Nothing Else Like This

We, as Christians, are not impressive. Sometimes we are downright obnoxious. Thankfully it’s not about us. It’s about our message. And the focus of our message is Jesus.

There is nothing else like our message. Nothing else like Jesus.

Consider.

The ultra powerful God of the universe turns out to be more than a creative force, more than a cosmic ruler. He is personal. He is a Father. He is a good Father. And while we were still a mess He took the initiative to chase after us. He loves us, and for some unknown reason, He wants us. He actually wants us in a personal relationship with Him just the way we are.

So much so that He sent Jesus to rescue us, to bring us home.

Jesus stripped Himself of His divine advantage and entered this broken world as a baby. Then He grew up, gave His life for us, shoved the tomb boulder out of His way and re-entered the world.

Here’s the shocker.

He didn’t come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. He came to give us principles not merely for living, but for life itself.

even when we were DEAD in our trespasses, made us ALIVE together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—(Ephesians 2:5 ESV)

To use modern day imagery, we were zombies. We were the walking dead. He gives life and He gives it in super-sized quantities (John 10:10). Life that is eternal and starts now.

He didn’t come to bring a religion, a rulebook, a system or spiritual symbols. He didn’t come to offer principles on behavioral modification. He came to be for us what we need most: a Savior.

That changes everything.

They don’t call it “good news” for nothing. It is good and it still comes as news for most people. God did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

It is an eternal transaction fueled by His love for us. Jesus’ life becomes our life.

Through Jesus, we are alive. Truly alive.

It is all held together not by pristine doctrine, serving in church, perfect behavior, Biblical principles or anything else that depends on us. It is held together by His love for us.

He has a crazy love for us. It is the super glue that binds us together with Him.

No, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him who LOVED us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the LOVE of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39 ESV)

It is not about what we do for God but about what God has done for us through Jesus. Nothing else like this.