Grace Is a Subtle Wonder

"After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.' The official said to him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your son will live.' The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.' The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, 'Your son will live.' And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee." John 4:43-54 ESV

If is one thing to be at the feast and it is another to believe. Results... we look for them. Jesus chides them about the need to see results. He doesn't want results like we do. He wants faith.

At Cana Jesus gave joy. He turned water into wine. He took a wedding that was going to end in disappointment and turned it into a great success. People remembered the success. Now, He returns and gives something else... Life. The family traces the timing of words and healing and all signs point to Jesus. Life from death is the ultimate sign and wonder but grace is subtle.

I awoke this morning thinking about Adam and Jesus. They are both men. They eat and drink. They sleep and go about their day. But, One grows old and dies and the other dies once and then lives in newness forever.

"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." 1 Corinthians 15:45 KJV

Jesus is the last Adam. The first would be last and would outlast everything.

In many ways Jesus looked just like everyone else. The little boy who was healed looked like he did before he got sick. This family did also. There was something new that would be revealed in time. Grace had done a work. There had been a quickening. A renewing that would forever renew. Those seeking a sign now got something else. They died once and now would live forever.

We look much the same after believing in Jesus. When by faith we touch Christ, the quickening Spirit, we are forever changed.

Adam can trace his moment of failure back to the moment he took that fruit and ate it. We can trace every victory back to the moment Christ was presented to us as he really Is and we believed.