Hannah Sorenson’s Reviews > Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional > Status Update

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He who commands the universe and enjoys the worship of angels stepped down from heaven to be despised and rejected by humans. And He did it all for love.^

^Amazingly, Jesus had the power to stop it all with just one word, but His love for us compelled Him to step forward, He willingly walked into His suffering, humbly allowing Himself to be ridiculed by the very ones He came to save. Every agonizing moment He hung on that cross was another whispered "yes" to this painful course.

Mark 10:45
^A close study of the Gospels reveals that the most common title Jesus used for Himself is "Son of Man." In fact, He used it eighty-one times in the Gospels though no one else used it to refer to Him.^

^The verse above [Matthew 1:23] is the first of forty-three Messianic quotes from the Old Testament that Matthew included in his gospel narrative. By linking Jesus' life to the Old Testament promises, Matthew demonstrates that Jesus' birth and life fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, to show God's provision for His people and His faithfulness in following through.^

^The manna God provided through Moses satisfied only temporarily. The manna Jesus was offering, His very life, satisfies eternally.^

^Surprisingly, Jesus does not call us to work hard to be more fruitful; rather, He calls us to abide in Him, to wait on Him. Fruit will naturally follow for those who remain connected to Him, because His Spirit is the One who produces the fruit (Gal. 5:22-25). We belong not because of what we do but because of who He is.^

^In the entire history of humanity, no one has ever been holy . . . except Jesus. Jesus' holiness sets Him apart from everyone else. He is morally perfect. He has never sinned. [...] The writer of Hebrews refers to Him as "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners" (7:26 ESV).

That's why the self-righteous religious rulers of the day hated Him: they stood condemned in His presence.^

^When we fix our gaze on Jesus, we learn to see life through the prism of reality, what is really true, instead of through the tinted glasses that our enemy would have us wear.

In fact, when Jesus faced Pilate on the day of His death, He made this aspect of His character very clear: "the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

^Jesus is God's truth. All He says is true and His very life demonstrates a life lived in singleness of mind and truth. As Randy Alcorn explains, He is "the source of all truth, the embodiment of truth, and therefore the reference point for evaluating all truth-claims."^

^But Jesus is not just the opposite of the devil, just as truth is not merely the absence of a lie. Truth is the construct that defines reality. It stands in stark contrast to a lie because lies cannot exist without something to twist and oppose. Truth, in contrast, exists on its own.^