Real Vs. Illusion

"They answered Him, 'We are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, You will be made free?"

John 8:33

Isn't is incredible the amount of delusion we are willing to live under when we accept the physical as being the real deal, and the spiritual merely as a shadow. Actually, the Scriptures declare the opposite to be true. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 it says

"We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal."

The things that I cannot see with my eyes but, by faith know are real and true, those are the things that will last. Those are the things that matter.

Jesus said some hard things in John 6. A great crowd had followed Jesus for all the wrong reasons. It was the same crowd that Jesus had just fed with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. They didn't believe in Jesus because He was Messiah; they only wanted more food. In the words of St. John in Exile, who could blame them? Best bread they'd ever eaten! :) But Jesus knew their hearts and called them out on it:

"Do not labor for food which perishes but for the food which endures to everlasting life. . .Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . .I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never thirst. For My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."

Wait, what??? Are we literally suppose to eat His flesh and drink His blood? Hold on, let's not run away with ourselves. These are some pretty deep theological waters we're stepping into, and I'd prefer to leave that for those more smarter than I, but I can emphatically say, No, we're not supposed to literally eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood. What I believe He's saying is that physical food and drink is a shadow, a symbol, a means by which we can understand what he is to us. We all know that our bodies require food and water to sustain themselves. But even with food and water, our bodies will eventually die. In the same way, we need Jesus to sustain our spirits, only with Jesus, we will never die. That which is eternal is real; that which is passing is a shadow.

The Jews in John 8 could not understand that Jesus was speaking to them of spiritual freedom, not physical. And they were so willing to accept what is seen, that they were selling themselves short of all that God desired for them. In 1 Corinthians 7:22, Paul says, "For He who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave."

There will always be some kind of external force that will alter the "freed" condition of this temporary life on earth, filtered of course through the sovereignty of God. Finances will get depleted, self esteem will become damaged, spouses will disappoint, children will get sick, jobs will be lost, reputations will become marred, health will fail and so on and so forth. But the freedom from bondage that Christ offers, that will never, ever change and it will never, ever fail. May we not become like the church of Laodicea who was so caught up in the physical world that they said of themselves, "I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing" but did not realize that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

Application: Today I will memorize Psalm 1.