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 continue to consider applications from Revelation 17:14: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Let us not lose sight of the lavish love of “the Lamb,” our Lord and Savior. He has “called” us and “chosen” us. We do not merit such active affection, of course. In fact, before each of us came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, we were also at “war with the Lamb”; Romans 5:10 says that “we were enemies” of God and that we needed to be “reconciled to God by the death of His Son” and “saved.” Jesus taught us to “love [our] enemies” (Matthew 5:44); it was His love that reached into our lives and embraced us even while we were His “enemies.” Thus, He is not asking us to do anything that He has not already done in an infinitely more profound manner. We know that it is hard to love others, especially when they persist in denying and defying Jesus. A good place to begin is by loving our Savior more as we often reflect on His personal love for us. Then, we can be better prepared to love people, hoping that one day they will no longer “make war with the Lamb” but will instead be “with Him.”