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 began to consider yesterday, Jesus is a sanctuary. Isaiah 8:13-14 is clear: “Sanctify the LORD of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” We must make the decision to “sanctify” Jesus; obviously, since He is fully God and thus fully holy, we cannot sanctify Him in the way that He sanctifies us, which is replacing our sinfulness with His righteousness (for example, Romans 5:7: “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ”). Rather, we are choosing whether we will receive the goodness of Jesus or reject it; neutrality is not an option for there is no middle ground here. Do we humbly accept that we need sanctuary, or do we pridefully think that we need nothing except ourselves – our abilities, our intellect, our good works? It is ironic that mankind seeks a sort of sanctuary wherever we go. At work, we look forward to lunch; in a classroom or church, we settle into the same seat; on vacation, we return to certain special spots. If we choose Jesus, we have sanctuary anytime and anyplace. In this harried and hurried world, we need calm; we need to catch our breaths. Only Jesus provides exactly what we require.