Choose Life (Part Fifty): Drink From the Waters (Part Five)

Lay Down Your Heavy Burden

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?  

― John 5:5-6, NKJV

We continue this week with the story of the sick man healed at the Pool of Bethesda. [John 5:1-15].

Born Again? So, What?

A great many are just satisfied with being born again, the first work of grace. Where did they get this satisfaction? Surely not from the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost. Where did they get this strange satisfaction or doctrine? Who sowed tares in their field? [Matthew 13:25] The master's mandate is clear. Isn't it? Matthew 28:18-20 reads,

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”" Amen. 

Which part of this tells us to be satisfied with a person being born again? Yes, it is a thing of joy. [Luke 15:1-7] Great joy indeed that one would repent and accept Jesus Christ. Great, but that is not the end of the story. The work only just started. The master's commission is to make DISCIPLES, not sheer converts, church members, or believers.

More to Jesus than Just Being Born Again:

There is much more to Christ than merely being born again. All being born again affords us is an initiation to begin the journey. It is not the end in and of itself. It is ONLY the beginning. Yet our churches are inundated with it. Choosing to build their tentacles and tabernacles there. They are no different from the Pharisees of old.

Here is what Jesus had and has to say about those. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." (Matthew 23:15, NKJV)

The job is not done just because the person got born again. That is only the beginning. Let us ensure we spread the emphasis and not be lopsided.

© 2017 Akin Akinbodunse

Link to Study Series:

Choose Life (Part Forty-Nine): Drink From the Waters (Part Four)

Choose Life (Part Fifty-One): Drink From the Waters (Part Six)

Link to Other Resources:

Unchanged Word of God (David Jeremiah)

Don't Tell Me There Ain't No God (Gary McDougall)

Stay Salt: The World Has Changed (Rebecca Manley Pippert)

God Has Not Changed His Mind About You (Andrea Lynn Gates)