No Greater Love…

Commentary

Hints of The Savior

If you’re familiar with this account of God’s test of Abraham’s faith, then you know that God provided a ram in place of Isaac, sparing Isaac’s life. But ultimately, this was a symbol pointing to God’s promise to provide the Sacrifice for all mankind, Jesus the Lamb, who is able to spare all of our lives.

The full account tells us that the Israelites had grown weary and spoke out against God, so He sent poisonous snakes which killed many of them. As a measure of redemption from that, God told Moses to mount a snake on a staff, and that all who looked upon it would be spared death from their snake bites.

This was not only an event that took place but a symbol of what was to come with Jesus’ crucifixion. The snakes represent our sin and the death caused by sin, and the snake on the staff represents Jesus becoming our sin on the cross. All who look upon Jesus for salvation will receive it.

The plan of redemption was always in place, and what God pointed Israel to ultimately pointed to Jesus.

Passages like these are extraordinary evidence that the Bible is truly God’s Word and that the volume of its pages points to the Savior, Jesus.

Commentary

One Life For All Life

About 2,000 years from the time God first called Abraham and over 1,500 years from Moses lifting up the snake, God made good on His promise of providing the Lamb and lifting Him up as our sin on the cross.

The sacrifices of the Law of Moses had no real power to wash away a person’s sin. But instead, they pointed to what was coming, a time when the Lamb would purchase His own, by the shedding of His blood. The writer of Hebrews pulls from Psalm 40, these words which speak of Jesus and His mission.

For those of us who know Jesus, we understand that He laid down His own life in order to atone for our iniquity. That through Him we are forgiven and spared God’s wrath for our sins!

The torture that Jesus would endure was not a defeat in the throes of His earthly ministry, but a fulfillment of what was promised — complete and total victory over sin and death! He proved Himself to not only be our Creator, but the very embodiment of love.

Commentary

Our Sin Transferred To Him

Jesus came to Earth during the Roman reign over Jerusalem. It was exactly the perfect time for Him to visit His creation and fulfill His mission, because He appointed that time in His perfect will. At this time, God placed all of our sin upon Jesus.

Old and New Testament verses tell us that Jesus was mercilessly flogged, spit on, had pieces of His beard torn out, mocked, and mistreated. The Bible’s descriptions are difficult enough to read, but when you understand the methods of torture that the Romans had employed at that time in history, you can come to understand just how brutal the treatment of Jesus was.

He was literally disfigured from His torture. The Roman whips, equipped with shards on the ends, would’ve effortlessly torn out the flesh from His back, leaving Him a mangled, bloody mess, with bone and internal tissue exposed. A treatment reserved for only the worst criminals in the Roman Empire.

This is how it had to be, because the punishment for our sin had to be adequate. A just and perfect God cannot accept anything less, or He would fail to be so. Therefore, Jesus entered into history at a time when His death would be so brutal that it would be enough to cover our sin.

Commentary

His Sacrifice For Us

What God the Father saw in this time of Jesus’ torture and death was not His Son, but all of the wickedness of mankind. Our sin, past, present, and future. In that hour, God the Father had turned His face away from Jesus and was pleased to bring His wrath for our sin upon Him.

On the cross, Jesus suffered in extreme agony, as we can determine from the study of Roman crucifixion. Seven-inch nails were driven through His wrists and feet. The pain and fatigue soon gave way to the failure of His leg muscles. Blood loss from His scourging served to only hasten His weakening. As His legs gave out, His shoulders would take on the weight, but would eventually fail as well. Soon followed by his elbow joints and wrists, resulting in His arms separating at their sockets. This would’ve elongated His arms by as much as six to seven inches, causing His upper body to slump down and forward, bearing His body weight. The weight that His chest had to bear caused His breathing to become extremely labored. Oxygen was severely restricted to His lungs, and His heart, surrounded by water, would struggle to beat fast enough, leading to His death by suffocation. However, unlike anyone else, His time of His death would only come when He dismissed His own spirit.

When you read the words, God loved the world in this way…, from John 3:16, this is it. This is exactly how much God loves you and me.

We deserve to be on that cross in His place, yet His love has spared us from that and will spare us from God’s present and eternal wrath, as believers. Your debt has been paid; the work is finished!

If you’re a follower of Christ, ensure that you’re living to honor God and give thanks to Jesus for His mercy and grace toward you.

Commentary

His Victory!

The darkness of crucifixion day would make way to the light on the third day. Jesus’ torture and death would be absolutely meaningless if He were not able to overcome the grave, but He did, just as He said He would!

What was once unredeemable has become redeemable through our Savior. It’s in Christ Jesus that all our hope lies, in this life and in eternity. As the Holy Spirit, through John, writes of Jesus.

Because death could not hold Jesus down, it cannot hold the believer in Christ down either. We now have a hope for what is to come and no longer fear. For death has no power to carry the believer into eternal condemnation, but is our graduation into the promises of eternal life. This was all made possible by our precious God and Savior, Jesus.