Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Last week, we began a study of Isaiah 59, a passage which reveals that Jesus loves life and gives life because He is the Life (John 14:6). On Saturday, we saw from the first seven verses of this Messianic chapter that, on our own, without the intervention of Jesus, we run the wrong way. It is not just that man perverts the right way of God (as bad as that is); no, we invert God’s good and gracious way. We do not merely deviate; we turn God’s righteous commands in on themselves, doing the opposite. Verse 8 speaks of “crooked paths” that cannot bring about God’s best for us, His “peace.” These “crooked paths” lead us right back to ourselves, where there is no salvation. Verse 14 clarifies that our way “is turned away backward.” The noted Christian authors George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis both employed the word “bent” to describe this man-made inversion. To change the metaphor (compare verse 6), it is as though mankind has struggled into a spiritual girdle in a vain attempt to hide its hypocrisy – it is not a pretty picture. It is also not hyperbole, for what is implicit throughout the first fifteen verses of this chapter is the absolute holiness of God. The assessment of verse 15b indicates that Jesus knows what this old life is like: “the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment [justice].” The Biblical doctrine of total depravity states that we cannot save ourselves from our own sin (verse 11). We need the One Who saves (verse 1); we need the Savior.