Because God Chose You

Remember every day, God chose you.

He chose to love you before you were in your mother’s womb.

God chose to lavish His grace on you, so you would be saved from your sins and not be separated from Him.

He chose you to “be all things to all people” so that you can tell them the good news–the gospel–so some could be saved (1 Corinthians 9:22).

God chose you to bend, break, and remold you into His image because of His love.

He tells you to cast your burdens on Him because He cares for you, and to take up His yoke, which is lighter (1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 11:28-30).

Why does God allow difficult things to happen? That is a common question.

        Possibly to remind you He is God.

Possibly to cause you to seek Him so He can grow you and reshape you more into His likeness.

More than anything, difficult and easy times provide an opportunity for us to learn a big lesson we and reinforce our deep connection-our personal relationship with God.

Abraham had just received God’s promise that Sarah, his eighty-year-old wife, would have a son in less than a year. He had a relationship with God then God told him, He had to see if the outcry in Sodom and Gomorrah was accurate. Abraham had a close enough relationship with God that he began to intercede for the people of those cities (Genesis 18).

Closeness to God makes us intercede for others,

not only supplicate for ourselves.

Paul had a close relationship with God. It came through many a blinding light on the road to Damascus and through many trials of beatings and persecutions. His closeness to God brought a dramatic change to the Roman world of the first century and to humanity since then.

Closeness to God creates the heart of God in us for lost people.

It gives us love, God’s love, for all people so that we “strive to become all things for all so that we might win some to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:22).

Joshua was a strong man of God. When God sent him and 9 other men into the Promised Land to spy it out and report back to the Israelites, he told the people it was a bountiful land and that Yahweh was almighty enough to give it to them. As they prepared to enter the Promised Land, Joshua challenged the people. He reminded them who God had been and would continue to be for them. Joshua called them to renew their commitment and service to the LORD.

Closeness to God leads people to commit and serve the Lord.

A genuine heart of God in a person for other people-to serve Him, to intercede for them, and to try to win them to Christ-cannot be manmade. Nothing we can do causes us to be good enough to be acceptable to God and for His service. Only God can make each person acceptable-holy. He provided this way through His Son’s death on the cross and resurrection.

Why can God’s people do these things?

Because God chose them.

God loves them.

God empowers them.

And they love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Do you have a heart for God? Have you heard Him calling to you to come to Him? Did you go? Did you give your heart to God, so you can be saved from your sins and have an eternal relationship with the God who created and loved you before you were ever formed? Today is the perfect day for you to stop running and answer His call to your heart. Today is the perfect day to turn around from striving to survive, succeed, make it one more day in this world. Each of us sins. Whether you are saved or not, God is calling you to turn back to Him today…now. What will you say to Him? He is there calling and waiting.

Lord, we do not understand this love of Yours. We do not understand how one man dying, even Your Son, can erase our sins and make us holy. But, Lord, we want to leap in faith to You and ask You to hold us, forgive us, and remold us into Your image for Your service. Please accept the sacrifice of my sin-broken heart and make me clean and new for You. Amen.

Intercession Regardless

He Himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12c [NASB]

This verse stands in stark contrast to how we would act after experiencing what Jesus did. Consider the verses before it. Isaiah prophesied in chapter 53 truths that occurred during Jesus’ life.

Isaiah said the Messiah grew up from parched land. This land was Judah a land of God’s chosen people who chose not to obey Him nor worship Him exclusively. Though Jesus lived in Judah, He carried no great stature among people. He was not a king or leader of the people according to their ways of life.

Isaiah continued with verses three and four by saying the people despised the Messiah and turned their back on Him. They considered Him contemptible and worthless. What He said did not matter to the Israelites and so they rejected Him. The people of Israel considered the Messiah as having no value for their lives and so forsook Him. Because of this, Jesus suffered and grieved for His pain and the people’s loss, the loss of relationship and salvation from God. The Messiah bore their sorrows and carried them, yet the Israelites considered Him someone whom God struck and afflicted, not One who took their punishments. They considered Him a heretic and an outcast.

