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.)
The bittersweet book of Revelation 10:8-11 points us to the difficulty of living “godly in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:12). Paul’s discussion of this subject in Romans 7:15-25, as we touched upon Saturday, is illuminating, especially verse 19: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Paul’s honest appraisal of himself and his sin nature reveals each Christian’s continuing conundrum: we really do not want to sin, but sometimes we do. Some years ago in a Bible class, a thoughtful young man asked me, “Why didn’t God make our minds so that we couldn’t choose to do the wrong thing?” I responded with something like the following: “Imagine that I were far more intelligent than you, with multiple advanced degrees and great success in everything that I had ever done. Would you let me take over your mind?” None of us would permit anyone to do that to us, for that person would be taking away our personality, our very being. It would be wrong, simply wrong, for anyone to steal our souls. Thus, it would be wrong for God to do it – and He would cease to be God if He did. He is not a totalitarian tyrant. Rather, He has created us in His image (Genesis 1:27) and provides us with every opportunity to choose to do the right thing. Here is Paul’s Spirit-inspired conclusion: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (verses 24-25a). We have been delivered to do God’s will, to do good.