THE CURSE AND THE GLORY OF THE CROSS

In Bible days the act of nailing or binding a person to a cross or tree was considered the cruelest and most shameful method of capital punishment.  Anyone hanging on a tree according to Deuteronomy 21:23, is cursed by God.  Because of the stigma and curse on anyone ‘hanged on a tree’ the idea of a crucified savior was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews (I Corinthians 1:23).  Yet Jesus willingly took the curse and humiliation of the law and as Galatians 3:13 tells us “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”  Thus He became the means of freeing people from the curse of Sin.

Jesus did not just ‘die’ in our place—He became a “Curse” of the worst kind, for you and for me.  He received the total rejection by the Father when He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we could be "accepted” in the beloved.  He bore the utter darkness, died alone as the Father had to turn His back on His beloved and only Begotten Son so that we would not have to die alone.

“Because Jesus Christ did the Will of the Father by being obedient even unto death, we are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of His own body once and for all.  Every Jewish priest performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times; but these sacrifices can never take away sins.  Christ however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then He sat down at the right hand of God the Father.  There He now waits until God puts His enemies as a footstool under His feet.  With one sacrifice, then, He has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin”.   Hebrews 10:10-14  (The Good News New Testament).

The work of the Cross was to atone for the sin of the world, our sin.  Atonement itself is life changing.  Yet redemption is free through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.  All who accept His payment for their redemption become new creatures in Christ.  This is the GLORY OF THE CROSS!  Lives are altered and redirected by it!

But we cannot leave our Savior on the Cross.  On the third day He rose, triumphant over sin, hell and death!  Death has lost and Life has won!  He lives, our Savior lives!

Have a Glorious Resurrection Day knowing we serve a Risen Savior!  Praise God, He lives!

One Look at the Cross

Years ago I saw a picture of Jesus, standing before Pilate.  A robe had been placed around his shoulders, a crown made of thorns was on his head, but He really looked quite serene.  There were a few drops of blood showing on his forehead caused by the thorns, but otherwise He looked very kingly and unmarred.  This is not according to the prophecy in Isaiah 52:14.  Here it states that “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.”  To me, this is saying that He was so beaten up He did not look human.  This is the effect the brutalities described in Matthew 26:67, 68 and 27:27-30 had done to Him.

The first stop made after He was arrested was before Annias, the old ‘political’ boss and father-in-law of the present High Priest.  It was here Jesus received the first recorded “slap”.  One of the meanings for “slap” in Webster’s dictionary is “to hit with force.”  On His already sensitized skin, it no doubt caused severe pain and even bruising; may have even been with the fist.

Jesus second stop was before Caiaphas, the current reigning High Priest.  While Jesus was here, it is recorded in Matthew 26:67 that they spat on His face and buffeted Him, while some ‘smote’ Him with the palms of their hands.  According to Webster’s dictionary, to buffet is to ‘hit with the fist’.  Luke 22:63-65 states that they “mocked him and smote him”.  Webster gives the word for ‘smote’ or smite’ as meaning to strike or attack with powerful or disastrous effect.  They even blindfolded Him and then struck Him.

He was then taken to a mock trial before the Sanhedrin, the ‘lawyers’ of the day.  Following the trial before the Sanhedrin, He was taken to Pilate, the Roman Governor.  By the time Jesus reached Pilate’s courtyard, He was exhausted, dehydrated, beaten and bruised.  Pilate did not find any reason for sentencing Jesus, and sent Him to Herod Antipas.  (This was the Herod who had kept Jesus cousin, John the Baptist in prison for months, and then had him beheaded at the request of his wife’s daughter.)  Herod did not want the final decision, but before sending Him back to Pilate, Jesus was turned over to the soldiers.  The soldiers tried to make a mockery and spectacle of Jesus by putting a fine robe on Him and clamping a crown made of thorns on His head.  These thorns are from a bush found in Israel with thorns at least an inch long.  This was forced down on Jesus head, and with the head being a very vascular area, not only would a few drops of blood show, but also blood no doubt was streaming down Hi face, running into His eyes and mouth.

