Jesus has suffered long and is still kind. Amazing!

“Said unto them, Ye have brought this Man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined Him before you, have found no fault in this Man touching those things whereof ye accuse Him:

No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto Him.

I will therefore chastise Him, and release Him.

(For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)

And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas:

(Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)

Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them.

But they cried, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him.

And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath He done? I have found no cause of death in Him: I will therefore chastise Him, and let Him go.

And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.” (Luke 23:14-23).

“Away with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas:…

Crucify Him, crucify Him….

And they were instant [quickly retorting and demanding] with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed….” (Luke 23:18,21,23).

Who was perverting the people? Who was perverting justice? This conviction was crossing Pilate’s mind. Certainly the leaders were perverting the law. Surely they were shedding innocent blood. And this was no ordinary man. “He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.” (Matt. 27:14).

Did the holy religious leaders not know or remember their own law, the Law of Moses?

“If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in His ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:

That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.

But if any man hate his neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities:

Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.” (Deut. 19:9-13).

“They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.” (Ps. 94:21).

“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit.” (Prov. 1:10-12).

Yet, Jesus, the Lord God of Israel, the Prince of peace, suffered under their raging.

“And there were also two other, malefactors, led with Him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:32-34).

All their higher education could not stop them from breaking the Law of God. This is because Satan was wiser than they could ever be, and more deceptive and controlling than they could ever withstand. Their intellect gave them power over the people, but not the insight to realize that God was watching their wickedness. What they needed was faith and love, and they would have overcome this great sin.

We are all “by nature the children of wrath.” (Eph. 2:3). Who was perverting the Law and slaying the Lamb of God? We were! You and I! Every one of us, religious and irreligious alike!

“It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken. Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.’ ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ Job 14:4; Romans 8:7. Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.” Steps to Christ, p. 18.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways.” (Rom. 3:10-16).

But, Jesus let our rage beat upon Himself. If only we could see ourselves guilty and in need of God’s grace. “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.” (Heb. 12:3). If we should refuse this opportunity to repent, nothing will save us.

“But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against Me. Because thy rage against Me and thy tumult is come up into Mine ears, therefore I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.” (2Ki. 19:27,28).

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” (Ps. 2:1).

Those religious instigators of national murder against the Son of the Highest will be raised to see Jesus coming in all His power and glory. Yet to the people He sent His apostles and church to open the eyes and ears of all who regretted their treatment of the great Healer of all disease and the Champion of all the downtrodden. Many priests repented. His love for them was unchanged. His mercy endured forever.

Jesus suffered long and yet was kind. Jesus suffers long and still is kind. Jesus will always suffer long and be kind. He is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Heb. 13:8).

Today we are using Paul’s description of love.

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth.” (1Cor. 13:4-8).

Jesus suffered long, and was kind; Jesus envied not; He vaunteth not Himself, He was not puffed up,

He did not behave Himself unseemly, He sought not His own, He was not easily provoked, He never thought evil toward anyone;

Jesus rejoiced not in iniquity, but He rejoiced in the truth;

He bore all things, believed all things, hoped all things, endured all things.

Jesus never failed.

We substituted the name of Jesus for charity. How do we know we are allowed to make this substitution? Isn’t that changing the Word of God? No, Jesus told us to do this. He authorized the substitution. This is His commandment.

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39). Since Jesus is love, then we can put Him in every mention of love. “God is love” makes no sense if we haven’t seen His divine love in action. So let’s watch Jesus. Let’s search Him out, leaving no stone unturned.

Search. Not search, as in “we search”, “you all search”, “they search”. Not searches, as in “he searches”, “she searches”, “so-and-so searches”. Search, as in a command. Do it.

So search the scriptures! Search there for Jesus! Let nothing and nobody get in the way!!! Your eternal life today and forever depends on this one effort! You’ve struck hands with the devil all your life and have come up empty, sick, and hopeless. “Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, My son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of [the devil]; go, humble thyself, and make sure [the devil]. Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself [from the covenant with the cunning high priest of familiar spirits] as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.” (Prov. 6:2-5).

