A Gift Beyond Comparison

You may know the words by heart, but it’s ok if you don’t. You may recall the chapter and verse of the Bible book where the words are located, but it’s ok if you don’t. You do, however, know exactly what the writer was talking about, because on a daily basis you experience the same frustration that he did, and that’s not ok. It gets to be downright maddening.
The good I want to do, I do not do. The evil I don’t want to do, that I do.

I pray that the Lord would create a clean heart within me, but the evil thoughts keep reappearing. I say I’ll watch my tongue and not say things about other people that I have no business saying, but a couple of hours later I’m looking over my shoulder to make sure the person I am gossiping about is not around. I know that the best things I can be doing are the things that help and serve others, but when is there going to be time for me and what I want and what I need?

When the Lord Jesus took on human flesh, it was not like an episode of Undercover Boss. He didn’t dive into the trenches for a week and then take a limo ride to go back to living in his posh house on the hill. For three decades plus, he was subject to the same living conditions that we know so well. Jesus of Nazareth stubbed his toe, burned his finger, coughed and sneezed, had sore muscles, experienced headaches, and upset stomach, was hungry, lived out of a suitcase, heard people curse and swear, saw people acting as if God didn’t exist, was exhausted after long workdays, laughed at celebrations, cried at funerals, and all the while, just like us, he was under the law. He was under legal obligation to love God and never complain, to endure sickness patiently, to say only good things about less than perfect people, to thank God for daily bread, to let his light shine, to trust his Father in heaven to see him through any and all adversity. Jesus was obligated to do and to be everything God has commanded us to do and to be.

But while I go back to Romans 7 and think with Paul, “Why don’t I ever do those things I’m supposed to do and stop doing those things I’m not supposed to do,” Jesus fell asleep each night for 33 years with no sin to confess. In purity, he was always what I have not been—pure. In obedience, he was never what I have been—disobedient.

The fact that God sent his Son is the heart of Christmas. What his Son did puts the blessing into Christmas. Breathing the same air I breathe, living in the same world I live in, subject to the same physical and emotional challenges I face each day, and under the same law of God that I am under, Jesus Christ obeyed the law for me, trusted God for me, spoke only constructive words for me, thought only pure thoughts for me, gave true testimony about God for me, obeyed every commandment for me, endured sickness and heartache with hope and good cheer for me, was kind for me, was content for me, loved God with all his heart, soul, and mind for me. He is my obedience to God. He is my purity in the sight of God. He is for me exactly what God demands that I be. What kind of gift is that!

It’s the kind of gift that has no comparison, because Jesus my righteousness also became my sin. God’s pure Son became my wretched guilt. All of his perfect compliance to the will and law of God made him the only sacrifice pure enough to pay off the eternal debt of my rebellion. The price of redemption came at the cost of his life, offered to God in place of me and in place of everyone. What kind of redemption is that!

It’s the kind of redemption that has made you and me the full-fledged children of God. That means that when we experience the daily struggle of having a new self that wants to live to honor God and an old self that wants to do nothing other than dishonor God, when we fall asleep each night with a boatload of sinfulness to confess, our Father in heaven will hear our confession and grant us his forgiveness, because that’s what a dear Father does for his dear children. And then he provides the strength and the drive to keep fighting the good fight.
Peace in Jesus to you and yours!

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Galatians 4:4-5