Discipleship Encouragement and Correction
We, But Unlike Dreyfus
It’s incredible to me how much is subtly revealed in science fiction that relates to Biblical doctrine. I recall the movie, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ and how the characters found themselves strangely drawn to a remote mountain in Wyoming. They could… not explain it to their families. Their families thought they were indeed crazy, but they were nevertheless drawn. Some of us have families like that whose members think that we are daft. Still, they in the movie, as we, had to go. It as unthinkable not to… the evidence of God’s Spirit heavy on our hearts; inclining us… drawing us. Here, in this passage of John, we had a close encounter of God’s kind where we gathered at a distant mount, named Golgotha; at the foot of a cross. Those whom the Father gave to Jesus went and we gathered there. However, unlike the military in the movie who turned away those who went, we are told here in this verse that Jesus readily receives and would not refuse any.
He would not refuse any… What a wonderful, bold, astonishing thing to say! That God would send and Christ would ‘in no wise cast out.’ It is a statement of God’s fidelity and acceptance of His Son’s life given in our behalf, and of a Son’s death that was in His Father’s eyes a payment sufficient to forgive all our sin. Think about that. If He was unable to do so… if His blood alone was not sufficient to cover every sin; no matter how heinous or countless, Jesus was the greatest hoax and most prolific liar in the history of man! We went to that distant mount, but unlike Dreyfus, we would have found nothing: no light, no music, no rest from the insanity of sin that God awakened in us to drive us to Christ. Still, Jesus bid us to come. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mat. 11:28) How could we turn away such rest?
O, what labour there is in sin… a little white lie here and there, as snow accumulates, brings nothing but an avalanche and a heavy burden later when it falls in on us. So many of us, who acknowledge our sin, know how it will suffocate the conscience if left unattended. Buried alive, we are dead men all. O, what a blessing it is though… such a wonderful gift to have a Savior to turn to after a long, cold winter of our sin and rebellion. How sweet the voice is when you are gasping for air and you hear, ‘I am here. I will save you!’
