Three Choices
John 11:45–53
What are we to do? John 11:47
Let me turn the story of the Jerusalem council around in order to address you personally. It began with a question: “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.” Make this your question. What am I doing with the Miracle-worker?
There are only three choices for you, so far as I can see. The first is to try to ignore him. Many try this, of course. You may be trying it too. But if this is your choice, I do not believe that you get very far with it. Why? Because he does too many miracles. He did them then; he does them today. Do you not fear that if you “let him go on . . . everyone will believe in him”? And if they do, what will you do? How will you survive in such a Christ-centered world? How will you ignore him when your daughter believes, your son believes, your husband believes, your wife believes, your father believes, your mother believes, your friend believes? How will you ignore him on that day when, as we are told, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10–11)? Can he be ignored? Is Jesus really One whom you can thus put down?
Your second choice is to oppose him. Many have taken this course too, as we know. Caiaphas was the first but certainly not the only or even the worst persecutor of the Nazarene. History is full of those who opposed the Lord Jesus Christ. But where are they? The church remains, but what has happened to the persecutors?
Can you oppose him? If you do, do you really believe that you will be successful? Will you not rather be in the deplorable company of those rulers who “take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us,’” of whom we are told, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision” (Ps. 2:2–4)?
The last of the three choices is the only sensible one. You can believe on Jesus and follow him. “Follow him?” you say. “But he went to the cross. He was crucified. What is desirable about that?” That is true; his way is the way of the cross. But the cross is the way to victory, for it is only by losing life that a man can save it. It is only by following Jesus that the victory is won. If you reject him, you will not win. In fact, you will lose all that you have, as did the Jewish rulers. But if you believe on Jesus and follow him, though you may lack some things now, you will pass beyond that and share his glory.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.