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 troubling reality of the active malevolence of Satan and the demons (Revelation 9) demands a sturdy response from each Christian: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness” (Ephesians 6:14). As we saw yesterday from Isaiah 64:6 and Philippians 3:4-9, this “breastplate of righteousness” is not something that we can construct for ourselves. Such self-righteousness is actually unrighteousness – and it is inspired by Satan himself. II Corinthians 5:21 (echoing Philippians 3:9) states, “For He [God the Father] hath made Him [Jesus, God the Son] to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus, fully God, is, of course, sinless and thus could and did take our sins so that we could be freely forgiven. Theologians call this divine act imputed righteousness: our sin is no longer counted against us but is replaced by our Savior’s perfection. As on old hymn exults, “’Tis done, the great transaction’s done.” We should rejoice, as well.