Great Expectations

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Great Expectations

1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

6So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.11″Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.14They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

15In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus—17he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”

18(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

20″For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms,
” ‘May his place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and,
” ‘May another take his place of leadership.’ 21Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,22beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

23So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Acts 1

I have a great deal of respect for Luke, the writer not just of the Gospel of Luke, but also the book commonly known as the Acts of the Apostles. Not only did he write around a quarter of the New Testament, but he was the only Gentile (non-Jewish) contributor. He was also an educated man, who undertook a great deal of research prior to writing his books; he had to, since he did not have the Jewish background that the other writers did. I also admire him because, like me, he was an historian. He set out to write his Gospel and Acts in order that those of us who love God, (Theophilus, to whom the book is dedicated, literally means “lover of God”) “may know the certainty of the things [we] have been taught.” He used crucial historical details to prove the truth of the gospel. It was through studying the history that I became a Christian, and Luke played no small part in this. Over the coming months, we will take a close look at the Acts to establish how Jesus’ mission on earth was continued, and how the early church was established.

Christianity has always had a sense of expectation. As Christians, we all wait with expectation for the return of Jesus Christ. We also wait with great expectation for God’s new creation, that we will experience after death. That sense of expectation leaps off the page in this first chapter of Acts. Reading it, one can almost sense the excitement that the apostles felt. They had seen Jesus rise from the dead, and, as Luke describes both in his gospel and in Acts, they had seen him ascend into heaven. Before he departed, however, Jesus told them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait because, in a few days, they would be “baptised with the Holy Spirit.” This “Holy Spirit,” Jesus tells them, will imbue them with the power that they will need to continue his earthly mission. The Spirit wil enable them to be witnesses to what Christ has done for mankind “to the ends of the earth.” His message is not just for the Jews of Jerusalem, but is for the whole human race – and it is the mission of the apostles to spread this message across the globe. This is an ongoing mission which we are all called to as Christians. We share that responsibility for spreading the gospel around the world, and what with our modern communication tools, and cheap air travel, we are in a much better position than the apostles were in to do this. How often do we undertake this activity though? Do we take our role in this mission seriously, or do we neglect it?

It is not just the arrival of the Holy Spirit that the apostles wait with a sense of expecation; they are also eagerly awaiting the return of their friend, master and Messiah, namely Jesus. After telling them to stay in Jerusalem, Jesus ascends into heaven before their very eyes. Luke describes how the apostles looked intently into the sky after him. No doubt they were shocked at what they had seen; someone ascending to heaven is not a common, daily sight! After all they had seen him do, though, not least raising from the dead, there was surely nothing that would surprise them anymore about Jesus! No doubt they were also worrying about how they would cope without their leader. They had been promised the Holy Spirit, but what they really wanted was Jesus to continue to dwell amongst them. They are seen by two angels in human form gazing into the sky, who assure them that one day Jesus would return in the same way that he had ascended into heaven. That expectation that had been growing in them at the promise of the Holy Spirit must have heightened amongst them, as they hoped that one day they would see Jesus amongst them once more. That did not happen during their life times, but it is an expectation that we can share with those apostles. Maybe Jesus will return in our life times! What a great privilege it would be to be in that generation, that gets to witness the return of Christ! It could happen any day! Do we share the sense of expectation that the apostles felt, or do we go for days, or weeks, or months or even years without even thinking about the return of Christ? He will return, perhaps today!

The apostles are so excited about what God has in store for them that they ask him to bring about his plan. They have been greatly affected by what Jesus has said and done, particularly his promise that the Spirit will come upon them. They meet together and they pray “constantly,” willing God to send the Holy Spirit. Jesus has promised it, they are expecting it, and they are champing at the bit waiting to continue their mission. I’m sure you’ve inspired at some point to undertake a task, and have been so excited at the prospect that you are desperate to begin. The apostles feel exactly the same. It’s not just the apostles themselves who are meeting to pray; they are joined by Jesus’ brothers, his mother, Mary, and “the women,” recognising that women are continuing to play an important role in Jesus’ mission. I wonder if we pray with the same passion as the apostles did in those days? Do we pray constantly, asking God to bring about his plan, and to help and equip us to serve him in this? Prayer is something that many of us find very difficult, and yet it played such an important role in the early church that surely it is something that we should try harder to undertake. If we could recapture some of that excitement and expectation felt by the apostles as they met together on that day, maybe we could also recapture some of their passion for prayer!

