The Wednesday Word [11 May, 2022 A.D.]

In Christ Jesus

by D.G. Miles McKee

When Jesus began His ministry, He came preaching the good news of the kingdom (Mark 1:15).  He was and is the Kingdom of God.  In Him, the heavenly authority and sovereign rule of almighty God arrived in human form. This is exceedingly good news!  Christ, the Creator of all things became one of us. What a visitation from heaven! What a declaration of who God is and what He is like. In Christ Jesus, God’s thoughts came to earth.The people found Christ’s thoughts spellbinding (John 7:15).  Even His enemies said, “Never man spake like this man,” (John 7:46). And it was no wonder for the thoughts and words of Jesus were the thoughts and words of the Father.  They were words full of grace and majesty pouring purposely from His inmost being (John 7:16). In Christ Jesus, God’s thoughts towards His people are thoughts of peace and grace, not thoughts of fury and anger (John 14:27). In Christ Jesus, God’s absolutes came to earth.Much to the annoyance of many, both then and now, Jesus was both exclusive and intolerant. He spoke in absolutes.  He tolerated no way to heaven other than by Himself saying, "I am the Way, the truth, and the Life: no man comes to the Father, but by Me," (John 14:6).  He also excluded all doors to heaven other than Himself saying, “I am the door” (John 10:9). And is it any wonder? For,In Christ Jesus, the saving power of God came to earth!Jesus presents Himself, not as one among many alternatives, but as the only one who is "mighty to save." (Isaiah 63:1). He is the only one "able also to save to the uttermost; them that come unto God by Him" (Hebrews 7:25). He is the only one who has lived, died and risen again as the sinless substitute.  He is our only hope for He is the only one who has satisfied God’s just and reasonable demands for perfection and righteousness.  Christ alone is the provision for ruined lost sinners. What a shelter, what a Saviour!In Christ Jesus, God’s love came to earth.It is in Christ that we see God’s love for the helpless.  He received sinners and ate with them (Luke 15:2). This comes as no surprise since He came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).A story is told of a child, many years ago, who thought of God only with dread, as of a terrible Judge!  In her stern home, God had been held before her only in this way.  She had never heard a word about God's love.  But one day in her father's printing shop, she picked up a scrap of paper and found on it just the first part of this verse, "For God so loved the world … that He gave" the remaining words were torn off … but even this mere fragment was a revelation to her.God loved … "loved the world", loved it well enough to give something. Exactly what He gave … she did not know … but it was enough for her to know that God loved at all and that He loved enough to give something. The new thought changed her conception of God. She learned through time what the God of love gave.  She learned that the fullest demonstration of His love comes to us at the cross.  God didn’t just say He loved us; He, as the representative man, went to the cross and was deluged by the floods of wrath that should have come upon us.  What astonishing love!  He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This really is “amazing love, immense and free.”In Christ Jesus, we see the majesty of God as He rose from the grave triumphing over death (Romans 6:9). In Christ Jesus, we discover good news for all whose righteousness is insufficient to bring them to God (Psalm 132:9).In Christ Jesus, God’s undeserved, unearned and unmerited favour has freely come to us (Titus 2:11).In Christ Jesus, we see that our salvation is not bound up in how much we love God, but in how much He loves us (1 John 4:10).In Christ Jesus, we see that it is not our commitment to God that saves us, but His commitment to us. And that’s the Gospel Truth!

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