Happy Good Friday,
The pinnacle of Holy week is just three days away and today we remember what Jesus endured for us over two thousand years ago.
So many thoughts run through my mind. Messianic prophecy for one. The fact that without God the odds of all the prophesies about Jesus coming true are 1038 (1 in a 100 billion, billion, billion, billion).
But what is taking up most of my headspace today is the fact that Roman soldiers did not put Jesus on the cross and it wasn’t the nails that held Him there.
Over the last several years I have been engaged in conversations with those in and outside the Church who tell me its barbaric to believe a loving Father would send His son to be brutally beaten and murdered in the most horrific way to glorify Himself. This line of thinking is based on a faulty premise. Which is the case most of the time in these conversations. We need to be careful not to accept a premise without consideration. Most of the time the question is irrelevant because the understanding behind it is flawed, as in this case.
The Father and the Son are not separate but with the Spirit are one in essence. Essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. They are three in one.
God chose, by Himself, to pay the penalty for sin so we can come boldly into His presence. Ephesians 2 explains that because of Jesus sacrifice we are seated in heavenly places with Him so that for all eternity He can point to us as an example of His goodness, grace, and mercy. God made a good world, we rebelled, but God had a plan. He chose to go the the cross and endure what He endured on Good Friday because He loves us.
It was sin that put Jesus on the cross. Not an angry Father or Roman soldiers and it was love that held Him there.
The mystery kept hidden for generations is now made known to the saints and the mystery is this; Christ in me the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:26-27)
See you Sunday. He is Risen!