We have a treasure trove of knowledge of Jesus throughout the scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament. It’s all there for the finding and taking. Don’t be detracted or derailed from this exciting safari. It’s all there for the claiming ownership of. Will you lay claim to the knowledge of the God of love revealed in the Son of His love? Will you stake your claim on this gold mine?

We can safely assume that all the love that the Lord of love revealed in the past is for us. All the people in sacred history are showcased for our sakes, here in the 21st century. All the milk and honey, mercy and love that He gave them during Bible times are milk and honey and mercy and love for us. Assuming is not always a wrong action. But, we must also assume that for love to be love, mercy must come with justice. Mercy without justice, lawless grace is not right, and cannot be allowed to exist. Similarly, justice without mercy is not fair, bullying and dictatorial treatment have nothing to do with mercy, and should never be.

For a father and mother to truly love they must protect their children from the failings and mistakes of their other children within the home. The parents must keep watchful eye on their older, influential leaders among the brood who can endanger the younger, easily-influenced children. Likewise our God of love, and the beloved Son of His bosom. They keep constant tabs on us. Aren’t you glad for that? I am. I want Their attention and love the idea of Their involvement. I feel much cozier knowing that They maintain justice in the world. Love! I love love, don’t you love love! I love to be loved! And I want to learn better how to love others more?

Jesus came to Earth loving. From eternity, kindness is all He could do and wanted to do. That’s all His Father could ever do. And, rest assured that that is all Jesus will ever do. Justice and mercy mixed, precept and promise, Law and love combining, full of truth and grace. From everlasting His Father trained up Jesus in the way of love, and when He was grown He could not depart from it. In all of His “goings forth…from of old, from the days of eternity” (Mic. 5:2, margin) love and unity were His work. For that result in us Jesus constantly groaned within His Spirit. We can be loving only because we are His workmanship. We love because He first loved us. His Spirit mated with the prophet’s spirit, and our spirit mates with the prophet’s spirit. Therefore, we mate with Jesus. When we are born again and receive a new heart, we are in sync with the message of love that we hear from His prophet. We live synchronized with the Lord God of heaven; and we are synchronized with His Law. Our souls vibrate in harmony with His soul. Therefore, we hear the voice of Jesus through the fatherly messages from the prophets, because our new conscience is like an antenna that detects the Spirit of the Son that moved the prophets to write. We yearn for more of Jesus’ love and guidance, as the prophets yearned for Him. We search the scriptures and find Him. Thus, we are soul-mates with Christ and with all of His prophetic children.

Do you want to know eternal love? To know that “the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy”? To know that “He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever” (Ps. 103:8,9)? Do you want to hear love and see it? Do you desire to experience it? Then, go to the Bible, and see that all the fatherly and motherly love there was written for you. It all testifies of Jesus and you.

When a leper desperately wanted healing and heard of Jesus, he naturally assumed that Jesus could heal him too! That was reasonable, don’t you think? Faith is rational. So, he asked around and made his way to where he was told Jesus was. As soon as he caught sight of Jesus, he forgot all the rules that applied to lepers. He had spent all his years of leprosy crying out to people, “Unclean! Unclean!” There was no healing for people with his problems. So hopelessly, he spent his days shut out of regular life, forever warning people away from himself with, “Unclean! Unclean!” He was well grounded in the duties of the lepers. But, all these duties he forgot as soon as his heart’s desire caught that first glimpse of the great Healer. Suddenly, the whole world disappeared. All the people no longer existed, and neither did their safety. He walked right up to the multitudes surrounding Jesus.

They fell back in fear and shock! The leper walked right through the crowds, on his way to Jesus. The leper didn’t hear the screams; he paid no mind to their shouts and curses. One thing was on his mind; one thing filled his imagination. That was the soon moment when he would be healed. Jesus healing him was a given. It was a done deal. It was going to happen. Because Jesus never fails. This was faith operating from great need.

