Reflective Bible Study

As we continue in Matthew’s gospel moving through the week of Jesus’ crucifixion, we come to an event that stands out in my mind as both brilliant on the part of those who wanted to trap Jesus, and brilliant on the part of Jesus for His response avoiding the trap. During this week, it seems as though the religious leaders amplify their attempts to discredit Jesus, or at the very least, during this week, the gospel writers direct their attention onto these leaders’ challenges more than in the earlier portion of Jesus’ ministry.

Our passage for this episode focuses on one of the more interesting challenges in my mind. We can find it in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 15, Matthew tells us:

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. ¹⁶ They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians. They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Before continuing to read Jesus’ response, I want to pause and explain this seemingly no-win scenario. The Pharisees and the Herodians were enemies, but in this one instant, they temporarily ally in order to catch Jesus say something wrong.

From how I understand this event, the Pharisees claimed all life was dedicated to God, and this conflicted with allegiance to the state government that the Herodians supported. In contrast, the Herodians promoted allegiance to the state, and in this case to Herod and Rome, and their big emphasis was on the payment of taxes to support Rome.

Both sides emphasized money, and the Pharisees taught that money should go to the church first, whereas the Herodians taught that taxes should be paid first. Paying taxes was a form of giving allegiance, and the Pharisees taught that allegiance should only be given to God, while the Herodians taught that taxes and allegiance should be given to Rome.

In the minds of these two groups, together they could trap Jesus saying something He shouldn’t, and either Jesus would be discredited among the Pharisees and the religious system, or He would be in trouble with the government.

However, Jesus knew and saw this trap. Continuing reading in verse 18, Matthew tells us:

¹⁸ But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin. ²⁰ Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”

²¹ The men answered, “Caesar’s.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.

In Jesus’ response, we see an example of answering the issues at hand while avoiding the trap of choosing one side at the expense of another. Those challenging Jesus only saw two possible outcomes, because they had their focus entirely on the money portion of the debate. It never crossed their minds that all money with Caesar’s image was simply being loaned to them by the Roman government.

The response Jesus shared is brilliant because it amplified what we actually give God as being more than simply money. Looking at God’s blessing from the other direction, God has blessed us with so much more than money and what we are called to return to Him is more than simply money. While God can bless us with money, and while we are called to give tithes and offerings, God has given us much more than money, and without the other things God has blessed us with, money would be irrelevant.

Society also has more benefits than simply giving us money, but the majority of society’s benefits are supported in part by the monetary system of the society we are in, and in many ways, this makes money a more central theme in the society portion of this discussion.

I have heard people use this passage to support paying taxes and to refute the necessity of paying taxes. However, I believe both sides of this debate miss the much bigger challenge in Jesus’ response.

Leading into Jesus’ reply, we find an interesting description of Jesus shared by those bringing Jesus this challenge. Whether it was a Pharisee or a Herodian who asked the question in verse 16, he opens the question by saying, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are.”

In my mind, this is an interesting way to describe Jesus. First, Jesus is described as a teacher, as an honest man, and as someone who teaches the truth about God’s way. Either this opening is an empty compliment from someone who doesn’t believe this, or it is a window into how these leaders understood Jesus, even if they didn’t like Him. Next, Jesus is described as someone who isn’t afraid of what other people think about Him and as someone who doesn’t pay attention to who other people are.

Is this an accurate description of Jesus?

As I look at Jesus’ ministry, I would agree that this is an accurate description. As I read the gospels, I see Jesus fulfilling the role of a teacher, Jesus living honestly, and Jesus teaching the truth about God’s way. I also see Jesus as someone who isn’t afraid of what other people think about Him. About the only potentially questionable descriptor is the last one, which is someone who doesn’t pay attention to who other people are.

Does Jesus ignore or not pay attention to who other people are?

In the context of the religious leaders of that day, the answer is definitely a yes. In first century culture, the religious leaders looked at race, nationality, age, and gender among other things to determine who to pay attention to and who to interact with. In contrast, Jesus didn’t selectively choose to help others based on physical appearance or any characteristic present. Jesus only focused on helping the specific need that an individual had, and He did this to show to those present that God is interested in helping each of us exactly where we need help.

With this framing of Jesus’ character and ministry, what can we then see in Jesus’ reply about taxes?

In my own mind, I see Jesus minimizing money to simply being a cultural tool that we use in the context of the society we live in. We pay tax to help support the society we live in, and specifically the services within our society.

