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.)
Our Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), Jesus Christ, provides peace, God’s best to us. This peace is from God (Luke 2:14; Romans 1:7), with God (Romans 5:1), and of God (Philippians 4:7). These truths are brought together in the powerful statement of Ephesians 2:14: “For He is our peace, Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” Paul is speaking specifically of the divide between Gentiles and Jews. In his day, these two groups despised each other. This mutual antagonism was remedied solely by faith in Jesus. The early church was the only place where these two hostile peoples placed aside their differences and began to respect and love each other. Somewhere in the world today, someone (maybe many) will turn to faith in Jesus Christ. That person (or those persons) might be quite different from us culturally or ethnically (the kind of differences that a sinful world focuses upon). Yet, we share the same Savior and receive the same peace. Could there be any better Christmas gift today than knowing that Jesus is saving others right now? Let us rejoice in His ongoing and glorious work of salvation.