It is not just the spiritual aspect that they concentrate on in those early days, however. It is all well and good praying for the Holy Spirit to come, but the apostles also needed to ensure that they had all the practical necessities in place if they were to serve Christ. The burning issue for the apostles, and for Peter in particular, is to build the apostles up to their full number. Peter, having been described by Jesus as the rock on whom he will build his church (Matthew 16:18), takes the lead at the meeting. Since the betrayal and death of Judas, the apostles have numbered only eleven, and Peter is keen to see him replaced. He knows his scripture, and identifies two psalms that could be seen as a prophecy of the situation they find themselves in. He also recognises the importance of the apostles being eyewitnesses and close followers of Christ if they are to effectively communicate the gospel with the passion that would be needed in those early days of the church. Barsabbas and Matthias are identified as potential candidates, and Matthias is chosen by lot. With his appointment, the apostles are once again complete, and ready and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Just as the apostles made sure that they were prepared for the answering of their prayers, the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and the mission that Jesus had given them, we also need to ensure that we are prepared for whatever Christ asks us to do. We share in the responsibility of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We might pray that the Holy Spirit will support us as we carry out this mission, but do we ensure that we are properly prepared? Do we study the Bible day by day to familiarise ourselves with God’s word? Do we listen carefully to what God tells us? Do we ensure that we are ready for whatever God asks us to do?

Those early days of the church must have been so exciting as the apostles waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the return of Christ. The expectation and the urgency with which the apostles faced their tasks jumps off the page at us as we read it. Do we feel as excited about our faith, and the prospect of continuing Jesus’ ministry, making him known to the ends of the earth? Do we feel the same excitement at having the Holy Spirit with us today? In many places around the world, particularly in more traditionally Christian countries, that excitement seems to have been lost. Worship often seems to be something that we do out of habit, without really thinking about it. Our faith, though, should be living and vibrant, full of expectation at what is to come, and imbued with excitement! I pray today that the church will once again feel that great sense of expectation and excitement felt by those early Christians!

Love Your Neighbour As Yourself

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“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Matthew 22:39

When I was at university, I was determined to get involved in as many interesting activities as I possibly could. Having worked for two years in a job that I didn’t really enjoy before starting my degree, I wanted to make the most of every opportunity I had. Two of the activities I very quickly got involved with were the Christian Union, where I served on the committee, and in the Chaplaincy, where I helped to plan the services and other activities, as well as playing my flute in the morning service. Very quickly, though, I realised that I had very little time for myself, and that I was getting tired and stressed. I remember vividly the words of the wife of the chaplain, who quoted today’s verse at me, and told me that it was implicit within it that we should love ourselves, and ensure that we look after ourselves as well as loving those around us. It came as a bit of a revelation to me, and is something that I have continued to reflect on in the years since I left university.

We read yesterday that one of the fruits of the Spirit, which we demonstrate if we are committed to Christ, is love. Love is central to the character of God, and should be central to our character too. In John 3:16, one of the most well known verses in the Bible, Jesus tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.” Jesus was sent to live amongst us, and died in our place on the cross. On the cross, he was cut off from his father, and experienced pain and loneliness in a way that we simply could not begin to comprehend. God sent Jesus willingly, though, and Jesus willingly died for us because of God’s vast love for us. If we are seeking to emulate Christ in our behaviour, then, we must first of all demonstrate love for everyone we meet, whether we like them or loath them. We might not be called to die for someone else, but there are plenty of practical ways that we can love people – helping them, caring for them, supporting them, listening to them, just being there for them. How often, though, do we find ourselves being unpleasant to people just because we are having a bad day. Similarly, just as the chaplain’s wife said to me, it is just as important that we love ourselves too, and make sure that we have time to relax and unwind, eat properly, exercise regularly, and sleep properly. If we do not love ourselves, it is very hard to love those around us.

Reflect today on whether you love your neighbour as much as you love yourself. Do you love yourself? Do you demonstrate God’s love to everyone you meet?