To contrast this, Jesus challenges us to give to God what is God’s. When looking at our lives and when looking at what the Bible teaches, what is clearly God’s?

The clearest answer I see for this question is that our breath is God’s. At creation, God breathed life into humanity, and in many places in the Old Testament, the breath is described as returning to God when we die. Some might call this breath our spirit, but regardless of how the Hebrew word is translated, what God gave us when He created us returns to Him when we die.

God is not interested in our breath returning to Him before our mission on this earth is finished. Instead, God has loaned us breath so that we can fulfill the mission and purpose He has placed us on this earth to fulfill. In this challenge Jesus shares, I see Jesus challenging every person who has breath to dedicate their breath, or we could say their spirit, or we could say their lives, to God and to the mission He has placed us on this earth to accomplish!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first in your life and choose to place Him first. Choose to give God what is God’s and to dedicate your breath, your spirit, and your life to Him and fulfilling the purpose He placed you on this earth to accomplish.

If you don’t know what God has placed you on this earth to do, be sure to take this question to God in prayer. Through prayer and studying the Bible for yourself, you are able to grow a strong, personal relationship with God, and the closer you grow to God, I believe the clearer you will be able to see His mission for your life.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

While one of Jesus’ twelve disciples had formerly been a tax collector, when we think of stories involving Jesus and tax collectors, the event we will be looking at in our passage for this episode is likely the one that first comes to mind. While Matthew got years of face-to-face time with Jesus and while Matthew ultimately writes an entire gospel dedicated to Jesus’ life, Zacchaeus get’s the top spot in most peoples’ minds when we think of Jesus’ encounters with tax collectors.

However, when we look closely at Zacchaeus’ story, we discover some amazing details that are easily overlooked. In the culture, certain groups of people were stereotypically assumed to be a certain way, and one such group was tax collectors. These groups were simply judged based upon the stereotype, regardless of whether they fit into the stereotype.

Which brings us to a question I want to ask us before reading our passage for this episode: Was Zacchaeus a corrupt tax collector, fitting perfectly into the stereotype, or was Zacchaeus an honest man in a hated occupation?

Let’s read the passage and see if we can find some clues leading to an answer for this question. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd. ⁴ He ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come, and he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. ⁷ All the people saw this and began to complain, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”

As we were reading this passage just now, the statement the crowd made stood out to me. After Zacchaeus has been seen by Jesus and after Jesus basically invites Himself over to Zacchaeus’ home, the crowd grumbles the statement in verse 7, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”

I’m not sure exactly why this phrase sounds funny in my mind, but perhaps it has something to do with the small detail that if Jesus stayed with anyone, regardless of who they were, He could be accused of staying with a sinner.

This statement is funny and profound at the same time. It is funny because the people who were grumbling and complaining in the crowd about what they saw happening could have had the exact same complaint and accusation tossed their way if Jesus had chosen one of them. This statement is profound because it tells us that God doesn’t mind associating with sinners – especially sinners whose hearts are ripe for redemption.

So then let’s return to our question: Was Zacchaeus a sinner? Yes.

Was Zacchaeus a corrupt tax collector who fit the stereotype? Let’s look at the evidence.

If we were to build a case for Zacchaeus being corrupt, three details are present that could support this claim. First, we have the detail that Zacchaeus was wealthy. If Zacchaeus was one of the wealthiest tax collectors in the region, then that could be because he acquired his wealth in a dishonest way.

Next, we have the detail that the people’s perception of Zacchaeus was that he was a sinner. If Zacchaeus was honest, or in any way atypical of the norm, we would likely see the crowd sharing a different response.

Thirdly, after having met with Jesus, Zacchaeus determines to give his wealth away. It stands to reason that having this wealth wouldn’t be an issue if it was acquired honestly, but if it was acquired dishonestly, then Zacchaeus would morally need to get rid of it as part of his repenting and turning to God. Since Jesus validates Zacchaeus’ decision to give up his wealth, we could logically conclude it was because Zacchaeus acquired it dishonestly.

For those three reasons, we could conclude that Zacchaeus was dishonest and fit perfectly into the stereotypical tax collector.

However, what are some counter reasons to suggest that Zacchaeus was atypical.

To our first point, wealth is simply wealth. While it can be acquired dishonestly, nothing says that it is only ever acquired this way. Zacchaeus may have inherited a good percentage of his wealth, or he may have simply been an excellent saver. As an important or chief tax collector, he may have had a higher government salary for the position he held, which could account for the extra income and/or wealth.

