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.)
The doctrine of total depravity is an unpopular one today, but it is Biblical. It does not teach that we are as bad as we can be, for not all of us traffic women and children across the southern border or engage in the violent racism of Hitler and Hamas. Rather, this doctrine teaches that we are as bad off as we can be, that we can do nothing to save ourselves. God is absolutely holy; we are not. God is good; we are not. The response of the unbelievers in Revelation 16:10-11 well illustrates this truth: “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” This aggressive refusal to repent makes no sense. Only the ornery obdurateness of the hardened human heart explains this otherwise inexplicable behavior. Let us marvel that Jesus, God the Son, came to us when we could not approach Him and, in fact, when we had no inclination to draw even one step closer to Him. It is only through the total perfection of Jesus that our total depravity can be overcome. The wonder of Christmas is that Christ willingly came to us to die on the Cross and offer us His eternal salvation. “Born to die that man might live” – this is the meaning of Christmas, and it is our message.