Jesus, today two thousand years ago you were-
Betrayed
Arrested
Wrongly accused
Blindfolded
Slapped, spat at, beaten with fists
Denied three times
Flogged, whipped
Jeered, mocked, insulted, ridiculed
Traded for a criminal/murderer
Stripped
Struck
Nailed to the cross, hanged on a tree
Abandoned, forsaken by Abba Father
Dead
Pierced
And I ask why? What for?
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Okay, I get it. But how can you do that for my sake? When I am a sinner and because I am a sinner I am unworthy as it is written:
1) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
2) For the wages of sin is death
I know. But don't forget what follows after:
1) and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
2) but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is why: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
And so, back to your original question Franzz, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
"For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed."
Now I understand Lord. Oh the power of love displayed on the cross! Unfathomable for me.
Lord Jesus, THE MESSIAH, thank you!!!
"May I have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];"
"and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Now that I am a new creation, a sinner saved by grace, "may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Just as you were nailed to the cross may my life be this way until the day of your return and we are reunited in your Kingdom: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
As I look at your cross Jesus, as if speaking to me, your voice whispered in my ear: "You did not choose me, but I chose you.
Indeed. Before I even knew you Jesus you have already loved me. Thought of me as you were tortured and nailed to the cross.
"We love because he first loved us. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
"Jesus Christ laid down his for us."
Remember that and remember this small request from the other criminal hanging beside him: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom."
And Jesus replied, "I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise."
Once again, I look at the cross. This time I heard Him speak again: "It is finished."
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
#TheWonderfulCross
#GoodFriday
#ThePassionoftheChrist #TheCrucifixionofChrist
#HolyWeek #LentenSeason