Journey through John 2:23-25

Good Morning Church Family – Journey Through John

Read John 2:23-25

Devo Thought: Since the 17th century, most people have believed that man is born with a “blank stale” as far as his mind and dispositions go. John Locke in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding said the following of the human mind in its initial state, it resembles a “white paper, void of all characters.” What he means by this is that human being start life with the basic materials necessary for learning and reasoning, but we all start in a neutral position. What needs to be done is for people to begin to write on this “white paper.” We don’t really start with any proclivity toward good or bad, toward truth or lies. We are neutral, and then life happens, and we are bent toward good or evil, right or wrong. The Bible paints a different picture of man. This brief passage in John’s Gospel gives us a brief synopsis of the Bible’s understanding of man. The passage ends with the thought that “no one needed to bear witness about man, for he himself (Jesus) knew what was in man.” In other words, the reason Jesus didn’t entrust himself to men was because he knew that man is inherently untrustworthy. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying that mankind is as bad as we could be, but I am saying that we don’t start at neutral. In fact, we start as rebels, as enemies of God. It takes God going out of his way and coming across enemy lines to turn us back. We aren’t blank slate that just need the right information; we are rebels who need to be transformed, sinners who need to be turned into saints. Thank God that Jesus came to do just that!

Let us thank God that we saved us while we were still sinners.