"The Objection"

"The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true." (John 8:13 KJV) 

  ""My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot out lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. They only go from bad to worse. They do not know me," says the LORD." (Jeremiah 9:3 NLT) 

 There is really only one way to put this, These, so called me of God, do not like Jesus! It's not as though they have not inquired about who He was before, because they most surely have; so why are they making such a fuss about His testimony, having been wanting to know, or did they? 

 I can recall some very familiar times, not only before I was saved, but even since that New Life experience, when I really didn't want the truth to be revealed. Before I was saved, it was more about the truth about Jesus. I might not have realized it then, but it was not really that I did not want to know who He was, but more like, I did not want to have any part in what He was offering.

 Those times sense, the messages that were sometimes the most convicting, I would consider them to be for someone else, and not for myself. It might not have been all that way, because if the message was really life changing, then it was about finding something wrong in the message, in order to tear down the impact of the it might have had on my life. 

 That might sound as though I rejected God's word, because in all honesty, that's what I surely did. It has been said, "We only hold onto the sins that we like," those are the sins that trip us up and cripple our ability to go all out for God. Just saying, because it is more common than we can actually see. It is really all about the heart! 

 Anywho: this would be the crimes that would be placed upon the Lord, His testimony of who is said that He was, and what He said that He could do. Without taking the time to actually investigate the truth, they had no desire to even listen for or look into the truth, because they were determined to destroy Him. Basically, their hearts were hardened towards the heart of God! 

 God loves mercy, which I believe makes the guilty feel all the more guilt for not pleading for His mercy. It is really all about how much we want to please God, verses, how much we please ourselves! 

 Following Jesus means that we try and do what He did...

"You must have the same attitude that Christ had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position as a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross." (Philippians 8:6-8 NLT)