Discover: Jesus!

 

9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Colossians 2:9-10 NKJV

9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.  10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. Colossians 2:9-10 NLT

  Awe and wonder. That's what many experienced when they encountered the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. Others experienced deep love and tangible goodness leading to repentance. Still others experienced indignation as He tore down their religious traditions and exposed their illusion of control. 

 What they all had in common was that they discovered Jesus. Who is this Jesus? As vital as it is to discover who we are, what we have, and what we can do in and through Christ, it is of greatest value to discover Jesus, who He is, and what He has done and is still doing today. 

 Jesus is not some ancient religious figure. He is not on the same level as Buddha, Mohammed, or Confucius. He is not some great teacher or philosopher like Socrates or Plato. No, He is not on the level of any of these. Jesus supercedes their level, He is Most High! You can visit the tomb of Mohammed or Buddha, but Jesus is alive!

 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were created through Him, and without Him nothing was created that was created. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind…14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-4, 14 MEV

 Jesus is the fullness of God bodily. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is the only One. No one else can stand at the same level as Jesus. There is no different way to Heaven. There are not many paths to God. Jesus is the only way. Every philosophy, religion, or faith-Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Krishna, Kabbala, Shinto, or any other one can name is powerless to save, and leaves its followers empty, broken, and wanting. 

 12 There is no salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

 Jesus declared He was the way to the Father, not a way! Jesus is who He said He was. Before Abraham, He is the great I AM! Some may ask, are you saying Jesus is God? Yes. But more importantly, Jesus declared it Himself

 Salvation, eternal life, and Righteousness are only found in Christ. Jesus became a man, as a man, He felt what we felt. He was tired or hungry just like any other human. He was the last Adam; the first Adam brought death; the last Adam brought life

 Because God became a man, He could pay the price needed for the redemption of mankind. He walked as we walked and shared in the experience of mankind, yet was without sin. He was the spotless Lamb and on Calvary He took on sin, the curse, the fallen nature, and paid the price in full. 

 Discover Jesus! He is the divine Son of God. He became a man to be the substitutionary offering for all mankind. He was sinless yet could be touched by the feelings of our weakness. Knowing the perfection of Jesus helps us better understand our Righteousness, our redemption, and our Faith. 

 Jesus is not some historical figure. He is God with us. What we see when we see Jesus is the expressed will of God. In His Divinity, see Him as the Father's heart longing for a family. Jesus is God, Jesus is the substitutionary once-for-all sacrifice, Jesus is the Person of Grace! 

Jesus is not distant. He is not frozen in stained glass or confined to pages of history. He is risen, ascended, and seated at the right hand of the Father — and He is alive today. He is still saving, still healing, still delivering, still baptizing in the Holy Spirit, still building His Church, still revealing the Father. He is not a memory to be studied; He is alive today and desires relationship with man. The same Jesus who walked on water, who touched lepers, who forgave sinners, and who silenced storms is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has not changed. He has not diminished. He has not stepped back from humanity. He is present, powerful, and personally involved.

Discover Jesus — not as religion presents Him, but as He truly is. Lift your eyes beyond formulas, beyond movements, beyond even identity truths, and behold the Person Himself. Christianity is not behavior modification. It is not rule-keeping. It is not moral striving. It is union with the living Christ. When you discover who He is, everything else finds its place. Your righteousness makes sense. Your forgiveness is secure. Your identity becomes settled. Jesus is not an accessory to your life — He is your life. He is the center, the source, the substance, and the sum of all things. Discover Jesus.

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Discover: Accepted and Approved

 

Praise him! His kindness is great and wonderful. We have been accepted by God through Jesus Christ, whom he loves so much. Ephesians 1:6 WE

Acceptance and approval are what so many long for. Humanity goes to great length find this. We all look for someone's approval. We want to be accepted. 

 Humanity goes to great lengths to gain acceptance and strive to receive approval. Be it from family, employers, friends, or peer groups, we long to be accepted. People will change their hair, their clothing style, even their taste in music, just to be accepted. 

 It is more evident in our younger years. Young children and teens sometimes take even greater steps to secure acceptance and approval from their peers. Many want to be approved by their peers. They want to be in the "popular" group, the "in crowd". Sometimes they lose their own identity in pursuit of this acceptance.

