We know that when we became Christians we were released from sin � at least we know something happened when we cried out to Him in desperation! We sort of �felt different�, or maybe we just knew deep inside that things had changed. But there is so much more! The cross is the centre point of history, for us who are restricted to time, it was that point at which our sins were taken on Him. That means for us that the punishment for all the cruddy stuff we have done and thought has already been taken on Him � because He died for us we can now live. I guess we sometimes think stuff like: �Well Jesus knew he would be raised from the dead, so it wasn�t like He was going to be dead forever. It was probably a bit like a visit to the dentist, you know it is going to be painful, but afterwards it is all ok because you don�t have to go again for ages. Yes he carried on His shoulders the sin of the world, but it was only for 3 hours on a Friday afternoon and then it was all over!�
Well in the Bible it says: �His love is everlasting� (and it says it a lot!). We don�t always think of the cross when it says that, but the cross of Christ is the ultimate expression of His everlasting love to us. I mean you don�t get much more loving than dying in place of someone you love! Jesus is the A-Z, the beginning and the end. Jesus as well as being completely human was also completely God and completely eternal. Because He is eternal, the shame of all our sin, the pain of all our hurts, all our sadness and suffering lasts forever for Him. No it wasn�t at all like a visit to the dentist for Him, for Jesus it is different. He knew as a man, that once He faced up to that cross, He would eternally carry all our pain. That He would share in every pain that we ever face, that He would feel with us in every anxiety. He is able to feel each of our heartaches with us, because He has all of eternity to do it. The most amazing thing is that the joy of being able to share a friendship with us is eternal too :O) And to see us freed was so incredibly appealing to Him that He simply could not resist making that ultimate sacrifice for us.
His love to us is everlasting, but You know something else about the cross of Christ, it is absolute, it is total. There are no half measures, as He cried out �My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?� the unity of God the Spirit, God the Father and God the Son was split. The whole being of the Lord felt that division, the tearing of the temple curtain was matched with a tearing of the heart of the Lord � God knew then what hell was like, God himself experienced it. The price paid to bring us back to God was terribly costly, a perfect holy God became sin for us.
So, what does this mean to us? Well a whole bunch of stuff really, but there are a couple of things that are real important. Jesus really does understand our hurts, He not only understands them, He actually shares in our every pain. There is nothing that Jesus wants more in the world than for us to be pure and holy. So much so that He makes that sacrifice for it. He actually wants us to come to Him and give Him all the things that were are ashamed of in our lives and, in exchange, He gives us His holiness! He makes a total exchange of our guilt and shame with His holiness, I mean WOW! What is that about? What amazing love!
There is something else as well � Christ was a perfect sacrifice, and because He was perfect, sin is completely dealt with. What about the sin we fall into again and again? We can sometimes think �Oh I have sinned like that so many times the Lord is probably going to punish me this time, or teach me a lesson, or maybe He won�t accept my repentance until I have had time to reflect.� Nope, simply not true, none of it is! When He forgives, He forgets, the slate is completely clean.
That means that if we come to Him and say �Oh Lord I have sinned like that again � please forgive me.� His answer is �I forgive you, but what did you mean again?� If He told us that we had to forgive seventy times seven times, then surely He will do the same. He really does love us that much :O) Even when what we think of as �sin habit� when He forgives it, it is removed from us completely beyond reach or where it could harm us. The eternal nature of God is sometimes hard to grasp, the way He experiences continually the suffering for our sins, but He also experiences continually the joy of the resurrection, &the delight of spending eternity with us.
Even more blessing, He has a plan for our lives - That plan was made before time began. So when we sin we screw it up? Yep, we do, we mess up God�s perfect intentions for how He wanted things to be for us. We open ourselves up for a whole bunch of grief and heartache that He never wanted us to go through. But you know something else, when we repent all that changes :O) The sin we committed, and the consequences of that sin become part of God�s perfect plan for our lives created before time began. How can that be? Well, that is just because the Lord is eternal and He know the end from the beginning.
