This has been the Easter week, and many of us have remember the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of us are going to hear a sermon about the cross, after having watched a movie about Jesus which for some ends being an emotional preparation for Sunday service even tho if it is not intended.
Since I became a Christian, I've hear many preachers talk about the love of God, and how Jesus died on the cross for us, and the Romans beating him till death. Sometimes sermons will put up picture to make his death graphic so it moves us emotionally, which is normal. I remembered the once I heard a sermon where the preacher said this: "We are not saved because the Romans beated Jesus or because they hanged Him on the cross, that was necessary and is part of it but we mainly are saved because on that cross the Wrath of God was poured upon Him" ........this preacher accompanied the sermon with the passage Isaiah 53. Of all the passage a verse stood out to me “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”
Isaiah 53:10 NASB
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him........the preacher kept explaining that this mean that the death of Christ was necessary as a propitiation for our sins. No one else could have died, let me put it this way if you or me or any other human being would have tried to die on the cross for the sins of the people, that would have been a complete failure. Because 1. We are sinners who deserve death, so we wouldn't not be paying for the sins of the world but dying as a consequence of our sin. 2. Therefore God wouldn't have been so pleased with a sinful sacrifice because there was not righteousness to be imputed. The Lord was pleased to crush Jesus Christ on the cross, meaning that Jesus being fully human and fully God being obedient to the father in everything, without breaking any law or commandment gives Himself for us.
I will never forget the words of my teacher Michael Garreau when we were talking about the doctrines of salvation he said: "the Lord was pleased doesn't mean that the Lord was jumping happy because Christ was dying, but what it means is that the demands of the Justice of God were met on Jesus Christ on the cross and His wrath was being satisfied at that moment. Justice which the nature and character of God demands so the sinner could not just be forgiven but also be declared righteous and blameless before God."
What a great do we have, who is so wise and powerful. So many times we look at the cross and we are very self centered about it, we highly everything Jesus did for us. He died for ME, loves ME, He forgave ME, He did it for ME, and we can go forth with more ME, ME and ME. But the demonstration of the Love of God on the cross is an spark of His being, therefore this should lead us to worship Him. Yes it is true that He did it for you, but he did it for you to be something. God showed His love on the cross so we will come to Him, and if we have come to Him, we will love Him. Loving Him demands that we obey his commandments says John 14:15,23; so it means that if we are not obeying Him then we are not loving Him. God was pleased to crush Christ so you can be righteous, obeying and loving God genuinely is not forced by the human efforts but it flows out of a heart that has responded to the sacrifice of Christ in repentance and faith who's heart has been changed.
Yes He died for you and He loves you so you will look to Him, so you will be His child and live like one. It doesn't matter how well your doctrine may be or if you believe the right things but if you don't love God and neither obey Him just because you don't want then you need Him. Doesn't matter if you say the right things, or if you say amen in the right parts of the sermon, We Need Him.!!!!! Doesn't matter how pity or how low you think of yourself, you must go to Him. Self-pittiness doesn't mean that we already have come to Him but it should lead us to Him. God will not overlook our hypocrisy doesn't matter how much we pity ourselves or how much we exalt self.
Brethren, don't let this precious gift becomes so normal and common for you that you are not amazed anymore at the thought that He gave His only begotten son and was pleased to crush Him so our sins are gone and we receive righteousness. Because it's really easy to buy the next Christian book or study bible and conform ourselves with little of Christ while we lead our own lives. But seriously, if He gave His son and was pleased to crush Him, what excuse do you think you have to not give yourself to the one who died for you.
He is risen and He reigns. He will come back for His church, how do you think that he is going to find you? Our holiness is the mark of our thankfulness for the gift of Salvation in Christ, may God not find us ungrateful on that day.
Love
Edher
“Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.”
Psalms 24:7-10 NASB
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