We, as humans, have a serious issue to call things that are clean common, both with ourselves and others. We think of ourselves as clean and think of ourselves as better and others as common and unclean for whatever reasons we choose. We also think of ourselves as common and unclean and think that others are clean. This issue occurs because we do not see ourselves and others in light of the gospel of Christ.

We are often called to greater faith by many and I think we would all agree that greater faith is needed. But how? Does the command to increase faith, increase faith? Beloved, in our passage we have the most essential thing needed for our confidence in God to increase. Notice this soldier’s confession of faith that he speaks with great conviction. It says when this soldier saw the way Jesus breathed His last He said because of the way Jesus died, surely this man was God’s Son.

What a man says in the ending moments of His life is most telling about who He is and what He is about. Here the gospel of John gives us gospel treasure concerning what kind of a cross our Savior bears for us. The first thing we see here is the Lord’s concern from the cross. While our Lord is hung up naked, bleeding out with nails stapled to His body, suffering the eternal wrath of God, He speaks about the need for family affection amongst the people of the church. We often make the cross about many things that we choose but what we see here is that the cross is deeply and profoundly concerned with those who have benefited from it, loving one another with a family-like affection. Brothers and sisters, we can do many things and do them well, but if we do not see the cross as a work which makes people in the church of most concern then we have missed Christianity entirely.

There are two mounts that are central to the Bible, the Mount of Sinai, and the Mount of Calvary. At the former was given the Law of Moses, the latter brought the Law of Christ. The Law of Moses was brought to be a revelation of God’s holiness and our inability to imitate that holiness and to please Him. This law was intended to point God’s people to Him and to teach them to cry out to Him for help.

The book of Ruth is no different than any other book in the bible in that its characters and message speak beyond the historical context to the broader story of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it is that in our passage we find a gem of gospel truth through the way Ruth approaches her Boaz; we learn what intimacy is about with our Redeemer. The beauty of Christianity is not so much that we have Jesus but rather He has us; the things we own we ruin but the things that Christ owns He makes eternally glorious. The man Christ Jesus who is wealthy, righteous, able and willing to save has claimed us for Himself.Notice first how she speaks to Boaz by telling him that she is his. Ruth has no more desire of running her own life and being her own but rather pleads to belong to another. Brothers and sisters, Christianity is nothing less than becoming tired and weary of self-ownership and coming to our Boaz and declaring that we are His property. The beauty of Christianity is not so much that we have Jesus but rather He has us; the things we own we ruin but the things that Christ owns He makes eternally glorious. The man Christ Jesus who is wealthy, righteous, able and willing to save has claimed us for Himself. Christian do you celebrate and consider this fact as Ruth does? Do you regularly say and confess to our Boaz that you are His?