I have seen it dramatically in my own life when I failed to say what the Lord asked me to, because I didn�t want to offend someone. I truly repented of that, and a few days later I received a card saying �Thank you for sharing �� and what they put was exactly what I should have said and failed to! I was so in awe of the Lord for letting them hear His voice, despite my sin in not saying His words. He truly does completely rewrite the plan for our lives when we repent. It is true honest! The best example is Jesus, who was related to Bathsheeba and David�s son Solomon. King David sinned terribly by taking Uriah�s wife Bathsheeba and having Uriah murdered, but then truly repented. The Lord�s perfect plan for saving the whole of humanity, crafted before time, was through Jesus, who was directly related to the son born from a horrendous sin, forgiven by God! That is how awesome and great the Lord�s forgiveness and restitution is when we repent! Actually, when He restores us He restores us to better than we started � He uses everything we go through, even the consequences of our repented sin to make us more like Him :O).
The cross of Christ does have an element that is confined to time as well. It has happened, the price has been paid. The cross is not going away. In Him we have the inheritance of complete freedom � the only thing that stops it ever, is that we have become accustomed to our hurts and bondage and it feels scary to let them go. Letting go to the Lord means a completely different way of living, as different as when a hard labour prisoner gets released from jail. Our lives change, because living free is not the same as living imprisoned! All we do is accept that new life gift in place of our old struggles, and be open to have lives and thinking transformed by His Spirit of grace :O) He is really gentle with us, as we grasp that who we are is not about the way we do things, but about being loved by Him, then the full impact of the cross remakes our lives. As we let go of our own selfish ways and look to Him, we find our burdens lifted and that His new life and power flows :O) � Ooo Hallelujah!
One of the most amazing things that the cross accomplishes is releasing us into adoption by the Father. What that means is that Jesus becomes our brother, and when the Father looks at us He simply doesn�t see our sin anymore � He just sees His child. He sees the image of His Son. He sees us as completely holy and pure because of Jesus exchanging our sinfulness for His purity.
One thing the Lord understands is growing up. The whole idea of putting a soul and spirit into a helpless baby and then letting it develop into maturity, the delight of learning and discovery all belong to the Lord.
So what? Well the what is that, although we can put expectations on ourselves; what He looks at is what we will become in Him, not just where we are at the moment. We are growing up to become His children! All because of the cross of Christ!
He is gracious to us in more ways than that, He actually lets us share in the cross as well. He so loves us that He truly wants us to understand His heart, and grasp even more deeply the awesome love that He has towards us. For that, He lets us share in His sufferings too. For some that will mean weeping with deep compassion over the lost, others will face persecution of standing up for Jesus; and some even the honour of martyrdom. But in all our sufferings for the gospel there is great reward in an incredible intimacy with the Lord that we would never see if we only had the good times ;O)
Isaiah53:4-5
2 Timothy 2:11
John 1:29 (again)
Psalm 118:1-4
Psalm 103:7
John 15:13
Revelation 21:6
1 Timothy 1:17
Romans 1:20
Hebrews 12:2
(all the verbs about Jesus in this verse are in the aorist tense - no past, present, or future everything is timeless!)
John 3:16
Mark 15:34
Matthew 27:51
2 Corinthians 5:21
Isaiah 53:11
Galatians3:13-14
Hebrews 10:14
Isaiah 43:25
Hebrews 8:12
Matthew 18:22
1 John 1:9
Psalm 103:12
Hebrews 12:2 (again)
Ephesians 1:11-14
Titus 1:2
Genesis 3:17
James 5:20
Revelation 22:13
Zechariah 10:6
Matthew 1:6
Psalm 51
Haggai 2:9
Romans 8:28
1 Peter1:18-20
Romans 6:23
Psalm 146:7
John 8:36
Galatians 5:1
Romans 12:2
Matthew 11:28
Colossians 3:1-4
Ephesians 1:5
Romans 8:15-17
Hebrews 2:12
Ephesians 1:4
Psalm 139:16
1 Corinthians 13:11
Romans 8:29-30
2 Corinthians 3:18
2 Thessalonians 1:3
Acts 5:41
2 Corinthians 1:5-7
Romans 5:3
2 Timothy 3:12
1 Peter 4:13
Philippians 3:10