What Did Jesus Do?

John 21:25          

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written” 

What Did Jesus Do? 

                In the last two weeks we explored who Jesus is. We explored His being. To sum up who Jesus is we can say that He is 100% God and 100% man. What Jesus did is what we are going to focus on in this week’s S.A.L.T devotional.

Sinless life

                We have already focused on how everything done contrary to the will of God is sin. We are created to be imitations of God but we have defaced His image and for that we deserve death – Genesis 1:27 and Romans 6:23. The law of God is summed up in “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Jesus is the only one to live who is the perfect image of the unseen God – Colossians 1:15. He is God so this makes sense but He humbled Himself and became the only human ever to follow God’s law perfectly.        

Signs and Wonders

                Jesus changed water into wine, He walked on water, He feed thousands of people with a few pieces of bread and some fish, He calmed storms, He healed the lame, He restored sight to the blind, He raised people from the dead, and He forgave sins. These actions graciously display that He is God. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all attest to these miracles that Jesus performed.

Taught with Authority

                Matthew 7:29 reads, “for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” He was definitive in what He said. This verse comes from the end of the Sermon on the Mount which starts in chapter 5 of Matthew. He did not mince words but was straight forward with what He spoke. He spoke with confidence. He spoke with authority. Why? Because He is all authority!

Suffered and Died

                1 Peter 3:18 reads, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh.” Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. The death of Jesus was gruesome! Death by crucifixion began with a scourging that included whips and a tool called a cat of nine tails which ripped open the flesh. If one made it through the scourging then they were nailed on a cross to die as Jesus was. Not only did He suffer in the flesh but He was forsaken by His disciples and more excruciatingly, God the Father. Matthew 27:46 says, “My God My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Resurrected

                Romans 4:25 explains that Jesus was resurrected like this, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” God raised Him from the dead. Our God is a trinity and each person in the trinity is responsible for raising Jesus from the dead. Romans 6:4 says of the Father, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. John 10:18 says of the Son, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” Romans 8:11 says of the Spirit, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” To put it simply, He is alive!!

Exalted

                Philippians 2:8-11 reads, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

                God’s adoption process required that He make Himself a human body, live a life of sinless perfection, die a death that we deserve, be raised from the dead, and be exalted to the place of King over everything as He should be. The works show that Jesus is either God in Human flesh or a deranged lunatic. Let’s worship Him for who He is! God over all, God blessed forever!