Love Us To Redemption

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Jesus came to redeem and to transform. The word redeem means to buy back. To redeem something is a dramatic change. Jesus doesn’t only want to redeem us, but also to transform us. There are several ways in which Jesus loves us to redemption…

1. Jesus sees past the crowd to see the individual.

In Luke 19, Jesus is walking through town and encounters Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was known as a lying, deceiving tax collector. Jesus, walking through the crowd, spots Zacchaeus who was in the crowd. Jesus calls Zacchaeus out and He immediately is working towards salvation and restoration. Jesus sees past the crowd to the one to find Zacchaeus. Religion is a crowd mentality. Relationship signifies the one. Jesus getting ready to change the one. What are you facing today? Is religion lumping you in when you need a personal encounter with Jesus? 

2. You are not defined by your past.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here!  2 Corinthians 5:17

Jesus changes everything. Christianity is not something that you do, but rather something that you are. An encounter with the cross changes everything,

Jesus was travelling through Samaria, and He was tired. There were many excuses also why He could have kept going. Yet, Jesus stopped. Jesus was concerned with the one, a Samaritan, not someone that Jesus would have normally engaged with. This is what we call a divine appointment.  As Jesus ministers to this woman in John 4, her life begins to receive healing.

3. Jesus sees people as valuable, not as a distraction.

Jesus wasn’t inconvenienced by people He was in the people business. If we are about ministering to people, we are also in the people business. Jesus stops in the 6th hour. It is hot and inconvenient. Jesus, even tired, begins to minister to the woman at the well.

The woman at the well had a revelation of Jesus. Every revelation also comes with an invitation to know Jesus more. 

       Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine. He sees you in the light of potential. When your past, your current situation, or your circumstance tells you that you can’t--- you need to declare, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!”