The second point stands to reason that many people likely knew of Zacchaeus but didn’t know him personally. If Zacchaeus was a manager of other tax collectors, people could project their dislike of the whole profession onto Zacchaeus without knowing him personally. It is easy to judge people without knowing their situation. In the same way, it is easy to judge Zacchaeus simply because of the stereotype, and not because of anything specific to Zacchaeus himself.

The third point speaks to generosity more than dishonesty. After meeting Jesus, it is perfectly possible for Zacchaeus to have a change of heart from being a hoarder or a saver, which is something that can be done honestly, to being a generous giver. Zacchaeus may have had an unhealthy focus on acquiring wealth, and while he acquired wealth honestly, he had let that wealth become an idol in his life.

Now that we have three alternate points to the points that Zacchaeus was dishonest, there is one big point that doesn’t add up if Zacchaeus fits the dishonest stereotype. The way Zacchaeus handles his gift doesn’t allow for much dishonesty. Verse 8 tells us Zacchaeus’ response while He was with Jesus: “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”

If I’ve done the math correctly, Zacchaeus could have cheated no more than 12% of those who he collected from before bankrupting himself. The stereotypical tax collector would have cheated much more than this. I arrive at this number because Zacchaeus first pledges half of his wealth away, leaving him with only 50%, and he promises to pay 4 times any amount that was cheated. Fifty divided by four equals 12.5%.

However, Zacchaeus also challenges those present by saying “if I have cheated anyone”. This is a challenge and an invitation for all those who were cheated to come forward. It’s possible there were some who did, but it is also very possible that Zacchaeus just broke out of the stereotype. If Zacchaeus’ pledge and promise were not doable, I doubt Jesus would have praised him.

From reading the details of this event, I fully suspect that Zacchaeus was honest in his position, and that Jesus’ praise for Zacchaeus was based on Zacchaeus’ change of focus from hoarding wealth to being generous.

Following this event, nothing is mentioned about Zacchaeus leaving his occupation of tax collecting. Jesus doesn’t give Zacchaeus an invitation like He gave Matthew. After meeting Jesus, at the very least, if Zacchaeus had not been honest before, he would be honest from that point forward.

Before ending our episode, I have one more observation to share with you. Early on in our year podcasting through Luke’s gospel, we read about John the Baptist preaching along the Jordan River. Jericho was a city that was near the Jordan River. In Luke chapter 3, when Luke is sharing a summary of John the Baptist’s teaching and the impact it had, we learned that corrupt tax collectors asked John what to do. This can be found specifically in verses 12 and 13.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Zacchaeus had heard John’s message many years before. It wouldn’t surprise me if Zacchaeus had been corrupt before and had turned his actions and attitude around at that point. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Zacchaeus was honest before that point, and that it was other tax collectors Zacchaeus knew who were most affected by John’s message.

More than the wealth we have, God is interested in our focus. If our focus is on building our wealth, then it doesn’t matter whether the wealth is being built honestly or dishonestly, we have a bad focus. However, if our focus is on helping others and on using what God blesses us to be a blessing to others, than we have a better focus. I see Zacchaeus shift from a poor focus on his wealth to a better focus, and Jesus applauds this decision of an atypical, honest, tax collector.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to live your live with a spirit of generosity and use the wealth God has blessed you with to help others.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each day. Don’t let anyone get between you and God and filter the messages you hear through the lens of the Bible!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we move through the week leading up to the cross in Matthew’s gospel, we come to a challenging parable Jesus shares with some powerful implications. In this parable, we discover how one group of people gives up their privileged status, and another group gains the invitation to step into the first group’s place.

However, while this sounds simple, perhaps even too simple, the parable we are about to read really contains only two major details we should pay attention to, and these two details are crucial for our ultimate salvation.

Our passage and parable is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the New International Version. Starting in verse 22, Matthew tells us that:

¹ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Jumping out of our parable for a minute, I want to point out that if Jesus ended His parable here, He would have ended on a high note, at the most positive point in this illustration, but He would have only shared with us one of the two major details we must pay attention to in this parable.

Instead, Jesus then continues in verse 11, saying:

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

In this parable Jesus shared, we started on a high point with a king preparing for a celebration. Things then turn worse when we discovered how those who had been originally invited to this celebration decide to ignore or outright reject the invitation that was theirs. Things then shift back to being positive when the king extends the invitation to everyone regardless of their prior status.

