Most of us long for miracles.  And Jesus’ perfect life, death on sinners’ behalf as the fulfillment of Passover, and His physical resurrection prove that He is willing and able to meet our greatest needs:  complete forgiveness and a new heart to trust and follow Him as our living King.  But even in the Bible, most of the journey with Jesus is lived in the moments between miracles.  In this 50-day series, we’ll consider some of those moments leading up to the next great miracle in the New Testament:  the fulfillment of Pentecost and the incredible growth of the Church.

Many don’t realize that “Christ” is one of Jesus Jesus’ titles, not part of His name.  It literally means “anointed” to convey that He is “chosen”.  How is John 20:31 supposed to communicate that? By itself, its not.  It’s an allusion to key truths the Jewish people had seen in God’s work for millennia.  But it’s said that a picture is with a thousand words, so I’ll refer you to a brief video that I produced on the subject.  Maybe it’ll save us a few paragraphs.

Jesus’ title implies the three specific roles that God confirmed by public anointing and, therefore, tells us our three basic needs:  1) we need a perfect Prophet to speak God’s truth, especially to people in positions of authority over others; 2) we need a perfect Priest to secure our forgiveness through His perfect sacrifice, to teach us His Word, and to pray for us; and 3) we need a perfect King for our protection, provision, and progression of His kingdom.

The first two offices show our vertical relationship with God the Father through Jesus, from heaven to earth and earth to heaven, respectively.  And the last one shows our relationship with those around us through Jesus as our sovereign Ruler.  It’s a three-dimensional picture of God’s complete love through Christ for life in His name.

What is “life in His name”?  You guessed it.  That’s tomorrow.

I hope today’s thought and others in this series will be helpful to you as you journey with Jesus in the moments between miracles.

If you’d like to know more about who publishes the articles, videos, and other materials on tools4trenches, you can click on the picture of me and my wife.