Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Matthew 27:50 (KJV)
Hello everyone!
Well, Easter is finally upon us and I wanted to take a look at the resurrection story to hopefully shine some more light on the reason for the hope that I have in Jesus.
This time I am going to be looking at the first of three days that changed history and therefore established God's fulfilment of the law as present and correct and paved the way for the new covenant through His Son; Jesus Christ.
Through this issue, I am going to look at sacrifice and what giving up actually looks like in the unbiased Kingdom. Secondly I will be looking at what we are to be doing during those times when it looks as if nothing is happening for us. Finally, there will be a post celebrating the finished work of Christ thus augmenting what I've previously raised on the subject.
A Sacrifice Worth Receiving
During those final moments of Christ's earthly life as He hung upon that cross, there was a moment where those who previously had mocked Him openly began to realise that this Man that they had put to death was Someone a little more than ordinary.
He had cleansed a leper in Mark 1:40-45.
He had healed a withered hand in Mark 3:1-6.
He had even raised someone from the dead in John 11.
Surely this was no ordinary man, right? As the centurion that was there the moment Jesus breathed His last realised; this was indeed the Son of God.
Consider then, in the unbiased Kingdom of Heaven, even dead situations prove that there is hope for a brighter future. Hope for a resurrected tomorrow. Hope for a Saviour's return. Even death could not stop Jesus completing His Father's mission and returned to reign by His Father's right hand. Even the grave could not contain Him.
Yet how often do we miss that at the point of sacrifice, of things being taken from us? We often struggle with our focus upon present circumstances or worry about future difficulties than focus on the fact that Jesus knew exactly what it was like to have to sacrifice.
Our difficulties often consume our focus to the point where all we see around us is dead and hopeless situations. In fact, the more we look for disappointment, the more that we'll find it but that's not always easy to remember in the midst of our mess. We are only human and we are prone to make mistakes.
Take me, for instance, I love detail.
I love to plan things out but sometimes life has this habit of hitting me with situations that I cannot control and I don't like it. In fact, the truth is that I hate it. I hate being in a situation that is out of control. It reminds me of my finite-ness.
Here's what I do though...
In the midst of my finite humanity, I try to remember that my God is infinite and capable of doing much more than I could ever "ask or imagine" according to Ephesians 3:20. I don't always succeed in remembering that but I would like to think that, whether it's too late or not, there always comes a time where I do remember that.
My life, right now, has circumstances in it that have always been out of my control and only now as I adapt to them as best I can am I able to maintain a clearer perspective on what God is doing both through, to, in and for me. In the end I know that it will all work out.
Let me take you to a passage of scripture that is helping me right now with my focus: -
"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."This right here is a reminder to me of what is most important to me right now; that nearly 21 years ago God saved me and welcomed me into His adopted family. Because of that one memory, I try to keep everything else that happens in, to and around me in the perspective of eternity in that I know that I have already attained the greatest Treasure I could ever have in Jesus.
Matthew 13:45-46 (KJV)
It doesn't stop trials from hurting.
It doesn't stop pain from coming.
It just anchors me in my Saviour's love!
Does it make the pain of events like finding out someone you've got a crush on is already in a relationship go away? Hell no! But it does give me comfort knowing that there is Somebody to hold my hand whilst I ride out the discomfort that this has caused me.
It will get better in time, I know it will. I just have to be patient because this is working out endurance for me (James 1:3) in the long run.
Remembering the Long Run
Nobody ever said sacrifice was easy, did they? It's hard sometimes, hard unto the point of death, but consider Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He sweat great drops of blood according to Luke 22:44 (and of course Luke was the physician, wasn't he?) meaning that so great must the pressure have been of the sacrifice that He was about to make, it was going to be very costly to Him. Yet what had He previously said a mere two verses earlier? That He was willing to sacrifice His own will for the will of the One who sent Him.
How great a cost!
A cost that was so great He was nailed to a cross to bear our sin-debt in full and thus cancel out any debt each one of us has in the eyes of our Father. Yes we look at our sin and still think that there is a debt to be paid, so we offer our confession when we sin. Confession is an admission and an attribution of Christ's blood that fell upon that ground at the point of His death and thus needs to be a reminder of our sanctification in the eyes of our God. In other words, as I have been saying all along, we need to be conscious of that finished work more than we are of our own sins.
I am not saying this to downplay the living damage that our sins do to ourselves or others, yet I am saying that we are to recognise each one as a laceration that fell upon Christ's back and as a thorn that pierced His head. This should be provoking an overflowing wave of gratitude in us as we realise that our sin-debt is cancelled in the eyes of God the moment we accept Jesus as our propitiary sacrifice.
Final Thought
Tomorrow, I have got a very special post looking at the way our patience is often tested when it seems like nothing is happening in our dead situations so please return.
Peace!
===TLP===
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