Reflective Bible Study

While Matthew’s gospel shares a lot more details surrounding Jesus describing what the world would be like leading up to His return, Luke includes some interesting pieces of Jesus’ teaching on this. However, unlike Matthew’s gospel, which frames Jesus teaching about the end after the disciples ask a question, Luke’s gospel seems to frame this around the Pharisees asking Jesus a question, and putting a thought into His mind.

Let’s read what Luke tells us Jesus shared about the coming of God’s kingdom and what Jesus’ followers should expect regarding His return.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 20, Luke tells us that:

²⁰ Once the Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom would come. He replied, “The coming of God’s kingdom is not something you can see. ²¹ People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ That’s because God’s kingdom is among you.”

Let’s pause briefly here because in the next verse, Luke shifts directions slightly and I don’t want us to miss the big idea Jesus shares in this opening.

There are actually two big ideas in these first two verses. The first big idea is one that I find amazing, especially when I look at the majority of the gospels. This first idea is that this group of Pharisees seems to ask Jesus a genuine question. More often than not, the Pharisees were leading the broader group of religious leaders in planting traps and challenges for Jesus. However, that is not what we discover here.

In the opening verses of our passage, we discover how the Pharisees ask a genuine question and receive a genuine response. This tells me that Jesus treated every situation independently, and Jesus didn’t hold grudges against those who seemed to most openly oppose Him. This also challenges me to be like Jesus and treat every situation independently and to not hold grudges against those who most openly oppose me.

The second big idea is in Jesus’ response. While the kingdom that all those in the first century were looking for was a military kingdom to arise and challenge Rome, Jesus describes the arrival God’s kingdom as not something easily seen. The arrival of God’s kingdom is invisible, and one reason for this is because God’s kingdom is a kingdom unlike what we would often think of as a kingdom.

Jesus finishes off this second idea by saying that God’s kingdom was already among them. This is powerful because when these religious leaders were looking for a kingdom to arrive, Jesus tells them they missed the kingdom’s arrival and that it was already here. This tells me that God’s kingdom is anywhere that God is present. This means that when Jesus walked the earth, God’s kingdom was present. This also means that anywhere the Holy Spirit is present, God’s kingdom is also present.

When we let the Holy Spirit into our lives, we enter God’s kingdom, and we ally ourselves with it! God gave Jesus’ followers the Holy Spirit, and while the Holy Spirit works in different ways through God’s people at different points in time, allowing the Holy Spirit into our lives is never the wrong choice.

However, our passage isn’t finished yet. With the question of the coming of God’s kingdom on Jesus’ mind, we continue reading in verse 22:

²² Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. “The time is coming,” he said, “when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man. But you won’t see it. ²³ People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ Or, ‘Here he is!’ Don’t go running off after them. ²⁴ When the Son of Man comes, he will be like the lightning. It flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ But first the Son of Man must suffer many things. He will not be accepted by the people of today.

²⁶ “Remember how it was in the days of Noah. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. ²⁷ People were eating and drinking. They were getting married. They were giving their daughters to be married. They did all those things right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking. They were buying and selling. They were planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven. And all the people were destroyed.

³⁰ “It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is shown to the world. ³¹ Suppose someone is on the housetop on that day. And suppose what they own is inside the house. They should not go down to get what they own. No one in the field should go back for anything either. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it. Whoever loses their life will keep it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed. One person will be taken and the other left. ^35-36 Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other left.”

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” his disciples asked.

He replied, “The vultures will gather where there is a dead body.”

In Jesus’ big message to the disciples about His return, we see a huge theme present. When Jesus returns, it will be sudden and visible to everyone like the lightning. Jesus’ return will be quick, because those who woke up that morning thinking they were going to experience a normal day discover this day would be anything but normal. And Jesus’ return should prompt us to leave anything and everything of this world behind.

Anything less global than a world-shattering event is likely not Jesus’ second coming.

While the disciples want to know where Jesus’ return will take place, the only answer Jesus gives them is that His return will be wherever vultures gather when there is a dead body. While many people could understand this response in different ways, I understand Jesus’ words to basically mean that this will be world-wide, or specifically wherever there are people living in the world.

Right now, there are people living in almost every place on the planet. Some places are more crowded than others, but every continent has people living on it, including Antarctica which is home to various groups of scientists and researchers.

While vultures don’t live in all parts of the world, I don’t think that the idea of vultures is as significant as we might think at first. While vultures were the primary predatory bird in that culture and region, I suspect Jesus would have used any predatory bird or animal if He’d been sharing in a different part of the planet.

