Last night I finished watching a documentary that asks a question related to a current issue that is ruining the lives of our children. This morning, still feeling sick with the power of evil in our world, I read this story:
The curator in the Louvre Museum in Paris overheard two men discussing a masterpiece. One man said to the other, “I don’t think much of that painting.” The curator, feeling obliged to reply to this statement, said, “Dear sir, if I may interrupt, that painting is not on trial; you are. The quality of that painting has already been established. Your disapproval simply demonstrates the frailty of your measuring capability.”
The devotional author goes on to say that in the same way, Jesus is not on trial before people; we are on trial before Him. He has already been approved by God the Father. Those who arrogantly dismiss Him as unworthy of their devotion simply demonstrate their inability to recognize the most precious treasure of all.
That documentary I watched was filled with the same kind of arrogance in people who had no sense of how to measure genuine worth or truth. Their lives, filled with sin and blinded by it, are so far from reflecting the image of God in which they were created, that dubbing them with “frailty of measuring capability” is an extremely polite way of describing their condition. They cannot see, never mind appreciate, the holiness of God nor the precious value of Jesus Christ.
I am thankful to know Jesus, and realize that it is only by grace that I, or anyone else, is saved. He is precious indeed, and I’m humbled to be here instead of being like many people in that documentary.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. (1 Peter 2:4–8)
By God’s standards, Jesus is the perfect cornerstone. The leaders of Israel had a faulty standard and even though they inspected Him, they rejected Jesus because He didn’t fit their concept of a Savior. Sadly, millions of men and women throughout history have followed their lead, choosing their own way and sin as a better option. For some, that rejection shows up in self-effort that appears successful but no one is saved by doing good deeds. For others, the rejection puts them on a slippery slope that makes their lives a mockery of all things good. Either way, Christ is rejected.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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. (Romans 8:1–11)
PRAY: Jesus, hearing of what happens in the lives of those blinded by sin feels like a kick in the gut. It motivates me to intercede, but also to bow before You in gratitude for giving me life in You, for rescuing me from certain judgment. I love You, Lord. And I need to pray for those who have measured You by their own willfulness rather than seeing You as their precious Savior who forgives sin and delivers us from its clutches.
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