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.)
Yesterday, we saw that Jesus in His anger against hypocrisy provides the remedy of His Word (James 1:22-25) to help us to remove beam and mote (Matthew 7:5) and to avoid the deep ditch of spiritual blindness (Mathew 15:14). Furthermore, He points us to the indwelling work of God the Holy Spirit. In John 16:7-9 and 13a, we read that the Spirit works within to “reprove” (convict) regarding sin, including the sin of hypocrisy. The emphasis on “truth” in verse 13 reminds us that the ongoing work of God within us will always lead us to His way of honest integrity. Why settle for feeling guilty when Jesus offers us conviction and restorative power? Together, God’s Word and God the Holy Spirit provide powerful advantages to remove that vexacious beam of hypocrisy. We are not left to struggle alone, for the anger of Jesus is beneficial.