“God loved you: therefore, love and obey him: 

Christ died for you: therefore, die to sin: 

Christ is risen: therefore, rise in the image of God.

Christ lives for evermore:

Therefore, live to God till you live with Him in glory” – John Wesley.

Jesus sees us as we are, not as we imagine or redefine ourselves. He knows our weak points. In the Gospel of John, we read about a discourse between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus (Jn 3:1-17). Jesus tells Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and ruling council member, a spiritual truth that perplexes but is prophetic. Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, was ‘intrigued but has not believed’ just as many today. In each of us, Nicodemus seeks to avoid persecution and compromise for seeking to know and remain faithful to Jesus. In Christianity, you either seek the light or seek darkness. There is no middle ground.

The Nicodemus in each of us knows more about theology and philosophy, just as Nicodemus said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Beyond a response of pleasantries, Jesus’ answer baffled Nicodemus – just as it baffles many of us today when called to repent from sin and be born again. Nicodemus’ problem points to the problem of the church and its leadership today. Nicodemus has not recognised the kingdom of God because he has not recognised Jesus’ identity. Nicodemus was not just clueless about what Jesus was talking about, just as many in the church are clueless today about the call to salvation. Nicodemus took the call to be born again in a physical sense. 

A person must go through a second birth by the Spirit of God to enter God’s kingdom. To be “born from above” was an idea that baffled Nicodemus – and it baffles many of us. However, this was the most straightforward way Jesus could explain the fundamental change that must happen within us before we can possess the joy of knowing God as a believer. John Wesley, in his sermon on the Lord our Righteousness, writes, “All believers are forgiven and accepted, not for the sake of anything in them, or anything that ever was, that is, or ever can be done by them, but wholly and solely for the sake of what Christ has done and suffered for them … and this is not only the means of our obtaining the favour of God but of our continuing therein … We walk in the new and living way till our spirit returns to God.”

In the Gospel of Mark, the rich young ruler’s story, character, and position also readily come to mind. Despite all that he was and had, something was still missing. He needed to be saved. In humility, he ran to Jesus and, on his knees, asked Jesus, “What must I do to have eternal life?” In his response to Jesus on his knowledge of the commandments, he said to Jesus, “Teacher, I have obeyed all these laws since I was a child.” Jesus aptly tells him what we all need to do. Jesus said, “You lack only one thing—go and sell all you have and give your money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow Me” (Mk 10:17-31). We read that the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away because he had many possessions.

In his book, The God Adventure (2005), Terry Meeuwsen reminds us of Jesus’ invitation to the rich young ruler, which resonates with each of us. The invitation is to help us embark on a “God-adventure” with Jesus. You are either on a “God-adventure” with Jesus or a worldly adventure with Satan. We all have a choice to make, like Nicodemus or the young rich ruler. Many of us are entangled and spiritually limited by different things in this world, especially as church leaders and Council members. Leadership position without Jesus’ new identity, a new name, denies a “God-adventure” with Jesus. Leadership, Committee, or Council positions without Jesus’ new identity promotes a mediocre life and spirituality shaped by ‘worldly adventure’ with Satan, that comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Beloved, what about you? Our old inner self must give way to a new inner self that God gives us. We can please God because we learn to love the thing He loves. Then we appreciate Jesus for who he is – our Saviour from heaven. We must ask God to create us all over again in this way. God-adventure with Jesus as what we all need, points to what John Wesley couples together and called the Divine Initiative with the Divine Imperative: 

“God loved you: therefore, love and obey him: 

Christ died for you: therefore, die to sin: 

Christ is risen: therefore, rise in the image of God.

Christ lives for evermore:

Therefore, live to God till you live with Him in glory.”