The last big idea I want to share from Jesus’ message isn’t a very positive one, but it is significant. Jesus’ return will mark the point when God’s people are taken while others are left. Jesus’ last words indicate that what is left following His return will be dead bodies, indicating that this world wide conclusion likely won’t leave anyone alive left on this planet. Those taken with Jesus will be taken to heaven, and those left will be vulture food.

While this sounds bleak, it is significant for us to pay attention to because any return that is any less earth-shattering than what Jesus describes here is more likely an impostor than Jesus. If we see, hear, or believe anyone’s claim that Jesus has shown up and His return doesn’t end the world, then whoever showed up wasn’t the Jesus of the gospels.

Jesus came to bring glory to God the first time He came, and the second time Jesus comes it will be to gather God’s people to come home with Him to heaven. Jesus’ second coming will be a much shorter visit than His first, because as He tells His disciples in John’s gospel as they are traveling to the garden on the night of His arrest, Jesus is making homes, rooms, or mansions for us in heaven. Our ultimate home is going to be with God, and we get to experience the home He has prepared for us when He returns to bring us home!

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 ally your life with Him and His kingdom. Accept Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for your sins and accept the Holy Spirit into your heart, your mind, and your life. Also, continue looking forward to the day Jesus returns and takes us home to be with Him!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and personal study, discover a God who loves you with all of His heart and a God who is willing to cross the universe to redeem you!

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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Moving forward to another prophecy that was fulfilled while Jesus was on the cross, we turn our attention onto several verses tucked within a psalm written by David. Within this psalm, we discover something that seems difficult to believe happened by chance, even though historians might say that this type of thing was common. While I don’t know how significant this connection point is, or if what was described ultimately became common practice for those being crucified during the first century, I do find it amazing how the details David describes are included within Jesus’ crucifixion, and in such a way that it is easy to see the connection.

Let’s read what David wrote. Using the New American Standard Bible, reading from Psalm 69, starting in verse 20, David writes:

²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick.
And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.
²¹ They also gave me gall for my food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

While it would be easy to continue reading, after describing what he was offered, David shifts his focus in the next few verses.

On the surface, while I suspect none of us would want to be put in a situation like David was in while He wrote this psalm, it is interesting in my mind that at a point where there would be no one to comfort or sympathize with him, he would be offered gall and vinegar.

Moving forward to the New Testament, and specifically Jesus’ time on the cross, Matthew’s gospel gives us insight into the fulfillment of this prophecy. In Matthew, chapter 27, starting in verse 33, we learn that:

³³ [And] when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, ³⁴ they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink.

John’s gospel records this a little differently, though equally relevant. In John, chapter 19, starting in verse 28, we learn that:

²⁸ After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. ³⁰ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

I will be the first to acknowledge that I don’t know whether Jesus was offered the wine multiple times during the hours that He hung on the cross. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were multiple points when the wine was offered to Him.

However, taking a step back for a moment, I thought it interesting that the Psalm described gall being mixed with vinegar, while Matthew’s gospel describes gall being mixed with wine. This prompted me to look up what, if any, difference there is between vinegar and wine, or more specifically sour wine, as John’s gospel describes the liquid that was present.

The short search I did turned up the information that vinegar as a term is pretty generic, and that sour wine shares many similar properties with vinegar. Being offered a vinegar that would be edible or drinkable would be very similar, or perhaps even indistinguishable from being offered wine that had turned sour. While some people might consider this change of terms a failed prophecy, I don’t. Instead, sour wine is in my mind a type of vinegar, and Matthew and John are actually describing a more specific substance under the generic heading of vinegar. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the vinegar David writes about being offered would be the same level of edibleness as the sour wine Jesus was offered.

However, aside from the prophetic nature of this offer of wine, is there anything else that we should understand about this detail that was written into Jesus’ time on the cross?

In my mind, there is.

First off, focusing our attention onto the wine and gall mixture that Jesus was offered at the start of His time on the cross, and the detail that Jesus ultimately refused this initial offer, prompts me to understand that Jesus was not interested in hastening His death, or in deadening His senses, which wine and gall would have done. In some places, gall is described as a poison, while other places describe it as a bitter spice. Either way, wine and gall would have numbed Jesus’ senses to the pain of the cross, and while it seems difficult to imagine, if Jesus had done something to minimize the pain He faced on the cross, the case could be made that the price He paid, and the sacrifice He offered, was not as valuable.

