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.)
Depending on our response to Jesus, He either joins or divides. In Luke 12:57-59, Jesus presents a powerful contrast: freedom or prison. He most reasonably encourages us to do all that we can to be free, to do whatever we can to stay out of prison. It is obvious that Jesus is speaking of spiritual freedom or imprisonment. There is an eternal prison (Matthew 25:46) called hell that we should avoid at all costs. Jesus has paid that price to set us free forever; as John 8:36 states, “If the Son therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The divide between the liberty of heaven and the confinement of hell is the greatest divide of all, for it is forever. In verse 57, the New International version says, “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? Each of us has a choice to make: will we be joined with Jesus forever, or will we be divided from Him everlastingly? Jesus has spoken clearly to us and has unfolded His grand plan of salvation to us. May each one of us be certain that our faith has been placed in Jesus only, for He alone can and will save us to Himself.