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.)
We return to Revelation 19 as we think of the overwhelming goodness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have seen that Jesus is overwhelming in the praise due Him (verses 1-6) and in His “blessed” care for His people (verses 7-10). He is also overwhelming in His person, that is, in His core character (verses 11-16). Verse 12 focuses on Jesus’ “name,” which references His nature. We have discussed in detail His faithfulness, truthfulness, righteousness, justice, and knowledge – all of which are, like everything about Him, perfect. The superlatives of sovereignty found in verse 16 – “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” – are certainly overwhelming. However, as always with Jesus, there is more. Verse 13 mentions His “blood,” directing us to His full humanity (while He retained His full deity, of course) and to His death on the Cross for our benefit and in our places. Even if Jesus had not sacrificed Himself for us in order to offer eternal salvation to each one of us, He would still be overwhelmingly good in all of His attributes: He is Who He is. However, He went beyond any expectation that we could have had to shed His “blood” for us, to die that the penalty for our sins be fully paid and full forgiveness be made available to all. There is nothing good that our Savior will not do; there is nothing good that He has not already done for us.