Committed

John 2:23–25 (NKJV)

23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,

25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

23 - Jesus had made an appearance in Jerusalem during the Passover. While He was the sin offering of God as the unblemished Lamb, it was not time for Him to commit Himself to the cross. During this time Jesus performed many signs in the presence of the multitude that was there during Passover. Many believed in His name as Messiah but they did not believe on Him. The stark difference between believing in the Messiah and on Him is the difference between life and death. We can believe and make a profession of Jesus but until we totally surrender to Him as Messiah, the One who saves, completely, holding nothing in reserve, then we don’t have a possession of Jesus.

24 - Even though many believed Jesus did not commit Himself to them. This is easily put as Jesus had no faith in their faith. He knew that the belief wasn’t one that brings regeneration but instead inclusion. It’s similar to our expressions of occupations. We may label ourselves as one who practices medicine or as Doctors. Both explains a caregiver but the latter shows the merging of the practitioner with the profession itself. While one can be a believer and not born again, you cannot be born again without believing. Jesus knew all men, all hearts, all commitments, all converts and it is something that can’t be falsified before the One who searches the hearts.

25 - This verse is the tell tale story of mankind. We may have an appearance of righteousness or false humility but deep down in the essence of our being there is evil. The Word repeats this judgement over and over through scriptures (Gen 6:5, Gen 8:21, Jer 17:9, Mark 7:21, Titus 1:15-16, Ecc 9:3, etc). Jesus who is the Word and judgement of mankind did need someone to point this out to Him because He knew the evil and self-serving belief they had, so therefore He refused to commit Himself to them.

So how do we have a saving belief?

Stop believing anything else!

2 Corinthians 11:1–4 (NKJV)

1 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me.

2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

Ephesians 4:11–15 (NKJV)

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—

Galatians 3:1–5 (NKJV)

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?

2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—

3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

John 14:6 (NKJV)

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Commit yourself to Him

Luke 9:62 (NKJV)

62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Matthew 4:19 (NKJV)

19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 16:24 (NKJV)

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Philippians 3:12–14 (NKJV)

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 2:14–21 (NKJV)

14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!

18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Do you know Him?

Do you love Him?

Why don’t you trust Him?