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 can be trusted with our lives. As we saw yesterday, He is dependable because He fully understands dependence. We can also be certain that He has accepted us because He is accepted. Matthew 12:18b-c, quoting from Isaiah 42:1-4, records the words of God the Father about God the Son: “My Beloved, My Beloved, in Whom My soul is well-pleased: I will put My Spirit upon Him.” Scripture records three times during the earthly ministry of Jesus when the Father spoke from heaven of His delight in the Son. The first occurred at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:16-17), which was the beginning of His ministry. The second took place at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). The third happened at the Temple shortly before Jesus went to the Cross (John 12:28). Thus, Jesus was accepted by the Father right up to and including the Cross. Yes, in Matthew 27:46 Jesus said on the Cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” If we stopped there, we might speculate that Jesus was no longer accepted, but we would be wrong. In Luke 23:46, we hear these final words of Jesus from the Cross: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.” This strong Trinitarian statement assures us that Jesus was accepted even as He died for our sins. We can thus be certain that we are “accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).