“In the region of Christ’s ministry, there were many of these sufferers, and the news of His work reached them, kindling a gleam of hope. But since the days of Elisha the prophet, such a thing had never been known as the cleansing of one upon whom this disease had fastened. They dared not expect Jesus to do for them what He had never done for any man. There was one, however, in whose heart faith began to spring up. Yet the man knew not how to reach Jesus. Debarred as he was from contact with his fellow men, how could he present himself to the Healer? And he questioned if Christ would heal him. Would He stoop to notice one believed to be suffering under the judgment of God? Would He not, like the Pharisees, and even the physicians, pronounce a curse upon him, and warn him to flee from the haunts of men? He thought of all that had been told him of Jesus. Not one who had sought His help had been turned away. The wretched man determined to find the Saviour. Though shut out from the cities, it might be that he could cross His path in some byway along the mountain roads, or find Him as He was teaching outside the towns. The difficulties were great, but this was his only hope.

     The leper is guided to the Saviour. Jesus is teaching beside the lake, and the people are gathered about Him. Standing afar off, the leper catches a few words from the Saviour’s lips. He sees Him laying His hands upon the sick. He sees the lame, the blind, the paralytic, and those dying of various maladies rise up in health, praising God for their deliverance. Faith strengthens in his heart. He draws nearer and yet nearer to the gathered throng. The restrictions laid upon him, the safety of the people, and the fear with which all men regard him are forgotten. He thinks only of the blessed hope of healing.

     He is a loathsome spectacle. The disease has made frightful inroads, and his decaying body is horrible to look upon. At sight of him the people fall back in terror. They crowd upon one another in their eagerness to escape from contact with him. Some try to prevent him from approaching Jesus, but in vain. He neither sees nor hears them. Their expressions of loathing are lost upon him. He sees only the Son of God. He hears only the voice that speaks life to the dying. Pressing to Jesus, he casts himself at His feet with the cry, ‘Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.’” Desire of Ages, p. 263.

“‘Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.’  Jesus reached out and touched him. ‘I do want to,’ he answered. ‘Be clean!’ At once the man was healed of his disease.” (Matt. 8:2,3, Good News Bible).

Strong faith. Not the right quantity, but the right quality of faith was moving the man to break all the social rules. The next minute he would have no disease to worry about its prohibitions. Like Bartimaeas throwing away his old, filthy rags because he knew he would never again associate with them anymore, so did this leper his old life of filth and slow dying. It was already past; for the Healer would not turn him away. Just a tiny mustard seed quantity of good quality faith moved his mountain of suffering. The kind of faith without which it is impossible to please God gave the unclean man his deliverance. Now he was free, and he broadcasted his testimony to the whole region.

Do we have leprosy? Aren’t our hearts leprous? Only Jesus can heal us. Only His precepts and promises bring us the needed balm of Gilead.

“Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” (Isa. 1:4-6).

Let’s come clean. Let’s go to Jesus just as we are. We know our malady of sin. We know, like the leper, that sin has made deep inroads into our being. We cannot change ourselves. Culture, education, willpower, all these are helpless to cleanse us from our captivity to sin. We need a power from above and outside of us. Nothing in this world has worked and can work to make us clean. But, Jesus will not only cleanse our hearts and lives, but He will cleanse our past. We are the most despicable, horrific cases any human has ever met. Nevertheless, Jesus will take us into His confidence and recreate us into His princely image. And when He is finished with us, we are “clean every whit” (John 13:10). Past and present are completely new, and the future looks bright and filled with hope. And we remain recreated so long as we keep coming to our Creator. If we slip up and find ourselves separated from Him, then we must immediately return to Him without entertaining doubt that He may not accept us again, and we must unburden our guilt and sorrow and shame upon Him.  Jesus “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” (1Cor. 13:7). Christ will never fail us.

He declared, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37).

“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Rom. 8:29,30).

“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Rom. 8:33,34).

Once humbled and repentant and compliant again under Jesus’ care, don’t let the accuser of the brethren prevent you from continually coming to Jesus and staying with Him. Your past is already dealt with. It is passed. In the mind and heart of the Sovereign of the universe, your past is forever in the past. No one can contest the King, not even the devil.

It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?