"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Cor 9:15)
How does one describe an indescribable gift? With words! It's not a trick question because we are not trying to describe that the indescribable, but the gift. Just because something is difficult to explain does not mean that it cannot be explained at all. We are thinking of the gift of Jesus.
A gift is something given from one person to another for the purpose of the receiver to have possession of what is given. So, what kind of gift is Jesus?
Charles Spurgeon said, “
Heaven itself is nothing, as compared with Him! If a man had to wade breast deep through a thousand hells to obtain Christ it would be well worth the venture, if at the last he might but say, ‘My Beloved is mine and I am His!’ Jesus is so precious that He cannot be matched! There is none like Him. The most lovely of the lovely--are vile and deformed, when compared with Him. As Rutherford would say, ‘Black sun, black moon, black stars; but, O bright, infinitely bright Lord Jesus!’ If you ransacked time and space eternity and immensity you could find none that could even be compared unto Him He is so precious! He is all that your souls can desire; yes, He Himself is all. You could not buy Christ in any market if you gave the price of heaven and earth for Him.”
What kind of gift is Jesus that makes Him so unusual, so extreme?
- He gives the love of the Father. Each one of us sinned yet in spite of who we are, God set His love on us and proved it through the life and death of His Son.
- He grants forgiveness. Because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, when we turn from our sin by we are granted forgiveness. We are no longer under the condemnation of sin. His gift to us is preventative: the believer does not face eternal death, and is able to enjoy God forever.
- He garnishes peace. We are no longer enemies of God and are able to enjoy war-lessness between one another. He is the Prince of Peace, of unbreakable contentment. He ends self-rule.
- He is Eternal, so what Jesus brings lasts forever. Starting from the moment of our salvation, Christ’s Spirit dwells within us and never leaves. We are forever children in God’s family, with an inheritance that can neither spoil nor pass away.
