Jesus: The Cost Was His

The word for today is “cost.” There are many forms of this word if you look it up in the Hebrew and Greek texts. There’s also many words that mean the opposite of “cost,” one of which is the word “dorean.” This word in Greek means, “as a gift; to no purpose.” It is used in context to mean “as a free gift, without payment, freely.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of Jesus sending out the twelve. Matthew’s Gospel has a very unique statement though, not found in the others.

It reads:

“As you go, preach this message: ‘ The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”-Matthew 10:7-8

Freely you received. Freely give. Without cost. Free means you don’t pay for it. Well, if you don’t pay for it, who did?

Jesus. The cost was His. All throughout the Gospels Jesus went around doing things He was going to pay for.

In Isaiah 55:1, there is a prophetic statement by Isaiah about the coming Messiah.

“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you without money,

come, buy, and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost!”-Isaiah 55:1 (BSB)

Doesn’t this Scripture sound like the above passage from Matthew that we just read?

Freely. Without cost.

It didn’t cost you or me. But it did cost Jesus. It cost Him his life. But He laid it down willingly. Nobody took it from Him.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus said,

“No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”-John 10:18 (BSB)

So it did cost something. But it only cost Jesus. We don’t have to pay for it.

Now, should we feel sadness that it cost Jesus his life? I don’t think so. Often people feel so bad for Jesus, but He did it of His own free will, His own choice. He paid something we could never pay.

In John chapter 7, Jesus makes a statement that sounds very much like the one in Isaiah 55:1.

“On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”-John 7:37 (BSB)

Finally, we hear these statements echoed again twice in the Book of Revelation.

“And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.”-Revelation 21:6 (BSB)

“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.”- Revelation 22:17

The word freely in both of those Scriptures in Revelation is the Greek word “dorean” that we started with in Matthew’s Gospel.

Freely. Freely.

My prayer for today is that we would continue to grow in grace and in our knowledge of Him. May we be anchored in the fact that He paid it all, not with feelings of sadness, but with gratitude and joy. I pray that we would move deeper into that knowledge, and learn how to share the blessing of the Gospel with our words to others, so they may come to know as well that He freely gives, without cost.

Jesus: He Nourishes Us with His Love

An image of a nice lights background heart shapes

Today I looked up the Hebrew and the Greek words for “nourish.” There are only 3 Hebrew words for the word “nourish,” but many others in the Hebrew and the Greek for variations of the word including nourished, nourisher, nourisheth, nourishing, and nourishment. The word I am going to cover today is the word “ektrepho” in Greek

There are only two occurrences of this specific Greek word being used in the New Testament. They are both in the book of Ephesians. One is Ephesians 6:4 that talks about nurturing your children in the admonition of the Lord. The other is found in Ephesians 5:29, and is the subject of what I am going to discuss today.

Ephesians 5:29 reads:.

“Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. For we are members of His body.” (BSB)

That word “ektrepho” means to “bring up to maturity; to nourish.” There are quite a few variants of this word in Greek and they all have the connotation of nourishing.

When we look at Ephesians 5:29, we recognize that it’s about Jesus. It’s about Jesus taking care of the church in a specific way. He doesn’t hate us. In fact it is quite the opposite; He loves us. If you read the verses in Ephesians 5 before this one, it discusses a marriage relationship and how the husband ought to love his wife.

Because Jesus loves us, He takes care of us, nourishing and cherishing us. We are part of Him.

Do you ever slow down and meditate on Jesus this way? I want to make it personal for myself. I am part of the Body of Christ, so I can believe these thoughts that the Scripture shares.

Jesus loves me. He nourishes me. He cherishes me. He is bringing me to maturity in Him.

Earlier in Ephesians Paul prays,

“for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”-Ephesians 3:14-19 (BSB)

That’s my prayer for me today, and my prayer for you. I pray that we would allow Him to nourish us with His love, and that we would become mature in His love. I pray that we would swim in it daily, and feel safe, nourished, and comfortable in this love. Amen.

Jesus: Friend of Sinners

Today I looked up Greek and Hebrew words that mean the word “friend.” There are five Hebrew words listed in Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words that mean “friend,” and there are three Greek words. I am going to look at one of the Greek words today that most people are probably familiar with. It’s the word “philos.”

The word “philos” can be found 29 times in the New Testament according to Biblehub.com. It means “beloved, dear and friendly.”

In Matthew 11:19, this word is used to describe Jesus.

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”-Matthew 11:19 (BSB)

Jesus was beloved, dear, and friendly to people who were considered sinners. That word sinners is the word “hamartolos” in Greek, and it means sinful. It comes from the root word, “hamartano” which means “to miss the mark, do wrong, sin.”

I think that word for sinners would describe all of us at some point in our lives. And yet, Jesus would still be called our friend.

I love that the definition also means beloved. Later on in the New Testament, in the epistles, Paul, John, Jude and Paul all refer to us as “beloved.”

Jesus came to show us what that relationship would look like with Him.

Do you think of Jesus as your friend? Is it hard for you to imagine Him that way?

I think it helps, if we sit and meditate on Him, being our friend, and treating us the same way He treated those in the Gospel stories.

Jesus: The Lord of Time and Space

Today I looked up all the words in my Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words that mean “space.” There are many words that mean “space” in relation to time.

While I was studying, I kept thinking about Jesus being the Lord of time and space.

In John chapter 2, Jesus turns water into wine. Making wine is not an easy process. I don’t really know a lot about making wine, but logically speaking, it has many steps. You first have to grow grapes. Then you have to harvest grapes. Then you have to squeeze the juice out, bottle it, and wait for it to ferment.

Jesus bypasses all that.

In John chapter 2 we read:

“Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”

So they filled them to the brim.

“Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!”

Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”-John 2:6-11 (BSB)

He did in a space of moments what it takes winemakers years to accomplish. And the banquet master said it was the best!!

What does this say about the character of Jesus? How does the knowledge of this part of His character impact our lives?

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”-Hebrews 13:8 (BSB)