It the Spirit who gives life: the flesh profits nothing……(68) But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Our verses today were written by the apostle John and address the antidote to spiritual defection – in other cases the defection may be due to unresolved doubts or unanswered questions about the Bible -such as how do you resolve the seeming contradictions in the Bible; how can you reconcile the creation account with modern science; how can a loving and powerful God permit all the evil that goes on in the world? if God is sovereign then aren’t we just robots with no free will. How do you handle the kind of hard trials and disappointments? How do you persevere in your faith when things don’t make sense – what is the antidote to spiritual defection.

To begin we need to acknowledge there are hard truths in God’s works you don’t like or understand. We must come with a teachable heart. if you come to God with that attitude you would walk with God. You may not like what the Bible sovereignity choosing some for salvation and passing over others but Jesus repeatedly teaches that. -it is taught from Genesis to Revelation. But if we accept the parts of the Bible that fit with what we like we are not following Jesus as Lord but rather ourselves as lord.

How do we submit to hard truths. We must be born again of the Spirit. Jesus explains all your learning and religious activities are incapable of getting you into heaven but that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life, points to God as sovereign and must impart new life to us.

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