Part of me is curious about how those who were present and listening to this parable responded when Jesus shared how the king opened the invitation to anyone and everyone. This major detail in this parable is vitally important for us to pay attention to. This major detail draws our attention onto a gift that God offers to each of us. While I don’t know if God would have opened this gift to everyone if those who were originally invited had accepted their invitations, because this first group rejected it, it gives anyone and everyone who wants to the choice to accept the invitation.

This parable draws our attention onto the amazing gift God offers to each of us when He invited us to be a part of His family, and to take part in the celebration when Jesus returns to bring God’s people home.

If we stopped reading here, this parable would end with the best news possible.

However, Jesus continued sharing, and things take another turn downward. When the king arrives in the banquet hall, he sees a person who isn’t wearing wedding clothes, and he throws this man out.

On the surface, this sounds both reasonable and ridiculous. The reasonable side of this is that this is the king, and he can do what he wants. If the king didn’t like how someone was dressed, he is perfectly within his right to kick that person out of his home and his event.

However, this also sounds ridiculous. When we look at how the parable progressed prior to this point, those who ultimately are in the banquet hall are those people who woke up that morning with no thoughts or plans of heading to the king’s banquet. All those present are last-minute invitees to this special event. Those present represent anyone and everyone from the rich to the poor, the good to the evil, and the well connected to the social outcasts. In this parable, those present come from any and every background, and they are all miraculously wearing wedding clothes when the king arrives.

The only way this detail makes sense, especially when reconciling this with the realization that not everyone present would have been able to afford appropriate wedding clothing, is that the king gave the guests wedding clothes on their arrival. With this detail in place, we discover how the king is fully within his rights to throw someone out who had refused the second portion of his gift. The king had given everyone an amazing gift of an invitation and he gave each person present the gift of wedding clothing.

In this parable, we discover how God gives each of us two gifts. God first gives us the gift of an invitation into His family and into His special event. If you’re worried about whether you are in the first group of invitees or the second, don’t worry about this. All you need to know is that you have been given an invitation. Everyone in this parable received an invitation to this wedding banquet!

This first gift requires a choice, and we must choose whether we will accept this gift or not.

The second gift present in this parable is the gift of wedding clothing. It is completely possible to accept the gift of an invitation but reject the gift of wedding clothing. The person who the king throws out for not wearing wedding clothes may have believed he had wedding clothes on, he had on the best clothes he had, or that the clothing one wore to this event wasn’t significant. Regardless of the reason, this man is thrown out for rejecting the second gift.

If you are concerned about whether you have accepted the gift of wedding clothing, this might be something to look into. The gift of wedding clothing is Jesus’ righteousness. The gift of clothing is defined for us in Revelation as the righteous acts of God’s people. In one of the most symbolic books of the Bible, John gives us the definition of this metaphor.

The second gift is a challenge for each of us. The second gift challenges us regarding where we place our focus and our hope. With the gift of clothing, are we going to come before God showing Him what we have done for Him with the attitude of trying to build ourselves up, or are we going to come before God thanking Him for what Jesus blessed us with and how nothing we do could ever repay His generosity?

For some reason, the man in this parable who is thrown out decided that He could appear before God with his own righteousness, and this cost him his salvation. I might be understating this when I say “Don’t be that guy!”

Instead, choose to accept God’s two gifts, both the choice and the challenge, and live your life as a thank you to God for everything He has blessed us with, both through what Jesus did for us, and through what Jesus is still doing for us each and every day!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life and let Him give you the two gifts that matter the most. Make the choice to accept His invitation and accept God’s challenge to replace your life and character with Christ’s life and character. This is only possible with God’s help and it is the best way we can say thank you to God for giving us what we easily don’t deserve.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God each and every day. God wants a personal relationship with you and He doesn’t want a relationship where you filter Him through the thoughts and opinions of others. Choose to make your relationship with God personal by choosing to spend time with Him on a regular, frequent basis.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or be tricked out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving forward through Luke’s gospel, we arrive at an illustration Jesus shares that is powerful for us to pay attention to, and in this illustration, Jesus shares a key to having a prayer life that works. In this event, we discover a powerful truth that should impact our prayers to God if we have been feeling our prayers are ineffective.

