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1. Before time began, God, knowing we would sin, planned for our
creation and redemption.
Who
makes something they know will not do what it was made for? God.
Consider that God knew ahead of time every sin you have ever
committed and those you will commit and He made you anyway! That is
love!
Before God made man, He knew that the result would be immense
suffering on His part. He "looked ahead" and chose to do so anyway.
We can not conceive of being all powerful and having such love to be
willing to go through such suffering for such flawed creatures. It
is important to spend some time here to reflect on, as much as we
are able, the immensity of God's love.
Think through the wrongs you have done in your life. Visualize God
looking at you and you know, He knows. You know that He knew before
He even made you. What thoughts do you have? Now, take it to the
next step, where He not only knows, but He knows He has to suffer
for the wrongs that you will commit for your whole life! What are
your thoughts? And despite all of that, God made you anyway.
Consider for a few minutes how much love that takes.
"He has saved us and called us to a holy lif--not because of
anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This
grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time."
2 Tim 1:9-10
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2. He died for us.
Before
Jesus died for us, he endured suffering for our sake beyond
our imagination.
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He gave up the power of God in His human life.
"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped, but made
himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. And being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" Phil 2:6-8
We do not like humbling ourselves before others, much
less thinking of becoming for example a bug.
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Jesus gave up being all-knowing, all-powerful, and
present everywhere both in space and in time.
Jesus created time and did not live in it until He was
born.
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Jesus took on all of our human frailties
"For this reason he had to be made like his brothers
in every way, in order that he might become a merciful
and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he
might make atonement for the sins of the people."
Heb 2:17
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Suffered when tempted. "Because
he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to
help those who are being tempted."
Heb 2:18
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Jesus took the role of a servant.
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10:45
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Jesus was insulted, misunderstood, and ridiculed.
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Jesus chose to go to the cross.
He
did so out of obedience.
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet
not my will, but yours be done."
Luke 22:42 He did so out of a
desire for reconciliation with us. " Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author
and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before
him endured the cross, scorning its shame," Heb
12:2a
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Jesus was tortured and died a horrible physical death on
the cross.
(Ps 22:1-18, I Pet 2: 24)
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Jesus had His Father turn His back on Him.
"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which
means,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Mark 15:34
The fullness of what happened in this moment is beyond
human comprehension. We can only get a glimpse perhaps
by visualizing several people who are closest to us in
our lives betraying us and leaving us alone deep in the
wilderness where we are sure to die of starvation. The
Father and the Son are, were, will be together for
Eternity. They are Eternal. But, in this moment of
created time, both experienced a splitting, a chasm, a
separation that if could be felt by the universe would
have torn it apart. The final scream of Jesus was a
final act of love for us on this earth.
Jesus took our place. We
deserve punishment, the death penalty,
which is eternal suffering.
We deserve to be separated from God. We can not imagine the
agony Jesus went through when He took ALL the sins of the
world on himself.
It is impossible for us to imagine the separation Jesus felt
when the Father turned His back on Jesus. (Matt 27:46) The
lostness and the aloneness are beyond anything we can comprehend.
What more could God do to show he loves you?
"He himself
bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might
die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you
have been healed." (I Pet 2:24) This is love: not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10) Very
rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a
good person 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)
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3. He calls us sons.
Jesus, so to speak, took our place in prison. We were not left out
on the street to start over, fend for ourselves, or find meaning. We
were adopted into the family of God. Most of us never having been an
orphan can feel the excitement of a family not only taking us into
their home but adopting us, giving us their name, caring for us as
one of their own, and including us in their will. We do not feel
loved being part of God's family at times because Satan blinds us to
the truth, the immensity of love it takes to adopt.
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The
reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear
friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet
been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be
like him, for we shall see him as he is." I John 3:1-2
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4. God glorifies Himself in us.
Every one of us is a unique creation of God. When we do the will of
God, loving others, we have a unique light that shines. When it
does, God is glorified. (Matt 5:16) Consider that God's glory is
shining through broken you! He has chosen you to be the vessel of
His love. Wow! What love it takes to use broken vessels to show
glory when God could choose to do it without us.
"In him we were also chosen,
having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out
everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that
we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the
praise of his glory." Eph 1:11-12
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5. He's preparing a place for us
beyond our imagination.
Can you even imagine? No! If someone told you that in a year you
would receive not only what you have wished you could have, but it
is 100 times better. You would be so excited and feel so cared for.
You were not given a house, but a huge mansion with servants. You
were not given a vacation, but months in the best resorts in the
world. We would look forward to it every day. We would wake up
thinking about it, counting down the days until we were there.
Should not we have even more excitement about a gift that never
ends? We are not doing what it says to do in Col 3:1-3.
What more can God do to show how much He loves you?
"However, as it is written:
'What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind
has conceived' the things God has prepared for those who love him"
(I Cor 2:9) |