Jesus Isn't Decaf (By Naomi Meyers)

The clatter of wooden theater chairs springing back into place echoed across the chapel as students scurried to gather their books and head to class. It had been an exceptional service. The message, an exhortation from the words of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, encouraged each of us to walk and talk and live exactly the way they had learned from Christ. Lay down old habits and sins. Put aside the old self. Be renewed in mind and spirit. Put on the righteousness and holiness of Christ. Attributes that would radiate from our souls and exhibit to all that we had been bought and washed clean by the blood of Christ.  It would have been impossible to exit uninspired. (Ephesians 4:17-32)

Collecting my own books, I had nearly exited my row when I heard someone call my name. Turning, I saw the chaplain of the jail ministry attempting to flag me down. He was a wonderful man. Kind. Enthusiastically energetic. Eager to help. Happy to listen. Willing to pray. Always. I know. I spent most weekends serving beside him at the jail, visiting, holding Sunday services, and teaching a new evening Bible study. In a rush, as usual, he issued his request from a couple of rows away with a half-smile that anticipated my surprise, “Get those sermon notes. You are preaching this message at Bible study.”

My surprise did not eclipse my inward groan. Really? How could I ever deliver a message from someone else’s notes? Especially a theology teacher’s notes! I didn’t have the same wisdom from which to draw. I couldn’t tell the same amusing anecdotes. As personally inspired as I was from the hearing of the message, I was wholly uncertain I could in any reputable way duplicate it. Heaving a sigh and suppressing my reticence, I vowed to give it my best shot, trudged up to the front, hailed the speaker, and made arrangements to receive a copy of his notes so I could attempt to deliver them half as eloquently as he had. It was highly unlikely. Double sigh.

Four weeks later, the only ones sighing were the men in that Bible study as they repeated, yet again, the changes their lives would exhibit if they had truly learned Christ. If their hearts had really been changed. If they had truly been bought by the blood of Christ, not simply loaned themselves to Him until the outcome of their trial or for the endurance of their sentence. Their former lives would be replaced by a renewed spirit and mind. They would be changed men. Their new selves, fashioned in the likeness of God, would exhibit emotions and actions and reactions announcing to the world they had not loaned themselves out to jailhouse religion but were truly changed. Truly purchased. Truly God’s people. And they needed to live like it. (Colossians 3:1-17)

It wasn’t some new lesson I’d uncovered in the recesses of the preaching professor’s notes. The concept dates back thousands of years to a smoke-shrouded Mount Sinai and a recently delivered people. Gathered as close to the mountain as they dared, fear-filled them at the fierceness of God’s power on vivid display. Vibrating thunder. Sizzling lightning. Dense cloud cover. The ear-splitting sound of a trumpet from heaven. Their amazement must have known no boundaries as Moses and Aaron walked through the haze of smoke to ascend the mountain and meet with God. (Exodus 19:16-25)

Upon his return, Moses brought the laws of God. Not just ten easily recitable commandments. Those were just the beginning. There were more to come. Ordinances. Rules. Punishments for violations. Directions for proper behavior, true justice, and observing the Sabbath. My English Bible uses 126 verses to remind the children of Israel that they had been delivered, rescued, purchased by God to be His special people. And they needed to act like it. (Exodus 20-23)

At some point, they must have sighed, wondering when the sermon was going to be over. When would the “thou shalt’s” end? Perhaps their minds wandered a bit in the waiting. It seems likely, given the fact that no matter how fervently they swore to uphold all the things the Lord had spoken to them, they reneged ad nauseum. Over and again idolatry and lust for the easy ways of the world drew them away from God, had them living for themselves as if their lives were borrowed, not bought. Time and again, God went after them, rescued them, because He knew the truth. They were His people. His possession. Bought, not borrowed. (Psalm 78:40; Deuteronomy 31:27; Nehemiah 9:16-31; Isaiah 65:2-3; Deuteronomy 7:6)   

So are you. If you have knelt at the cross and accepted the forgiveness of your sins through the shedding of Christ’s blood, you were bought too. Purchased from the alleyways of sin’s destitution, debauchery, and disillusionment. No matter how much time you spent there, no matter what you became when you lived there, regardless of the degree of degradation you acquired there. You are not that person anymore! You belong to God. His precious possession. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. (I Corinthians 6:9-11, 17-20; I Peter 2:9) 

An exorbitant price etched with excruciating pain, sacrificially paid for your extrication from the addicting clutches of evil. Ultimate betrayal. Undeserved arrest.. Scornful mocking. Stinging ridicule. Flying spit. Flashing fists. Slapping hands. It was just the beginning. There would be more. Vicious beating. Humiliation. The pain of thorns pressed into His brow. The warmth of blood cascaded down His face. More spit. More beating. More mocking. 

The solemn trudge to Golgotha was uninterrupted. No one stepped in to halt it. No one offered to take His place. No one stood up on His behalf. Stretched out on a rough wooden cross with splinters gouging His back, He willingly held out His hands and feet, allowing the sin-darkened hearts He came to save hammer nails through skin and flesh and sinew. As the sound of hammer on stake echoed across the silent air, as pain radiated through every part of His bruised and bleeding body, as the cross was lifted upright and slammed into the ground, He didn’t halt the proceedings. He didn’t call down Heaven’s rescue squad. No. He endured the ridicule, the pain, the cross so you could be redeemed. Purchased. Bought, regardless how horrific the cost.  (Matthew 26-27) 

Regardless of our debilitating sin. Regardless of our incredible shabbiness. Regardless of our bent toward imperfection. Just as Hosea bought Gomer. Rescued from a life of harlotry, one would think her gratitude would overwhelm her desire for her previous lifestyle. It didn’t. She wasn’t faithful. Tiring of her new life and responsibilities, she ran back to her proclivities, her addictions, her sins. The marriage seems over, but grace wasn’t finished writing. God sent Hosea to purchase her! Standing on that auction block, dirty and wasted, Gomer must have secretly wondered if anyone would even bid. Who would want her? Who would pay actual money for the worthless mess she had become? Then it happened. A bid. From a voice she recognized. Hosea was once again rescuing her. She didn’t deserve it. Couldn’t earn it. Would never hope to purchase a rescue on her own. Yet Hosea came in and bought her back, her abject filthiness notwithstanding. There was just one requirement. She had been bought with a price, given a new life, she needed to act like it! (Hosea 1-3)

The message wasn’t given just to Gomer, the sin-bent children of Israel, the men in the county jail, or the young adults gracing that chapel years ago. It applies to you too. You need to live like you’ve been washed in the blood of Christ. You need to walk like a changed person. You need to emulate Jesus. No matter where your past has taken you. No matter where your present has you residing. No matter what your future looks like. You need to live the way Jesus taught you to live. Not just when it is convenient. Not simply when you feel like it. Not to impress your pastor or fellow parishioners. You need to live for Jesus all day, every day. Why? Because you once were lost, but now are found. You once were filthy, but now are washed clean. You once were dead in your trespasses and sins, but now are alive in Christ. Your sins are forgiven. Your debt is paid in full. That stack of guilty convictions piled up against you has been overturned by the nail that fastened it to His cross. You were bought with a price. You belong to God. You are a precious possession of His own choosing. There’s just one requirement. You need to act like it! (Luke 15:24; Colossians 2:13-14; I Corinthians 7:23; I Peter 1:18-19; John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4, 2:4-5; Luke 12:6-7)

At a time when we are so greatly encouraged to serve ourselves, may you always remember…You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Go live like it!