Let’s read our passage and then unpack some big things we can learn from what Jesus shared. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 18, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 9, Luke tells us:

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

In this passage and in Jesus’ illustration, we discover a powerful truth about prayer. Within the picture of these two prayers, we see two different ways of perceiving what God wants. In one prayer, we see someone directing God to look at how good they are in relation to the standard they have in their mind. In the other prayer, we discover someone who simple acknowledges where they are and that they need God.

However, too often we disconnect these two prayers from the reason Jesus shared this illustration, while also disconnecting the lesson Jesus shares from the parable itself.

Our passage opens with the clear reason Jesus shared this parable. Verse 9 opens this event by saying, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable”. The specific context for this parable was Jesus witnessing some people who were confident that they were righteous while looking down on others.

We should look at this parable through this window. However, as I wonder about this, which piece of the picture Luke describes is the negative? In Jesus’ eyes, was it wrong for the people He shared this parable with to be confident of their own righteousness, or was is simply wrong to look down on everyone else?

This is an interesting question. While we all could easily agree that it was likely wrong to look down on others, is it wrong to live confident of our own righteousness?

From the context of what Jesus shares in the parable and key point Jesus shares afterwards, I suspect that both looking down on others and being confident of our own righteousness are equally wrong in God’s eyes. This is because the best we can do and be isn’t enough. Even if we lived perfectly sinless from this point in our lives forward, there would be enough sin in our past to cancel out our current perfection.

Jesus finished this illustration off with a truth at the end of verse 14: “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” While it is easy to take this truth and disconnect it from the parable Jesus shared, let’s instead keep this truth attached to the context of Jesus’ prayer illustration. While it is easy to say this statement is a universal truth that is applicable to every area of life, Jesus’ shared this truth in Luke’s gospel with a very specific, very narrow context – specifically in the context of our prayers.

In the context of this passage, we can conclude that exalting ourselves before God in prayer will never end well. Praying prayers that emphasize how good we are might be asking for God to humble us.

In contrast, when we come before God with a humble spirit, God promises to lift us up and to bring us glory. The powerful truth of this entire parable is that we should never be confident in our own perfection because we are not perfect. We have sinned, and because of this, we have fallen short of God’s perfection.

While there are some who say that since no one can achieve the standard we should all either move the standard lower or give up on trying, God gives us a different solution that doesn’t lower His standard, but one that gives us a glimpse of hope.

To solve the dilemma of sin, Jesus stepped into the world. Jesus lived the perfect life we could not live because we have sinful hearts and minds. Jesus proved that God’s demands were not impossible, impractical, or unwise. Jesus showed us God’s ideal for our lives through how He lived.

Jesus also showed us how much God loves us. Jesus could have written any type of death into prophecy before the creation of the world, but He chose a death that was humiliating, painful, and very public. Jesus did not deserve death, because His perfect, sinless life contained nothing that deserved death.

However, Jesus offered His life up in death so that we could accept His life as a gift in exchange for ours. God offers to trade us our sinful, sin-filled lives for Jesus’ sinless sacrifice. When we trade with God, accepting Jesus’ gift, we have a clear change of focus. With Jesus’ sacrifice as God’s gift to each of us, we should live confident in Jesus’ righteousness instead of our own and 100% aware of our continual need for Jesus to be our Savior.

Being confident in our own righteousness is never wise, because it tells God that we don’t need Him or Jesus. If we push Jesus away believing we don’t need Him, we ultimately will die because of our sins. Instead, we should humble ourselves, accept the gift God offers us through Jesus’ life, and live confidently in what Jesus has done for us and continually thank God for taking our sin-filled lives and giving us a Savior to take the punishment we deserve! When we accept Jesus’ life in place of our own, we have the assurance of eternal life, and the eternal life God gives us through Jesus’ life is one that extends into eternity!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you have not humbly accepted God’s gift through Jesus’ sacrifice, I invite you to do so today. Choose to humbly come before God and ask Him to take your sin-filled life and your sin-stained past and replace it with Jesus’ life. When we intentionally trade lives with Jesus, we have the assurance of salvation.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Filter everything you hear, see, and read through the lens of the Bible to discover whether it is something that is truly worthwhile from eternity’s perspective. God has shared the big picture with us in the Bible, and He has kept His truth safe for thousands of years. If we trust God to keep us safe for eternity, trust also that He will keep His message of salvation safe through a few thousand years of sin-filled human history.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or wander away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!