John 3:31-36 (NIVUK)
31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
One of the things my recent studies taught me was that I am personally constrained to seeing the world through my eyes, which are the eyes of a white, straight, middle-class, male, born in the early 1970s in England. For me to see the world as a woman sees it, I need a woman to help me. To see it as a person with a disability, I need such a person to help me, and so on. I can guess, but can never know on my own. We’re also all constrained by being humans. We see the world through the eyes of fallen humanity, to see it as it truly is, to see beyond our constraints and self-centredness, we need God who is over all and free from sin, to help us. And this is just what he has done through the sending of his Word, his living testimony, and through the giving of his Spirit, and this, praise God, means we can enjoy true life.
Fill us Spirit so that we might see clearly!
Photo by Alex Hockett on Unsplash
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