God’s Choice

1.23.2010

Luke 23:35 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” ESV

It’s interesting to listen to what people really say. It’s amazing by that process to hear what they really think. The rulers of the people were saying the truth – He had saved others; that’s what Jesus came to do. But what they thought was the end of the matter was only really the beginning. His death was not the end, it was the start. He didn’t come to save Himself but to give Himself…

Most people I know are terrified at the thought of dying; to them death is the ultimate end. But that’s because they don’t understand death and don’t know the God of Life. For the believer death has no sting – you cannot sting without a stinger. To the natural man death is fearful and awesome because it is painful and empty; but for the believer death is simply a portal to pass through toward the ultimate Goal: fellowship with God for all eternity.

So what the rulers were saying about Jesus was true, He was the Christ of God [the] Chosen One. They just didn’t understand death and the importance of death to God (cf Psalm 116.15). Jesus Christ was chosen by God not to save His life but to give it as a sacrifice for sin for all mankind for all time – something the rulers of the people could never understand.

I don’t know how my life will end but when it does it will be precious to the Lord who loves me and has given me life. I too, according to the Scripture, have been chosen by the Lord to do His will and that is what I’m about – learning, living and loving just that – His will – that I too make be a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God.

Father in Heaven,

You intend for me to live and learn so that one day through death I may enter into fellowship and live with You for all eternity. Death is not evil, nor is it fearful – it is the portal through which I must go one day on my way home to You. Not fearing death or its timing may I live for You and accomplish in this life what You’ve intended for me all along – I pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.