The Fruit of the Spirit

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The Fruit of the Spirit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

My bed, like that of many people, is against a wall. Well, actually, it’s against a window. That means that, short of jumping out of a first floor window (which would probably wake me up!), there is only one way to get out of bed. There are still days, though, when it does feel like I’ve got out of bed on the wrong side. Not because I’m battered a blue with broken legs, from jumping out of a window, but because I feel miserable and irritable. On those occasions, how the rest of the day progresses depends to a great extent on the behaviour of the class I am teaching during period one. If they are friendly and cheerful, and settle down to work hard, my spirits are lifted and the day gets better. If, however, they are loud and annoying, the day continues much in the same way that it started.

This, of course, is not a Biblical way of living, and I am trying hard to stop this from happening. In today’s verses, Paul tells the Galatians what the positive attributes of a godly character are, and says that this are gifts given to us by the Spirit. He tells us that love is important, since by loving those around us, we will reflect God’s character. Paul lists joy as his second fruit; if we take joy in God’s salvation, then we demonstrate that we are committed to serving him. Peace is next; we can have peace because Jesus has died for us, taking on our sin so that we can be at peace and approach God. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, since we need to be patient and follow God’s plans for our lives, in his time, rather than purely following our own agenda. A futher fruit that flows from the Spirit is kindness, which means being gernous and considerate to all those we encounter. A Christian will demonstate goodness, since we place others before ourselves, and seek to serve them more than ourselves. We should demonstrate faithfulness, namely keeping our word, and honouring our promises and commitments. Jesus himself demonstrated the next fruit very clearly – he was the personification of gentleness. Do we follow his example? Are we kind and supportive to those we know. The final fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions is self-control. If we are in Christ, the Spirit will help us to resist those temptations that could pull us away from Christ.

Do you demonstrate all of these qualities on a daily basis? Or, like me, do you have days when you are grumpy and miserable? Let’s pray together that the Holy Spirit will help us to demonstrate these qualities, so that we may better serve Christ, and those around us.

The Bread of Life

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The Bread of Life

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

John 6:35

This weekend I visited Debenhams with Claire, my fiancee, to start getting some ideas for our wedding list. One of the things we thought it might be quite nice to ask for was a bread machine. Debenhams had some pretty impressive examples! One had a special tray which you could put seeds of dried fruit into. At a given time during the bread making cycle, it would add the seeds or fruit into the bread. The one that impressed me the most, though, could make lots of different things including doughnuts and – get this – jam! I wondered if it could make bread and jam simultaneously, then slice the bread, and then make a jam sandwich. How brilliant would it be to tip a whole load of ingredients into the machine, and then end up with a round of freshly made jam sandwiches! I’d never go hungry again!

In today’s verse, Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life. Whoever goes to him, he says, will never be hungry or thirsty. Jesus is not some special bread maker, though, who provides bread on demand to his followers. The bread that Jesus refers to is “the bread of life,” the stuff that sustains life itself. It is said that all humans have a “god-shaped hole” in their souls, and that we can never find true peace until we fill that hole with the only thing that will fit it – namely God. Similarly, we can only fill the longing of our souls if we turn to Christ, because he is the only thing that will sustain us in this way. The only source of true spiritual nourishment is Christ. People may look to other religions or new age beliefs. They may try to find true nourishment through money or power, sex or drugs, potions or spells, but there is only one source of true spiritual nourishment. That is Jesus Christ. He knows what it is our souls cry out for, and he can provide it to us. He knows that it is the knowledge of God that we all seek, whether knowingly or not, and he is the only one who can lead us to him. Because of his death on the cross, we can once again approach God in the knowledge that our sin has been paid for.

Do you know Jesus? Do you listen to his words through reading scripture? Do you ask him to support and sustain you? Do you believe in him?

He who has the son has life

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He who has the son has life


And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

1 John 5:11-12

They say you can tell a police officer by the way he walks. Even if he is not in uniform, he is supposed to have a very distinctive walk. Often, you can tell them by how they speak, too. They all seem to have that rather wordy way of speaking, which presumably comes from years spent giving statements, testifying in court and interviewing suspects. With this two distinctive elements, it’s almost possible to spot a police officer even if they are not wearing a uniform!

The same could be said to be true for Christians. We do not wear a uniform that marks us out as Christians, but it should be clear to people around us that we are indeed Christians. In today’s verses, John says that “he who has the Son has life.” He doesn’t say he who knows the Son, or he who loves the Son, but he who has the Son. When we become a Christian, it’s almost as if Jesus is living in us. As a consequence, it should be clear to those who know us that we are Christians; our behaviour and actions should be distinctly Christian. We should be loving, fair and respectful. We should look out for all those around us. We should be prepared to drop everything to support those in need. Not because these things buy us a place in heaven, but because this is a way of testiying that we have the Son. If we have the Son, we have eternal life. This isn’t something that will happen at some time in the future, perhaps after we die, but is happening now. If we accept Jesus as our saviour, our eternal life has already begun.

