To Encourage You

John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me”

God is a giver of very great gifts.  He so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son – God the greatest giver, gave the world His greatest gift.  Or was it?  In the incredible words of John 17:6 we are told that He gave His own Son, Whom He loved supremely, a gift as well. This gift was people who came out of the world, i.e., those who have believed in Christ and thus those who have received the gift of John 3:16. 

But what is so wonderful about that gift?  Well, unlike Christ, Who is eternally perfect, this gift was made perfect. It was very imperfect in and of itself, but God, in His great love and power, took people, whose righteousness was as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), and transformed them into those adorned with the beautiful white robes of the perfect righteousness of Christ (Revelation 19:8).  Much like King Nebuchadnezzar’s servant Ashpenaz worked to make the chosen children of Israel suitable to serve their new king (Daniel 1), the Holy Spirit makes suitable the children of God as a wonderful gift to his Son Jesus, the King of Kings.  He takes that which was full of filthiness and dead men’s bones on the inside (Matthew 23:27) and cleanses it.  Like the women who are described in 1 Peter 3:4, they are given a radiant inner beauty, i.e., “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”  He takes those who may have been prostitutes, as the woman of Mark 14 who anointed Jesus’ feet with a very costly perfume, and makes them like chaste virgins – pure, innocent, just like someone who had never sinned – and He enables them to offer themselves to Him, something He views as a very beautiful thing. 

Ashpenaz tried to feed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the king’s food and wine. They refused, in obedience to their true King.  And it is that same true King that transforms our lives by feeding us from the bread of life and nourishing us with living water and the joy that results from a transformed heart. 

What an awesome thing this is!  In the words of one old hymn “That God should love a sinner such as I – Should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss – Nor rest till He had planned to bring me nigh – How wonderful is love like this?”