yesterday when i got home from work, i was going to go for a run, but was overwhelmed by the need to just be with jesus. i just wanted to sit at his feet and listen and talk and be. i know that might sound ridiculous, especially if 1. you aren't a christian, 2. you don't spend time with jesus, 3. you just think that sounds silly. either way, that's what i wanted. so that's what i did. i curled up on my couch with my bible, my journal, and my ipod and spent a good 3 hours with jesus. there are so many things i could share with you about those 3 hours, but i think what i was most challenged/encouraged/moved by is this simple truth:
the cross is necessary.
pretty basic, right? i mean, duh. i have known jesus for a long time, and i have studied his word (not as much as i should) a good bit, and i've been taught and discipled by some pretty incredible people, but all of a sudden, at 9:30 at night, sitting on my couch in my pajamas, i was put completely on my face by that fact. the cross - the death - the pain - the blood: it is all necessary. i don't know if i can really articulate all of the thoughts i'm having on this subject, but i'm going to try.
the cross is necessary for the remission of sins. and not just any cross or any death or any blood: jesus'. all throughout the old testament and in hebrews we're told that blood is necessary for the remission of sins. there has to be payment for sin. and when you think about it, that just makes sense, not only from a biblical view, but just in general: you do something bad, and you're punished and have to make it right. when i really stop and think about what sin actually does, it blows my mind. sin seperates us from god. it makes us evil and wretched and enemies and offends the one, true, holy god. without the blood of christ, this is all i would ever be. BUT because of christ's cross and his blood, there is forgiveness. he paid the ransom for my soul. he redeemed my lost heart. he washed away my sins. he made me righteous. he made me able to talk to god and hear from god and experience god and know god. one drop of his precious, royal, sinless blood, and he reconciled my heart to god's.
the cross is necessary for the every day grace that i live under. i'm free from the law and the shackles of sin, ONLY because of the blood of christ. because of sin, the wrath of god had to be poured out on someone. he poured it out on jesus - not on me. isaiah 53 says that "it pleased the father to crush him." it pleased him, because he is just and because his wrath was satisfied in the death of christ - in the spilling of his innocent blood - in the payment made in full. the moment by moment grace that i depend on to forgive others, to forgive myself, to make the right choice, to speak a kind word, to deal with the junk the life gives me, to believe in jesus, to study his word, to have faith, to trust him - that is only made possible through the cross.
the cross was necessary for life. only by the cross was jesus able to be resurrected to new life. there is the promise of sunday only because of friday. death had to preceed the resurrection. pain has to preceed the healing. sorrow has to preceed the joy. in one bent and twisted tree stands death and life, brokenness and healing, wrath and love, violence and peace, outcast and adopted, ugliness and beauty, unclean and righteous. jesus is in all of these things as i experience them in life, because he experienced them on the cross.
the cross was an ugly, violent and painful tool used to bring beauty, peace and healing. only our great god could create that brilliant plan. i love isaiah 53, because this is exactly what it teaches: through his pain, i am healed; through violence, i have peace; the weight of sin on his shoulders means that i am free of guilt and shame; he was cut off, so that i could be brought in; his death means my life; he became sin, so that i could be without sin. AH! the truth of the gospel is so astounding and so incredible.
i don't understand it all. i don't pretend to have grasped all of this and have it tucked away in my heart, but there are moments where i get a glimpse of jesus, and my breath is completely taken away. i hope that the weight of the cross and the spilled blood and the resurrection and the redemption breaks me every day. i hope that i am always mindful of the necessity of the cross in my life - all aspects of the cross. i hope that i never forget the power of the cross and the blood in my life for breaking, resurrecting, and healing. i hope that i am always moved to surrender because my heart is so thankful that jesus took god's wrath, and i don't have to. and i hope that i always remember that because of what jesus did on the cross, i am free to experience all of god's love and blessings, because he doesn't hold back.
No comments:
Post a Comment