glory from the only God?

So, we find the foundation problem in the gospel of John to be fear of finding disapproval among one’s peers, to look for glory from this world, rather than to receive Jesus and the glory that comes from God through him. 5:41-44.

There is another trial now. Jesus is on trial before you. He has given you the evidence. You are the jury. Will you believe the evidence Jesus provides, or will you reject his evidence?

Come to Jesus! John the Baptist pointed to him, the works he performed testified that he is from God, God himself speaks to Jesus, the Scriptures point to him, that ancient prince of Egypt, Moses, wrote about him. Come to Jesus and find favor with God, find glory from God no matter what else may happen in this world. Because when this world is done, and all your friends are dead, and all their glory has died with them, there is only one who can call your dead self back to life to dwell in eternity, Jesus, the Christ of God. Do not be unbelieving so as to face a resurrection of condemnation. Come to Jesus, and find glory beyond this world throughout eternity!