He Pitched His Tent Among Us

He did that but He sure wasn’t one of us. No affairs. No lying. No murder. No cheating. No child abuse.

At His trial Jesus asked His accusers, “Can any one of you convict Me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act?” John 8:46.

Nothing.

Nobody said a word.

Even those who practically lived with Him for three years said,

“He never did one wrong thing. Not once said anything amiss.”
1 Peter 2:22

If people spent three days with me (on some days just three hours), they wouldn’t be able to say that about me.

And here’s the thing that just blows me away. Jesus was always bang on in thought word and deed BUT / AND He still wants to hang with me.

Just the opposite of what we do.

Jesus knew about people’s lies, addictions, affairs and hypocrisy, yet He still welcomed them into His inner circle.

Just the opposite of what we do.

To those who were killing Him Jesus said, “Father forgive them.”

Just the opposite of what we do.

Jesus, our example and character goal, came to earth knowing in advance that He would be abused, misunderstood, mistreated, rejected, insulted, betrayed and ultimately have humanity do our absolute worst to Him. Yet He entered into a covenant relationship with us anyway because He loves us.

Knowing that this is how we would treat Him, because of His love for us, He pitched His tent among us.

He did that in order to show us the way home.

“God was in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to Himself.”

“While we were still His enemies, Christ Jesus died for our sins.”

Atheists find that offensive.

For the rest of us, we're eternally grateful.