Also tied to this thought is the idea that as Someone set apart from birth as dedicated to God, Jesus was to avoid any alcohol or fermented drink. Traditionally this would be called a nazirite pledge, though it is unclear whether Jesus’ life and ministry would be constrained in the same or in a similar way. Also complicating the nazirite pledge is passages that clearly describe Jesus as drinking wine – except that when I search for a passage like this, I cannot find one where Jesus drank wine prior to this crucifixion event. The closest suggestion to Jesus drinking is found in Luke’s gospel, where Jesus is contrasted with John the Baptist who didn’t drink, while Jesus is framed as eating and drinking too much.

Even when describing Jesus’ last supper with His disciples, there isn’t a description given for Jesus drinking from the cup prior to giving it to His followers. Jesus simply promises that He won’t drink from that point on. While it could be said that Jesus drank immediately prior to this statement, it could also simply be a reaffirmation to a non-drinking pledge that was already in effect.

Complicating Jesus’ drinking or not drinking of wine is the Bible’s generic usage of this term. Wine in the Bible is used to describe both fresh, unfermented grape juice, as well as the fermented grape juice that we would call wine in our culture today. This means that we must be extra cautious when understanding what is being described. When the word wine is used, does it mean every type of drink that is derived from grapes, does it mean only unfermented fresh grape juice, or does it mean only fermented grape juice that is more commonly called wine.

Sometimes we have a clue, since some places describe new wine or fresh wine and contrast it with old wine, giving us a clue that new, fresh wine would be unfermented, while old wine was fermented. A clear example of this usage is when Jesus is illustrating new wine being placed in new wineskins rather than in old ones.

My suspicion is that Jesus avoided all forms of grape juice as much as possible, and that the drink in the cup He connected spiritually with His blood would have been new wine, or unfermented grape juice. This is because Jesus’ life was pure and undefiled, and fermentation in a drink that represented Jesus’ life would make it impure.

However, what of Jesus’ time on the cross. While Jesus clearly rejected the wine mixed with gall when He was first raised up on the cross, multiple gospels describe what we read about in John’s gospel that describe Jesus being given sour wine right before His death. It is interesting though that the gospels are almost entirely silent on what Jesus did with the sour wine He was offered. The only clue is in John’s gospel where John says that after Jesus “received” the sour wine, which prompts me to believe Jesus ingested some of it.

If Jesus ingested some of the sour wine that was offered to Him, some might say this act broke His promise to His disciples the night before. However, to contrast the negative way of framing this idea is a powerful, positive symbolic idea: By ingesting some heavily-fermented, impure, sour wine, Jesus was internalizing sinful human nature and taking this imperfection with Him to the grave. This would be a symbolic way of saying that Jesus took our sins with Him to the cross.

While I have no idea whether Jesus ingested the sour wine right before taking His last breath, any way we understand this is powerful. Jesus took our sins, our imperfections, and our guilt with Him to the cross, and He offers us His perfect, sinless life in exchange. This is great news worth sharing and celebrating!

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 to seek God first in your life. Accept Jesus’ offer of His sinless life in exchange for our sin-stained lives and lean on Him for help moving through life.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, to purposefully grow closer to Jesus and to God each and every day. Through personal prayer and Bible study, discover just how much God loves you and just how much Jesus wants to redeemed into eternity.

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!

Over the past several weeks of podcasts, we have been focusing in on a section of Luke’s gospel where Luke includes lots of Jesus’ teaching. For this episode, Luke shifts out of sharing big truths Jesus taught in order to share with us a powerful miracle that teaches us a powerful truth.

Let’s read about what happened and then look a little closer to discover some big things we can learn from this event.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us:

¹¹ While He [referring to Jesus] was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; ¹³ and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? ¹⁸ Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Whenever I read this event, I always get the picture in my mind that the nine who didn’t return to thank Jesus must not have been very grateful. However, I then look closer at the details of this event and suspect that these other men simply had a different focus when they realized they were healed, and this other focus doesn’t mean they were not thankful, but that they didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their healing.

However, before getting to what their focus may have been, as we read this passage and learned about this event, several details jump out that I believe are significant and worth paying attention to.

The first of these details is Jesus’ message to them. Jesus doesn’t promise them healing, He simply tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. There is an implication that they would be healed, but it really isn’t promised. After all, they could go and show themselves to the priests and receive the verdict that they still were unclean lepers.

