|
|
|
|
|
Christ and His CrucifixionJohn 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that every one who believe will by no means perish but have eternal life. Almost everyone should know this verse, this is a sweet verse. This is not a verse that in children meetings you memorized for points or some prize and then forget about. No! This is a precious verse because it shows the Father’s love for us. That's right, the Father's love for us, that he had loved us even before the world began. His love for us was so sweet that he actually gave his Son up for us, die for us! If your father offered you up to die for others, would you do it? Of course not, your immediate reaction would be to refuse! Yet, the Messiah did not refuse, he knew what the Father's will was and he carried it out. Why do we love the Lord right now? Because he loved us first! It was not our love towards the Father, but his love towards us! His love was there even before time began how marvelous this is! And because of his love, that is why he gave us his only son to die for us. I am reminded of the parable in Luke, chapter fifteen. The third parable it said in verse twenty-one, “And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer your worthy to be called your son. Yet the Father ran to the son with compassion. This should remind us that our God is the loving Father and the forgiving Father. We go out into the world looking for all the pleasures there are until we see how worthless the pleasures are and how worthless we are, but when we come to the Father we confess what terrible things we have done, and he will forgive us. I am also reminded of Abraham and his son Isaac. When God told Abraham to offer his son up to him, his heart grieved dearly, how he had loved his son! Yet, Abraham knew that he could not disobey God, when Abraham told Isaac to lie on the board, Isaac did not refuse nor did he question his father. When Abraham was about to offer him up, God came and stopped him, instead, God gave them a lamb to sacrifice. This shows how God’s love for us was so dear that he gave his son to us. You know, we were once God’s enemy, we mocked and despised him, yet he still died for us. Look at yourselves, look at all the sins you’ve committed, don’t you think we deserved the cross more than the Lord, he was a spotless human. Just look! All the stains we have piled up, you know that the cross back then was a horrible death, the nails…it was horrible! How much we deserve to be hung on that tree! Yet, he took the cross, crucified himself for us. When he was up there we were up there on the cross with him, dying for our sins, everything became forgiven. Sins of the past, sins of the present, sins of the future all is forgiven through his sweet death. God so Loved the World God you did not spare him, your beloved Son. God, you have sent him, your beloved Son. As one grain of wheat died and fell to the ground, it brought forth many sons of God. Through his death we have become the sons of God, through regeneration we have be brought forth to him to be his sons. 1st Corinthians 5:17, “SSo if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; they have become new. Not only did his death accomplish the abomination of sins but he also began the new creation! He was the last Adam that became the life-giving Spirit! The problem with us is that we were in the old creation but through Christ’s death the old man was terminated. Through this termination, our old man was buried. He became the beginning of the new creation, as the first, the prototype. The physical things of the world are the old creation and we should not care for these things. For we should only care for the new creation in resurrection! Hallelujah! Before the death of Christ, God could not enter into us. But hallelujah, since he died God can be in us as the Divine Spirit, the ultimate consummated Triune God! When I sing, or prophesy on our Lord’s death on the cross, on his crucifixion, I begin to weep. Not because I’m sad, but rejoicing! It wasn’t very long until I really began to appreciate what the Lord did for me, for all of us. His death is not mourn about but to rejoice about, for he was the one that washed our sins away, brought in the new creation! When I began singing Hymnal 643, I realized that he took the cross just for us. When I sing this song my heart is just so full of thanks towards the Lord. How many times have we said “Lord, thank you for dying on the cross for me?with so little appreciation when we should say this in much appreciation! When I say this line I am reminded on how sweet the Lord’s death really was. He took away what was unforgivable and forgave it, Hallelujah! What made you die for me?
What made you die for me?
You loved me, Lord, so very long;
Bro E. Chang
|