Breathing the Same Air as Jesus - Emmanuel Baptist Church

Titus 2:11 tells us that “the grace of God has appeared.” In other words, grace is not just an abstract quality, something that may be true but doesn’t ever touch us or affect us. The grace of God appeared in the person of Jesus. It showed up in space and time. It moved to town. Jesus is, so to speak, the grace of God in skin and bones.

And so this verse reminds us that it all really happened. Jesus was really born, He really lived, He really died, and He really walked out of His grave. The grace of God has appeared.

I know that this concrete reality of Jesus in the flesh can seem distant to us, after 2,000 years of human history has passed. And so I want to encourage you to bring it home for a moment by taking a breath. Literally: just take a breath right now. Here’s the stunning truth: according to statistics, as you took in that breath, you drew molecules of air in your lungs that were inside the very lungs of Jesus.

There’s only so much air in the atmosphere, and so as we breathe it in and out, it all gets mixed around over time. We literally do all share the same air, and that goes for Jesus, too.

In fact, in your lifetime, you have probably breathed some of the air which flowed out of Jesus lungs when He breathed His last breath on the cross. And you have most likely breathed air that flowed into Jesus’ lungs when He took that first breath in when He rose from the dead. Some of that air may even be in your lungs at this very moment.

This is all just just science and statistics—which you can find out more about here—but thinking about things in this way brings the reality of Jesus to bear on my heart. The grace of God really did appear, bringing salvation. And like we heard yesterday, that same grace is still at work in our lives today, training us for godliness as we wait for Christ’s return.