Jesus’ message to these men is significant, because often times we might expect God to speak a direct message to us about our current situation, and instead, we receive instructions that don’t sound very related. It was this way with the Old Testament man known as Naaman, who had leprosy, and who was instructed to do something simple, and who almost missed out on being healed because the task given to him seemed too simple and too insignificant. To learn more about this story, you can find it in 2 Kings, chapter 5.

When we receive simple or seemingly unrelated instructions from God, we would be wise to trust that He knows best. If the instructions don’t contradict any law included in the Bible, we should be willing to follow the instructions because chances are we will see a positive result.

I wonder if Naaman was on the minds of these lepers as they heard Jesus’ instructions. Jesus’ instructions were simple and His instructions only made sense in a situation that assumed they were already healed. Because of these two reasons, these lepers likely immediately set out to see the priests.

This brings us to the second big portion of this event that stands out in my mind. Luke tells us in verse 14 that “as they were going, they were cleansed.” These lepers were not cleansed before they started on their trip to see the priests; they were cleansed after they began their trip.

Often times, when we want to see God moving and working in our lives, we need to be like these lepers and begin moving – specifically following the instructions we have been given. Only when we start moving will we likely discover the next steps to take after we have started. Often, like traveling through a fog, we cannot see the ultimate destination. Instead, we are only able to see the next few steps. We should trust that God has the end in mind and that He is leading our steps as we continue to step forward with Him!

While the men were going to see the priests, they were cleansed. The implication I read in this passage is that they were cleansed relatively quickly after their trip began. I suspect this because this man is easily able to find Jesus and give thanks to Him.

However, the passage says in verse 15 that this man “turned back”. This Samaritan turned back from going to see the priest because He wanted to thank his Healer. A case could be made that these men had not traveled very far, because Jesus expects to see nine more people with this man giving praise and thanks.

The obvious answer to Jesus’ question about where the other nine men were is that they were following through with the instructions Jesus had given them. They were going to see the priests to get an official “all clean” verdict.

In some ways, we could flip this situation around and say that this Samaritan leper risked losing his healing because he deviated from following the instructions Jesus gave.

However, giving thanks and glory to God is never outside of God’s will. Jesus honored the gratitude and praise this Samaritan gave and Jesus tells him that his faith had made him well. This was the faith that left to see the priests, and the faith that likely directed Him to return to his journey to see the priests after thanking Jesus personally.

I am certain that the other nine men who were healed were thankful and that they praised God. Perhaps they finished their trip to see the priests before coming and thanking Jesus personally, or perhaps they praised God for Jesus and this miracle without returning. It is also possible they wanted to find Jesus after having seen the priests, but they were unable to locate Him.

Whatever the reason for these other men not returning, I am certain that it wasn’t because they were not grateful. Instead, I am certain they wanted to solidify the healing their faith in Jesus and God had blessed them with.

This leads us to one last big truth we can learn from this event: When we do nice things for others, sometimes we will be thanked directly for what we have done, but other times, we might not receive gratitude from those we helped. Whether we receive thanks or not, we should continue to help others because this is what God does.

We best reflect God and His character when we help others. Sometimes our help will be rewarded with gratitude, other times, our help will appear to fall on ungrateful people. However, God has called us to be a blessing to the world around us and regardless of whether we receive thanks for what we do in this life, God will reward those who blessed others in His name regardless of whether they received gratitude before.

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 and choose to give God thanks and gratitude for all the ways He has blessed you with. If you haven’t done so recently, simply say “Thank You” to God for what He has brought into your life. Having a grateful attitude is one of the best decisions we can make in our lives with God!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover a God who loves you more than you can ever imagine, and discover how we can open our hearts and let Him into our lives!

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 neglect where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue focusing on Jesus’ crucifixion during our year looking at prophecies and connection points between Jesus’ ministry and the Old Testament, we come to a very plain prophecy tucked within a very prophetic chapter – and a chapter we have already briefly looked at in an earlier episode. However, while it would be easy for us to step back to look at this chapter as a whole, doing so would make it too easy to overlook the specific details of one verse that focuses us on Jesus’ crucifixion.

So with that said, let’s read this specific verse, and unpack what we can learn about Jesus’ crucifixion from this prophecy. Our passage is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 53, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible. In verse 12, Isaiah writes about the Messiah, saying:

¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

In this verse that describes the Messiah’s death, tucked within a chapter devoted to the Messiah’s ministry as a whole, we don’t have any ambiguity over whether the Messiah would die. In this verse, the reason that the Messiah would be lifted up, and the reason He would be honored, was because He “poured out Himself to death”. This verse tells us that the Messiah would give all He had for God’s mission all the way to death, and that while He was moving towards this death, He would be carrying the sins of many, and interceding on behalf of those who had broken God’s law.

