To Die For Us
Three days! Three days to fully understand the life given to us by God!
God’s grace be yours as we find ourselves in the most holy week of our lives, remembering the most holy and most tragic week in the history of the world.
Easter is the culmination of all God planned for, worked toward, and promised since that day in the Garden when Satan deceived His children, and we were lost to Him. Everything pointed to this day and the events of the next twenty-four hours. Paul reminds us once more who we are as we await the full realization of who we shall be.
Hear what Paul says, The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49
We are of the dust of the earth! This means that we are made of dust, and we shall return to dust! This is what God said to Adam in the Garden. It is because we are dust and live a mortal life that Jesus came into this world as a man. While we are dust, Jesus is not man of this natural world but a man of heaven. He is not mortal but eternal! His is not physical of this world but spirit of God. The Second Person of the Trinity Who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit is not subject to the temporary nature of this earthly creation. Yet, for us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and was made man! The one who is eternal because mortal!
It is important that we understand this correctly. The Second Person of the Trinity did not cease to be God but He assumed human nature into His very essence and because the God-Man. The Father did not become a human being, nor did the Spirit. It is the Son alone who became a man for us! Having become a human being, He became subject to the limitations of life in this world. This means Jesus as a human baby became hungry. He cried when His diaper needed to be changed. He had to learn to crawl and then to walk just like each one of us.
Jesus became a man so that He could live for us and then as a human He was able to die for us. While He did not suffer the consequences of sin in His body, which meant He never got sick or suffered from any disease, He did suffer from the brokenness of the world. When He was learning to be a carpenter, He probably hit His finger with a hammer, and it hurt. He probably experienced splinters in His hands and winced when Mary dug them out.
On Good Friday, which was not good for Him, then to be punched in the face, the whip, then the scourge, the crown followed by the beam of the cross on His back all brought enormous pain to His physical body. The pounding of the nails sent piercing pain through His arms and then feet and legs. To be hoisted in the air and to hang by those nails must have been excruciatingly painful. Jesus was able to endure all this pain precisely because He became a human being!
This was not the end of His suffering. Once Jesus was on the cross there was the judgment of almighty God which was poured out on Him because of our sin. This means that Jesus who was perfect and holy became all that we are as sinful human beings when He was on the cross. As a sinner or the sum total of all sinners rolled into one, Jesus suffered the eternal fire of judgment and hell as He hung there between heaven and earth. Earth had rejected Him and Heaven turned away from Him. He was absolutely alone in His suffering.
The end result of all sin is death. When Jesus had born our sin and suffered our judgment, He yielded His spirit and died! Jesus had become a human being so that He could accomplish salvation for us. This could only be accomplished when the price for sin had been paid and the holy life had been sacrificed.
The one and only Son of God hung dead upon the cross. Sin had been paid for by His shed blood and His sacrificial death. The last enemy to be defeated is death itself. Laid in the tomb, the stone is sealed. Death wrapped its cold grip around Jesus in an attempt to hold Him forever.
It is the victory of Easter morning that provides eternal life for us. Jesus walked out of the tomb having vanquished death for all of us! The victory is assured because Jesus lives forever as our victorious King!
May your Easter celebration be one which reaffirms the love of God for you! Jesus is alive and He lives forever as God and man joined together to be your Savior.
Amen! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
God’s grace be yours as we find ourselves in the most holy week of our lives, remembering the most holy and most tragic week in the history of the world.
Easter is the culmination of all God planned for, worked toward, and promised since that day in the Garden when Satan deceived His children, and we were lost to Him. Everything pointed to this day and the events of the next twenty-four hours. Paul reminds us once more who we are as we await the full realization of who we shall be.
Hear what Paul says, The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49
We are of the dust of the earth! This means that we are made of dust, and we shall return to dust! This is what God said to Adam in the Garden. It is because we are dust and live a mortal life that Jesus came into this world as a man. While we are dust, Jesus is not man of this natural world but a man of heaven. He is not mortal but eternal! His is not physical of this world but spirit of God. The Second Person of the Trinity Who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit is not subject to the temporary nature of this earthly creation. Yet, for us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and was made man! The one who is eternal because mortal!
It is important that we understand this correctly. The Second Person of the Trinity did not cease to be God but He assumed human nature into His very essence and because the God-Man. The Father did not become a human being, nor did the Spirit. It is the Son alone who became a man for us! Having become a human being, He became subject to the limitations of life in this world. This means Jesus as a human baby became hungry. He cried when His diaper needed to be changed. He had to learn to crawl and then to walk just like each one of us.
Jesus became a man so that He could live for us and then as a human He was able to die for us. While He did not suffer the consequences of sin in His body, which meant He never got sick or suffered from any disease, He did suffer from the brokenness of the world. When He was learning to be a carpenter, He probably hit His finger with a hammer, and it hurt. He probably experienced splinters in His hands and winced when Mary dug them out.
On Good Friday, which was not good for Him, then to be punched in the face, the whip, then the scourge, the crown followed by the beam of the cross on His back all brought enormous pain to His physical body. The pounding of the nails sent piercing pain through His arms and then feet and legs. To be hoisted in the air and to hang by those nails must have been excruciatingly painful. Jesus was able to endure all this pain precisely because He became a human being!
This was not the end of His suffering. Once Jesus was on the cross there was the judgment of almighty God which was poured out on Him because of our sin. This means that Jesus who was perfect and holy became all that we are as sinful human beings when He was on the cross. As a sinner or the sum total of all sinners rolled into one, Jesus suffered the eternal fire of judgment and hell as He hung there between heaven and earth. Earth had rejected Him and Heaven turned away from Him. He was absolutely alone in His suffering.
The end result of all sin is death. When Jesus had born our sin and suffered our judgment, He yielded His spirit and died! Jesus had become a human being so that He could accomplish salvation for us. This could only be accomplished when the price for sin had been paid and the holy life had been sacrificed.
The one and only Son of God hung dead upon the cross. Sin had been paid for by His shed blood and His sacrificial death. The last enemy to be defeated is death itself. Laid in the tomb, the stone is sealed. Death wrapped its cold grip around Jesus in an attempt to hold Him forever.
It is the victory of Easter morning that provides eternal life for us. Jesus walked out of the tomb having vanquished death for all of us! The victory is assured because Jesus lives forever as our victorious King!
May your Easter celebration be one which reaffirms the love of God for you! Jesus is alive and He lives forever as God and man joined together to be your Savior.
Amen! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
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