Because He loves us

As I read through John 11, apart from seeing the great parallel to Salvation in the resurrection of Lazarus, I found a crazy couple verses in verse 5 & 6.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. – John 11:5-6

If we heard that a loved was sick and we had the remedy or could help them live and not die from this sickness, what would you do? I would jump in the car or airplane and race to that loved one to save them. Yet, Jesus, the Great Physician, who loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus did differently. He waited and stayed longer where He was. He could have healed with just a word! Yet, He waited and allowed Lazarus to die.

Jesus did this with one main goal, verse 4 – “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Jesus knew that Lazarus would die, and He allowed sin to have its toll on His loved friend. Why? He did it because He would raise him from the dead and give Glory to God through it all. It was unknown of anyone being raised from the dead. And when He did it, many believed in Jesus as the Messiah, God in the flesh.

But He did it also to increase the faith of His loved ones. It said that He waited because He loved His friends. It was to grow the faith of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Not only for them but also for His disciples. Look at what Jesus said to the disciples in verse 14 & 15 –  “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

So what is my encouragement to you? Everything that comes your way is from the loving hands of God to increase your faith and make you like Jesus! Take joy in this fact. He does not send hardship to you without being there to carry you through it. As Spurgeon said – 

"As sure as God puts His children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them" 

and 

“The furnace of affliction is a good place for you, Christian; it benefits you; it helps you to become more like Christ, and it is fitting you for heaven.”

Rest in Jesus when trials come to test and grow your faith. Get down on your knees and plead for God to grow you and help you to persevere through them. Cry out and He does hear you! God is making you like Jesus in His own perfect way. He is faithful and He is your rock and your fortress!

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:2

Spurgeon on Sin

A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in proportion.

Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back upon the past? As for our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love—light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus’ bosom.


Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter’s denying his Master. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Have we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears?

Alas! these sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul, bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God. Admire the grace which saves thee—the mercy which spares thee—the love which pardons thee!

Hope for Imperfect People

By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.(Hebrews 10:14)

This verse is full of encouragement for imperfect sinners like us, and full of motivation for holiness.

It means that you can have assurance that you stand perfected and completed in the eyes of your heavenly Father not because you are perfect now, but precisely because you are not perfect now but are “being sanctified,” “being made holy” — that, by faith in God’s promises, you are moving away from your lingering imperfection toward more and more holiness.

Does your faith make you eager to forsake sin and make progress in holiness? That is the kind of faith that in the midst of imperfection can look to Christ and say: “You have already perfected me in your sight.”

This faith says, “Christ, today I have sinned. But I hate my sin. For you have written the law on my heart, and I long to do it. And you are working in me what is pleasing in your sight. And so I hate the sin that I still do, and the sinful thoughts that I contemplate.”

This is the true and realistic faith that saves. It is not the boast of the strong. It is the cry of the weak in need of a Savior.

I invite you and urge you to be weak enough to trust Christ in this way.

- John Piper

We are saved as a gift of God’s grace so that we might be sent as a gift of God’s grace. —Kevin Dibbley