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.)
A précis of the preaching of the Prince of Peace is found in Mark 1:14-15: “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.’” The first and necessary act that each one of us must take is to “repent.” Really, repentance is a simple concept: it means that we must turn. In one sense, we live our lives turning. An infant turns his head to follow his mother. A teen turns his car (quickly) in an empty parking lot. A married couple turns the pages of a photograph album (if such things still exist), shocked at how young they once looked. Jesus uses this everyday practice of turning and turns it into a spiritual principle: we must turn from sin to the Savior. In fact, the irrefutable fact of the existence of sin compels us to take action, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). When we turn from sin we are turning away from spiritual death and turning to the spiritual life graciously offered by the Savior: “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b). May each one of us be certain of this salvation that is freely given by Jesus. All anyone needs to do is to turn to Him in faith and “receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 26:18d).