Getting the Words and Missing the Message
It's our second week in Guatemala and I just had my seventh Spanish class. The classes are intense one-on-one tutoring and if I don’t learn vocabulary and word endings between classes, I’ll get little out of them. So Erica and I both spend an additional four to six hours studying in the afternoons and evenings. It’s quite a challenge.As we were walking and reviewing yesterday, we were practicing putting sentences together and responding. Erica is way better than me, but I try to keep up. She gave me a sentence and I understood every word. But my response made no sense. She said, “What?” I then repeated in English what I thought she was asking and it was completely different from what she actually asked. I really did have all the words right. But if you miss the sense, get the word endings wrong, or put them together in the wrong order in your mind, you can completely miss the message. That’s what I did.And that’s pretty common for religious people.You can get all the words right and still miss the message.That’s why Jesus was so hard on the religious leaders of his day. They had all the information necessary for them to “get it right” but they missed Jesus, they missed grace, they missed God altogether even with all of their correct understanding of the Torah’s language and what was written in it. They had the words right, but they missed the message.I know some people that way. They know what the Bible says about morality. And they know about the problem of sin. They know the Ten Commandments by heart. They even have some New Testament passages memorized.But they are missing the message.Jesus came with a message of grace. You can't earn your way to God. Trying to just shows how far you are from what Jesus came to do. He came to provide forgiveness full and free. He’s not asking you to join an exclusive club by paying dues with good works and clean living. To be sure, you have to be in his family to make it to heaven. But that invitation to his family comes with no conditions. It’s just a matter of turning away from the destructive direction you are heading (repentance) and turning to him in belief and utter dependance (faith).Please don’t get so caught up in getting the words right that you miss the message. Jesus came to give you life. Let go of your way and embrace Him. That’s the gist of his message.“Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” – John 6:40 ESV