Only One Way to Experience Salvation
February 9, 2023
Commentary
There is only one way to experience salvation and become a child of God and that is through God’s power (v. 12). There are three ways by which you cannot become a child of God (v. 13).
“Which were born not of blood.” This means you are not a child of God by regular birth. Even if your parents were the best Christians who ever lived, they can never give you eternal life.“Nor of the will of the flesh.” This means that you cannot simply make yourself a Christian. You must come to God as a sinner and receive Christ as your Savior.“Nor of the will of man.” This means that no one on vv. 10-11) can make you a Christian. Some people imagine that a minister can make them Christians by baptism or sacraments.John states that though Jesus created the world, the world did not recognize Him. Though He came to His own, His own did not receive Him (vv. 10-11). God came to the world for acceptance and relationship. Those who accept the Light, who believe in the message Christ proclaimed about Himself, are given the “right to become the children of God” (v. 12). To be born into the kingdom of God is not something achieved by human energy (v. 13) but by the grace of the living God through Christ Jesus (Eph 2:8-9). This is to be balanced by the emphasis on the need to “receive” Christ. Though we bring nothing to God and contribute nothing to our salvation, the gift itself is dependent on our willingness to receive it from the one who offers it.
Application
There are many people who are personally trusting they are going to heaven when they die by one or all of the ways that verse 13 says is impossible to be a Christian. Lord, help me to be able to show people in a loving way that salvation is through grace alone.
John 1:10– 14 (NET)
10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name —he has given the right to become God’s children 13 —children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.
14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.
Illustration: Swindoll Jesus Christ Marked down
One of the largest department stores in our nation took on a commercial adventure that proved to be disastrously unsuccessful. It was a doll in the form of the baby Jesus. It was advertised as being unbreakable, washable, and cuddly. It was packaged in straw with a satin crib and plastic surroundings, with appropriate biblical texts added. However, it did not sell. The manager of one of the stores in the department chain panicked. He carried out a last-ditch promotion to get rid of those dolls. He had a huge sign outside his store that read, JESUS CHRIST – MARKED DOWN 50%- GET HIM WHILE YOU CAN. (Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life).