Easter Meditations
“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” (Isaiah 53:10a)
God made Christ a guilt offering for our sakes. It is quite plain and obvious from Scripture that, it was within the very will of God that Jesus would die for the sins of men.
In fact, it was foreordained before the creation of the world. It was neither an afterthought nor a substitute, plan B. It was in fact, God, who allowed Jesus to die, or to put it blatantly; it was God who “killed” Jesus for our redemption!
This thought staggers and astounds me beyond words!
“God did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all”(Romans 8:32)
As a mother of two children, it is not within my natural thought processes, inclination; nor will; to let my children die for the sake of another. However, on reflecting on the immensity of what God gave up for us, it spins my mind and sends tingles up my spine. To meditate on the incarnation of Jesus (God becoming man), for the sole purpose of dying; is one that I find difficult to express in words.
Most parents have aspirations and high hopes for their children when they are born into the world. Exorbitant amounts of money are usually spent, in the hope that our children get the best education; whether that is in the form of private schooling or private tuition.
We give our children as many opportunities as we can afford, to train them towards excellence in sports, music, dance, arts, languages; and anything else that society or our love prompts us do, to ensure that our children get ahead.
But, God chose for His only son, a lowly place; a forsaken place; a place where criminals are condemned; to be born in an unhygienic, smelly stable with hay as his mattress. Jesus knew nothing of being in a nursery, with painted blue walls, patterned with teddy bears and ducks. In fact, in complete submission and obedience to His Father, Jesus gave up all of His glory and power as God, to live as a helpless baby, whose sole and specific mission was to die. That was God’s very purpose and intent for His son.
God sent his own Son to absorb his wrath and bear the curse for all who put their trust in him. When Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself, He bore in His body, all that was adversely contrary, repulsive, to His nature and being. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13a
What is even more unfathomable is that, God sent Jesus to die for undeserving, unworthy people. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8)
During this Easter season, may we let God’s spirit move us to a deeper understanding and realization of His extreme grace and profound love for us, resulting in lives that are more surrendered and consecrated to Him.
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may He work in us, what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever” (Hebrews 13:20-21)