  I have good news for those longing to find acceptance and approval.  There is a way to find lasting and permanent acceptance and approval. An acceptance that will never fail or fade away. There is a way to be in the greatest "in crowd" in the entire world.

 This way is only found in and through Jesus Christ. He wants you to be in His "in crowd". His "in crowd" is being in right standing with God. The real "in crowd" is being in right standing, or being made Righteous in Christ.

 Because of Jesus, we who have put our trust in Him alone are forever accepted and approved by our Father in Heaven. 

And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household Ephesians 2:19 VOICE

 When we believed, we were no longer outcasts, no longer strangers, and no longer disconnected from God. In Him, we have divine approval and acceptance. This acceptance is rooted in Jesus' performance and His approval before the Father. Our trust is in His works and obedience; we reap the benefits. 

 ...As He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17b NKJV

 Because of Jesus, we have a relationship with the Father. We are partaking of the New Covenant and are included in all its blessings and benefits. This is not based on our fragile works or doing, it is based on Jesus alone and His perfect work of Redemption. We can't produce it, we can't achieve it, we can never earn it. If we could, why would we need Jesus? Why would we need a Savior?

 Under this divine acceptance and approval, it is not that behavior doesn't matter; it's that behavior and obedience didn't cause it or merit it, therefore, our behavior can't undo it. His divine life, though, is within us now; new nature-new root, produces new desires and new fruit. 

 The beautiful part of this acceptance and approval is that even when we falter or fail, we can't undo or lose this divine approval.  Acceptance and approval remain, because Righteousness has been permanently imputed and is not fluctuating or wavering. Acceptance and approval are not an approval of every choice we make, but of who we are in Him. Identity is found in Christ; attitudes and actions are not who we are.  

 This is the wonderful Good News Gospel of Grace. Because of this acceptance and approval, we now have confidence in God. This produces confidence in prayer, confidence in walking by Faith, and confidence in worshipping our Savior. We have joy unspeakable in following the Lord's leading, knowing even in failure we are secured and approved in Him. 

 Child of God, you are not on probation but accepted and approved. We have union with God because of Jesus. Our identity is found in Him. He loves us, accepts us, and actually likes us. What a Good Father, what a victorious, loving Savior, we have! 

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Discover: Forgiven

 

13 You were dead, because you were sinful and were not God's people. But God let Christ make you alive, when he forgave all our sins. Colossians 2:13 CEV

And although you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our transgressions, Colossians 2:13 MOUNCE

13 God took us out of a life of darkness. He has put us in the holy nation of His much-loved Son. 14 We have been bought by His blood and made free. Our sins are forgiven through Him. Colossians 1:13-14 NLV

 When a discovery is made, it is often heralded and celebrated. We have begun a new series on discovering who we are and what we have in Christ. Let this be a reminder of who you already are and rediscover what it means to be in Christ. 

 We have seen that we are deeply loved by the Father. Our Father in Heaven looks upon us with loving kindness and mercy. He isn't looking upon us with disappointing eyes. He saw all our mistakes and still chose us.

 It's like when we were young, attending school or some activity, and they were choosing teams to compete in a game or activity. Sometimes we weren't the best players, and we were the last picked. I know it may not be the best illustration if you are a star athlete; however, even the best don't get drafted by every team. 

 God, however, is not like man. He saw all our flaws and failures and still readily chose us. In fact, God chose us first to be on "His team". He didn't choose us last. He chose us first! That's God's Love! This Love expressed itself in Jesus' perfect work of Redemption.

 Perhaps you think sure He loves us but I have sinned, or I have too much sin for Him to use me or choose me. The Good News is that Jesus paid the price. You may say, I am not a Christian, that's not for me. No, my friend, Jesus paid for all the sins of all mankind;

2 He paid for our sins with His own blood. He did not pay for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 NLV

 Jesus paid it all. He has paid this sin debt in full. Now all one must do is RECEIVE the forgiveness of sins. Although the price has been paid, God won't force you to respond and receive it. He will allow you to attempt to pay for your transgressions with your own goodness. This is why people end up eternally separated; they chose their own works and goodness to save them. 

 Jesus has paid the price in full. In Christ, we are fully forgiven of our sins. Our sins are completely forgiven. From now to eternity, our sins are washed, cleansed, and removed from us. We are forgiven past, present, and future. There is not one sin we have committed that has not been forgiven, nor is there one we have yet to commit that God's not already forgiven.