Is it evident to those who know you that you have the Son? Is it obvious that you are a Christian, that you are living your life for God? Are you living your life as if it were part of that eternal life that God has given you through the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ?

The judgement seat of Christ

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For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10

A few years ago, I had my only run in with the law – to date! It was a very minor incident, so please don’t think I’m about to tell you anything particularly exciting! I was driving out of London heading to Sussex on the A23, when I appear to have inadvertently entered a bus lane. I didn’t even realise I had done it until a week or so later, I got a letter telling me I had to pay a fine, with a picture of my car in a bus lane! It seemed pretty conclusive. I had broken the law, so I paid the £60 fine and tried to forget my first motoring offence. That’s how the law operates in most countries – if you break the law, you take the punishment. Provided the laws are just, it’s a fair system that for the most part works very well.

In today’s verse, we see that we are all to appear before Jesus Christ to account for our actions. The Bible lays down the code that we should live by, and, since the code is fair and just, we must be prepared to pay the consequences if we do not live by it. If we have done bad things whilst “in the body,” we will have to account for those actions to Jesus when the day of judgement comes. Jesus will also judge us for all the good things that we have done – the instances of when we have followed the code God has given us.

This might seem to present a rather bleak picture. We all fall short of God’s expectations. We all disobey him, and break his rules and laws. As a consequence, we might expect to be punished for our actions. As Christians, however, if we accept Jesus is our saviour, he has taken that punishment for us. When we stand before Jesus on judgement day, we can stand firm in the knowledge that whilst we are not worthy to approach God on our own merits, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can do so.

Give thanks today that in Jesus we have a fair judge. Praise God even more, though, that Jesus has paid the price for our sin, and taken the punishment that we deserve in our place.

He must suffer, be rejected and be killed

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He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Mark 8:31-32

I’ve always had a place in my heart for children’s fiction. I grew up on a diet of Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome, and always wished that I too could spend my time sailing and having adventures. A few years ago, still inspired by the likes of Blyton and Ransome, I wrote my own novel for children, called “Beyond the Door.” I wanted it to be a very traditional style novel, but with a modern twist. I decided early on that I wanted to get away from the all-very-nice kind of book, and that I would kill off one of the main characters. During the process of writing, though, I got very attached to all my creations, and couldn’t bear for one of them to die. I therefore wrote in an entirely new character with the specific intention of killing her off. I couldn’t even bring myself to do that though! She fell into a coma, but eventually woke up and lived happily ever after.

It must be awful to lose a friend. In today’s verses, Jesus tells his disciples that he will be tortured, rejected and killed. Peter, who has grown close to Jesus, cannot bear to hear this, and tells Jesus to stop saying these awful things. Jesus responds by telling Peter that he does not understand the way that God does things. Jesus also tells his disciples that he will rise from the dead after three days. It is this act, dying and rising again, that is the central reason for Jesus being born in the first place. Jesus says that he must suffer and must be killed. There were no other alternatives. He came to die on the cross. When he did, he took on all the sins you and I committed, paying the price for disobeying God that we should have paid. By rising from the dead, though, he defeated death itself. As a result, you and I can approach God, and have eternal life with him in his new creation.

Without Jesus, we would be destined to eternal damnation, because sin is so much a part of us, and is unacceptable to God. Since Jesus paid the price for us, though, we can be saved. Let’s give thanks that God planned for Jesus to save us, and that Jesus went through that pain, suffering, rejection and death on our behalf.

Header image © Terry Cundall (cc-by-sa/2.0)

The Servant King

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“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:28

I get very irritated when people “pull rank” and try to use their position to get one over on other people. Some people seem to develop this skill from an early age. When I was at prep school, older boys would say, “older, senior, been here longer!” as a justification for why younger boys should do as they told them. When I worked at a leading retailer, I used to get very annoyed when management would refuse to help fill the shelves. Particularly around Christmas, there would be a lot of work to do before the store opened, but management seemed to think that it was beneath them to fill shelves. Even in teaching, there are some senior managers who will use their seniority in order to get a more junior member of staff to do something that they would not do themselves. To me, the whole notion seems rather immature and silly.