Yet, Isaiah said, this Messiah was pierced for the sin, the rebellion against God, of the Israelites and the people of the world. He was contrite and shattered for their guilt. Jesus was broken-hearted for the people and broken-bodied on the cross because of the sin and guilt of people. He received the stripes, wounds, and bruises of the punishment for us so we could receive healing, and cleansing from our guilt and sins. So that none of us could say he didn’t cause the Messiah to die for them, Isaiah expressly pointed out we all, like sheep, have gone astray; we’ve wandered away from God and gone our own ways. Still, because of God’s great love for us, the sins and guilt of all of us fell on Him; Jesus bore them all for us.

Isaiah explained what happened to Jesus. He said He was oppressed, bowed down, and humbled, but He did not cry out, “Foul play,” or demand to be released. Instead, the Messiah walked like a meek lamb to His death. He did not demand a retrial, but bore the pain of our punishment because of His love for us. The oppression and judgment that was ours Jesus took and was led away to die.

While He laid aside His glory and majesty to be born as a man and suffer the indignities, judgment, and punishments from men, Jesus also was consigned to humiliation in death. The judges made Him die as a wicked man, consigned the worse form of death penalty reserved for the evilest people. The people humiliated the Messiah in life and death.

Still, God was pleased and delighted to break His Son, making Him to bear grief. He was pleased to do this so He would see His children. The Lord would increase the days of His people and His will would occur. Jesus humbled Himself to become a man, suffer persecution and infamy, and die as an evil person. It would enable God’s plan for His people to be with Him forever. Through the anguish and trouble of the Messiah, God’s judgment of the people would be satisfied. Because of the knowledge and wisdom of Jesus, God’s serving Son, who served both people and the Father, many would receive justification, cleansing and righteousness, through His carrying their burden of sin and guilt.

Because of all this what did Jesus do?  

·         Grew and lived in a parched land

·         Lived humbly as a man with no power or glory

·         Lived despised, considered worthless, and rejected by people

·         Knew sorrows and grief

·         Bore our grief, afflictions, pain, and sorrow

·         Became considered as a sinner stricken by God

·         Received our death punishment of sword, nail, and cross

·         Accepted the oppression and afflictions by people without crying out His personal innocence

·         Took the title of outcast as He was led outside the city gates

·         Died the worst death, that of a wicked man upon a cross

·         Bore the weight and punishment the sins and guilt of people

·         Received God’s pleasure

And despite what people did to Him, He interceded for the transgressors and continues to intercede for us. Jesus taught His followers to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in Matthew 5:44. He lived this out on earth and does it in heaven now.

This last statement of Isaiah 53 is important. Even though people and their sins caused the need for a sin sacrifice to cleanse us from our sins, Jesus interceded for us. Before He died and with His death, He interceded for us with God. Since His death, Jesus intercedes for us while sitting at the right hand of God. Paul stated this in Romans 8:34 when he said, “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” [NASB] Intercede means to plead for us, to supplicate or petition. Jesus petitions God for us for our salvation, needs, and forgiveness. Who of us, if we faced the inhumanity to the extreme Jesus did, would pray to God begging Him for mercy for the people who tormented, oppressed, and persecuted us? Yet that is what Jesus did and does for us even today. Isaiah told us of what the Jews would do to Jesus and expressed why Jesus came to live as a man on earth. This shows God’s great love for us even while we were/are sinners.

Isaiah closed this chapter of prophecy about the fore-coming Messiah by reminding the Israelites how great is God’s love for them. Even though they persecuted, oppressed, and killed His body, Jesus interceded for them to the Father in heaven to help them and us, and not to give us what any of us deserves. That is love! God gives us what we don’t deserve. Jesus pleads our cause even though we struck Him with our transgressions.

What greater love is there than God’s love!

Our love cannot compare to His.

“The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5b [NASB]

Lord, thank you for reminding me of my sin against You. Thank you for forgiving me each of my sins as I repent of them. Please help me remember how great Your love is that you would die for me and continue to plead for me with the Father. I do not deserve Your love, yet You give it anyway. Help me to live as Jesus did and pray for my enemies and those who I consider unworthy of help from You. Thank you for Your love. Amen.