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.)
Because Jesus knows all things, the statement of Hebrews 8:12, quoting from Jeremiah 31:34, is startling: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Here is a marvelous reminder of the fullness of forgiveness that is found through faith in Christ Jesus. Yet, we wonder, how can Jesus, Who knows all things, forget our sin? The answer is provided at the Cross. In Luke 23:34a, as He was being nailed to that Cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Because of Jesus’ sacrifice in our places, He can forget our sins in the sense of having to punish it; because Jesus took our punishment, He can forgive and not deal with us as our sins deserve. If each one of us were asked to write down the ten worst things that we have ever done, we could probably put together a list in just a few minutes; in fact, the only problem might be limiting the list to ten! We remember, but Jesus forgives and “will…remember no more.”