Everything on Red 23!
My experience with casinos is limited to walking through them, going to the buffet. It seems like I may have dropped a $5 bill at the slot machines on my way to eat lunch, maybe it was $10. My understanding of roulette is that you have a 1:35 chance of winning if you bet on one particular number. With those odds, I do not think that anyone would bet everything they have at once. They would place smaller bets a number of times. That way, they would manage their risks, somewhat. To bet everything on one number would result in an almost guaranteed loss.
Suppose that someone bets everything they have on one number. “All the chips on Red 23!” They are almost certainly going to lose all their money. The only way a sane person would do that is if they knew the outcome in advance.
“All the chips on Jesus! Everything on Jesus!”
Would you say that? It means that if Jesus is not everything He said, you are risking your entire life. Perhaps it would be better to risk a little on Jesus but keep a few chips back. That is just in case betting on Him makes me lose. Better to keep a little back in order to play the game again another day. After all, would it not be foolish to lose everything all at once when there is no reason for it?
God's own eternal life is promised to “whoever believes in Him” (John 3:16 NASB) Using the roulette analogy, “risking” some of our trust on Jesus but holding back a few chips, just in case, is NOT believing in Jesus. Trusting in some benefits about Jesus but holding firmly onto Mary or someone else, just in case, is NOT believing in Jesus. Repeating someone's prayer but holding onto your favorite religious performance in order to gain God's favor, just in case Jesus fails, is NOT believing in Jesus.
A woman excitedly ran to her pastor to tell him that her Hindu neighbor had just accepted Christ. The pastor politely shared her enthusiasm, but then asked her if the neighbor was willing to give up all her other gods. The woman went back to her neighbor to ask her. The reply was unexpected.
“Of course not! Are you crazy?”
Jesus' benefits sounded like good additions to the other millions of gods in the Hindu religion. Jesus would be another page that she could staple onto the corner of her already very large divine resume. This is NOT believing in Him.
To believe in Him means to forsake all others. It means to drop any other means of obtaining God's favor. It means to jettison every name or everything that we may hold onto, in search of eternal life. It means crying out with the core of our being, “Everything on Jesus!” If He should fail, it means total destruction and condemnation. If Jesus is not enough, all is forever lost.
These are big stakes. Maybe you think that the idea of Jesus' forgiveness sounds nice but you really are not totally committed to His claim as being the only way (John 14:6). Maybe you are thinking about committing to Jesus but this idea of “forsaking all others” is not something you are ready for. It is like a person who considers getting married but the idea of forsaking all others is too restrictive.
Jesus asks you to step into the unknownness of giving your life to Him. He asks that you trust the near infinite worth of your immortal soul to His care. He does not ask you to leap blindly. He has placed His own faith into your heart. We know that His promise is true. Strangely, we may not know how we know. We may find His quiet confidence in our heart. His faith, that we discover is in our heart, is His “proof” or receipt that what He says can be trusted (Heb 11:6).
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph 2)
Dec. 9, 2023