5 things I dig about Jesus

We've been tagged by Michael of CHARISMATICA and it's taken me forever to get around to do it. He tagged all of us but I doubt if Ang will even know about it since she doesn't even read our blog :-)

The meme is "5 things I dig about Jesus." This should have been an easy meme but I had a little problem with it due to time constraints. I came up with the 5 things on the way to church and then when I sat at the computer to write it I had trouble writing and then the week got really busy and I never got back to it.

1. I dig that Jesus is fully God and fully man. It's such a hard concept to understand but it is so important for our salvation. Jesus' humanity gives him an understanding of what it's like to live in the flesh. He can understand our weakness because he lived among us and is one of us. He can be a true advocate and mediator to the Father because he gets us. But he's divinity keeps him from being a sinner like us. He is the perfect sacrifice for sin because he can represent us in his humanity since he is a descendant of Adam but he is sinless due to his divinity. He was not born in sin, so he could live the sinless life that is required by the law for us and then be the lamb without spot or blemish that is sacrificed for our atonement. Without one or the other Christ's work on the cross would have been impossible.

2. What I dig about Jesus is the fact that he did all the work necessary for salvation. There's nothing I can do to add to it. In the religions of this world appeasement of God means being good but in Christianity appeasement of God means that Christ was perfect in his obedience to God to the point of death on a cross we can't add anything to that. God was satisfied by the life and death of Christ, he met all the conditions for salvation for us. That's pretty amazing when you think about it.

3. I dig that Jesus was so anti-establishment radically different from what they expected - he said things that went against conventional [human] wisdom. Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath, the Law itself? That the religious leaders of the day were white washed tombs and hypocrites? Love your enemy? How do you do that? Jesus is the Son of God? How can he blaspheme God that way? The religious establishment of his day didn't understand his view of the law and of God, he turned their religion upside down and they didn't like it.

4. I dig that he didn't leave as alone to wander in the wilderness trying to figure out what we are supposed to do but sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us from the word of God.

5. I dig that he gave us an example to follow in what sacrificial love looks like. If love of God and our neighbor are the greatest commandments, then it is so helpful to be given the example of the cross where we see the love of Jesus for the Father and for his people. The willingness to be the sacrifice for sin, knowing that it was the only way. I'm thankful to have that example because so many times I don't want to love at all and it helps to know that Jesus loved in such a sacrificial way.

I'm not going to tag anyone but if you want to post what you dig about Jesus, let me know and I'll add your link to this post.

The ball is in your court, Susan. What do you dig about Jesus?

Updated: OK, I've offended an anonymous brother/sister in Christ by my entry and though I don't agree with him/her but can see his/her point, so I've updated my post to reflect his/her concern.