brakelite
Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2011
- Messages
- 873
"Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus....." Hebrews 3:1
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I would challenge each of you to spend a little time doing just that. To consider Christ. What price life? What did it cost the Son of God to secure your redemption? What was the price He was willing to pay that you may have eternal life?
The movie The Passion of the Christ would have us believe that the greatest suffering that Jesus endured upon the cross was physical. I propose that this were not so. In bearing the burden of guilt for the sin of the whole world upon Himself, Jesus suffered a far greater pain and anguish than just physical death. Aside from the fact that sin itself was so repugnant to Him having come from an eternity of holy righteousness, and must have caused Him great distress to have all the worlds burden of guilt and shame heaped upon Him at that hour, the fruit of that shame and guilt would have caused Him even greater distress.
The Bible is clear, and the gospel would not be complete if this were not so, that Jesus took every vestige of punishment due man for the transgression of God's laws upon Himself. This judgment is eternal separation from the God. Jesus' separation from His Father was more distressing to Him than anything else He suffered. Death for the sinner is unrecoverable, and irreversible. It is eternal, and along with it is a complete utter loss of hope. All this Jesus must have gone through as part of the propitiation or He did not take the full punishment that our faith demands. The acute mental and spiritual awareness that there is no hope, ever, of redemption for the sinner who dies without Christ and the intense mental agony and pain this brings ought to be all the motivation we need to share the gospel with anyone and everyone...to offer them a ray of hope before it is too late. Fore the consequences of sin are eternal, permanent, without any hope of any further opportunity to accept God's forgiveness and mercy. Death, without mercy or hope, is the lot of the wicked. This death is the death that Christ endured that you need not.
"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...." Isaiah 53:4
Matt. 27:45 "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is to say,' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'
Why was Jesus forsaken of His Father? Was He forsaken? Yes, and no. Yes, Jesus felt forsaken, and certainly His Father withdrew His presence from Jesus for a time, but no, His Father never truly forsook His Son. Jesus had to pay the full price for our sin. Complete separation from God without hope of redemption. At the moment of death, despite His previous assurance of His own resurrection and His confidence that His Father would be just, and the justifier of all that would live Godly lives as Jesus had done, Jesus saw no hope for Himself. Jesus, at the last, saw no hope for Himself beyond the grave, but surrendered Himself to His Father's will anyway. What love. What trust He had in His Father.
In Gethsemane, Jesus relinquished His own will once and for all. His flesh balked at what He knew was developing in the minds and hearts of the nations rulers, yet He gave Himself up to His Father's will from that time forward. His own life was as nothing in comparison to carrying out the plan of redemption, forged from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 12: 2 " Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame...."
For the joy of knowing He had secured our redemption, He died. For our sake, He died. And as far as He considered at that moment, there was no hope of a resurrection. The darkness He experienced was the same outer darkness we must experience if we spurn His grace and mercy. The darkness in fact was so great that even nature itself empathized and enshrouded the scene. Have you considered these matters? Have you meditated upon what your redemption cost the Father and the Son?
Christ's love for you is so great that He considered it a far better proposition that we should enjoy eternal glory without Him, than He continue in glory without us!!!
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends."
Jesus laid down His life for you and me. He gave everything that we might live. Consider this my friends. Meditate upon this until Christ comes alive in your hearts. Reflect on this great love and accept His sacrifice in your stead that you may live forever in God's presence. If your redemption came at such a cost, what value in the eyes of God does this place on your life!!!
Ezek. 18:23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I would challenge each of you to spend a little time doing just that. To consider Christ. What price life? What did it cost the Son of God to secure your redemption? What was the price He was willing to pay that you may have eternal life?
The movie The Passion of the Christ would have us believe that the greatest suffering that Jesus endured upon the cross was physical. I propose that this were not so. In bearing the burden of guilt for the sin of the whole world upon Himself, Jesus suffered a far greater pain and anguish than just physical death. Aside from the fact that sin itself was so repugnant to Him having come from an eternity of holy righteousness, and must have caused Him great distress to have all the worlds burden of guilt and shame heaped upon Him at that hour, the fruit of that shame and guilt would have caused Him even greater distress.
The Bible is clear, and the gospel would not be complete if this were not so, that Jesus took every vestige of punishment due man for the transgression of God's laws upon Himself. This judgment is eternal separation from the God. Jesus' separation from His Father was more distressing to Him than anything else He suffered. Death for the sinner is unrecoverable, and irreversible. It is eternal, and along with it is a complete utter loss of hope. All this Jesus must have gone through as part of the propitiation or He did not take the full punishment that our faith demands. The acute mental and spiritual awareness that there is no hope, ever, of redemption for the sinner who dies without Christ and the intense mental agony and pain this brings ought to be all the motivation we need to share the gospel with anyone and everyone...to offer them a ray of hope before it is too late. Fore the consequences of sin are eternal, permanent, without any hope of any further opportunity to accept God's forgiveness and mercy. Death, without mercy or hope, is the lot of the wicked. This death is the death that Christ endured that you need not.
"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...." Isaiah 53:4
Matt. 27:45 "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is to say,' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'
Why was Jesus forsaken of His Father? Was He forsaken? Yes, and no. Yes, Jesus felt forsaken, and certainly His Father withdrew His presence from Jesus for a time, but no, His Father never truly forsook His Son. Jesus had to pay the full price for our sin. Complete separation from God without hope of redemption. At the moment of death, despite His previous assurance of His own resurrection and His confidence that His Father would be just, and the justifier of all that would live Godly lives as Jesus had done, Jesus saw no hope for Himself. Jesus, at the last, saw no hope for Himself beyond the grave, but surrendered Himself to His Father's will anyway. What love. What trust He had in His Father.
In Gethsemane, Jesus relinquished His own will once and for all. His flesh balked at what He knew was developing in the minds and hearts of the nations rulers, yet He gave Himself up to His Father's will from that time forward. His own life was as nothing in comparison to carrying out the plan of redemption, forged from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 12: 2 " Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame...."
For the joy of knowing He had secured our redemption, He died. For our sake, He died. And as far as He considered at that moment, there was no hope of a resurrection. The darkness He experienced was the same outer darkness we must experience if we spurn His grace and mercy. The darkness in fact was so great that even nature itself empathized and enshrouded the scene. Have you considered these matters? Have you meditated upon what your redemption cost the Father and the Son?
Christ's love for you is so great that He considered it a far better proposition that we should enjoy eternal glory without Him, than He continue in glory without us!!!
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends."
Jesus laid down His life for you and me. He gave everything that we might live. Consider this my friends. Meditate upon this until Christ comes alive in your hearts. Reflect on this great love and accept His sacrifice in your stead that you may live forever in God's presence. If your redemption came at such a cost, what value in the eyes of God does this place on your life!!!
Ezek. 18:23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
