“I’m the one who held the nail
It was cold between my fingertips
I’ve hidden in the garden
I’ve denied you with my very lips
God I fall down on my knees
With a hammer in my hand
You look at me
Arms open”
Those are the opening lyrics to a song called “Forgiven” by Crowder.
We are the reason Jesus died on the cross. We are broken, and fallen, and completely unable to come to God on our own because our sin separates us from Him.
To heal us and to restore our relationship with Him, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer His wrath, judgment, and punishment meant for us in our place even though we are the ones who deserve it.
Jesus was first whipped so severely that He was unrecognizable. His bone was exposed. The hair was plucked out of the beard on His face. It is believed His lung was punctured and His liver and kidneys were visible. His flesh was torn away from His body, and from the scope of these injuries Jesus would have died in a matter of days.
But this wasn’t enough. After being whipped, Jesus was mocked and spit on as a crown of thorns was beaten into His head. And that still wasn’t enough.
He was then presented to the Jews as Pontius Pilate was attempting to let Jesus go free, but the Jews insisted on Jesus being crucified, and fearing an uprising, Pilate finally gave the Jews what they wanted.
Being barely able to stand and walk, Jesus was then forced to carry His cross to His crucifixion site, but He was lacking in strength to do it on His own, so the Romans had to compel a man to help Him carry it.
When they reached the crucifixion site, Jesus was stripped of His clothes, and He was nailed to His cross with three nails: one in each hand, and one through both of His feet. Jesus was then lifted up to die the most brutal, gruesome, barbaric death. In order to breathe, He had to lift Himself up by His arms and feet in order to draw a breath, all the while He was suffocating to death and His lungs and abdomen were filling with fluid. The nails were rubbing against His bones and also punctured His nerve endings. His raw, torn apart flesh was against the hard splinters of the wood on the cross. And He bled as His blood that paid the price for our sins ran down the cross. In addition to the incredible physical and neurological pain, He experienced the emotional and spiritual pain of rejection and being separated from God as our sins were placed upon Him. All the while His living murderers looked on and mocked Him.
But each one of us alive today are also Jesus’ murderers, as it was also our sins that put Him on that cross.
Jesus bore it all so that we could be healed spiritually and be reconciled to God again. He conquered the world. He conquered sin and set those who would believe in Him free from sin’s bondage. And three days after He died, Jesus conquered death when He was resurrected.
Jesus bore the chastisement of our peace and our punishment so that we would no longer have to be separated from God, and so that we don’t have to be sent to hell as payment for our sins. What unspeakable grace, love, compassion, and mercy from our God and Savior. He didn’t deserve any of it, and yet He endured it because He knew it was the only way we could be redeemed and saved from our own sinful ways.
Jesus obtained our victory, our redemption, our peace, our healing, and our salvation on that cross. So now the question is, will you give your heart and your life to Him in total surrender in order to receive that gift, as He gave His heart and life for you in total surrender and obedience to the Father’s will?
John 3:16-21 NASB
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
Romans 6:23 NASB
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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