Luke 23:22 tells about going back to Pilate, and Pilate still did not feel Jesus had done anything to warrant death, so he thought the Jews would be content to just punish Him by having Him flogged.  A “flogging” by the Romans was commonly done prior to their crucifixions to help ‘speed’ up death.  It was administered by a whip made of calfskin, using several cords or thongs weighted with jagged pieces of bone or metal, and then applied to the bare upper body.  The Romans tied their victim to a post and the blows were applied to the back and loins and at times even struck the face and bowel areas.  This is the flogging which Christ received according to Matthew 27:36.  It was not merely 39 stripes as the Jewish law gives, but by Roman standards, it was indefinite—until the one doing the flogging decided to quit, or the victim died.

At any point Jesus could have called on the angels to save Him and avenge His enemies, but He came as the perfect Lamb of God, willing to take the curse and humiliation that we might be free from the curse of Sin.

One Look at the CROSS and I am humbled!

MY VALENTINE PRAYER TO JESUS

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.

(Song of Solomon 7:20)

“I am His.”

(Song of Solomon 2:16)

Lord, I have learned to love the book of Song of Solomon, as I see it to be about the love-relationship between us, You and me.  You are the one ‘whom my soul loves’ (1:7).  ‘I held on to him and would not let him go’ (3:4).  You see me as lovely and beautiful (6:4) and even perfect (vs. 9).  And the verse I see as Abounding Grace is 6:3, ‘I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.’  You have covered me with Your love (2:4) and made me perfect in Your eyes.  I sit in Your shade and take delight! (2:3).  And to sum it all from Galatians 2:20 “…the Son of God…loved me and gave Himself for me.”  There is no greater love than this!  Thank You, Jesus.  I love You.  Amen

TEA CUPS

In my china cabinet I have several lovely china teacups.  One of these I bought in Halifax, Nova Scotia some 25+ years ago.  Another one I bought in England at about that same time.  The rest of them  came from my Aunt, who brought them from Scotland as a young woman.   I think they would be at least 100 years old.

They mostly just sit in my cabinet gathering dust, but a few years ago I used them every week for awhile.  It was after I had retired, and during the day I was home alone most of the time.  As I had my devotions one day, I was impressed with the well known verse from Revelation 3:20 that states Jesus said He would come in and ‘sup’ with me; so I decided to provide a place for this.  I would set out a couple of my special teacups, fill them with coffee or tea and imagine my Lord sitting with me, to ‘sup’ with me.  It was very easy to just tell Him my heart as we had our ‘tea party’.

This brings to mind ‘cups’ that our Savior mentioned in the Scripture.  The first one, which stands out to me, was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He was crucified.  He prayed “O Father if it be possible, let this ‘cup’ pass away from me.”  I have read different thoughts on this; some say He was afraid of the physical part.  I do not believe it was physical at all.  I believe it was my sin and your sin that He knew He would bear.  He was not to just carry it as a load, He would drink this ‘cup’ of sin, and it would become a part of Him.  He knew it was at this point of time when sin and God would clash, and God would have to turn away from His Son.   Oh, what a bitter cup!

Jesus accepted that first ‘cup’, and now He can offer us a ‘cup’, the cup of communion as He says “this is my blood which was shed for you, drink ye all of it.”  Are you ready to drink of that cup?  Am I ready to accept what He did on Calvary and give Him my life, and my all?  Are you?

When we have given Him our life, we will then be able to do as He asks in Matthew 10:42: “whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is my disciple, surely I declare to you he shall not lose his reward.”

I may have some lovely bone china teacups, probably valuable only to me, but He provides the blessings to fill my spiritual cup, to last for all eternity.

“Fill my cup, Lord,

I lift it up, Lord!