Jesus, as the Son of God, had the ultimate opportunity to “pull rank.” If anyone is more important than anyone else, then surely Jesus is! He is, after all, the messiah promised by God, who is seated at the right hand of the father. He is, in fact, God. Jesus adopted the opposite attitude, however. He is known as the “servant king,” and in today’s verse, he states that he “did not come to be served, but to serve.” He has come to serve us, rather than for us to serve him! The ultimate way that Jesus did this was by giving “his life as a ransom for many.” When he died on the cross, he released us from the captivity of our sins, and freed us to be with him in heaven. We hear this so often that it almost becomes meaningless, but when you think about it, that is quite a remarkable statement. Jesus died for us. For you. For me. He willingly took the punishment for the sin that we have committed, so that we could approach God. He gave up his life to save us. That is surely something that we can give thanks for.

Do give thanks, then, that Jesus did give his life as a ransom. Reflect too on the idea of the “servant king.” As we strive to be more like Jesus, perhaps we should think about whether that humility and service to others is something that we demonstrate every day.

Jesus preaches good news

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Jesus preaches good news

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Luke 4:18-19

If like me you live in the UK, you can’t have helped but notice that this year is an election year. The Conservative Party launched into election mode on January 1st with a poster campaign sporting a giant airbrushed picture of David Cameron and the slogan, “we can’t go on like this.” Since then, all the main political parties have started their unofficial campaigns, usually saying what they won’t do that their opponents will. There was a time when election campaigns were fought on policies, and parties made pledges about what they what do. Increasingly these days, however, elections are fought by criticising the other parties, and playing on the looks and personalities of the party leaders.

Thankfully, Jesus did more than criticise his opponents. He made plenty of promises about what he would do, and in today’s verses, he quotes Isaiah to outline his aims. He begins by stating that the Spirit of the Lord is on him, Lord being the title usually reserved for God. Jesus begins straight away by affirming that he has been blessed by God. He then says that God has prepared him for a very special mission – to preach good news o the poor. He also says that he has been sent to proclaim freedom for prisoners, to help the blind see, and to release the oppressed. Jesus makes it clear that he has come to give hope and freedom to all those people who find themselves subjected to the unfairness of life. That hope is of a time when people will be freed from the situations in which they find themselves, and able to enjoy eternal life with God himself.

We all have times in our life when we feel we are struggling. We might have money problems, or have lost our job. We might be stuck in a job or other scenario that we hate. We might have lost friends or family, or be subject to illness ourselves. We might be at the end of our tether and think that life is not worth living anymore. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, though, Jesus brings us hope – hope of better things to come.

Judgement based on truth

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Judgement based on truth

Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

Romans 2:2

In my job as a history teacher, truth is very important. A lot of the work that my students undertake involves looking at historical sources, and trying to find out about the past from them. I press upon students that sources are usually created with a specific purpose, which is often trying to prove one point or another. It is, therefore, important to try and study a wide range of sources if we are going to get any where near a true picture of what happened in the past. I also have to warn the students about simply discarding a source because “it is biased” (or “biast” as I frequently see in their exercise books!), and encourage them to try to look beyond this natural bias to see what we can uncover from the source. One of the things that always amazes my students is just how hard it is to get to a true picture of the past, because there are so many conflicting statements. Many books even disagree on something as simple as dates!

Luckily when it comes to God’s judgement of us, there are no such problems with evaluating truth. Whilst history text books might disagree on key historical details, God wrote the text book for his creation, so he is well placed to carry out judgement! He laid out the standards by which we should live, and he set out the rules for his people. He also knows all that we do, and all that we think. When we are judged, therefore, we can be sure that we are being judged according to the same, unchanging standards that are applied to everyone. We can also be confident that we will all be judged fairly. Whilst some history books, particularly biographies, are heavily biased, because the writer is a fan of the subject, or strongly dislikes the person being written about, we can trust that God is fair and just. He does not have favourites. He loves all his people, and wants us to love him back. We are not judged according to our works, after all, but according to the simple fact of whether we believe in Jesus (see John 6:29).

We can rest assured, then, that God is our judge. He is fair and he is just, and we can be confident that we will be judged solely based on truth when it comes to the day of our judgement. This is something we can be thankful for!