Hello friends!

When Jesus began, His earthly ministry, people were amazed at what He was teaching. In the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, the word amazed gets a lot of play. Have you ever wondered why? Yes, it was Jesus, and Jesus is well, Jesus! But was there more to it? There was.

The people Jesus taught had been taught wrongly by their teachers. Their teachers always spoke about change from the outside (behavior) as the key to everything with God. They said if you change and perfect your behavior, then and only then, God will forgive you and bless you, and you will experience His favor (grace). In other words, if you are good enough, God will give you grace. Meaning, yes, God will accept you if you are good enough; but you must keep being good enough for things to stay the same. That is not grace. Grace cannot be earned.

Therefore, what Jesus taught and what the teachers taught weren't the same. And it's not that everything He taught was new to them. Jesus taught from the Old Testament. For example, the passage from Isaiah chapter 44.

In chapter 44, God’s people were making and trusting in idols. Idols they made with their own hands, they thought up from their own minds. Because of this, what the teachers were teaching, and the people, in turn, were learning was all messed up. Even more importantly, grace would never be needed with the idols they made and worshipped. In pagan worship, a person needed to make a sacrifice to get what they wanted.  So, God used Isaiah, a preacher, to set things right.

One of the main things Isaiah preached was God is a gracious God- return to Him. He will never forget them or stop loving them. God had chosen them not for a little bit of time; but for all time. He knew what they were when He began the relationship with them, when He made them part of His family. He blots out their sins like they were clouds; and will not kick them out because of their sin. People forget, but God does not. He ties them to Himself not because of what they do for Him but what He does for them.