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.)
As we saw yesterday, Jesus groans along with us because He fully understands the truly terrible impacts of sin, including death. In Romans 8:22, we read, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” The original Greek word for “groaneth” is not the same as we found in John 11:33 and 38, but it is still a strong word pointing us to a powerful theological point: man’s sin has corrupted the physical creation, as Genesis 3 explains in detail. Romans 8:20 speaks of the universal frustration (“vanity”) that results from sin. Think of a warm summer’s day that is beautiful but also causes sweat (Genesis 3:19); discomfort can lead to dehydration and even death. Jesus assures us, though, that all creation will one day be redeemed (Romans 8:23; see also Revelation 21:5: “Behold, I make all things new”). This promised outcome reveals that the groaning of Jesus is efficacious and also alters our present perspective. For example, we have pictures of our children shortly after they were born but no pictures of my wife in labor with a caption like, “Look at that groan! That was a good one!” No, we celebrate the end of labor and its result. Likewise, the whole creation groans and hopes, with a certain hope based upon the sure promises and the certain character of our Savior.