#DailyDevotion Don’t Have A Faux Faith In Jesus
John 4:46-54 46Then Jesus went again to Cana in Galilee, where He had changed water to wine. One of the king’s officers lived at Capernaum. Now, his son was sick. 47When he heard Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, who was dying. 48“If you don’t see wonderful proofs and miracles,” Jesus told him, “you won’t believe.”
Seeing is believing some people say. Jesus appears to be addressing such a mindset in this Gospel account. Jesus did his first sign here in Cana when he changed water into wine at the wedding banquet. I guess the servants who filled the jars with water and from those same jars brought wine to the master of the banquet must have spread the word there that Jesus had done this thing.
This official, whose son was sick, was willing to risk asking Jesus to heal his son. Having heard Jesus had returned, he went to Jesus to ask him to come down and heal his son who was dying. Now I don’t know the geography of the place or the idiom of the place, but I find it interesting the man asks Jesus to come down. Come down from where? Is his house lower than the rest of Cana? Does he recognize in some fashion Jesus’ lofty status as the Son of Man? While there are instances in the Old Testament of prayers for the LORD to come down, it is not peculiar to the LORD.
Yet it appears the man does not have a full faith in Jesus’ ability to do the thing he asks. Jesus responds, “If you don’t see wonderful proofs and miracles you won’t believe.” I believe Jesus has read the heart of the man who has appeared before him. His harsh words to the man are there to stir up the man’s faith in him. Jesus doesn’t want some halfhearted faith in him. Jesus calls for our full faith and trust in him as the Son of Man and Son of God. He calls us to trust in him that he is indeed the LORD, Yahweh, in the flesh, tabernacling among us, as John writes in chapter one of his Gospel. Nothing short of that will do.
I hear a number of people who put themselves off as Christians, maybe they are, who say they go to Church just in case. They believe in Jesus just in case. Just in case of what? There is a hell and a day of judgment? Can such a faith save such a person? I don’t believe such a faith is really faith. Like this official who comes to Jesus just in case he can actually do something, they are hedging their bets with the works of going to Church and saying they believe in Jesus. You won’t believe it until it is too late and then it is too late. Your faux faith will not save you. If you need to see signs and miracles to really believe, you don’t believe. Repent!
Jesus does do seven signs in Gospel of John to prove who he is that you might put your full faith and trust in him, the last of which is rising from the dead never to die again. If you put your faith in him, he will deliver you from the day of judgment. There will be no condemnation of you on that day. You will enter eternal life to dwell with Christ forever in his kingdom. Don’t wait for a sign. The Gospels are the only witness you are going to get. Trust their word concerning Jesus.
Heavenly Father, break through our unbelief with the witness of the Gospels so we may pass from death to life, from darkness to light, and from the kingdom of darkness into your Son Jesus Christ’s kingdom of light. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.