 I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus. 1 John 2:12 NLT

 You may be struggling to accept that our future sins are already forgiven. This is an area where many believers struggle to accept. It seems like it is reckless, making light of poor choices or rewarding bad behavior. If this feels unsettling, it’s not because grace is reckless—it’s because grace is bigger than we were ever taught.  The reality is we are making much of Jesus' Finished Work, His once-for-all sacrifice. 

  Let the Word of God be the final authority; 

17 I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory as though they had never existed. 18 When there is forgiveness such as this, there is no longer any need to make an offering for sin. Hebrews 10:17-18 Voice

 God has confirmed through His Word that He has forgiven all our sins. All means all. If it were so that our future sins aren't forgiven, then what sacrifice is needed to pay for them? This is the arrogance of man and his self-righteous thinking that they can "pay" for their sins.

  God gave me this beautiful illustration of total forgiveness. When I was a young man, my mother and I went to see a Veterans' Day parade. We are on the street level, looking at the parade floats as they pass by. Someone had advised that there was a better view on one of the open rooftops. From this view, we saw the entire parade. 

 When I was on that rooftop, I saw the parade from the first float up to the very last one. Likewise, when we come to Christ, He sees our entire life. He saw us from the first breath we took up till the very last breath we take. He saw our whole entire life and declared forgiven! 

We are forgiven of all our sins. We are free from all our sins and transgressions. God is not accounting our sins against us. He has forgiven us. In Christ, we are forever forgiven. This is not something we strive to become. This is who we already are in Christ.

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Discover: Deeply Loved

 

16 God has loved us and made us happy through his kindness. He gave us everlasting comfort and good hope. 17 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, comfort your hearts and make you strong to do and say everything that is good. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 WE 

16 God our Father loves us. He treats us with undeserved grace and has given us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father 17 will encourage you and help you always to do and say the right thing. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 CEV

 Discover. Discover means to become aware of something, to make an observation or a finding. When we discover something wonderful, it brings us great joy. 

 As believers, it's imperative to discover who you really are in Christ, what belongs to you because of Christ, and how God the Father sees you now. Growth in Christ is maturing into who you already are in Him. 

 The most important discovery in Christ is to know that you are deeply loved. God the Father deeply loves you with an unconditional, eternal love. This love is based solely upon Him and has nothing to do with you. 

 There is nothing that any of us can do to make God love us more. There is not one thing you can do more of or do something better for God to love you more. He already loves you with an everlasting love that is greater than any love known to mankind.

 On the other hand, there is nothing any of us can do that will cause God to love us less. This idea is met with resistance because it seems God is rewarding bad behavior. That is not the case at all.

 God loves you and me unconditionally. That is what Agape love is all about. If you can do something to make God love you less, then His love IS conditional and rooted solely in your performance. This would put God in the place of mere man, because mankind loves with conditions, with strings attached. 

 God isn't pleased with poor choices, wrong actions, or selfish behavior. He will even send corrective instructions to His own during these times. This doesn't equate to God loving His people less whenever they sin. In fact, it's His love and Goodness that bring change. 

 Some may be thinking about the Scripture in 2 Corinthians 9:7 as proof that we can make God love us more. It says God loves a cheerful giver. This statement is not some kind of new doctrine Paul was sharing. That financial givers are more special to God. 

 What the context is revealing is the heart of God. He is saying that God takes pleasure and is lovingly pleased with a cheerful giver. He is not looking for a grudging, obligation-oriented giver. This passage does not teach that there is a way for God to love you more.

 God loves you with an eternal, unconditional love. This love transcends time and space and all eternity. From the beginning of time, God saw you and loved you deeply. That's why He offered His only Son to pay the penalty for all sins. The Father sowed a Son and reaped a family. 

 God loves you even though you have sinned and made mistakes. Let's not take the amazing out of Grace. You, just like me, were lost, sinful, rebellious in your thoughts, and self-centered. Yet as wicked and unjust and sinful we all were, He still saw all that and chose to love us unconditionally. 

 This is amazing, Grace. This is wondrous and matchless love. This is the Love of God. You are loved, deeply loved by the Father. Discover this deep love the Father has for you again. 

 

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