O Glorious and Triumphant Savior, how tenderhearted and forgiving You are to me. So often, when I think about Your passion and suffering, the words bruised, derided, cursed, defiled and killed come to mind … but these words fall far short of what really happened to You. You were not bruised … You were beaten savagely and unmercifully with innumerable blows which rendered You weak and virtually unrecognizable. You were not derided … You were mocked, held in contempt, utterly rejected, spit upon and made a scorn by the very people You cherished. You were not just cursed … You were hated and proclaimed an evil blasphemer because the darkness could not bear the holiness and purity of Your light. You were not just defiled … You were considered polluted, nothing but filth, dishonored and held with no esteem. You were not just killed … You were made to go through the most horrible, bloody, painful and humiliating form of capital punishment ever devised. The pain You felt was excruciating and there was no relief. Death could end Your life, but it could not end Your love.
So why did You do this for me? Because You are love and love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered and keeps no record of a wrong. That’s why You suffered so much and in so many ways … yet still cared for me. Because my love is so fickle and conditional, it is hard for me to get my mind around Your type of unconditional love. What I do understand is that Your love protects me, trusts me enough to give me a free will, provides a means to attain contentment/joy and patiently perseveres with me as I struggle to submit my will to You and get my life aligned with Your plan.
You had to die because I was flawed and incapable of saving myself. Because of my fallen nature, lack of resolve and failure to feel “true” sorrow for my sins, You had to step up and make the sacrifice needed to pay the price for my failures. Your death had to be bloody because it had to cover a multitude of sins. Your willingness to die in payment for my sins illustrates how deeply You care for me and how cherished I am. How hard it must have been to be rejected by those for whom You cared so much. And yet, I reject You too when I choose sin over obedience. Help me, Lord, to come to grips with “true” sorrow which demands that I turn my back on the things that cause me to rebel … and look You straight in the eyes. Teach me how to “let go and let God” so I can learn how to fix the things that are broken in me. I am so thankful that You have made a way for me to attain forgiveness and eternal life through Your prevailing love. And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!!
Ephesians 2:8 It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith … and this is not from yourselves … it is a gift of God.