… expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Summary: Recognizing God’s kindness to us requires seeing God through the eyes of our hearts rather than eyes that measure things by the world’s standards.
Luke tells a story about Jesus teaching his disciples about God. Jesus says:
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13)
God gives us good things. (Yes, I know there is pain in the world, injustice, disease, and such. We speak in generalities here. God also allows bad things to happen for a number of reasons. For additional information, read the Book of Job, Psalms, Proverbs … and well, the entire Bible. In it, God addresses the complexities of dealing with us, his Creation.)
If we measure God’s gifts using the world’s standards of money and power, we will likely be disappointed. If we adjust our thinking as the Prodigal Son did (Luke 15:11-32), then we discover what is really important.
God has given us what is important. He gives us his Son, Jesus Christ.
Once again, we are challenged to choose how we look at God. Isaiah describes how the worldly see Jesus:
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
. . . nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
. . . a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
. . . he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
(Isaiah 53: 2b-3)
While he was walking among us as a man, the world rose up and killed Jesus in an attempt to rid us of the threat Jesus posed.
In a meeting of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin, the leaders said about Jesus:
“What are we accomplishing? … Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” (John 11: 47b-48)
In their minds, they equated their positions of leadership and authority as essential to the survival of Israel as a nation. The only “good” from God that they wanted was for God to affirm their leadership and subordinate all nations to them, just as it was in the days of Solomon.
Instead, God offered them Jesus, and through Jesus, he gave them the opportunity to be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God. Those who follow Jesus don’t always look too bright in the eyes of the world, but this life only lasts a lifetime. After this life, there is an eternity of living to plan for. The gift of God through Jesus Christ is like the gift received by the prodigal son. We can be forgiven, and welcomed home.
Application: Do a self-check: How do you measure what is important in your life?
Food for Thought: Where would we be without God’s “kindness in Christ Jesus?”
We already know what the world is capable of becoming when full of people who do not fear and love God:
Genesis 6:5-6 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
We prove ourselves time and time again incapable of turning from sin. We are separated from our Heavenly Father, our Creator. God does not want to be separated from us, so much so that He gave His only Son to remove our sinful debt, and to bring us closer to Him through Him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life
2 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Where would we be without God’s “kindness in Christ Jesus?”
Dead; Dead. Dead. Dead…Dead in the world and dead in eternity. I have seen in others and in myself how sin destroys us. Sin will destroy you and destroy the ones you love here on Earth. For the unrepentant and unbelieving, sin will bring death for eternity. God’s kindness, through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, is as a loving father looking at his child trying to do what they cannot do, and saying “Let me help you, I want this for you.” Only because Jesus defeated death and sin is this possible.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Timothy 1:10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
Chris,
Your words remind me of the “wages of sin” we see played out on the news every day. One doesn’t have to travel far anymore to find the mentally ill, the drug-addicted, criminals, those who deface public spaces, and people who have sunk to a level of evil that causes them to hurt others or hurt themselves, or often both.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom leads to understanding. Understanding, in turn, leads us to accept God’s salvation and His healing. I pray that God’s light and healing renew our nation and our world, now and forever.
Great devotion and question brother. I love Chris’s response. This feels like a holy reverence question to me. I can only shudder to think about where I would be without His kindness in Christ Jesus. It is actually quite scary and disturbing to think about.
Brother Rich,
Thank you. I like your phrase “holy reverence question.” Yes, I would agree — very disturbing and scary!
04-04-2023, Where would we be without God’s “kindness in Christ Jesus?”
We have a young man in our church who is 33 years old, lives with his parents and initially appears to be mentally challenged. Nobody spoke with him and he always sat alone. God drew me to him and today we are buddies. We have our chairs and we sit together every Sunday. Initially he expressed a lot of anger, and was very difficult to understand. Today we laugh a lot together and I have found he is actually intelligent, and at times insightful, he simply has great difficulty putting his words in the proper order to express his thoughts ( As do I! ) and one just needs to be patient as they listen.
His parents have come to me separately and thanked me for being kind to their son, his father told me I am the only person he will talk with. I missed 2 Sundays for health reasons and this young man called me to see how I was. Another time we spoke of my taking my wife to a doctor for a potentially serious issue and that evening He called me to see what the doctor said.
Without the kindness in Christ Jesus I would not have been given the pleasure of experiencing Christ working through me to bring encouragement to those less fortunate, the pleasure of traveling through journeys with others brought into my life by God. I would not experienced His comforting, and encouraging others to press on, and personally witness His power as He brought peace, stability, and growth into their lives.
Colossians 3:12-13, Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
John 13:34-35, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Thanks Ron!
That is a wonderful story about your friend at church. It is also a great illustration of how God is present in our world through us, the body of Christ.
It is a great honor and pleasure to be used by God for any purpose, and He who ministers through all His people, receives all credit for any good done in our lives.
Amen! 🙂