This verse in Isaiah’s prophecy is an amazing picture of God’s Messiah found within the Old Testament. Moving into Jesus’ ministry, and the time He spent on the cross, Mark’s gospel draws our attention onto Jesus’ life and crucifixion being a fulfillment of a phrase found within Isaiah’s prophecy. In Mark, chapter 15, and starting in verse 22, Mark writes:

²² Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. ²³ They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. ²⁴ And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take. ²⁵ It was the third hour when they crucified Him. ²⁶ The inscription of the charge against Him read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

²⁷ They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. ²⁸ [And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”] ²⁹ Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, ³⁰ save Yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. ³² Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.

Tucked within these verses describing Jesus’ death, Mark draws our attention to the detail that Jesus’ death on a cross, being placed between two robbers, fulfilled this prophecy. Because Jesus was killed with criminals, it could easily be said that Jesus was numbered with transgressors.

In my own mind, as I piece together this event, and some of the details that led up to this moment, one could make the case that Jesus actually did take the place of a law transgressor. During Jesus’ trial before Pilate, several gospels point out how Pilate asks the crowd whether he should set free a rebel known as Barabbas, or whether the crowd wanted Jesus.

While Pilate may have believed before asking this question that the crowd would have picked Jesus, the crowd instead shouted in unison for Barabbas. In an amazing turn of events, while there were always going to be three crosses on Calvary that weekend, if it weren’t for Jesus stepping in to take the place of Barabbas, there would have been three guilty rebel-sinners dying that weekend, and it’s unlikely we would have any knowledge of them. We barely know anything about the two people who Jesus was crucified with, and if it weren’t for Jesus, the memory and knowledge of the lives and deaths of these two men likely wouldn’t have extended beyond the end of the first century.

This means that in a literal way, Jesus stepped into the role of transgressor and was punished with those who broke the law without having done anything wrong. While I have no reason to believe Barabbas lived differently after being freed, in a symbolic and spiritual way, we all have the choice after being freed whether we will continue to do the things that condemn us from the perspective of God’s law, or whether we will turn away from them.

In an interesting framing for salvation, Jesus stepped into Barabbas’ life to take the punishment for his past sins. However, if Barabbas decided to break the law again as significantly as he had done before, doing what he had done to mark him for crucifixion, there would be no guarantee he would escape punishment again. If Barabbas had placed himself in prison with a death-by-crucifixion sentence on his life after being lucky the first time, Jesus wouldn’t be present to save his life a second time.

However, in a spiritual and symbolic frame, this is the reason why Jesus’ death on the cross is so powerful for us. While our frame for salvation does not allow for pardon from our future sins, every moment that our future moves through our present and into our past, we are being given a gift that Jesus can step in to fix. Some people might take this framing of Jesus’ death and use it as an excuse to sin, or as a reason to believe grace is cheap – and on one hand it is.

However, anyone who knowingly moves towards sin after having accepted Jesus’ pardon for their past sins doesn’t just cheapen the grace they once received; they also cheapen the life Jesus gave. By devaluing the gift Jesus offers to sinners by continuing in sin, those who persist in sin actively choose to bring punishment on themselves for their actions, and they forfeit their salvation, similar to what would have happened to Barabbas in our hypothetical scenario involving multiple offences.

While I don’t know or claim to know where the line between legalism and cheap grace is found, or how wide of a path exists between these two extremes, the big thought that is better to focus energy on is this: Jesus’ life, ministry, and mission make Him the best possible person to intercede on our behalf.

Jesus robbed Satan of his claim on all sinful humanity, and when we realize our need for someone to come to our defense regarding the sin in our past, Jesus is the only place where a true solution can be found. When we come to Jesus for a solution, the way we best value His gift, and the best way we can say thank you to Him for the gift He offers to us is by turning away from the sin in our lives. When we turn away from sin with God’s help, Heaven celebrates, and we move one step closer to eternity!

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

As I always open by challenging you, continue to seek God first in your life and choose to turn away from sin after accepting Jesus’ gift of salvation. Value the price Jesus paid for redemption by actively moving away from sin and into a closer, stronger relationship with God.

Also, while you do this, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn more about who Jesus is, what He is like, and how we can best model His love in the world we live in. While our world today looks significantly different from the first century, when we lean on God and His Holy Spirit for help modeling His love, we will discover that we can love others like Jesus loves, and we can be representatives for Jesus in our world today.

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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!