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John 2:22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Have you ever felt like all hope is lost? It could be that someone has let you down. Maybe not someone, but you might even feel that you have failed yourself. Everywhere you turn there seems to be only closed doors.

Well, that is exactly how the disciples felt after Jesus was crucified. If they had social media, their status would probably read, “sad, really sad! I thought he was the one 🙁 .” But, after Jesus rose from the dead, John records that the disciples remembered his words and believed the Scriptures.

Now what seemed like a dark, hopeless, and sad situation was dramatically turned around. The status would have been quickly updated to “risen! My hope is renewed 🙂 🙂 :).” Why is this the case? With a risen Jesus, his words and the Scriptures (Old Testament) come to life and bring life.

Despite of how bleak your life might look, I pray that you would be like the early disciples; they remembered that He is risen! Not only that, they believed the Scriptures and His words. May God help you to take in His words and believe them.

Read: Matthew 5

Notable Insight:

Classically, several types of distinction have been employed concerning faith: The faith that is believed is distinguished from faith as believing. Faith as a particular act is distinguished from faith as habitual; implicit from explicit faith; immature from mature faith active in love. Human faith (including historical faith and intellectual assent) is distinguished from divine faith made possible by grace. The study of faith (discursive faith) is distinguished from the act of faith (or direct faith). These distinctions have been found useful in the attempt to formulate the relation between dimensions of Christian faith and the general concepts and phenomena of faith in the history of religions (Calvin, SW, pp. 274; 381–84; Heppe, RD, pp. 526–36).

 

[1] SW John Calvin, Selections from His Writings. Edited by John Dillenberger. Missoula, MT: Scholars’ Press, 1975. RD Heinrich Heppe. Reformed Dogmatics. Translated by G. T. Thomson. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1950. [1] Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit: Systematic Theology, Vol. III (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 133.

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