June 19, 2006

the cross

ive been thinking about the cross. 2 things i realized that has made a huge impact on my understanding of the love of God through Jesus on the cross:

1. Satan fell from heaven because he was prideful in his own beauty and in the thinking that his way was better. Self-worship/self-sufficiency.

Implication: Most of us would not hesitate to agree with the fact that the wrath of God to be bestowed on Satan is deserved. But do we realize that we deserve the same wrath and hatred from God as Satan himself? Why do I say this?! --Is not his sin in a sense the very sin we commit? Choosing to "be in control" of our own lives and going against the pure and holy commandments which God has given us? Do we not doubt his character and sovereignty when we complain about our lives? (this is just one example). By this we say to God that our way is better and him and his ways are unworthy to follow. We follow our own desires and worship ourselves, slapping our very Savior in the face and saying that we ourselves, not him are worthy of our own worship. This is very humbling to me. Only by God's grace did he choose to count my sin unto Christ and not Satan's.

2. God the Father poured out all the wrath (hatred and condemnation) on Christ that we ourselves deserved.

He so loved the world that God crushed his Son for our sins. As Isaiah 53 says, he was marred beyond human likeness. Unrecognizable in his own body because of the physical punishment upon him. Not to mention the emotional and spiritual agony of the hatred of God against him.

Implication: One would think that God loved us more than he loved his Son! Think of the Trinity. The ultimate bond of love and holiness and perfection of the Trinity. God the Father severed the Trinity for the sake of man! Can you believe it?! Severing of the Trinity! A breaking that only God himself could do. Can you imagine him hating himself? That is essentially what he did. A holy, perfect, sovereign, almighty God accreditted our sins to himself and justified his wrath by pouring it onto himself! Just so that we might be reconciled to himself.
Is he not deserving of our worship? Are we not all passers-by of the cross, slapping our Savior in the face, with doubt that he has loved us and has forgiven us?! Gives a whole new meaning to "forgive them Father for they know not what they do."
"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not along with him graciously give us all things?" -Romans 8:31-32
How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! I have earned nothing, yet i have been given everything.

just some food for thought.