What Power Looks Like on the Cross
GOOD FRIDAY
GOD REDEFINES POWER!
GOOD FRIDAY reveals it.
God, the Creator, through an act of divine will, becomes human.
Not distant. Not protected. Not removed.
He enters into it. The One who formed humanity… steps into it.
God takes on a body, crafted by the womb of Mary, subjecting Himself to every human limitation. His chest rises and falls with each breath. He sees through human eyes, limited to what they can hold. His skin dries in the desert air. He grows tired. He feels hunger. He knows thirst. There is not one human experience He stands outside of. The one who formed humanity is now one of them.
God is in the position of power. He needs nothing. He has nothing to gain. Yet He chooses suffering. He enters it… for our sake. He suffers so that we would never suffer alone again.
The One who has power over death… yields Himself to it. Which one of us would choose death if we could avoid it?
He takes on wrists and feet… for the sake of them being nailed through.
He embraces blood… for it to be poured out.
The God–man is lifted on two pieces of wood between Heaven and Earth, revealing that He Himself is the place where Heaven and Earth meet. In Him, they are not distant…they are united.
On the cross, Christ does not lose power. He reveals it. This is what power looks like in God. Not grasping. Not protecting. Not holding back. But giving. Pouring out. Entering fully into the depth of human suffering out of love.
Christ does not avoid pain…He deeply embraces it. This is what LOVE looks like. He gives His life for us, who have no ability to save ourselves. The One who cannot die… takes on death… so that we might enter into His life.
And in light of this, we begin to see how different God’s relationship to power truly is from our own. We spend our lives trying to gain control to avoid discomfort. We chase what might lessen our suffering. We reach for what feels secure.
Yet in Christ, we see a power that does not need to grasp or protect itself. It is secure enough… to give itself away.
Sit with the crucified Christ today. Not to figure it all out… but to see Him.
To behold the God–man who did not remain distant, but entered fully into our condition.
The God who meets you in your pain… is the God who chose to enter it first.
Article by Jermaine Francis, International Christian Ministries.
HAPPY GLORIOUS EASTER
Christ in you the hope of GLORY.
RESURRECTION LIFE
American Minute with Bill Federer
Lamb of God sacrificed on Feast of PASSOVER, buried on Feast of UNLEAVENED BREAD; Risen on Feast of FIRST FRUITS
Christianity is the largest religion in the world, around a third of the Earth’s population, and since Easter is the most important day to Christians, this day could possibly be
considered the most important day in the world!
“The bones of Muhammad are in Medina, the bones of Confucius are in Shantung, the cremated bones of Buddha are in Nepal. Thousands pay pilgrimages to worship at their tombs which contain their bones. But in Jerusalem there is a cave cut into the rock. This is the tomb of Jesus. IT IS EMPTY! YES, EMPTY! BECAUSE HE IS RISEN!
He died, physically and historically. He arose from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of God.”
Why did the Lamb have to die? To answer that, we must ask: Why did God make us? Out of everything God created, we are the only ones made in His image with a free will ability to love God back.
Secondly, God has to hide himself behind His creation for us to have a free will, because if He ever revealed Himself in all of overwhelming, omnipotent, universe creating power, your response would be involuntary. And for love to be love it must be voluntary!
Thirdly, God is just and therefore must judge every sin. If He does not judge a sin, His silence would be giving consent to sin. Numbers 30 explains silence equals consent. This is seen in a wedding ceremony, where the minister asks if anyone objects they should speak now or forever hold their peace. By staying silent, those in attendance are giving their consent. In law, this is called “the rule of tacit admission.” If God is silent and does not judge a sin, even the smallest, His silence would effectively be giving consent to the sin. And if God gives consent to one sin one time, He denies His just nature, He denies Himself. And 2 Timothy 2:13 declares “God cannot deny Himself.” So He has to judge every sin.
In mathematical equations, there are constants and variables. In the equation of redemption, the constant is God is just, forever was, is, and forever will be just. That will never change. The variable is who takes the judgment – you or a substitute. The Lamb is our substitute. The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you. Charles Wesley wrote the hymn: “Amazing love! how can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me!” God is just in that He judges every sin, but God is love in that He provided the Lamb to take the judgment for our sins. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16.
“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45. The sacrifice of the Lamb was foreshadowed by the coats of skins God made for Adam and Eve. It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices made by Abel, Noah, and Abraham. In Genesis 22:7-8: “Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for burnt offering.” It was foreshadowed in the Law of Moses with the Passover lamb, and on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest brought the blood of lamb into Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat.
The blood changed it from a “judgment” seat into a “mercy seat.” It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices of David, Solomon, and Elijah. Finally, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and declared: “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” Believers in the Old Testament had faith in the Lamb to come; believers in the New Testament have faith in the Lamb that came, but salvation is through the Lamb. The Lamb of God took the judgment for all of your sins. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.”
Another question is, how was Jesus’ sacrifice enough to pay for the sins of all mankind? Jesus is divine and experienced judgment in a dimension we will never understand. 2 Peter 3:8 says “A day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” Jesus experienced the day on the cross as if it were a thousand years. In God’s perfect justice: the eternal Being, Jesus, who is innocent suffering for a finite–limited period of time is equal to all of us finite–limited beings who are guilty suffering for an eternal period of time. Infinity times finite equals finite times infinity. An unlimited Being suffering for a limited period of time equals all of us limited beings suffering for an unlimited period of time. Jesus suffered the equivalent of eternal judgement in all or our places, and He is THE ONLY ONE who could have done it!
Jesus, out of love for the Father and love for you and me became the Lamb, “endured the cross,” and took the wrath of a just God upon Himself on the cross in our place. And then He rose from the dead to prove He was who He said He was. The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you! When someone believes the Gospel – that Jesus suffered in their place, that their sins have been taken away, and that they are accepted by God they are filled with joy and gratefulness. You experience the unconditional love of God which brings a change from the inside–out, a polarity change in the heart. Instead of avoiding God, you are drawn to Him through Jesus the Son. John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Then, you are filled with Holy Spirit, who brings about a change in your behavior, drawing you to share the unconditional love of God with a lost and hurting world.
CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!
Love & Light, Janet