Using passwords is nothing new. Armies have used them from the beginning of time. In Judges 12 men from Gilead took control of the passages across the Jordan River and used the word “Shibboleth” as a password. They knew the men from Ephraim could not pronounce the “Sh” sound and so they were able to sort out the good guys from the bad guys. When we were children we had clubs with secret passwords and handshakes. Today we have computers that require a host of passwords. We need passwords to access our email, Ebay, Amazon.com, bank accounts, ATMs and faculty records. Passwords are the key to opening locked doors or blocked passageways.
I know some Christians who think the name “Jesus” is a password. They treat it like it was “Open Sesame” to heaven. Because Jesus instructed us to pray in His name we are tempted to think of it as a magic word. Nothing could be further from the truth for the very same Jesus who told us to pray in His name also said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Ahh, so there is a password or maybe I should call it a pass action or a pass behavior. The secret is doing the Father’s will. And what might that be? “This is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: . .” John 6:40
Written by Roger Bothwell on November 16, 2003.
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