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;

Bread of heaven,

Feed me till I want no more—

Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

(By Richard Blanchard)

GOD'S INDESCRIBABLE GIFT!

II Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable (indescribable) gift.”

Christmas Day, a day we give and receive gifts, and a good day to talk about God’s unspeakable, amazing, beyond our comprehension, gift.  This gift was Jesus, all wrapped up in love.

God’s ultimate gift to us was His Son, Jesus.  Of Himself, Jesus said “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Because of God’s wonderful gift, we can have other gifts such as the ‘gift of a relationship’.  John 1:12 states that all who receive Him, those who believe in His name, He gives the right to be called the sons and daughters of God.

He also gives the ‘gift of His Grace’.  Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by Grace you have been saved…” We have received the ‘gift of Eternal Life’, as according to Romans 6:23 “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

One reason I think of God’s gift as ‘indescribable’ and perhaps part of Paul’s thinking in II Corinthians 9:15, is that it is greater than we can grasp with our finite minds.  Jesus was God, 2nd person in the Trinity, totally God.  Yet in order to become the propitiation for man’s sin, He had to take on a human body.  In doing so He had to become a human being.  Now we have something beyond our imagination, something incredible, indescribable.  He was still God, just as though He had never been man; yet He was man as though He had never been God.

And He did this as a gift to each of us.  “For God so loved the world that He gave (this indescribable gift) His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on Him will have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

So at this Christmas Season, as we open all our wonderful, no doubt expensive gifts, remember the most unspeakable, indescribable,  gift of all, ours for the taking.  This Gift is Jesus!!

IMMANUEL

In Matthew 1:23 it states “they shall call His name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us.”  Why, you may ask, was Jesus not called Immanuel as His given name?  The notes in my Scofield Bible say that ‘according to Hebrew usage, the name does not represent a title, but a characterization.’  It shows that He really was “God with us”.  It also shows that the diety of Christ, our anointed one, was emphasized at the very beginning of the New Testament.

The word “Immanuel” consists of two Hebrew words:  ‘El’, meaning God, (the reason the word is sometimes spelled ‘Emmanuel’) and ‘Immanu’, meaning “With us”.  It is pronounced ‘ih-MAN-yoo-el’, and is used only three times in Scripture; the first appears in Isaiah 7:14, with prophetic words spoken by Isaiah about 700 years before Christ.  It is used again in Isaiah 8:8, and then in our verse of Matthew 1:23, which is quoting from Isaiah.    Matthew is applying it to the child to be born of Mary, the virgin betrothed to Joseph.  In Jesus, God would become a man that He could save the world and bring man back to God.  Through Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, would redeem and restore this relationship between man and God.

David tells us how God is with us as our ‘Immanuel’ in Psalm 139:7-10:

“If I go up to the heavens, you are there,

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

If I settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there Your hand will guide me,

Your right hand will hold me fast.”

How can we lose?  What do we fear?  Immanuel, God is with me.

A 4th century prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, says:
“Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me
Christ be above me, never to part.”

‘Immanuel’, God with us.
                      He is our God 
                                         He is truly with us!

GRACE

“The Maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you.”  This comment made by Max Lucado, jumped out at me as I was reading his devotional Grace for the Moment.  Read this again, think about it, absorb it, make it personal:  “The Maker of the stars would rather die for me than live without me!”

 Wow!  This boggles my mind, brings tears to my eyes, a lump to my throat.  How can anyone refuse this love?  How could I have ignored this for so long?  So I have trials, so I feel alone at times, so I can’t do all the things I used to do.  I do live in this world of sin, and hurt, and death.  But Jesus loves me!  He has made a way for me to spend eternity with Him as a princess, a joint heir with Christ my Savior.  Man is born unto trials as the sparks fly upward, but Jesus is walking with me, through the fire, through the flood, and all the way to Glory.  He who made the stars loves me and provided the way for me to live with Him!  This is Grace!