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.)
Jesus demonstrated His humility by voluntarily setting aside His divine rights in His earthly ministry. Philippians 2:7 tells us that He “made Himself of no reputation” – that is, He “emptied Himself” by not insisting on His heavenly and eternal rights as God the Son. For example, as we have seen in the last two days, Jesus set aside the demonstration of His omniscience (Luke 8:43-48) and His omnipotence (John 5:19-20, 27). He also chose not to act upon His omnipresence. John 11 tells us of the death and resurrection of Lazarus, a personal friend of Jesus. Verses 14-15 make it plain that Jesus was fully aware of the severity of his friend’s condition (His omniscience), could have prevented it (His omnipotence), and could have been there or healed over distance (His omnipresence). Spiritually sensitive people will wonder why Jesus let these people suffer, even if it was for a little while. John 12:10-11 provides a direct answer: many were saved for eternity in response to the miracle that Jesus performed in raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus knew and knows that nothing is more important than salvation. The more we consider the humility of Jesus, the more we see how necessary it was. May we humble ourselves before the One Who has shown us what hard work humility is.